The sanctions also have a stipulation that requires Donovan to call crappy plays.
airing of the grievances to fire Donovan
- Thread starter bmw199
- Start date
I have to agree. OB was an XO guy and it is clear Franklin is a JJ guy.
Yes, Barkley will make any play better. Proof is in his first TD. I got out of my chair on that one. Unbelievable. I respect all his team mates, but 22, 8 and 24 don't have what he does.
Give the kid off next week and let him heal up for B10 play.
I get very excited watching this young team, knowing we have top recruiting classes coming in. The sanctions were supposed to cripple this program into irrelevance.
some guys here act like the sanctions should have had ZERO effect.
bottom line is with the most onerous sanctions slowly easing into our rearview mirror, Franklin has this team at 10-7 when most guys probably could have gone 6-11 and still be given some time to build.
That's just complete homerism. No way in hell should we have lost to Temple, Illinois, and Maryland. Those were winnable games that we lost thanks to Franklin's BFF, DonoDummy...
they were more than sanctions, they were intended to be a death sentence. Penn State football was supposed to be crippled for at least a decade. this is what Peetz, Erickson, Frazier, et al wanted. the fact that we have a winning record under these sanctions, and have 2 top ten recruiting classes is a strong testament to the Program That Joe Built, and the coaches/players who have committed to Success With Honor.
Yawn, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Not a "grievance", but, IMO, James is a great HC/CEO who needs top flight coordinators to maximize the payoff from his recruiting. He's got one in Shoop...not so much, from what we've seen, in Donovan. To wit, the O game plan for Temple, and lack of adjustments, is pretty hard to rationalize/defend. When you've got to "help" one of your top two assistants do his job, maybe it's time for a new assistant.
Did I miss something? Didn't the team win? I think that, for this game anyway, it was not worth burning Robinson's redshirt. Don't lose an outstanding runner for an entire season just to win a game that you will win without him. Note that I'm not saying that Robinson is not good. I'm saying that a panic move in the SDSU game is not how I want to burn his RS. Maybe against a tougher opponent where he is needed, it might be indicated; just not this week.
- Why are the players on the field not being utilized to their skill? Gisecki is supposed to be able to dunk from the NBA 3 point line. Fade? Jump Ball?
Don't get me wrong, Beemer, I'm with you on some of the other things.
Folks seem to like the "HC as CEO" analogy, but it is simply inappropriate. A college football program is a relatively small, simple organization, particularly when one considers that the HC has little or no direct responsibility for revenue/cost. With a limit of ten coaches there is no way that the HC shouldn't be intimately involved in game-by-game planning on both sides of the ball. And when it comes to game day, if the HC sees that some things aren't working or could work better, it's imperative that he get on the assistants to make adjustments.
If Franklin leaves the planning and play calling to his assistants, and I don't know that he does, this program is going nowhere and he's headed for the exit.
Franklin made his bones as an offensive co-ordinator.
Now, I certainly won't try and excuse that abortion against Temple......but if the offense is struggling, and your HC is a guy who's expertise lies on that side of the ball:
WTF would be the problem with him increasing his input?
Would you want him to sit back, shrug his shoulders, and say "Oh well..."?
I don't know whether this offense will get out of first gear this season......but we CLEARLY see some significant changes since Temple, that HAVE helped.
Is it enough? Is it possible to get this personnel up to a "OK" level on offense?
IDK......but someone (whether it be CJF or JD or whomever) stepping in and tweeking the system was certainly a good idea.
on this we agree!! He really should be involved in both sides of the ball. He should tell his OC when to take a shot on 3rd down, or when to go get it. Same on D, tell him if he wants pressure or wants to defend. He should be actively managing the game, not having cocktails with donors.
He played a lot better under O'Brien but I think Hack was allowed to call some of his own plays as a Fr. and that has been taken away from him with CJF.
I thought he played much better on Sat. despite missing the 2 TD passes. Besides I'm not sure if Lewis didn't stop or slow down his route.
I can't confirm this but I think one of the bombs to Blacknal was either an audible or Hack changed the play.
Also last week the big TD run by Lynch was Hack calling the play.
So while he may have been lacking in the stats dept the last few weeks he's really been involved in a lot.
You have to be a fool to think that every single play is not run thru JF's headset. He, in effect has veto power over every offensive play. The difference between the Temple coaching model and the last three weeks would be IMO, the amount of input JF is providing to the actual offensive game plan. Play calls do not improve personnel and the OL is thin and week. This is a fact and will be for this year and next.
He did play much better. I think he flat out overthrew Lewis though. He really winged that one with low trajectory. He just needed to get a little bit of air under it.
Everyone's suggestions are wonderful. They neglect to consider that the opposition has players and coaches as well.
Obviously the 90s. From 05-09 I thought we at least had a shot in every game, even with Morelli in 06 and 07 there was a maybe factor (One of those years we were leading OSU at half). '10 was rough but '11 we were 8-1 before the eruption, so I felt good most of that season. '12 The first 2 games you can kind of throw out, we only lost to OSU by 12 and got a huge screw job in Lincoln. We knew '13 was going to be hard witha FR QB and the hope was that that would lead to more success and confidence beyond. Obviously the coaching change changed things but come on. This is year 2 and a veteran QB who is supposed to be All World. I have little confidence going into these tougher Big Ten games and the only confidence I do have is in Barkley if he gets 30 touches a game. With him sure we have a punchers chance in any game, without him 0 chance.
Sometimes the other guys are pretty good athletes too. Can't forget about that.
I watched Julio Jones catch a simple pass over the middle against the Cowboys yesterday. Man, at 220 that dude can fly. He's also built like a superhero. He outran a guy, shed another tackle and then flew into the end zone over another guy. I wouldn't blame the Cowboys coaches for that one.
That is some serious revisionist history....in 2011, I don't think anyone could say with a straight face we had a shot in every game for any reason except the defense. '06 and '07? Other than wishful thinking, what possibly could you have seen out of the offense (besides wishful thinking) gave you confidence they could bring us back? I don't think we had one 4th quarter comeback in those years. So in this century, during the 11 years prior to o'brien, there were three years that we had a balanced, good to really good offense.
because you will have a hard time explaining to your AD, 'why did Christian Hackenberg just go 99 yards for a TD?? Because we didn't think he would keep the ball!"
I was a high school coach for many years. On occasion, I could not escape the obligatory "booster" meeting attended by parents (fathers) who had a laundry list of questions and suggestions. They would inquire why we didn't do more complex things on both sides of the ball. Usually, this was a suggestion that would (in their minds) put their sons in a more prominent role on the team. I would usually answer their questions with a question, such as,,,,"stand up if your son always takes out the garbage (or any other pedestrian chore) the first time he's asked?
"So if you are admitting to me that you can't motivate your son to do such a simple thing.....how do you expect me to get him to do.....(such and such) on the football field?" These coaches formulate a game plan that a very large part of goes out the door once the game starts. Game conditions, weather. down, distance, opponents adjustments, injury, score, field position are just a few of the mitigating factors. Simply put, as Tyson says, everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth. Sat. probably would have been much different if both top RB;s had not been injured. How many players deep do you expect them to prepare on a given week? Their contact hours are limited by rule. So when #1 goes down and #2 goes down, you have to go back to base O.
"So if you are admitting to me that you can't motivate your son to do such a simple thing.....how do you expect me to get him to do.....(such and such) on the football field?" These coaches formulate a game plan that a very large part of goes out the door once the game starts. Game conditions, weather. down, distance, opponents adjustments, injury, score, field position are just a few of the mitigating factors. Simply put, as Tyson says, everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth. Sat. probably would have been much different if both top RB;s had not been injured. How many players deep do you expect them to prepare on a given week? Their contact hours are limited by rule. So when #1 goes down and #2 goes down, you have to go back to base O.
The play-action to the WR is supposed to act similarly to a misdirection play where the goal is to get the defense moving one way when the play is going another.
I can't imagine that the play is designed to do that. Some of the routes are on the WR to break-off and find soft spots. It's completely possible that these errors are on the players not the offensive design.
Once again, I can't imagine this is something that is being actively encouraged.
You're second question of "want to win the game?" is interesting to me because Penn State did win the game. In fact, they covered the spread. Not sure what point you're making.
Do we know that Robinson is better? Have you seen him pass block, pick up the playbook, anything since his last game at McD last fall? Scott had a couple runs in garbage time when the other team had 9 guys in the box. Hardly a useable sample to gauge a player's ability.
Johnson very well may be that threat, but are you going to burn a redshirt just to put a guy in for 1 or two plays a game?
To say Bates is the best OL on the current roster is ridiculous. I'm not even going to comment on that any further.
He's also dropped 2 touchdown passes. Soooo there's that
Second play of 1st drive: Hack to Godwin for 7 on a swing pass
Second play of 2nd drive: Hack to Godwin for 12 yards on swing pass
Third play of 3rd drive: Hack to Godwin for 16 on a swing pass
kind of reminds me of Joe's last bowl game against LSU in 2010. when Les Miles b**ched about the conditions of the field (as if THAT was the reason they lost to PSU), Joe quipped something like, "yeah we had to play on that field, too!"
pretty amazing talent on that LSU team . . . Stevan Ridley, Brandon LaFell, Reuben Randle . . .
of course PSU had Navorro Bowman AND Sean Lee on D . . .
sorry I misspoke there, tried to block out the 2011 Outback Bowl, LOL. meant to say Joe's last bowl win
No question...the HC has to bless the O and D game plans and make any changes he feels are warranted...including in-game. Just sayin' his job is made a lot easier if his coordinators can come up with something credible...as opposed to that Temple abortion. I'm a huge James supporter, but the fact that he didn't override Donovan ...at least in-game...draws a mega WTF, IMO. Must be more to it than meets the eye.
The only year since 1999 that I thought we had a shot to win against upper echelon opponents (meaning OSU, Michigan etc) was '05. Every other year it was a crap shoot. Heck, year Michigan lost to App. State was a great opportunity to beat them and the coaching staff comes out and lays an egg. Almost no one ever realistically expected them to beat Ohio State during that time span.....expect is much different than "hope"...maybe we'd hope they hang in there for three quarters.
I wasn't saying we were favored by any means, but there was hope in all of those circumstances, '11 you could certainly make an argument against. There was certainly criticism toward the coaching staff and some players, but at least there was a plan. Right now on offense the only thing that works is Saquan.
I thought that's what I was saying? Either way Saquan gives us a punchers chance, without him no hope at all.
I understand the point. Currently it takes too long to execute. There are other ways to execute it. Have the wr run around the rb. Have the QB fake it by only putting his hand in the wrs gut not the ball and then pull the ball back. Furthering that if the play is to the left have the qb put his left hand in the gut of the wr while at the same time putting the ball in the stomach of the rb with his right hand. You just need to speed up the play. At 3.5 seconds to get the rb back to the line of scrimmage it is just too long and will never result in positive yardage.
Whether it is designed that way or the players don't know where to go are both on the coaches. That is there job, to tell the players where to go.
Maybe it is not encouraged but it is also not being fixed. There is a QB coach, is there not?
The offensive looked terrible again once Saquan went out. Won't be enough against the Big Ten.
Yes. I spend way too much time watching hs tape. He is better at running the ball.
If they have a high likelihood of being touchdowns yes. Franklin is a beast of a recruiter so what are we saving years of eligibility for? Here's a list of FR who were/are great contributors that he recruited: Haley, Allen, Campbell, Gesicki, Barkely, Godwin, Blacknell, RS Reeder, Cabinda. It's working continue with it.
I'm not the only one who's said it and the others who agreed with me get paid to know what they're talking about in this arena.
Fair points. The one above is the only thing I disagree with. I'm not doubting his potential or his skill or that he could be an All-American in 3 years, I'm doubting that he's one of the 5 best guys on the roster at OL right now.
We're playing freshmen left and right, offense and defense, so why at the 1 position that is the thinnest and in need of the most support would we be holding back our #1 best offensive lineman?
I think I said in another post (not faulting you for not seeing it, just saying) I was told young offensive lineman are not playing, for the most part, because of the complication of Hand's system. Although, I openly see how that is not supported by Palmer playing.
I can't say anything good about the Outback Bowl. I did attend the pep rally and I enjoyed seeing Sue with the grandchildren and Joe make his last bowl pep rally appearance. It was like watching royalty. To think that the BOT like Joyner, Surma and Suhey were already plotting against him.
