We lost to Notre Dame because they were the better team. They have the better head coach, a defensive coordinator that is better than our offensive coordinator and they have a roster without major holes in it, unlike ours.
If we can’t beat Ohio State
- Thread starter Patterson825
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This is based on what? You say by a decent margin, which implies you’re referring to some objective SOS measure. But when I look up SOS, everything I’m seeing says the opposite of what you’re claiming:
ESPN FPI:
https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi/_/view/resume/season/2024
2024: 10
2023: 22
2022: 20
2021: 10
2020: 37
2019: 36
2018: 31
2017: 51
2016: 37
teamrankings.com:
https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/schedule-strength-by-other?date=2025-01-21
2024: 8
2023: 9
2022: 10
2021: 9
2020: 26
2019: 9
2018: 16
2017: 5
2016: 12
Sports-Reference:
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/years/2024-standings.html
2024: 9
2023: 26
2022: 33
2021: 10
2020: 36
2019: 18
2018: 25
2017: 12
2016: 11
Don't forget though, he's one of the select few who are PSU grads to post on here.
LOL!
I'm going to go out on a limb here a venture a guess that you believe with all your heart Franklin is a bottom 3 coach in the B10? Maybe the worst coach?
Sos means nothing according to him. Facts mean nothing to him. He is correct in Franklin is horrible in big games but he takes his negativity about that to the extreme by then poisoning everything about the program because of that. Essentially the program has done nothing under Franklin. Laughable how wrong he is.
Objective SOS? That is funny as all get out, especially given how they calculate it. Here is a hint, using the formulas they use, a win over Illinois who had one win over a team with a winning record counts the same as a win over Alabama. A win over Boise State counted the same as a win over Texas because all they care about are pathetic, simple numbers resulting in mutant statistics that are not real. We played the easiest schedule we have played since at least the early 80s in 2024. That is a fact whether you like it or not.
Harris will cover Smith. Probably also some zone.
PSU has a lot of 4* talent this year.
Offense: Allar, Singleton, Reynolds, Shelton, Donkoh, Cousins, Hudson, and Pena were all 4*. Dawkins & Ioane were 3* but have proven experience (Ioane 1st team all BiG).
Defense: Sutton, Fisher, Rojas, Campbell, Harris., Lane, Washington were all 4*. The rest were 3* but Wheatley, Lane, and Tracy all have experience (Durant honorable mention all BiG).
This is flat-out wrong. Just taking the Sports Reference rankings as an example, it’s point differential-based. Based on the point differentials in our games (and those of our opponents), we finished with a rating of 19.6 (19.6 points better than the average FBS team). The teams you mentioned are rated:
UT: 19.30
AL: 15.33
IL: 10.63
BSU: 10.50
If you dig into how their rating is calculated, UT and BSU both outscored their opponents by an average of about 12 points. But UT’s rating gets adjusted up 7 points because of their SOS (average rating of their opponents), while BSU gets adjusted down by 2 because of theirs.
So you’re wrong with your “a win over Boise State counts the same as a win over Texas” claim. Texas would be considered a ~9-pt favorite over Boise in this particular rating system.
Getting back to the original argument, you claimed 2024 was our easiest schedule since joining the Big Ten by a wide margin.
Here you can see PSU’s 131-season history sorted high to low by Sports Reference’s SOS measure:
Penn State Nittany Lions College Football History, Stats, Records | College Football at Sports-Reference.com
Check out the Penn State Nittany Lions College Football History, Stats, Records, Polls, Bowls and More College Football Stats at Sports-Reference.com
www.sports-reference.com
2024 comes in as our 14th-hardest schedule all-time and 3rd-hardest since joining the Big Ten. Considering we played the 1, 2, and 3 teams in the final AP poll along with 3 others in the top 16, that seems reasonable to me.
If you want to point out flaws in how they calculate SOS, go ahead. The methodology is discussed here:
It would help if you gave something to back up your claims. “Because I said so” isn’t very convincing.
Yeah, Penn State has some talent on offense but just no comparison on defense. Go look at the 4 and 5 star DT they have, plus their DE. We just can't bring in the DT that OSU, Georgia, and Alabama etc. get.
Funny how those so-called "objective" metrics are heavily biased by the three games we lost versus the ones we did win. The methodology is pathetic because it doesn't consider who you lost to vs. who you beat. That is the real metric that matters. We played the easiest schedule we have played in decades in 2024. There is no debate. 2022 was the next easiest then 2023. Go look at who we actually defeated and characterize their schedules. It is painfully obvious. We were Steph Curry playing one on one against a collection of wheel chair bound hobbits. That is how easy the wins were, and some of them shockingly weren't easy while losing 100% of the games against the good teams we did play. Go ahead, defend your so-called objective SOS.This is flat-out wrong. Just taking the Sports Reference rankings as an example, it’s point differential-based. Based on the point differentials in our games (and those of our opponents), we finished with a rating of 19.6 (19.6 points better than the average FBS team). The teams you mentioned are rated:
UT: 19.30
AL: 15.33
IL: 10.63
BSU: 10.50
If you dig into how their rating is calculated, UT and BSU both outscored their opponents by an average of about 12 points. But UT’s rating gets adjusted up 7 points because of their SOS (average rating of their opponents), while BSU gets adjusted down by 2 because of theirs.
So you’re wrong with your “a win over Boise State counts the same as a win over Texas” claim. Texas would be considered a ~9-pt favorite over Boise in this particular rating system.
Getting back to the original argument, you claimed 2024 was our easiest schedule since joining the Big Ten by a wide margin.
Here you can see PSU’s 131-season history sorted high to low by Sports Reference’s SOS measure:
Penn State Nittany Lions College Football History, Stats, Records | College Football at Sports-Reference.com
Check out the Penn State Nittany Lions College Football History, Stats, Records, Polls, Bowls and More College Football Stats at Sports-Reference.com
2024 comes in as our 14th-hardest schedule all-time and 3rd-hardest since joining the Big Ten. Considering we played the 1, 2, and 3 teams in the final AP poll along with 3 others in the top 16, that seems reasonable to me.
If you want to point out flaws in how they calculate SOS, go ahead. The methodology is discussed here:
It would help if you gave something to back up your claims. “Because I said so” isn’t very convincing.
The by your metric, 2003 would have to be our easiest schedule. We were 3-9 and beat Temple, Kent State and Indiana.
How is this different from all the talent we had on previous teams that never could beat them? Allar has to be the difference maker for us to win. He can't have a bad game or average game. He needs to be excellent and we have a good shot. If he doesn't play well then we most likely lose again.
