Excellent point. I think LB is a huge recruiting miss. I think our absurdly bad line play could be recruiting or our piss poor talent development. Nevertheless, the blame goes to JF.
All the haters were just waiting for this type of game…
- Thread starter NittanyChris
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1. Our defense is built to stop OSU. The problem is, even in doing that, it's only worked once. Every team that has beaten us since '16 has been more physical in the trenches. Bringing in Diaz compounds this.
A. You got PJ sliding left (or right) and then Michigan simply blocks him out of the hole, and our LBs failing to clean anything up. He should be playing upfield against a run first team. I like Beamon, but he should have been at DE Saturday.
B. We have 245 lbs DEs who are 50/50 vs TEs (Schoonmaker got called for a hold but he literally threw Chop down like an 8th grader playing varsity). They had to take Issac out because eventually they realized he had zero shot vs that OL.
C. LBU is in a terrible state. Recruiting HS safeties to mold into college LBs has been a failure outside of Cam Brown. Moving Jacobs from Sam to Will was, is, and will always be a mistake until it's corrected. Sutherland is a guy who should have kindly been showed the door and the portal used for a LB or 2. We saw this defense vs the run in our bowl game. I fail to believe that ANY Mike or Will LBs in the portal would have been worse than Elsdon.
D. Safeties whiffed big on the 2 back breaking runs. The one thing you couldn't have.
2. Offense killed the defense. They had the ball for 13 plays in the first half. 2 3-and-outs, the TD drive. I'm not counting the 1 play kneel down as a drive. The INT return was a great play, but it kept our defense on the field for 16 plays consecutively. As Tennessee and Alabama showed us yesterday, you have to be able to score points. Offenses have the advantage right now. Bama probably has 8 future draft picks on their defense and they still couldn't stop UT.
A. Yurcich was brought here to throw the football and Ciarrocca was fired for not having an explosive play offense, yet our offense is essentially a mixture of JoMos pass tree and KCs playbook from the end of '20.
B. Why do we have 3 TEs we rotate regularly, but never utilize? I tend to think this is a Yurcich vs Franklin thing, because Yurcich has no history of TE use outside of blocking and JF has been good with TEs (Gesicki, Pat F). Still, we keep recruiting them (at least 2 possibly in the current class).
C. RBs are being misused. Singleton is drawing heavy boxes. He needs to be a decoy or at least some outside running plays. Allen and Lee are both better runners inside. If you are game planning a bunch of inside runs, play them first.
3. Strength coach. Need a change here, preferably one with a history of developing OL and DL and LBs. Heck, new money, hire a 2nd one.
A. Philosophy. If Clifford came back, why didn't guys like Luketa and Brooks?
A. You got PJ sliding left (or right) and then Michigan simply blocks him out of the hole, and our LBs failing to clean anything up. He should be playing upfield against a run first team. I like Beamon, but he should have been at DE Saturday.
B. We have 245 lbs DEs who are 50/50 vs TEs (Schoonmaker got called for a hold but he literally threw Chop down like an 8th grader playing varsity). They had to take Issac out because eventually they realized he had zero shot vs that OL.
C. LBU is in a terrible state. Recruiting HS safeties to mold into college LBs has been a failure outside of Cam Brown. Moving Jacobs from Sam to Will was, is, and will always be a mistake until it's corrected. Sutherland is a guy who should have kindly been showed the door and the portal used for a LB or 2. We saw this defense vs the run in our bowl game. I fail to believe that ANY Mike or Will LBs in the portal would have been worse than Elsdon.
D. Safeties whiffed big on the 2 back breaking runs. The one thing you couldn't have.
2. Offense killed the defense. They had the ball for 13 plays in the first half. 2 3-and-outs, the TD drive. I'm not counting the 1 play kneel down as a drive. The INT return was a great play, but it kept our defense on the field for 16 plays consecutively. As Tennessee and Alabama showed us yesterday, you have to be able to score points. Offenses have the advantage right now. Bama probably has 8 future draft picks on their defense and they still couldn't stop UT.
A. Yurcich was brought here to throw the football and Ciarrocca was fired for not having an explosive play offense, yet our offense is essentially a mixture of JoMos pass tree and KCs playbook from the end of '20.
B. Why do we have 3 TEs we rotate regularly, but never utilize? I tend to think this is a Yurcich vs Franklin thing, because Yurcich has no history of TE use outside of blocking and JF has been good with TEs (Gesicki, Pat F). Still, we keep recruiting them (at least 2 possibly in the current class).
C. RBs are being misused. Singleton is drawing heavy boxes. He needs to be a decoy or at least some outside running plays. Allen and Lee are both better runners inside. If you are game planning a bunch of inside runs, play them first.
3. Strength coach. Need a change here, preferably one with a history of developing OL and DL and LBs. Heck, new money, hire a 2nd one.
A. Philosophy. If Clifford came back, why didn't guys like Luketa and Brooks?
Sounds like you're describing every Michigan fan I know. And let's not leave out Notre Dame and Alabama fans.
Fans are passionate and terribly biased. Few are level headed. Pick any teams message board on game day for proof.
When will that year happen? Do you think our returning linemen will gain 25 lbs over the summer?
In 2 years. Allar will be in his 2nd year starting. Singleton and Allen will have matured even more physically. DDS will be a monster in the pass rush and Carter will be the best LB in the country. Our offensive line will be much improved. Yes, we do need some more size at DT. I agree there, but it can happen.
HAHAHAHAHAHA---offensive line will be much improved? Based on what exactly? Your opinion? If so it's not based on facts its based on delusion. In order to realistically say that you would need some history of the line improving at all. Which unfortunately hasn't happened under Franklin.
It could happen but it's understandable that fans lose confidence after 4-5 and 7-6 and losing 8 out of 9 to OSU.
Understandable, yes. Acting as though the sky is falling and our coaches are the worst in the world, not so much. As far as the O Line, it’s not where it needs to be but it’s better than last year and we have some big recruits coming in in Birchmeier and Williams as a start.
I think the RBs are better and the OL is the same. I can't believe John Scott or Trautwein are not on chopping block. You can't give up 400 yards or attain nearly 0 rushing outside one play yet feel good on their coaching.
Being better than last year isn't exactly a high bar to climb. We've had big OL recruits for years now...I believe at the start of the year, this very website did a position by position breakdown of star ratings, and the regular starters on the OL each were 4*. Yet, they are just ok...nothing great. Not one guy is a true stud. I think for many psu fans, the feelings of rinse and repeat are justified.
How is it rebuilding in year nine when players graduate in four years or leave before four years (except Clifford)?
LOL...really? BC's football emphasis, fanbase, and tradition is beans compared to PSU. Yes, let's judge Kraft on how BC worked out.
You make it sound like the coaching staff has been successful. Franklin might be the worst game day coach in the country. At some point they have to learn from their mistakes, they haven't. BTW the sky is not falling this is what we've come to expect unfortunately. Is the O-line really better than last year? 127 yds against Michigan last year and 111 this year. With better RB's this year. Unfortunately, the first 5 games were not an accurate measure of where this team is.
Well said.
I think if you told fans at the beginning of fall camp that PSU would start the season 5-1 (including blowing out Auburn on the road), every sane fan would have been pretty happy about that.
If you don't look at the scores, yes.
If you look at HOW we lost to Michigan and how thoroughly outplayed we were, I'd bet that many people would rather be 3-2 with a very close, hard fought loss to Michigan.
Being 3-2 with a close loss to Michigan??? So 3-3??? No one in their right mind would take 3-3 over 5-1.
A loss is a loss.
This loss was just like last years: a loss to Michigan.
I didn't feel better that we lost by 4 nor worse that we lost by 27.
He is going to need a transcendent QB in order to reach the playoff, let alone try to win it. Obviously, Clifford is not that QB . Obviously.
Maybe Allar is that QB. But Penn State needs a very top level QB to overcome the mediocrity that resides elsewhere within the program.
Except any sane fan would think that they we played at Michigan was unacceptable.
Now we are not looking ahead to next year for some hope, we are looking TWO years ahead? JFC.
People throw around "unacceptable" a lot lately. What do you mean by that?
It wasn't a good performance. That happens especially against good teams.
Not acceptable would be players playing dirty, getting in fights, not giving effort. I didn't see any of that on Saturday.
Sometimes you lose games. It happens. That's why they play them because you never know what will happen.
Definitely unacceptable. I'm wondering at what point do we start making adjustments to this type of run game. Illinois lined up with 6 OL and 2 TEs last year. Michigan did the same with 5 OL and 1 TE, but they have better backs who scored TDs.
The off season portal acquisitions will tell the tale. Do we get at least 2 LBs? Do we get 2-3 DLs? RT?
Next year will be a step forward from this year and the year after we will contend for the national championship. Penn State will not be a football factory a la Alabama, but we will compete for a championship now and then. Are you unhappy with that? Do you feel entitled to more?
I have not been able to find that quote. Can you please point me towards it? TIA
At the very least, I’m hopeful that Franklin’s seemingly annual flirtation with other jobs to leverage pay raises is over. Call the guy’s bluff if so.
And I say this as someone who supported Franklin, but have now grown tired of the empty tough talk.
That’s not sensible.
If we lose by 4, having played tough, we can imagine that next year can be a win, and that we can at least be an equivalent program to Michigan, if not OSU.
Having lost the way we did, I don’t see us getting back to even with OSU or Michigan in the foreseeable future.
That scenario seems very unlikely.
Hard to imagine getting on a par with Michigan.
Our O-Line issues are not as much talent as talent development. That is a major problem that Franklin and Trautwein seemingly have no answer for. After years of hearing the O-Line will be improved. etc you just cannot buy into that argument that next year we will be much better. The same bad movie just plays season after season.
Yeah and in baseball a guy can hit for the cycle in a game. Possible? Yes.
Probable? No.
We beat them in '19 and '20. They beat us in '21 and '22. While this loss was a thrashing, I don't think it's indicative of anything more than our LBs are terrible, and we still don't have a good offense.
Between the portal and recruiting, you can fix these deficiencies in a year.
Additionally, we have never been even with OSU since the 90s. We had a chance from '16-'18 and we came up short.
Michigan is on the good end of us right now. Did they think we were pulling away from them when we won 3 of 4 '17-'20?
To be fair....
I think if you told fans that Auburn would start the season 3-4 and might not win more than 4 games total, every sane fan wouldn't have been excited about PSU's performance.
I would love for it to happen. But it ain't happening. CJF is what he is. And he isn't a championship-level coach.
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