and I mean no disrespect to James Franklin. I'm not a hater. I'm glad he's here and hope he's able to get us back to the top. I'm happy with the job he does and would like nothing more than to see him shut up his critics with wins over Ohio State and Michigan. But Penn State football was likely going to have a good coach again eventually no matter what. It's a Top 10-caliber program in a great part of the country. Franklin even grew up a Penn State fan. I think it's a good fit for both right now. Basketball is a different story. Shrewsberry is in my view a National Championship-caliber coach at what's been more of an NIT-caliber program. He wasn't connected to Penn State in any way. He hasn't really had a chance to get things established and he's already got the team way beyond my expectations. I hope we can keep him. I feel like within a few years we'll be a Top-20 program if he stays. It's kind of like the feeling you got when Cael arrived for wrestling. I don't expect basketball to be that dominant, but being a consistent NCAA qualifier with occasional deeper runs seems like a real possibility if he stays around.
I don't feel lucky to have James Franklin. I feel lucky to have Micah Shrewsberry at PSU
- Thread starter IANit
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Franklin has won a Fiesta Bowl, a Cotton Bowl and a Rose Bowl, as well as a Big 10 Championship, since the 2016 season. I’m very happy that he’s our football coach, although I’ve had some issues with him over the years.
I’m also very happy that this hoops program is going to make the Tournament, but let’s see if it can become a consistent participant. After all, this program never has been able to parlay their previous trips to the Tournament into consistent success.
Shrewsbury is a national championship caliber? A month ago people were ready to fire him. What is his record vs the top 10? 0 for his career.
You don't win national championships with recruiting classes ranked 174, 40 and 30.
Why would he stay? Why do you think Cael left ISU?
Ps. Shrews is not Cael and ISU in wrestling is better than PSU at hoops. PSU hoops is like Loch Haven in wrestling.
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Considering he’s only had the opportunity against Purdue, it’s not really much of an indicator.
What a stupid post. Franklin took over in the midst of the worst sanctions and won the B10 in his third year. He’s had multiple 11 win seasons and NY6 bowl wins. I get his record against OSU and UM as well as top 10 teams is bad, but we’re in a good place with a talented roster and good coordinators. I love Shrews and taking this team to the tournament was nothing short of a miracle, but we lose everyone after this year. I expect a huge step back next year, but that’s expected so we’ll see what happens when we go 12-18 next year. We’re lucky to have both and I hope we keep Shrews, but ND will come calling and he’d be stupid not to look based on our roster next year.
Exactly. Shrewsberry has done an excellent job and I hope Penn State keeps him now that other schools are apparently interested in him. But as you point out, Franklin won the Big Ten in his 3rd year while overcoming the worst of the sanction and the other success you mentioned. I also believe he has the most career wins of any black coach. Shrews has won exactly no championships and barring a huge upset tomorrow that will still be true. He has gotten into the tournament that 64 (68 with the play in games) qualify for while only 4 make the football playoffs.
0 in his career. Championship caliber coaches play top ten teams. They can play 3-4 just in the tournament.
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His career is all of two years and he’s played one top 10 team….I doubt you’d find many championship caliber coaches using that as a measuring stick especially coaching at a school like PSU. That’s like criticizing a Vandy football coach for making a NY6 bowl in his second year but not beating Georgia.
I like Franklin. It's just that despite what the NCAA tried to do, plenty of people would want the football job. Even post-BOB (who I actually think we were lucky to have based on the timing), it was still a good job because the facilities and fanbase were there and O'Brien showed you could still win despite sanctions, which were lifted during Franklin's first season. Franklin actually benefited a bit from O'Brien's recruiting, as O'Brien had recruited some key pieces of the 2016 championship team. He's done a good job, but even post-BOB the job was more attractive to a coach wanting a big opportunity than PSU basketball.
Franklin did a great job at Vanderbilt, but I'd call him a Top 20-25 kind of coach up to that time. The best team he was involved with as a coach before Penn State was Maryland's 10-2 team that was No. 10 under Friedgen.
Shrewsberry was an assistant on 2 teams that made the national championship game, also was an NBA assistant for several years, and spent time under the coach who leads the Big Ten this year. He's been a lot closer to a National Championship than Franklin as a coach. That's a fact.
I think you should feel lucky to have both coaches. Franklin is having us compete in probably the hardest division in football when you look at the four teams normally at the top on the East side way out perform the west. Hmm Saban was Michigan State coach. We were slammed by the NCAA in football and O'Brian kept us relevant when they tried to put us in the Dead zone. Hmm SMU comes to mind of a college that has never come back. Franklin came in and has been able to get us into the conversation. Joe did not get us to all this championship talk though the year PSU had the Kerry Collins team should have been that last championship. In basketball it was for the most part Rene's Womens team. I was at PSU when coach Harter was there and remember PSU taking a loaded North Carolina team to overtime in the 81-82 and after that was Parkhill that made us relevent in the early 90s before leaving. The point is it seems the media and others feel that if you have a successful Men's basketball coach you should not be at PSU. I think it should be the same way were you expect to have successful coaches across the board and this Winter and Spring so far is one of the best ever for almost all PSU sports. There was a time Russ Rose in the begin took 14 year to become a national championship runner up. Then became almost a UConn of Volleyball from 2007-2014. Hmm just think if you got rid of him within the first 5 years.
Shrews is going to be great. Keep him. The door is open for PSU to be relevant in BB for the next 10 years if they secure him now. The east is open now that Nova and Syracuse are trending down. Shrew can recruit and can coach. He’s got great assistants. His pedigree is something the program has never had and with the portal next year can be a continuation of what we are seeing. He can be our Jay Wright. Recruiting doors are opening up in hotbeds like NYC, Philly, DC, Baltimore, Pburgh, and Cleveland plus he has midwestern roots. More importantly he is an NBA guy.
It’s time for Krafty and Neeli to deliver on all their rhetoric since last May. Sports is the front porch of the university, as Neeli has said. Drop that spear at mid court and proclaim “not in my house” anymore. Days of mediocrity are over! It’s time to send a message.
It’s time for Krafty and Neeli to deliver on all their rhetoric since last May. Sports is the front porch of the university, as Neeli has said. Drop that spear at mid court and proclaim “not in my house” anymore. Days of mediocrity are over! It’s time to send a message.
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I am a Steelers fan. I love Mike Tomlin as a coach. I don't feel "lucky" we have Mike Tomlin. That suggests Pittsburgh was some two-bit organization that had to grovel to get someone of his caliber. The last two coaches the organization hired won Super Bowls. A lot of the pieces a coach needs to be successful were there. I'm glad we've got him as our coach, but I don't think it was just dumb luck. It's the same way with Franklin. Maybe I overestimate PSU football and we truly were lucky that he came along to save the day. I feel like if we hadn't gotten James Franklin we probably would have gotten someone of a similar caliber because it's PSU football.
Joe had us at 11-1 and #3 in 2005 and had us at 9-0 and #3 in 2008 before losing to Iowa, so there was championship talk even in those years.
Penn State basketball could have a wide range of coaches right now. I feel like Shrewsberry is better than what PSU basketball might have expected. That feels more like dumb luck to me.
Here we go again with the BS about Franklin “benefitting” from O’Brien’s “recruiting”. The fact is O’Brien benefitted from the good players still on the roster that Paterno recruited. Anyone with an ounce of intelligence (and no agenda to push) knows years 3 and 4 of the sanctions’ years would be the most difficult.
Franklin also coached in the NFL and has actually won something as a HEAD COACH. I don’t give a damn about what someone else “almost did” as an assistant coach.
Butler went to back-to-back national championship games with a team of 2- and 3-star recruits
Guess who was on the coaching staff
And lost to teams with top 10 recruiting classes. Stevens was a better çoach than Shrewsbury and still lost. Let us know when shrews gets to the final 4.
and also beat teams with top 10 recruiting classes to get there
i mean, Shrews has just gotten us to the final of the BTT as the 10 seed. That has happened like once ever and hundreds of teams have played in the btt over the years
Your problem is that you don’t give Franklin enough credit and are willing to give Shrewsberry (who I like) too much credit too soon.
agreed that we may be giving him too much credit too soon, but, it seems like a chance we need to take. do you really have confidence in the psu brain trust finding a better coach if a good one leaves? our most recent data points are jerry dunn, ed dechellis, pat chambers and jim ferry
in my lifetime, only bruce parkhill and now micah shrewsberry seemed to know what they were doing. and parkhill was doing it in the A10, which according to some posters on here doesn't even count
I see the ops point. I love Franklin. Is her perfect no. But he is a very good coach at minimum and he appears to evolve and try to fix weaknesses. But his point was PSU WILL ALWAYS BE ABLE TO GET A TOP COACH. Shrews seems like he can get us there consistently and maximizes players. Something we had maybe once for bball in. 60+ years.
We can argue that we should be better at bball and a coach should be able to recruit better in bb but history shows no. We have a coach who can recruit and coach right now. In FB that isn’t a question BB it it is
We can argue that we should be better at bball and a coach should be able to recruit better in bb but history shows no. We have a coach who can recruit and coach right now. In FB that isn’t a question BB it it is
we have had good football coaches. Franklin is good. Fiesta, Cotton and Rose Bowl appearances (2), winning 3 out of those 4. This is as good as Paterno basically
people sometimes knock Franklin saying he is a salesman. i say that is a big part of the job
O'Brien was also good but understandably frustrated by the situation at the time. seemed to be. maybe didn't really want to be here
the good basketball coaches have been few and far between. most agree that Parkhill was good until they had to make a change. certainly seems that Micah is good
Somebody gets it. Maybe I'm getting a little excited about Shrewsberry early, but whether we lose today and get bounced in the first round or not, he's got me interested in PSU basketball in a way I haven't been for a while. You're not going to get a team of McDonald's All-Americans at PSU unless someone comes up with a lot of NIL money. You're going to have to get good team players and maximize their potential and toughness. That seems to be Shrewsberry's strength, and what he learned from Stevens.
They were a bit more than that. I don't want to undersell what Franklin's done. But winning those games today isn't quite the same as when Joe won them. There were no opt-outs on those days, and there were a couple of titles in there with #1/#2 head-to-head matchups. Franklin's have been consolation prizes after losing a couple of games in the regular season. At Franklin's age, Joe would pretty much take on anyone, anywhere when he thought he had the team to do it, and he often did.
I'm not underselling what he did but talking about bowl games isn't relevant these days. Franklin's done a nice job. 10-2 last year is right where we should be. Hopefully we improve on that and start meeting Michigan/Ohio State with some regularity.
That's fair. But Franklin has beaten Ohio State once and has not beaten Michigan when they managed to beat Ohio State. He's never beaten both. Still, he does a great job of recruiting and developing players and representing the university. Hopefully, this will be the year he gets over the hump. That said, I feel like we could find someone to take the reins who would reach similar levels of success in football eventually. That may not be true as many teams have struggled after losing a good coach (e.g. Nebraska). Shrewsberry has us in the tournament in his second year, has a team of role players playing well and his pedigree suggests more success is possible. Maybe this is his ceiling, but I doubt it. I feel like if we lose him now PSU basketball goes back 10 years, so I hope we can hang on to him.
