I think people forget we were at 55 scholarships. We were allowed to get to 85 but Michigan and Ohio st were light years ahead. Even if we bring in a great class so are they osu was recruiting substantially better than us and had a huge lead to begin with. We are finally getting there but that said those two teams made the playoffs last year. I just wonder who we’ll pull out of our ass that is better and that wants to be here
Alarming James Franklin stats as head coach at Penn St
- Thread starter Ole Ted
- Start date
And the biggest problem is no one can measure the effect it had on kids not wanting to come here…you can’t measure something that didn’t happen. I’m quite sure there have been a lot of recruits who didn’t even have PSU on their list due to the hit to our reputation. Some people can say that didn’t happen, but they have no way of knowing.
Just like you have no way of knowing that it did happen, right?
The reality is you recruit the kids that want to be there. Even without a scandal a ton of kids weren't going to pick Penn State because of the location and countless other reasons.
You mean kinda like you have no way of knowing what Will Levis could have done with first team reps, and where the team would be today? Like that?
I know of two for sure that didn’t come here because of it, so I do have a way of knowing it did happen.
No, I saw what Will Levis did here with first team reps, not much. And he didn’t do much more with first team reps at Kentucky, so there’s that.
Who? And how are you sure that's the real reason not the public reason? There's a difference
One was the guy who said “Ew, I’m not going there”….can’t remember his name. The other was Ryan Switzer and I know his dad. I also know a girls basketball recruit who didn’t go to PSU because of the Sandusky thing…just as an FYI.
None of that means it's the real reason they didn't go here--especially Switzer. Not sure what his dad said but I've spoken with Ryan many times. Maybe Ryan's lying--maybe his dad is--maybe they had different schools they wanted Ryan to go to and none of it is true. It's always hard to really know. Weird out of any option it was Switzer lol
I don't believe any women's basketball recruit didn't go here because of Sandusky--there were many other better reasons IMO
Trust me, I coached her as well as her brother for years and I knew her dad well. She was all set to go to PSU, but the Sandusky situation put a damper on her interest. I can’t believe you’re going to argue that all the bad stuff being said about Penn State during and after that time didn’t turn many recruits off.
It didn't. It's the coach's responsibility to sell the product over anything that's negative regardless. I can't believe you're telling me Switzer's decision was based on the scandal but here we are. If anything it proves one of them is lying which means it definitely wasn't THE factor.
It absolutely did. There’s no way it couldn’t. Were you even paying attention at that time? Penn State was considered toxic by many (and still is to this day)….if you don’t think that affects recruiting, you’re either doing what you accuse others of and that’s playing stupid, or you really are stupid.
All schools have to deal with negative aspects of their program--including Bama and Georgia. The coach's responsibility is to sell the program over that. You're falsely claiming the reason individuals didn't come here was Sandusky--that's not the real reason. If you want to say it was a factor fine just like countless other things are but not the reason and definitely not the reason Switzer didn't per Switzer.
No other school had to deal with that much of a negative as well as those kind of sanctions…sorry, not even close. And I’m not falsely claiming anything. I’m claiming what I was told and what I heard. Just because you don’t agree with it, doesn’t make it false.
It's certainly not the ONLY reason but it certainly was a level of negative publicity that I'm not sure any other program has ever endured that certainly impacted recruiting in an adverse manner.
I'm not doubting you there. I don't know any of the recruits from the past 10 years personally. My larger point was there are certainly other reasons that recruits might not love PSU, but the scandal was certainly a reason (if not THE reason) for some.
Not agreeing. Spoke with the player you referenced multiple times. You just picked the wrong name to talk about here.
This is the problem with your statement and makes it utterly false...the word "only"
Yep and the point I was making earlier in this thread is I’m quite sure we did lose recruits because of the scandal and that’s something no other school had to deal with….and it multiplied the difficulties we faced due to loss of scholarships. I’m not sure how anyone can argue with that.
And you have to overcome it like every other negative recruiting tactic. If you can't convince a kid or his family how irrelevant that was to the program you now run that's 100% on the coach. It would have been more difficult for Bradley or LJ but for Franklin.
You can’t possibly believe that not a single recruit didn’t have PSU on their list or took them off their list because of the scandal. That would be absolutely idiotic even for you.
It's idiotic for you to believe they loved everything about Penn State (location, education, etc), the program and the coaching staff but ruled out Penn State because of Sandusky. Talk about Franklin failing miserably if true.
I'm sorry are you comparing SMU's program to our program? Do you need a list of conferences they've been in? They were never "the school" in their state. It's not an apt comparison. It's like comparing Kirk Cousins to Pat Mahomes.
I’m talking about the recruits who never even looked at PSU because of the scandal…so they didn’t have an opportunity to love everything about Penn State because they didn’t want to give it a chance. And even if they did love everything about the school but wouldn’t go there because of the scandal, that’s not on Franklin (or O’Brien), that’s on Sandusky or the BOT.
If they didn't look at Penn State because of the scandal they were never going to go to Penn State regardless.
If they did that's on the coach not Sandusky or the BOT. The coach knew the situation when they arrive and have a product to sell.
No they weren't. They didn't go to a single bowl game in the 70s. They had a 4 year run under Bobby Collins and really 1982 was their only "great" year. It had basically been 40 years for them between that and being relevant. No idea how you think that's comparable to Penn State and our success prior to the scandal breaking.
Our sanctions were also not comparable to them. They couldn't even play for 2 years then went to the WAC, CUSA before finally getting to the American.
Come on man--Penn State-SMU were never comparable in the grand scheme of things
