Big boy move by Franklin

[OzLion]

I think if you ask ‘86 Miami, they will probably cite the 7 turnovers as crucial to their 14-10 loss.

In large part because of PSU's defensive tactics; playing a zone that was difficult for the QB to read, limiting receivers to short passes and limiting yards after the catch (and hitting them after the catch), keeping things in front of them, etc. Testaverde trying to read PSU's defense was compared by one upstate NY sportswriter to a midwestern visitor in NYC trying to hail a cab.

 

[junior1]

Agreed. Kind of makes my point. Way to many examples of bizarre decisions. Why did he think he could get a 2 point conversion when he had multiple attempts from the 3 to get a TD and failed. The examples just keep on piling up.
I'm really tired of sitting in the stands in the 1st quarter with 4th and 2 on the PSU 45 in a 0-0 game against a good team and praying PSU punts.

it's kind of funny you said that - about punting.

Even my wife was saying "punt the damned ball" having lived through way too many efforts to make first down, first quarter on our 40 yard line and failed. When the option is to put the other team is bad field position against our defense. Sometimes Franklin is his own worst enemy. I posted yesterday..somebody should rip that analytics card out of his hand and burn it.

He made three decisons on saturday that will go into the "things not to do in a big football game". It's even national fodder amongst the national talking heads, so not just us lion fans wondering

 

[KCLion]

Great names, but that is all they are.... Many of these guys have gigs that are far more appealing than Penn State OC position.... PSU fans need to understand State College isn't for everyone and many of these coaches may have no interest. Other than Diaz, good bet many of them will go to sleep tonight without a single thought of Penn State, get up and do it again tomorrow.

Point taken, but the names were for HC, not OC.

 

[IANit]

What's that have to do with Rhule?

You literally don't know that? He was the head coach at TEMPLE who beat Penn State under James Franklin. Wait until he brings Nebraska to town.

 

[LandoComando]

You literally don't know that? He was the head coach at TEMPLE who beat Penn State under James Franklin. Wait until he brings Nebraska to town.

No one should be mildly concerned about Nebraska with Rhule. Rhule isn't a good coach and, despite his flaws, Franklin now consistently beats lesser teams with ease. People trying to pretend Rhule has been successful this year is more comical than pretending WVU isn't trash.

 

[crm114psu]

This is what happens when you hire a figurehead and expect them to perform at a high level.

When the emphasis is on the wrong metrics, you get what you bargained for. How well does he adhere to "Success with Honor", keep the names off jerseys, a great ambassador, nice personable guy, does he respect JoePa, etc. Well, we got our man.

So enjoy, the next few years should be lots of fun. By the end of his tenure, we might have learned what the important metrics are when searching for a coach. Until then, we are handicapped by the mindset of finding the second coming of Paterno, all the time being the laughingstock of college football.

 

[IANit]

No one should be mildly concerned about Nebraska with Rhule. Rhule isn't a good coach and, despite his flaws, Franklin now consistently beats lesser teams with ease. People trying to pretend Rhule has been successful this year is more comical than pretending WVU isn't trash.

Are you from State College? Did you go to high school with Matt or something? Did he take your lunch money? Not sure I understand the hate for him.

 

[bcspsu]

No one should be mildly concerned about Nebraska with Rhule. Rhule isn't a good coach and, despite his flaws, Franklin now consistently beats lesser teams with ease. People trying to pretend Rhule has been successful this year is more comical than pretending WVU isn't trash.

I totally agree. Unless the state of Nebraska is picked up and moved to the West Coast or Southeast, there's going to be a cap on how much success they can have, even under Rhule. God, they just lost at home last weekend to a team that PSU beat two weekends ago on the road 51-15, and only were able to score 10 points.

Now, Nebraska, which has struggled to beat the bad or medicore Big 10 West schools even this season, is going to have to compete not only with Michigan, OSU and PSU, but also the West Coast schools. Good luck with that, and PSU fans think that they hve issues.

 

[LandoComando]

Are you from State College? Did you go to high school with Matt or something? Did he take your lunch money? Not sure I understand the hate for him.

No I just don't pretend he's better than he is like you do. He's probably a great dude. See his career record against ranked teams. Winning at TEMPLE doesn't mean anything since they left the Big East. He's a subpar coach which he'll prove at Nebraska.

 

[Thomas1945]

Rhule is a solid college coach. He inherited a mess from Scott Frost. He immediately improved their defense this year and would be bowl eligible minus the fact that they don’t have a QB. I would not prefer him over Franklin but he is a proven program builder. The fact that he failed in the NFL really means nothing. So did Urban, Spurrier and Holtz and Saban.

I’ll agree Rhule and some others listed here are program builders, but we don’t need a program builder. There are several coaches adept at building programs from ash heaps into solid respectability. Then they stall out. We already have a “built program”. We need a King Kong like gorilla to take us to the top, the last step but the most difficult. As a university I wonder if PSU has the stomach to accept what that entails in modern college football.

 

[lazydave841]

It's even national fodder amongst the national talking heads, so not just us lion fans wondering

XM84 had him in the stock down chat today.

 

[junior1]

XM84 had him in the stock down chat today.

in all honesty, the franklin defenders can defend him for the good he has done for the program...but some of the decisions he made on saturday are not defendable. Would we have won the game? Probably not, but still, still wondering "what was he thinking" on a couple

 

[PSUWrestlingFanSince2011]

Not going to disagree with the idea that JF is the thread behind the issues. However, every time I read these “he must go” storylines I am left wondering to be replaced by who? Who is missing in this formula to be the next Saban? Very very very few can pull that off and it’s an expensive thing to switch it up all the time to try to find the solution. As a fiduciary to the school, the BoT need to ask about the financial payoff scenarios to each alternative but one has to have viable alternatives. Who are they and with what probabilities and timelines?

To be fair, anyone coming in has a BIG advantage next year with competing for 12 slots instead of four.

Who else would be behind the issues? The head coach controls all. He selects his entire team and entire staff.

 

[lazydave841]

Who else would be behind the issues? The head coach controls all. He selects his entire team and entire staff.

And he's now firing one member of his staff for an ineffective offense. Proactive.

Will this be the fix that gets us over the hump? Unlikely unless we win the portal this offseason in addition to a great hire.

 

[PSUWrestlingFanSince2011]

And he's now firing one member of his staff for an ineffective offense. Proactive.

Will this be the fix that gets us over the hump? Unlikely unless we win the portal this offseason in addition to a great hire.

I think Franklin needs to get a guy who can control the offense without too much imput from Franklin, like Manny does with the defense. I think Moorhead had a lot of control when he was OC and since then Franklin has been too involved in the offense.

 

[Obliviax]

First, local talk show guy (jerod cherry who has three SB rings) said that the Bills OC got fired because the special teams coach had too many players on the field when Denvere missed that first FG. He's probably right. If they win that game, they talk about "finding a way" and the OC lives another day.

Second, If I am Franklin, I talk to a few OCs and say "bring a folder with how you would optimize a pocket passer to the interview".

 

[lazydave841]

I think Franklin needs to get a guy who can control the offense without too much imput from Franklin, like Manny does with the defense. I think Moorhead had a lot of control when he was OC and since then Franklin has been too involved in the offense.

The big thing about Franklin and his decision making is he knows what he has on the offense and at some point he's got to take a calculated risk to try and do something that will move the ball and score points.

People didn't like the 1st 2pt try, but his thinking was probably "if we get this, we're only down 3." Yeah, 5 is worse than 4, but he's approaching it knowing his offense didn't do squat vs OSU and Michigan could be better than them.

The offense needs to be multifaceted. Just like how Michigan went 7 OL. We should be running the Power T with OL in at 1 TE spot sometimes if not 2. We seem rigid, when we need flexibility. I'm curious what OC we end up with. I think it shocks us like Moorhead did.