ADVERTISEMENT

Is Knowles bringing anyone with him?

Neither Carnell Tate nor Caleb Downs will be wearing the blue and white, though. :) Whatever "insiders" are reporting that

Nobody that is reporting "inside" info (LJHeisman poster, as an example) ever said Tate or Downs were entering the portal and coming to Penn State.

From what I remember, he said:

-Downs was considering entering and would likely be heading south if he did.
-Tate was getting all kinds of offers, but Buckeyes would probably up his NIL to retain him

Now what he did write was that Knowles was seriously considering PSU. No Buckeyes posters ever came out and agreed and the majority still thought Oklahoma due to the fiancé angle. Heck, yall can't even get your story straight about what Knowles defense is supposed to be, what LJ wanted, what Day did, etc between "Knowles aggressive play killed us in '22" to "Day made Knowles be more aggressive after the Oregon loss".

At the end of the day, we bought your DC, but it doesn't guarantee a thing for us. We still are losing Carter, King, and Reed to the NFL draft. We haven't brought in a Downs-type of defensive player through the portal, yet, either (likely won't unless one enters in the spring as one didn't exist in the previous portal session). While we are returning some key pieces to the defense, this isn't nowhere near the level of what OSU returned for '24.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RickinDayton
Optimism is never a bad thing, and you all have lots of reasons to be optimistic. I've been high on PSU's program for awhile, and you're definitely a top-3 team next year (I think Texas is #1). I personally have to see Franklin win a big game before I pencil him in as a natty favorite, because he'll need to win a bunch of them consecutively. But PSU fans should be very excited about the fall.

Neither Carnell Tate nor Caleb Downs will be wearing the blue and white, though. :) Whatever "insiders" are reporting that probably need to learn Carnell Tate's personal story, for one. With his family tragedy and the way Hartline and Day have virtually adopted him, he's not going anywhere -- ask Oregon. Downs would probably cost you about $10 million, and even then, his interview today with the Columbus Dispatch has put all OSU fans at ease (not that anybody honestly thought he was leaning away anyway).

Anyway, it's all good fun. And November 1st should be a battle as always.
I have us in the top 5.

Hopefully we can find a WO who can perform in a Big Game and Allar can develop some consistency and hit the broad side of a barn when the going gets tough. I'm optimistic but like many PS fans I have seen the same movie playout over and over. So, I'm excited and can't wait for spring practice to begin but at the same time I'm looking forward with cautious optimism.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RickinDayton
Nobody that is reporting "inside" info (LJHeisman poster, as an example) ever said Tate or Downs were entering the portal and coming to Penn State.

From what I remember, he said:

-Downs was considering entering and would likely be heading south if he did.
-Tate was getting all kinds of offers, but Buckeyes would probably up his NIL to retain him

Now what he did write was that Knowles was seriously considering PSU. No Buckeyes posters ever came out and agreed and the majority still thought Oklahoma due to the fiancé angle. Heck, yall can't even get your story straight about what Knowles defense is supposed to be, what LJ wanted, what Day did, etc between "Knowles aggressive play killed us in '22" to "Day made Knowles be more aggressive after the Oregon loss".

At the end of the day, we bought your DC, but it doesn't guarantee a thing for us. We still are losing Carter, King, and Reed to the NFL draft. We haven't brought in a Downs-type of defensive player through the portal, yet, either (likely won't unless one enters in the spring as one didn't exist in the previous portal session). While we are returning some key pieces to the defense, this isn't nowhere near the level of what OSU returned for '24.

The Delco guy was pretty clearly saying that your insiders had Tate and a few backups probably entering (and probably coming to Penn State). Perhaps it's his personal pipe dream. Either way, Hartline is a different animal, and poaching from him won't be easy.

The "story" about Knowles isn't that difficult if you've followed OSU closely. Day gave LJ full control of the DL after the Oregon debacle because we absolutely could not generate pressure. Knowles uses his DL to maintain gap integrity and occupy OL to free up blitzing LBs and safeties. LJ uses his DL to edge rush and stunt to pressure the QB. Totally different styles. Our second half of the season defense was basically a pure Jim Knowles safety-driven defense in the back seven with a LJ style on the DL. It was the best of both worlds. Larry's units are wrecking balls, and if you can get pressure with 4 DL, then Knowles can wreak havoc with his back seven.

Not exactly a secret if you watch the games. We went from a DL that didn't generate pressure the past few years to a DL that was dominating elite OLs in the playoffs. There's a reason for that.
 
The Delco guy was pretty clearly saying that your insiders had Tate and a few backups probably entering (and probably coming to Penn State). Perhaps it's his personal pipe dream. Either way, Hartline is a different animal, and poaching from him won't be easy.

The "story" about Knowles isn't that difficult if you've followed OSU closely. Day gave LJ full control of the DL after the Oregon debacle because we absolutely could not generate pressure. Knowles uses his DL to maintain gap integrity and occupy OL to free up blitzing LBs and safeties. LJ uses his DL to edge rush and stunt to pressure the QB. Totally different styles. Our second half of the season defense was basically a pure Jim Knowles safety-driven defense in the back seven with a LJ style on the DL. It was the best of both worlds. Larry's units are wrecking balls, and if you can get pressure with 4 DL, then Knowles can wreak havoc with his back seven.

Not exactly a secret if you watch the games. We went from a DL that didn't generate pressure the past few years to a DL that was dominating elite OLs in the playoffs. There's a reason for that.
Nice analysis, well explained.
 
I have us in the top 5.

Hopefully we can find a WO who can perform in a Big Game and Allar can develop some consistency and hit the broad side of a barn when the going gets tough. I'm optimistic but like many PS fans I have seen the same movie playout over and over. So, I'm excited and can't wait for spring practice to begin but at the same time I'm looking forward with cautious optimism.

I guess it also depends on who else is good. But aside from Texas, I'm not sure who comes to mind as a notch above. I'd put OSU, Georgia, and ND in that similar tier, but we all have a ton to replace (either numerically or key players).

I'd probably go 1. Texas. 2. PSU. 3. OSU. 4. Georgia.

But yeah, the WR situation is the glaring one for you all, as is Allar in big games. But you're good enough everywhere else to at least be in every single game. Our big question mark will be how good Julian Sayin is and whether our DL can reload.
 
The Delco guy
That guy is a mentally unstable loon and a laughingstock because of his past and continued behavior. Poor Gunsie/Miles has always fancied himself to be an insider, tries super hard to look like one by "borrowing" info from pay sites and passing tidbits off as his own. When he's not busy doing that, he's worshipping real insiders and pretends to be best friends with them in his sad little world. He takes everything repeated as fact because as he so often demonstrates, he himself doesn't know fact from opinion
. He lives in a sad little make-believe world where his opinion is fact. He'd actually type out PERIOD FACT at the end of his opinionated mutterings because he thinks that makes it an actual fact. he tries to avoid that particular tell but it still slips out from time to time. He tries to hide himself, he'll get embarrassed or banned and slink away then comeback under a new name for a while, try to blend in but sooner or later his ego and mental illness gets the better of him and he starts revealing himself until he goes full gunsie and blows his cover. He's prone to emotional outbursts, has the argumentative skills of a 3 year old and use to challenge other posters to meet up in the parking lot of Champs in State College for a good old wrasslin match because he was besties with the owner and he could do what he wanted. Before those days he'd spend his time pm'ing folks and threatening to come to their homes and kick their dog and what not. So anything that comes out of his mouth should be taken with a very large grain of salt.
.
 
TOS insiders continue to insist that Downs is going to be in play when the next portal opens. These guys are the ones who broke the Knowles hire, and they came out from the paywall to do it. These are actual insiders. Unfortunately they say PSU remains a long shot for Downs, but a punchers chance for Tate.

They say as many as 3.buck receivers are gone, but only Tate as the first unit. They do say that one of those receivers other than Tate is one of their possible starters this fall and that one is very much in play for us. Defensively they mentioned three names, but Downs as the biggest name.

They remained steadfast that Chip is long gone like yesterdays biscuits and gravy. Texans and/or the Bills in the bidding war.

You can say whatever you want but these three insiders are basically stone cold locks for many years now.
I understand that defensive players like Downs might have skipped the winter portal because they didn't know Knowles was leaving when it closed. But why would their WRs wait until spring to portal instead of leaving in winter and getting to their new homes in time for spring practice? That would be an odd decision on their part as they would be a step behind all those the spring practice participants.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT