I don’t have a “narrative“. I like James...but something ain’t right. He seems to be much more distant and subdued this year.
Somethings not right with Franklin.
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Agree that those are all major problems.
Though I'm not sure Wade's social activism and his shortfalls on the field are connected. The guy is already playing from a disadvantage given his size, and he just routinely takes poor angles and cannot physically make plays in pass coverage. I couldn't care less if he spends every waking moment outside of practice/class working social issues.......unless it's impacting his play or embarrassing the university, it shouldn't really concern us.
The lack of leadership is obvious. There's no visible chemistry or energy on this team. And the QB position is killing us. I do think a lot of this got worse after the IU loss, but again.......that speaks to resilience and leadership. Most teams suffer losses now and again -- the good ones find ways to rebound. We have just given up, it seems.
Really, really interested to see how the team responds on Saturday.
I don't know where to start, but I just never expected to see a Franklin team lack effort. His strong suit has always been getting the most out of his guys, finding diamonds in the rough and inspiring loyalty. His aggressive play calling is not just analytics, it is also telling your guys you believe in them.
This game is not won by guys who are not fired up.
All that being said, this team is just not executing and not playing inspired. I do wonder about that Indy game.
Does anyone recall the cold shoulder Ford got after he scored? What if that precipitated a rift in the team? What if Franklin's response (to finger pointing) was to give Ford even more responsibility? (Maybe this is just a repeat of what an earlier poster said)
I just agree there's something going on behind the scenes. Yes it probably is somewhat Covid related, but with all of the opt-outs and the benching of our best CB and maybe our most seasoned WR, something is not right. Of course the OC and OL coaches never really got a proper off-season with the team but that shouldn't affect our D!!!
I live in Texas and attended that ugly game in the old Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Horrible
I truly believe that this and the subsequent way Franklin handled it the following week with the media caused him to lose this team
The difference between Cael S. and Franklin, is Cael is constantly coaching his guys up, regardless of their talent.
Do you believe Maryland and Indiana had more talent on their roster than Penn State?
It’s comments like this that make me laugh at this board. Tell me professor, how do you know this doesn’t happen? So the development work players get, the developmental players of the week awards don’t happen, so the inter squad scrimmages for guys who aren’t playing don’t happen, so the development practices for guys deep on the depth chart don’t happen? I could go on but I think I have made my point. Stop making shit up! we have enough fake news in this country.
if you have a fact based and truth based argument, make It. But spewing BS is not helpful and says more about you than Franklin. I have had the very good fortune to attend about 12 practices since Franklin came here, both in season and spring. I have seen what happens to guys low on the depth chart and you don’t know what you are talking about.
Well, unfortunately the results on the field don’t back up these so-called player development methods. That is, unless the talent on the team was vastly overrated when recruited, which then the methods may be working but aren’t going to get you far because they really are not that talented. The 4 stars are playing like 2 stars. IMO, the real heros on the team are the non-scholarship guys who toil every day in anonymity without ever getting to see the field, but provide an important function to the team such as playing on the scout team.
Why don’t we give these guys a chance to play. If they are going to lose big, I rather do it with those guys playing rather than the privileged scholarship guys.
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I agree 110%. That coaching error was so egregious, it was simply inexcusable. The kids can figure that out too.
No. There was no spring practice and due to COVID no visitors this year.
CSB is certainly our most tenured receiver and Ellis as a true freshman was already becoming our best cover guy. So, yeah that's right.
Yes I believe you could be right. Franklin basically threw Ford under the bus when I can almost guarantee he wasn’t told to not score. Again, what idiot would do something he was told he better not do, 10 seconds earlier. Either way Franklin should have never handed it off and took 4 knees and stepped up and owned it.
For all you that say, “Why was Ford hesitant to score? How come nobody celebrated?”
It’s because Ford AT THE LAST SECOND realized that something is not right, it shouldn’t be this easy, and he got confused, wondering what’s going on. As to the teammates, they realized DURING the play that Indiana let them score and at the last second they were yelling at Ford to go down but it was too late.
Riddle me the answer to this. After the Ford scoring fiasco, we were up 7 points. Why didn’t Franklin complete the trifecta and go for 2 which would put us up 9? He doesn’t appear to have any problems going for 2 in other totally nonsensical situations.
Maybe. How close was CJF with Chambers?
Maybe there's an internal investigation of CJF just like the one of Chambers. Getting rid of the highest paid public employee in the state is one way to cut expenses when your revenue stream has taken a major hit the way PSU Athletics has this year.
I am hypothesizing here but this could potentially be a “distraction” that Dotson is alluding to. All it takes is one or two current or former players or football employees to say they felt slighted or mistreated by Franklin, or bring up a potential racist claim against Franklin, and the investigation could take on a new arm of its own over to the football program. An investigation like this could cause time and stress distractions to the team.
I don’t have much problem with that decision. He didn’t want to take the chance of losing in regulation. He has the better team, the better athletes. They should be able to wear them down and win in extra time. Undermanned teams and big underdogs usually are the ones that play for the win.
Or it could be a simple as a couple players not liking the fact that Franklin has been generally supportive of Chambers. Not sure if Franklin said anything on this specific matter though.
I mean there is litigation in the court systems about player mistreatment from humpries.
Zikes.... I didn't know the details.....
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/...details-claims-he-was-hazed-by-teammates.html
Claiming racism by a black coach?
I hope you are either joking or naive with your statement. In my professional working career, I have witnessed racism from black people towards white people. It happens, because racism happens in all shapes and forms.
There used to be a coach at PSU who would let his assistants do their job and would intervene when he didn't think things were going the way he wanted or expected. He was hands-off until he thought he should be hands on. I seem to remember he won a few games in his career. Maybe CJF can look to the past for a path to the future.
Yeah and how did that work out for him? He only won 409 games. I think you should look 👀 for a better analogy.
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Penn State went 23-1 over two years with John Freakin' Shaffer as QB, including a win over the Heisman trophy winning QB. We have soooo much more talent across the field than either IN or MD that it's embarrassing to lose to those guys, and to tie it all to QB play is a cop out.
It's C - O - A - C - H - I - N - G.
Game is a lot different now. As Nick Saban pointed out recently the game is much more explosive now and the term “defense wins championships” just isn’t as relevant anymore. You need a strong QB not just a game manager ala Schaffer.
I am also starting to think that maybe that talent evaluation was overinflated, and maybe a lot of these guys are just really not that good when it comes to playing football. A looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane situation. Penn State has had its fair share of those guys over the years and maybe they might have a full team of them now. Add the subpar coaching and you have a recipe for disaster.
I can’t speculate as to whether Ford was told to stop at the one or not. But either way, IMO, CJF did a horrible job of handling the aftermath.
either he was not told and if so, Franklin needed to take full responsibility for that publicly. And if Ford was told to and still scored anyway, his “punishment” was getting every RB handoff vs Ohio State the following week. Zero accountability either way.
the team isn’t blind. They see this and it has to have an impact
So, here's my guess on what's going on...
It's B and Franklin's message to the team was, "Don't blame 28, we lost as a team."
Now that hasn't gone over well but Franklin won't bench 28 after the way he was treated (cold shoulder after the loss). And he's right, the D shouldn't have let Indy go 75 yards in 1 minute.
There's plenty of blame to go around.
However, IMHO Franklin has completely mismanaged the situation. This mess is all on the coach.
If I'm Sandy, he's got one year to fix this. If we aren't at 10-11 wins next year and a top 10 finish, fire him. That's what his pay level should give us.
The cost of paying out his contract is peanuts compared to the revenue losses in ticket sales.
I agree but to add to it the team lacks leadership within the player ranks. So Clifford as the QB should be a leader, but how much do you trust the leader if he is not playing well. The leadership dynamic is way more complicated than just having someone be vocal. Players gravitate to good players as leaders. Who are they? Right now, they are not Clifford.
And I'm not picking on Clifford, I'm just speaking to the dynamics of leadership on a team.
the schemes stink! the RPO isn't working, we don't make adjustments in time, other teams always have receivers open and we can't get anyone open, our third and long defense has been the worst for years under Pry. Unless they mix it up, it will continue.
