Who was the last Ohio Recruit with a legit OSU offer to sign with us? After years (maybe decades?) of OSU poaching Pennsylvania's top recruits, it's nice for some payback. Hopefully Drew Allar is the first of many.

Be careful out there

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Who would be your all-time starting wide receivers for Penn State? Who would be your top four?

For me, it's still Bobby Engram - Biletnikoff Award winner and Kenny Jackson, two-time All-American
Second team: Johan Dotson and Allen Robinson

Think about some of the other great wide receivers too: Godwin, Curry, Smith, Butler, Norwood, Cefalo, McDuffie

Who would be your starting pair of wide receivers?

"Cael doesn’t get very angry about anything. You can’t be one way about things and then not level headed about others. Cael looks at adversity as an opportunity. We have a real leader not some screaming midget. Relax and enjoy the team. The January version is gonna be 🔥!" -John Brooks

This was Mr. Brooks response to me talking about how angry Cael was about the Wick situation. I was corrected by a loved parent (much like Str8Dblz was) about how I perceive a situation. Felt it was worth bringing over here to bring some perspective.

Seems every place he has left has been under a negative cloud. With the help, possibly blind eye, by college administrations he was able to recruit the best players. Suspect he had an unlimited recruiting budget, not necessarily suggesting he paid college players but there had to be inducements. In the pros he could not buy players, he had to coach them. If I recall, he was recently fined $300,000 further believe the team was also fined. Summary, on a level playing field he is ordinary. No way I would ever want him at Dear Old State (PSU). I commend the JAX owner for waiting till all the top College jobs were filled, though I doubt it was intentional. Of course, he will show up somewhere next year. Would have loved to have seen him at Temple, they just filled, and go 2 - 10.

Some poor head football coach at a major university is about to get axed.

Link

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One of Penn State’s top 2023 targets OL Jven Williams was in Happy Valley on Sunday. Williams has exploded onto the scene this season and has quickly become one of the most sought after players in the Keystone State.
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Both games were routs, with Strath Haven getting blanked 36-0 and Garnet Valley going down 49-13.

I think it's time for public schools to boycott this bull___t. Garnet Valley is a damn good team that draws from a clearly defined school district. The same with Strath Haven. The charter and private schools can play among themselves to see who recruits the best.

I will be pulling for every public school in the finals.

In WPIAL championship games!

Looks like our guy is moving to the ACC to run his own program. Let’s talk about some legitimate DC Candidates that are realistic! Meaning no, Marcus Freeman isn’t coming to Penn State.

The playoffs and bowl games will be announced in the upcoming minutes.

Won a natty as OC at LSU.

How long until Dave Jones, Neil Rudel and Cory Giger write their Franklin to Florida stories?

Where do Ohio State, and Penn State go. We , Penn State , should get one of the minor bowls with our record. Ohio State to the Outback and an SEC team?

They are a poser. Barely beat a team with their second QB with no experience.........

Nebraska beats them.

In the spirit of sportsmanship, I will say kudos to their punter. He had a fine game.

Penn State was in it until the end against Miami, but the Nittany Lions suffered another close loss at home Wednesday night. Fourteen turnovers plagued Micah Shrewsberry's crew once again, but they were strong on the glass and in the paint to make it a respectable performance.

More here:

Being reported on a few places on social media.

The coaching carousel of all-time.

I'd expect Fickell to ND, and Marcus Freeman to Cincinnati next.

They don't seem happy but probably a good hire to bring toughness to program

Slam me all you want to, but JF will always find a way to lose games he shouldn’t.
He’ll never make the playoffs.
This program will never make the playoffs with him as coach.

Anyone care to disagree?

Congratulations Coach! We Are!!!

Per Neil Rudel of the Altoona Mirror, James Franklin told the State College Quarterback Club, “I’m not going anywhere”.

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Will be interesting to see how any extension will impact assistant salary pool as well as funding to improve Lasch and Beaver Stadium.

JAMES FRANKLIN

vs. Top 25 Opponents — 11-14 at Penn State, 1-7 at Vanderbilt, 12-21 overall. 6-3 since 2019, 11-10 since 2016. 2-8 in true road games against Top 25 opponents, 5-10 counting road, bowl and neutral site games.

vs. Top 10 Opponents — 2-8 at Penn State, 0-5 at Vanderbilt, 2-13 overall. Wins came in 2016: a 24-21 upset of No. 2 Ohio State at home, and a win over No. 6 Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game in Indianapolis.

vs. Top 5 Opponents — 1-5 at Penn State, 0-3 at Vanderbilt, 1-8 overall. The win? That 2016 upset of Ohio State in a Beaver Stadium Whiteout.

As the bloom has fully come off of James Franklin’s PSU rose, the finger of blame has been pointed in numerous directions. And in a game like football, it’s never “one thing.” QB play. OL play. DL play. Coaching scheme. Coaching game management.

I’d like to posit one chief failure of James Franklin. It’s not the only one. And it’s certainly not saying that the guy has failed in every recruiting area. But he has failed significantly in the area of QB recruiting.

Trace McSorley—his Vanderbilt tagalong recruit as a new coach at PSU—was special. And I give Franklin credit for reaching on this kid against the industry’s projections and hitting a homerun (or “dinger” as Trace liked to say). But he seemed to fashion himself a QB visionary, taking athletic underachievers and maximizing their potential. It worked at Vandy, where elite QBs were a pipe dream. But Penn State—a blue blood—should not have needed to reach, year after year for QB recruits. He found success recruiting some elite players at every position. Except QB.

Most QBs in Franklin’s seven “post-McSorley” classes were top 30 kids. Far from scrubs. But far from elite prospects. Tommy Stevens in 2015. Jake Zembiec in 2016. Those two guys were par-for-the-course for post-sanctions Penn State.

But then the Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl season happened. Was it far-fetched to expect an elite QB to climb aboard Franklin’s rising starship?

Sean Clifford was PSU’s guy. Pretty much a consensus top 15 QB. And—to date—the highest rated QB Franklin has signed. (New England Patriots starter Mac Jones was similarly rated in 2017.)

But elite programs sign a Sean Clifford in every class. At least. Penn State seemed to have their guy in 2018, but Justin Fields’ stock shot up and he walked away from his commitment in the summer before his senior year. Another elite PA kid left the state (Phil Jurkovec to Notre Dame), and PSU settled for a raw athlete barely in the top 50 nationally—Will Levis.

Let me restate. The year after a Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl appearance, a team with elite NFL offensive players (Saquon Barkley, Chris Godwin, and Mike Gesicki) couldn’t sign even a top 30 quarterback.

And Franklin wonders why PSU isn’t elite?

He followed his underdog formula in the 2019 class, landing two top 30 quarterbacks upon the departure of Tommy Stevens to Mississippi State (Michael Johnson Jr. and Taquon Roberson). And another top 30 caliber kid (Micah Bowens) was all Franklin could muster in 2020.

Of course, top 5 quarterback recruits don’t always pan out. And the Bengals’ Joe Burrow was rated lower than Tommy Stevens in 2015. Everybody knows recruiting isn’t a science. But it does follow probability. You’ll find more NFL starters coming from the top 5 of recruiting rankings than from #15-20. And you’ll recognize more college stars from the top 10 of those QB lists than from #21-30.

And a college star is really all Penn State fans are wanting. But Franklin hasn’t landed top 10 recruits. His greatest recruit has had a tumultuous three years as a starter, and Clifford certainly has grit. Nobody doubts his heart. But he’s not a great QB.

He’ll make a great throw or two—like the two-point conversion gem to Dotson last Saturday—but he’ll miss easy throws more times than not. Or he’ll be a bit off and force his receivers to make circus catches. Which they rarely do. Or he’ll make the wrong read, like that 4th down desperation heave to—gulp—Cam Sullivan Brown.

You can blame the OL. You can blame scheme. But even when both of those are in place, Clifford still throws high. Or long. Or never gets the throw off at all because he reads the pocket wrong. That’s on the QB.

Ironically, Franklin seemed to have finally fixed his problem in year 9 with not one but two top 15 QB recruits verbally committed. But a hobbled Clifford and a nose-diving team might shake the faith of Allar or Pribula. Even if both of them sign in December, what’s the soonest Franklin can get an elite QB at the helm of our once-elite program?

2022? Unlikely. 2023? Perhaps. But the biggest question is will Penn State wait a decade for Franklin to put a star QB recruit on the Beaver Stadium turf?