There’s been a lot of posts over the last couple days regarding why we’re not relevant, why our recruiting is failing, why Franklin hasn’t proven he can coach, etc., etc., etc.. The negativity from some fans is, well, kind of interesting and, from my perspective, mostly unsubstantiated. I guess it’s the society we live in, instant gratification is the norm and anything less than immediate success is considered abject failure. Here’s some reasons why I think we should be optimistic and why I think the future is bright. I’ve posted many of these thoughts before so if it seems repetitive, it is, but I think it’s necessary to continue to beat this drum so hopefully some fans can critically think about these things and maybe refrain from jumping on the doom and gloom bandwagon some on here are constantly driving.
I Is Penn State Relevant?
Relevance is such a fickle term in terms of college football, especial in light of the instant gratification society I mentioned above. What does it mean to be relevant? Is it National Championships? Well, there are a lot of schools who haven’t won a NC in quite a while so I’d say no. Is it competing at a high level year in and year out? I’d say yes. Again, there are but a few schools that fit into this category and a bunch of schools trying to get there, Penn State included. The good thing is, Penn State has been getting a lot of positive press the last 3 years. Performance on the field will fuel positive press. The hiring of Moorhead and Limegrover have resulted in some buzz. Recruiting has brought some buzz but last years finish got us some negative pub that, again, only on-field performance will counter. Having said that, when the pundants talk about the “blue bloods” of college football, Penn State is still in the conversation. Current top teams such as Clemson, Oregon State, Stanford, Mississippi, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU, UCLA, Texas A&M and Michigan State, to name a few, are not normally mentioned but schools like Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Noter Dame, USC, Georgia, Florida, Florida State, Oklahoma and even Penn State and Texas are in the discussion. Penn State and Texas, while not having tremendous success (or any success) on the field over the last 10+ years, are two schools who have the opportunity, for a number of reasons, to become “relevant” due to on field performance again in the very near future. Unfortunately, though, we’re an immediate satisfaction society and, as has been mentioned, the kids mostly only know recent history, like within the last 5 or 6 years, and the most prominent news regarding Penn State football has been Sandusky.
II The Sanctions
Folks have argued that, since the sanctions were leveled “a long time ago”, (again, that immediate satisfaction concept- 5 years ago is now “a long time ago”) they have no bearing on how we’ve performed the last two years. I’ve read that O’Brien came in under far worse circumstances than what Franklin inherited when he came in. This is absolute rubbish, there is no other way to say it (unless I add a few adjectives before “absolutely” but I’d prefer to keep the discussion a bit more civilized). O’Brien lost a number of key players to the untethered transfer business opportunities allowed by the NCAA but the cupboard was far from empty. Unlike the uninformed media, the knowledgeable fans knew we had some talent and as such, if O’Brien could coach, the team would do okay. The pundants all repeated the montra of “Penn State will be lucky to win 3 or 4 games” after the sanctions were leveled. They were thought to be, partially, right in their assessment, at least in terms of predicting the future impact the sanctions would have on the program, but for that initial season and the season thereafter, they couldn’t be more wrong. Of course, O’Brien started 0-2 and the pundants were all patting themselves on the back for their predictions of immediate demise and were making excuses for us, saying the sanctions were having an immediate impact... then O’Brien’s Nittany lions went on a tear, winning 6 or 7 straight games, and O’Brien was lauded as a miracle worker. I personally think he got too much credit but at the same time, I recognize he did do a good job of putting the kids in the best position to succeed on offense and he did hold together, with the leadership and help from guys like Mauti, Zordich and McGloin, to name a few, the key components that carried those teams. Of course, it didn’t hurt that they had a yet unknown future Pro Bowl receiver in Alan Robinson and some very solid offensive linemen. O’Brien was able to carry that talent and experience into a second winning season but then he left and a bruised and battered team took one more hit that was sure to knock them further back. Meanwhile, O’Brien’s recruiting classes were less than stellar- not through his own fault, the sanctions were clearly the reason why a significant part of the recruiting classes were subpar. O’Brien did make one critical recruiting mistake and it has come back to bite us. Since we were limited on the number of scholarships we could give, O’Brien decided offensive line was the one place to cut numbers. He thought he could get by using walk ons to provide depth. This decision proved to be arguably fatal to future offensive success.
Where the pundants were right, in my humble opinion, was when they predicted the third year following the sanctions would be the worst as the lack of talent and depth would severely limit the team’s success. While other schools continued to pull in decent or even great talent, we were relying on walk ons to provide depth on the offensive line and at other key positions. Injuries forced us to start a walk on at linebacker at some point in the 14’ season, which hurt us tremendously, and then to start some true freshmen before they were ready. The offensive line, which was most drastically affected by the sanctions, couldn’t protect and arguably, our 5* QB regressed in a system that simply wasn’t a good fit for his skill set... and then there were our special teams, I mean, uggh! Our punter and kickers were also walk ons who, especially when it came to the punting game, could not get the job done. Also greatly impacted were the coverage units, we simply didn’t have the talented redshirt freshmen and sophomores to man the coverage units, leaving less talented walk ons to try to piece together decent coverage units. Despite all this, the team did not win only 3 or 4 games, it won 6 and, then 7, due to O’Brien’s efforts to get the Bowl ban lifted, we went to, and won, a bowl game- and then went to another Bowl game and, after our 5* QB went down, began a comeback that proved to me, at least, that Franklin’s teams do not quit... this from teams dessimmated by lackluster recruiting due to the NCAA’s overreaching effort to destroy the Penn State football program.
III Coaching
So, despite the sanctions, which were ultimately rescinded, but not erased in terms of their impact on the program, Franklin has lead Penn State to 2 straight Bowl appearances. There are some who argue that, since the sanctions were lifted, all Franklin has proven to date is that he can’t coach. i’d argue quite the opposite. Despite the sanctions, Franklin has lead a team that was predicted not to win more than a handful of games to 2 straight winning seasons and 2 Bowl game appearances, one heck of a job under the circumstances. In addition, Franklin watched to see where the team needed to improve from a coaching perspective. After assessing the offensive performance over the past two years, Franklin made an important change to the offensive coordinator position. While we will never know the behind the scenes discussions with Hand, his leaving the team and Franklin’s quick hire of Limegrover is just one more piece of the puzzle that I think will have a positive impact on the program moving forward. yes, it was a perfect storm at the end of last season with coaches leaving, a bunch of (somewhat insignificant) transfers of Senior players who either saw the writing on the wall or weren’t buying into Franklin’s vision for the program, 4 straight losses on the field and a number of recruiting misses, but yet despite all this, we still grabbed the 24th best recruiting class in the Country with some key gets which will give us more talented depth at key positions heading into the future.
IV Recruiting
As just mentioned, we brought in, according to Rivals, the 24th best recruiting class in the Country last year. This class, along with 2 other top 25 recruiting classes in the last 2 cycles, provide the foundation for good things to come. In 16’, we’re going to see the first season where major contributions are going to come from guys Franklin recruited. Franklin has already shown that his expectations for the program are high, both on and off the field. He has kids on this team who are buying in, not looking to get out. Those who didn’t buy in or who aren’t meeting expectations are moving on, either voluntarily or unilaterally. Guys like McSorley, Stevens, Barkley, Robinson, Mark Allen, Gesicki (yes, Gesicki is my prediction for break out player in 16’), Dalton, Hamilton, Blacknall, Godwin, J.ohnson, Charles, Polk, Thomkins, Beh, Nelson, Bates, Gonzalez, Jenkins, Mahon, Dowrey, Laurent, Gaia, Sorrell, Palmer (bigger, stronger, more experienced) Sickles, Cothran, White, Givens, Chavis, Windsor, Cothran, Schwan (one of the few seniors, btw), T.Brown, Buchholz, S.Miller, Wartman-White, Bell, Cabinda, Bowen, Cooper, Reed, Taylor, Haley, Campbell, Marcus Allen, Apke, J.Miller, Monroe, Scott, Farmer (this is his year), and a plethora of others I didn’t mention, including some exciting freshmen, and I think we’re going to see a marked improvement on the field. Will it translate into more wins? That’s the big question and there’s lots to indicate that it may not, including lack of experience on the defensive line and still some depth problems at LB, not to mention a new QB, but the prospects are certainly pointing in a more positive direction than a negative one, at least in my humble opinion. I mentioned special teams before, with two highly touted freshmen, one has to believe punting and kickoffs will be two areas where we’ll see improvement.
V On Field Performance
No one can predict with any absolute certainty how the team will perform this upcoming season butthe one particular concept might help us get some perspective on where we’re going to see improvement in 16’. Complimentary football can’t be ignored when analyzing our success and, more importantly, our failures, during the previous 2 seasons.
Our offense’s inability to sustain drives put our defense in a difficult position time and time again over the last 2 years. Add to that our depth and experience issues I previously mentioned and by the mid-way point of the third quarter in many games, the defense would make a critical mistake that would allow teams like Northwestern and Maryland, to name a few, come away with victories in games that we arguably should have won. Special teams, too, did not help us the last 2 seasons, especially on kickoffs and punts. 2/3 of our team were not necessarily helpful to the other third (defense). I expect those things to change in 16’. If special teams can perform better and if the offense can keep the defense off the field a bit more, the defense, even with losing ¾ of the defensive line, will, imo, perform well enough for us to be successful. Obviously, experience on defense may not be what it was last year, but I think the scheme is what makes the players successful and I think our new DC, the co-DC when Shoop was there, will ensure that the defense will do well this upcoming season. We have talent, no doubt, and if a few things break our way (like staying injury free), and if the defense isn’t out there most of the game, complimentary football will allow us to do better than in year’s past under Franklin.
Further, the Blue White game gave us some indication that, offensively speaking, we’re going to be happier than we were the past 2 seasons. A much talked about scheme gives us all reason to be optimistic. One fact that is not talked about that much is how the offense performed during the scrimmage in terms of discipline. During the BW game, the offense did not get called for illegal procedure even once. I don’t expect perfection throughout the entire 16’ season but how many times did we put ourselves in difficult positions throughout the last 2 seasons due to a key penalty at critical times? We were one of the least penalized teams last year however, as I have often said, there are lies, damned lies, and then there’s statistics. Not being penalized all that often, while certainly appearing good, didn’t tell the whole story. It was “when” we committed a penalty that was significant. If we can carry the discipline shown during the BW game into the 2016 campaign, I think that will go a long way toward helping our team perform significantly better in 16’.
VI Conclusion
The negative nellies certainly raise some valid points however I think the majority of their criticisms are without supporting facts. Of course, they are opinions and as such, they have some level of merit however I think the things I mentioned above provide a far more compelling argument that the program is, in fact, on the rise.
I Is Penn State Relevant?
Relevance is such a fickle term in terms of college football, especial in light of the instant gratification society I mentioned above. What does it mean to be relevant? Is it National Championships? Well, there are a lot of schools who haven’t won a NC in quite a while so I’d say no. Is it competing at a high level year in and year out? I’d say yes. Again, there are but a few schools that fit into this category and a bunch of schools trying to get there, Penn State included. The good thing is, Penn State has been getting a lot of positive press the last 3 years. Performance on the field will fuel positive press. The hiring of Moorhead and Limegrover have resulted in some buzz. Recruiting has brought some buzz but last years finish got us some negative pub that, again, only on-field performance will counter. Having said that, when the pundants talk about the “blue bloods” of college football, Penn State is still in the conversation. Current top teams such as Clemson, Oregon State, Stanford, Mississippi, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU, UCLA, Texas A&M and Michigan State, to name a few, are not normally mentioned but schools like Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Noter Dame, USC, Georgia, Florida, Florida State, Oklahoma and even Penn State and Texas are in the discussion. Penn State and Texas, while not having tremendous success (or any success) on the field over the last 10+ years, are two schools who have the opportunity, for a number of reasons, to become “relevant” due to on field performance again in the very near future. Unfortunately, though, we’re an immediate satisfaction society and, as has been mentioned, the kids mostly only know recent history, like within the last 5 or 6 years, and the most prominent news regarding Penn State football has been Sandusky.
II The Sanctions
Folks have argued that, since the sanctions were leveled “a long time ago”, (again, that immediate satisfaction concept- 5 years ago is now “a long time ago”) they have no bearing on how we’ve performed the last two years. I’ve read that O’Brien came in under far worse circumstances than what Franklin inherited when he came in. This is absolute rubbish, there is no other way to say it (unless I add a few adjectives before “absolutely” but I’d prefer to keep the discussion a bit more civilized). O’Brien lost a number of key players to the untethered transfer business opportunities allowed by the NCAA but the cupboard was far from empty. Unlike the uninformed media, the knowledgeable fans knew we had some talent and as such, if O’Brien could coach, the team would do okay. The pundants all repeated the montra of “Penn State will be lucky to win 3 or 4 games” after the sanctions were leveled. They were thought to be, partially, right in their assessment, at least in terms of predicting the future impact the sanctions would have on the program, but for that initial season and the season thereafter, they couldn’t be more wrong. Of course, O’Brien started 0-2 and the pundants were all patting themselves on the back for their predictions of immediate demise and were making excuses for us, saying the sanctions were having an immediate impact... then O’Brien’s Nittany lions went on a tear, winning 6 or 7 straight games, and O’Brien was lauded as a miracle worker. I personally think he got too much credit but at the same time, I recognize he did do a good job of putting the kids in the best position to succeed on offense and he did hold together, with the leadership and help from guys like Mauti, Zordich and McGloin, to name a few, the key components that carried those teams. Of course, it didn’t hurt that they had a yet unknown future Pro Bowl receiver in Alan Robinson and some very solid offensive linemen. O’Brien was able to carry that talent and experience into a second winning season but then he left and a bruised and battered team took one more hit that was sure to knock them further back. Meanwhile, O’Brien’s recruiting classes were less than stellar- not through his own fault, the sanctions were clearly the reason why a significant part of the recruiting classes were subpar. O’Brien did make one critical recruiting mistake and it has come back to bite us. Since we were limited on the number of scholarships we could give, O’Brien decided offensive line was the one place to cut numbers. He thought he could get by using walk ons to provide depth. This decision proved to be arguably fatal to future offensive success.
Where the pundants were right, in my humble opinion, was when they predicted the third year following the sanctions would be the worst as the lack of talent and depth would severely limit the team’s success. While other schools continued to pull in decent or even great talent, we were relying on walk ons to provide depth on the offensive line and at other key positions. Injuries forced us to start a walk on at linebacker at some point in the 14’ season, which hurt us tremendously, and then to start some true freshmen before they were ready. The offensive line, which was most drastically affected by the sanctions, couldn’t protect and arguably, our 5* QB regressed in a system that simply wasn’t a good fit for his skill set... and then there were our special teams, I mean, uggh! Our punter and kickers were also walk ons who, especially when it came to the punting game, could not get the job done. Also greatly impacted were the coverage units, we simply didn’t have the talented redshirt freshmen and sophomores to man the coverage units, leaving less talented walk ons to try to piece together decent coverage units. Despite all this, the team did not win only 3 or 4 games, it won 6 and, then 7, due to O’Brien’s efforts to get the Bowl ban lifted, we went to, and won, a bowl game- and then went to another Bowl game and, after our 5* QB went down, began a comeback that proved to me, at least, that Franklin’s teams do not quit... this from teams dessimmated by lackluster recruiting due to the NCAA’s overreaching effort to destroy the Penn State football program.
III Coaching
So, despite the sanctions, which were ultimately rescinded, but not erased in terms of their impact on the program, Franklin has lead Penn State to 2 straight Bowl appearances. There are some who argue that, since the sanctions were lifted, all Franklin has proven to date is that he can’t coach. i’d argue quite the opposite. Despite the sanctions, Franklin has lead a team that was predicted not to win more than a handful of games to 2 straight winning seasons and 2 Bowl game appearances, one heck of a job under the circumstances. In addition, Franklin watched to see where the team needed to improve from a coaching perspective. After assessing the offensive performance over the past two years, Franklin made an important change to the offensive coordinator position. While we will never know the behind the scenes discussions with Hand, his leaving the team and Franklin’s quick hire of Limegrover is just one more piece of the puzzle that I think will have a positive impact on the program moving forward. yes, it was a perfect storm at the end of last season with coaches leaving, a bunch of (somewhat insignificant) transfers of Senior players who either saw the writing on the wall or weren’t buying into Franklin’s vision for the program, 4 straight losses on the field and a number of recruiting misses, but yet despite all this, we still grabbed the 24th best recruiting class in the Country with some key gets which will give us more talented depth at key positions heading into the future.
IV Recruiting
As just mentioned, we brought in, according to Rivals, the 24th best recruiting class in the Country last year. This class, along with 2 other top 25 recruiting classes in the last 2 cycles, provide the foundation for good things to come. In 16’, we’re going to see the first season where major contributions are going to come from guys Franklin recruited. Franklin has already shown that his expectations for the program are high, both on and off the field. He has kids on this team who are buying in, not looking to get out. Those who didn’t buy in or who aren’t meeting expectations are moving on, either voluntarily or unilaterally. Guys like McSorley, Stevens, Barkley, Robinson, Mark Allen, Gesicki (yes, Gesicki is my prediction for break out player in 16’), Dalton, Hamilton, Blacknall, Godwin, J.ohnson, Charles, Polk, Thomkins, Beh, Nelson, Bates, Gonzalez, Jenkins, Mahon, Dowrey, Laurent, Gaia, Sorrell, Palmer (bigger, stronger, more experienced) Sickles, Cothran, White, Givens, Chavis, Windsor, Cothran, Schwan (one of the few seniors, btw), T.Brown, Buchholz, S.Miller, Wartman-White, Bell, Cabinda, Bowen, Cooper, Reed, Taylor, Haley, Campbell, Marcus Allen, Apke, J.Miller, Monroe, Scott, Farmer (this is his year), and a plethora of others I didn’t mention, including some exciting freshmen, and I think we’re going to see a marked improvement on the field. Will it translate into more wins? That’s the big question and there’s lots to indicate that it may not, including lack of experience on the defensive line and still some depth problems at LB, not to mention a new QB, but the prospects are certainly pointing in a more positive direction than a negative one, at least in my humble opinion. I mentioned special teams before, with two highly touted freshmen, one has to believe punting and kickoffs will be two areas where we’ll see improvement.
V On Field Performance
No one can predict with any absolute certainty how the team will perform this upcoming season butthe one particular concept might help us get some perspective on where we’re going to see improvement in 16’. Complimentary football can’t be ignored when analyzing our success and, more importantly, our failures, during the previous 2 seasons.
Our offense’s inability to sustain drives put our defense in a difficult position time and time again over the last 2 years. Add to that our depth and experience issues I previously mentioned and by the mid-way point of the third quarter in many games, the defense would make a critical mistake that would allow teams like Northwestern and Maryland, to name a few, come away with victories in games that we arguably should have won. Special teams, too, did not help us the last 2 seasons, especially on kickoffs and punts. 2/3 of our team were not necessarily helpful to the other third (defense). I expect those things to change in 16’. If special teams can perform better and if the offense can keep the defense off the field a bit more, the defense, even with losing ¾ of the defensive line, will, imo, perform well enough for us to be successful. Obviously, experience on defense may not be what it was last year, but I think the scheme is what makes the players successful and I think our new DC, the co-DC when Shoop was there, will ensure that the defense will do well this upcoming season. We have talent, no doubt, and if a few things break our way (like staying injury free), and if the defense isn’t out there most of the game, complimentary football will allow us to do better than in year’s past under Franklin.
Further, the Blue White game gave us some indication that, offensively speaking, we’re going to be happier than we were the past 2 seasons. A much talked about scheme gives us all reason to be optimistic. One fact that is not talked about that much is how the offense performed during the scrimmage in terms of discipline. During the BW game, the offense did not get called for illegal procedure even once. I don’t expect perfection throughout the entire 16’ season but how many times did we put ourselves in difficult positions throughout the last 2 seasons due to a key penalty at critical times? We were one of the least penalized teams last year however, as I have often said, there are lies, damned lies, and then there’s statistics. Not being penalized all that often, while certainly appearing good, didn’t tell the whole story. It was “when” we committed a penalty that was significant. If we can carry the discipline shown during the BW game into the 2016 campaign, I think that will go a long way toward helping our team perform significantly better in 16’.
VI Conclusion
The negative nellies certainly raise some valid points however I think the majority of their criticisms are without supporting facts. Of course, they are opinions and as such, they have some level of merit however I think the things I mentioned above provide a far more compelling argument that the program is, in fact, on the rise.
