The upcoming postseason schedule is not a replica of last season’s trip to the Rose Bowl, but there are parallels to be drawn.

A year ago, Penn State had just wrapped up a Big Ten Championship, tacking on one additional week to the end of the season and delaying the start of the 15 bowl-season practices. It was a tradeoff to which players and coaches were happy to oblige. This time, as they watched the game in Indianapolis from home, bowl prep had already commenced, before knowing the destination nor the opponent.

Following Sunday’s practice, head coach James Franklin informed his squad of the news: The Nittany Lions are heading to Glendale, Ariz., to take on Washington and head coach Chris Petersen’s Huskies. Then, just like that, the preparation continues on.

“We had a great experience last year and look forward to having a great experience this year in the Fiesta Bowl,” said Franklin. “I’ve been to a lot of bowls in my career, and this isn’t one of them. So we’re excited about that.”

During previous bowl seasons, Franklin has used the first portion of the 15 practices to focus on the developmental aspect of his roster. As first- and second-stringers recover from any linger bumps or bruises, or simply the exhaustion that comes with a 12-game regular season, players who aren’t typically on the travel squad see the bulk of the live reps.

Leading up to the Rose Bowl last season, Penn State initially worked intrasquad scrimmages and kept the focus on internal improvements while studying game film of the opponent. That was largely the routine until Christmas. Then after a short holiday break, players returned to State College only to hop on a plane to head west. With the game vs. USC held on Jan. 1, it provided the Nittany Lions a full week in California to not only game-plan for the Trojans, but to adjust to the time three-hour time fluctuation.

This year, Arizona is only a two-hour difference from Pennsylvania, but Franklin is again planning an early arrival to get acclimated. With the Fiesta Bowl played on Dec. 30, the Saturday after Christmas Monday, the schedule is moved up. Franklin has not announced the holiday plans, but given the timing of the shorter turnaround it’s likely the schedule will shift back a couple days from last season.

“Typically, we like to be able get out there and do a full week’s worth of practices and preparation," Franklin said. "With a West Coast game, I always like to go one extra day early to allow ourselves to adjust to the time change and things like that. It’s interesting. When I look at Penn State’s history with bowl games, they used to go for two weeks. They would do a week basically of relaxing to enjoy the area and then a week of practice. I had never heard of that in my years of coaching. For us we will probably do a normal week plus one (day) with it being a West Coast game. We already had all these (bowls) planned out. We’re going to send the players (Sunday) the calendar and schedule.”

The itinerary was sent via email, as the plans had been in the works for months. Support and administrative staff began outlining potential bowl trips before the season began. By the time Franklin's phone began buzzing Sunday afternoon, informing him of the destination, it was only a matter of finalizing the details before locking in with his team the schedule for the month that lies ahead.

"We already got it pretty much mapped out," Franklin said. "If you wait until finding out what bowl you’re going into to start the planning, there is too much to get done, so we do all these things in the summer time.”