Now before we start blowing each other I'm cognizant of the fact it was Rutgers and Veilleux isn't the second coming of Joe Montana but make no mistake, the play of the young kids invigorated Franklin and the players, in turn, fed off him. So much so it portends good things for the start of next season. Prior to today I was writing Franklin off sometime next year because I believed he'd lost the team. But not anymore. So regardless of the outcome in East Lansing just play like today, take that momentum into a bowl game and win it! Then 2022 sets up nicely and not the 2-4 start I envisioned. Complement the passing game with some run blocking and we might just start out 4-2. I know that last part is a big ask but what the hey. Get the salt peter off the training table of the offensive line.

Credit Rutgers for playing balls-out today. If you don't think they were committed then you missed Schiano chewing @ss on the sidelines.

Thank you.

Clifford played in pain. I don't think he could throw the ball downfield because it hurt too much. There were a lot of plays where a healthy Clifford would have taken off and ran. Today he went down for a loss because he didn't want to get hit.

Roberson could have thrown the ball downfield. He might have missed his target but at least he could take a shot. He could have also run the ball. I don't know if we would have won with Roberson but I can't imagine him doing a lot worse than what we saw from Clifford today.

So where are we now? Clifford is in no shape to play vs OSU. He got hit a few times today so he's going to be in worse shape than he was coming into the game. I can see a 28 point loss to OSU. Michigan will kill us with their running game. The only question is if we can beat MSU, Maryland, or Rutgers. IMO 6-6 is quite possible.

What about next year? I assume Mustipher, Castro Fields, Brisker, Tangelo, Ebiketie, Brooks, Luketa, and Brown will be gone from the defense. Clifford, Dotson, Walker, Wilson, and Scruggs will be gone from the offense. Stout will also be gone. We have some highly ranked recruits coming in but face it, we're looking at a big rebuilding year. It seems the only chance of being good next year is if we can fill a lot of holes via the portal like MSU did this year. I'm not sure we have room on the roster to do that.

Please tell me where I'm wrong. I really think we're looking at 6-6. Best case 7-5 and a rebuilding year in 2022. That's what makes this one of the most painful losses in PSU history. I'm having difficulty seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. If we rested Clifford this week and next week we "might" have beat Illinois with Roberson (6-1) and lost to OSU (6-2). Then maybe Clifford comes back in better shape vs Maryland. Maybe we still lost to Michigan but finish 8-4. Tough year but blame it on bad luck with injuries. But now we're spiraling down and Clifford is in worse shape.

Hey all, my hotel in Baltimore doesn't get BTN (Holiday Inn, 105 W Fayette St). Does anyone know of a sports bar in the area that I can maybe get volume at? My car is parked without n/out privileges. Thank you

A major difference is that Joe earned a lot of good will from 1967-1999. He had a buffer that Franklin doesn't enjoy and hasn't earned, although that buffer was mighty thin by the end of 2004. Joe earned around 1 Mill a year at the end of his career. Our Six Million Dollar Man isn't earning the loyalty from the fanbase to see him through a couple more dark years. I wonder how closely the AD and administration monitor relative satisfaction? No one gets stoked from beating MD and Rutgers (and friggin' Villanova). They get awfully damned depressed from losing meaningful games though. James Franklin is a good man. I'm just not sure that he can ever become a great coach, and that's what 107,000 paying customers ultimately want. What say you?

This team is soft, soft, soft, soft, soft!!!
DISGRACEFUL!!!!!

An offensive onslaught from UMass and a bit of revenge for a former Penn State player led the Minutemen to a blowout defeat of Micah Shrewsberry and Penn State Monday night.

My takeaways from the game:

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Just got home from another game where fans feel so frustrated at lack of execution on part of players and coaches on just 4-5 plays that pulled defeat from jaws of victory.— similar to Ohio State loss and 13 Franklin losses. Many of these close losses were to OSU, and most other programs have gotten rolled by OSU. Franklin has built some advantages like no 1 punting and kickoff in country to keep the tough games close. We now need to knock the doors down to OSU level. Recruiting is how you do it and we are just about there with Franklin. You have to be shortsighted to start over with someone new, IMHO.

The good—Defense, Dotson, Stout punting and kicking off, the warrior spirit of Sean

The rest left much room for improvement and consistency— Lee and the Oline found a little rhythm in second half against a good defense.

Penn State will not part with Franklin— he has a superb recruiting class coming in, and I haven’t been as excited for two offensive players coming in as Allar and Singleton. Some good linemen, fast receivers also coming in. Franklin cares for players and works his tail off. Penn State needs to pony up and commit to modernizing Beaver Stadium- Chair backs, modern bathrooms and better concessions. It’s better to go down to 100k capacity and improve the fan experience as the old days of extorting high donations and inferior experience is done. Franklin needs to
Stop flirting for other jobs as a power move. We will know in 3 weeks, but people who are much more stable than message board mobs will make the call and Penn State doesn’t blink or panic in general. Penn State endowment grew from 4 billion to 5 billion with the market—- Football has improved the school and academics and it’s worth investing in.

What's he up to now, $7.0M counting bonuses? If so, then it will be $7.75M next year. If I'm doing the math correctly then a $3.0M buyout next year will save you $8.5M (2023) + $9.25M (2024) + $10.0M (2025) for a net "savings" of $24.75M. That's a tidy sum to throw at a talented young coach who's hungry for success and envious of what facilities we have as well as our recruiting area. Remember, Gary Patterson showed up at TCU living out of his car. Point being, the talent is out there.

I only present the scenario because 2022 (i.e., the post-Clifford era) does not forecast well. Of course, the wild card in the deck is the transfer portal. Plus, CJF needs an OL coach whose specialty is run blocking and not sliding off blocks like Polytetrafluoroethylene after initial contact. JMO.

So if it’s true that the school isn’t really committed to spending money to win why on earth would you pay so much to a coach to produce such mediocre results? Wouldn’t it be more fiscally responsible to buy him out and pay a young cheap coach to produce basically the same results? We are 10-9 in 2 seasons. If we split we will be 11-10. Got to be some guys who will take half or less to produce the same garbage right?

Micah Shrewsberry officially got his first win as Penn State head coach, and it came off the back of some impressive performances from Seth Lundy, Sam Sessoms and John Harrar.

Here's my recap and the biggest takeaways from Wednesday night's win:

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All five prospects are expected to sign today, stay tuned for more on the 2022 commits right here.

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>>Well, I think it’s a fair question. I don’t know if it’s completely appropriate in this setting for me to get into it in detail. But I think for me, what I’ve tried to do since I’ve been here is I have tried to show through my actions over eight years of how loyal I have been and what this place means to me. For me, I want to make sure that we are competing every other day of the week, so we have the best chance to compete on Saturdays. College football has changed dramatically. And we have to be willing to change with it in every experience there is. I understand your question and I get it, but I think I’ve proven my loyalty over time. I would love to get to a point where I can come out and make a strong statement sooner rather than later. Some of those things are out of my hand.<<

Hmmm. He'd love to make a "strong statement sooner rather than later." Interesting. Not sure exactly what it means though.

Let's revisit that apologist stance now that we have seen proof of exactly how good Roberson is. Can someone pull up a list of the quarterbacks that went this year in the portal? Because I'm willing to bet there are quite a few who are a step up from Roberson. So many posters on here were lambasted by the Franklin apologist squad for merely suggesting that it was a catastrophic failure on Franklin's part not to at least take a serviceable quarterback, and if he couldn't get one to come here, then that's also a failure on his part to not be a good enough recruiter to bring one in.

I think so....the Heisman is wide open this year! Still can't tell you who wins....maybe a defensive player for Bama or Georgia.

Answer away folks.

Who in their right mind would bet on a coach who lost to a 23 point underdog on Homecoming??? He can recruit but results don’t match the hype.. Nice guy but getting tired of him playing the game of how wanted he is elsewhere and extorting more money from Dear Old State.

Time to buck up and coach, James, like you’re paid to do— 1/2 million per game. Have a special recruiting class coming in next year if you do your job and stay humble.

I was told last night that this will be Sandersons last year. He is leaving to become the coach of the olympic team.

I started the Plotit message board in 1995 or 1996 (can't remember which). I moved my Plotit board to BWI's site in 2001.

I never imagined how many people would find the board, would post on the board, and would become regulars on the board. The growth was more than I ever imagined.

I've had a number of monitors assist me over the years. I thank all of them for their assistance. Collectively, they made this a great place where members of the PSU community could engage with kindred spirits.

I do apologize that I wasn't able to do more in terms of celebrating the past 20 years on this site over the last few weeks. In part, it was due to my schedule getting really busy. Oh well, each of us is left to remember the good times in our own unique way. I did enjoy many of the memories, special stories, etc. that some of you posted in recent weeks.

While running a board this size is often a lot of work (which did frustrate my family at times), I enjoyed interacting with most of you on a daily basis. I take some pride in the standards I set for the board, and in the example that I tried to set in my posts. That said, it is the board community as a whole that deserves the bulk of the credit. You guys (and gals) made the board what it became.

As I've indicated, and most have figured out, BWI is moving to another platform. I'm moving with them. That's about all I can, and will, say about that. A quick search should enable you to fill in the rest of the details.

I've never put down another PSU site, or the folks that run such sites. Rivals does have someone else set to run their PSU site, and I wish him and his team the best. I think I have a good relationship with him. I won't be posting on this site in the immediate future, and perhaps I never will again. However, he's indicated that he's open to it, so we'll see how things evolve.

After nearly 57,000 posts, and over 40,000 likes, and a board with 1750 pages (and that only includes posts since the board software was switched by Rivals), it's time to bid adieu to what has been a big part of my life.

I wish each of you the best in your respective lives. Hopefully, either on another PSU forum, or in person, we'll interact in the future.

Thanks again to all of you; it's been a blast.

We Are ...

... Penn State!!!

Some of you guys have amazing recall and ability to find past posts

Let’s quote truly great past posts into this thread. It might be fun to read. Only the best of the best, please.



(BTW, do we know which single post got the most likes? A johnbrooks post, perhaps?)

What do you all think? Is there still a shot?

I haven't posted in a while, but read up on posts daily. I seriously don't see any difference, other than a cool logo "Nittany Nation." I also like Nittany Lounge. It also looks like many posters are staying put. Not that anyone cares what I think, but what's the big deal? This is still a board to talk PSU.

Now, onto Maryland!