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?

James Franklin said after Sunday's win over Rutgers that he would talk about more about his pending contract situation at Tuesday's media availability. Now, according to the Penn State Board of Trustees website, the board's subcommittee on compensation is set to also meet on Tuesday for an impromptu meeting, having just meet in person on Nov. 11. No agenda is listed for the meeting, but it last held a virtual session in March to discuss the hiring of Penn State men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry.

I will admit that most of the time, the grass field is the best outside the south. This year the field looks shabby. It looks like an old time field that was practiced and played on. Anyone else seeing the same thing.

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.