FC: Athlon Sports 'Anonymous B1G Coaches Talk Conference Foes' Article...

[Midnighter2]

@Tom McAndrew Not sure if this should go in the articles/tweets thread, so please move if you prefer.

Anyway, here are the 'anonymous B1G coaches' talking about Penn State 2021; linked the full article below:

Penn State

"We’ll find out pretty quickly if they’ve used the pandemic year as an excuse for their record, or if things really just got sideways on them. The talent on this team should make them better by default, but even with the amount of distractions last year what you saw on the field was poorly coached football."

"Kirk’s [Ciarrocca] firing is understandable to some, to other guys it’s pretty rough. You can’t put everything on him, some stats they weren’t that bad, but they had trouble finishing drives."

"If it was a culture issue with James [Franklin], James should’ve been able to see that coming before the year."

"Mike Yurcich seems more like a Franklin guy, he’s really fiery and more hands-on with players."

"They have good running back depth and some nice pieces on offense and I think Mike is a really creative play-caller, so it’s going to come down to how comfortable they are with the quarterback and vice versa."

"Getting [wide receiver Jahan] Dotson back was absolutely huge for them, that was James recruiting hard."

"Defensively they’re more talented this coming year from back to front and they have to replace some guys on the line. Brent [Pry] has been so consistent with those guys, you know what you’re getting there. He’s a great recruiter and they like to let their guys loose to make plays. They’re not going to chess match you, they want to lean on their talent first and impose their will."

"This is going to be a fascinating team to watch. Franklin is going to try to convince his program everything that went wrong last year can be contained to last year, and I’m not so sure it can be.”

Big Ten Coaches Talk Anonymously About Conference Foes for 2021

Big Ten football coaches talk off-the-record about teams for the 2021 season.

athlonsports.com

 

[Keyser Soze 16801]

CJF gets a mulligan from me given the situation with his family and the hiss poor play of his QB

Not that he cares about my opinion of course 😂

 

[N&B4PSU]

Always have to keep in mind we lost our best player on both O and D before the season started. Both Parsons and Brown were truly 5 star material on the field, where it matters most. New coach, covid, then lose guys like Cain and Friermuth.... not hard to see the wheels coming off the bus.

Well, we've got us another new coach, another round of covid possibly mucking things up, the portal nonsense... so lots of uncertainty in the offing. We're going to find out right quick if this team is ready to put on its big boy pants and turn it around.

Got my fingers crossed.

 

[Zenophile]

"Brent [Pry] has been so consistent with those guys, you know what you’re getting there."

Unfortunately true.

 

[lazydave841]

Other than some comments about Yurcich being fiery, that reads like the positive vs negative here. It's going to be interesting to see how these guys come out, comfort with Clifford probably being the number one thing. Can our defense stop anybody in the first half will be another.

 

[Talpsu]

"They’re not going to chess match you,"

Aint that the truth. Heck we cant even checker match you on game day coaching

 

[Thomas1945]

"They’re not going to chess match you,"

Aint that the truth. Heck we cant even checker match you on game day coaching

I don’t necessarily agree with your post, but that’s really funny.

 

[SR108]

@Tom McAndrew Not sure if this should go in the articles/tweets thread, so please move if you prefer.

Anyway, here are the 'anonymous B1G coaches' talking about Penn State 2021; linked the full article below:

Penn State

"We’ll find out pretty quickly if they’ve used the pandemic year as an excuse for their record, or if things really just got sideways on them. The talent on this team should make them better by default, but even with the amount of distractions last year what you saw on the field was poorly coached football."

"Kirk’s [Ciarrocca] firing is understandable to some, to other guys it’s pretty rough. You can’t put everything on him, some stats they weren’t that bad, but they had trouble finishing drives."

"If it was a culture issue with James [Franklin], James should’ve been able to see that coming before the year."

"Mike Yurcich seems more like a Franklin guy, he’s really fiery and more hands-on with players."

"They have good running back depth and some nice pieces on offense and I think Mike is a really creative play-caller, so it’s going to come down to how comfortable they are with the quarterback and vice versa."

"Getting [wide receiver Jahan] Dotson back was absolutely huge for them, that was James recruiting hard."

"Defensively they’re more talented this coming year from back to front and they have to replace some guys on the line. Brent [Pry] has been so consistent with those guys, you know what you’re getting there. He’s a great recruiter and they like to let their guys loose to make plays. They’re not going to chess match you, they want to lean on their talent first and impose their will."

"This is going to be a fascinating team to watch. Franklin is going to try to convince his program everything that went wrong last year can be contained to last year, and I’m not so sure it can be.”

Big Ten Coaches Talk Anonymously About Conference Foes for 2021

Big Ten football coaches talk off-the-record about teams for the 2021 season.

athlonsports.com

Some sour grapes, some legit comments, but one thing for sure, we will find out real fast if James has this thing turned around.

 

[TheWizardofCamelot]

Getting away from PSU a bit here, but is anyone else annoyed by Tom Allen and Indiana? We should have beat them five different ways last year, and if they get the L in the W/L column to start the season, we never hear about them again. Even with how bad the season started, I still think we had the better team over Indiana. And do they trust Penix being healthy/staying healthy?

So 6-2 in a pandemic season and now all of a sudden they're the next big thing? I get it, traditionally they've been a bottom-feeder and Tom Allen has them moving the needle a bit. But the season before that, they were 7-5 and 5-7 the year before. Consistently getting better, sure, but it's still Indiana. I hope we drub the shit out them this year, and run the score up doing so. Something about that guy that rubs me the wrong way. Maybe because he cried like a child in the losses to PSU in '17, '18, '19.

 

[bison13]

Always have to keep in mind we lost our best player on both O and D before the season started. Both Parsons and Brown were truly 5 star material on the field, where it matters most. New coach, covid, then lose guys like Cain and Friermuth.... not hard to see the wheels coming off the bus.

Well, we've got us another new coach, another round of covid possibly mucking things up, the portal nonsense... so lots of uncertainty in the offing. We're going to find out right quick if this team is ready to put on its big boy pants and turn it around.

Got my fingers crossed.

Losing parsons was worth at least 2 wins. Lb group played poorly last season, he would have changed that and probably wins the IU game for psu in week 1. Not saying they beat osu but it's closer and then I dont think the team attitude is the same at 1-1 vs 0-2 going in to umd.

 

[BBrown]

Getting away from PSU a bit here, but is anyone else annoyed by Tom Allen and Indiana? We should have beat them five different ways last year, and if they get the L in the W/L column to start the season, we never hear about them again. Even with how bad the season started, I still think we had the better team over Indiana. And do they trust Penix being healthy/staying healthy?

So 6-2 in a pandemic season and now all of a sudden they're the next big thing? I get it, traditionally they've been a bottom-feeder and Tom Allen has them moving the needle a bit. But the season before that, they were 7-5 and 5-7 the year before. Consistently getting better, sure, but it's still Indiana. I hope we drub the shit out them this year, and run the score up doing so. Something about that guy that rubs me the wrong way. Maybe because he cried like a child in the losses to PSU in '17, '18, '19.

Yes Tom Allen's side line antics is a big turn off for me.
IMO if any of the 3, Brown, Cain or Micah play that game we win and we probably also win the Nebraska game.
And if all 3 of them play it makes the MD, OSU and Iowa games much, much more interesting.

 

[Thomas1945]

Getting away from PSU a bit here, but is anyone else annoyed by Tom Allen and Indiana? We should have beat them five different ways last year, and if they get the L in the W/L column to start the season, we never hear about them again. Even with how bad the season started, I still think we had the better team over Indiana. And do they trust Penix being healthy/staying healthy?

So 6-2 in a pandemic season and now all of a sudden they're the next big thing? I get it, traditionally they've been a bottom-feeder and Tom Allen has them moving the needle a bit. But the season before that, they were 7-5 and 5-7 the year before. Consistently getting better, sure, but it's still Indiana. I hope we drub the shit out them this year, and run the score up doing so. Something about that guy that rubs me the wrong way. Maybe because he cried like a child in the losses to PSU in '17, '18, '19.

Every year the 🤡 that pass for sports journalists have to build up some coach or team to generate interest. This preseason it’s Allen and Indiana. If Rutgers wins 5 or 6 games this year Schiano will be the New Saban. Which will be depressing for Rutgers fans who already view him and his career losing record as the greatest coach of all time. Half way across the country, if Frost goes 7 and 5 or better then the glory days of the Big Red have returned. They have to write something I guess.

 

[SR108]

Getting away from PSU a bit here, but is anyone else annoyed by Tom Allen and Indiana? We should have beat them five different ways last year, and if they get the L in the W/L column to start the season, we never hear about them again. Even with how bad the season started, I still think we had the better team over Indiana. And do they trust Penix being healthy/staying healthy?

So 6-2 in a pandemic season and now all of a sudden they're the next big thing? I get it, traditionally they've been a bottom-feeder and Tom Allen has them moving the needle a bit. But the season before that, they were 7-5 and 5-7 the year before. Consistently getting better, sure, but it's still Indiana. I hope we drub the shit out them this year, and run the score up doing so. Something about that guy that rubs me the wrong way. Maybe because he cried like a child in the losses to PSU in '17, '18, '19.

He does not bother me. He is doing what he thinks he needs to do to have Indiana be successful. Even with our Running Back issues, and loss of Parsons, we should have beat Indiana last year, we had/have better talent and it never should have went to overtime. The fact that we lost is on the PSU team and coaches IMO.

 

[Wallace Breen]

"We’ll find out pretty quickly if they’ve used the pandemic year as an excuse for their record, or if things really just got sideways on them."

Offensively, it was part pandemic, mostly new offense and bad luck.

Defensively, it was all talent and lack of coaching. The pandemic had no impact.

"Defensively they’re more talented this coming year from back to front and they have to replace some guys on the line."

I am calling PB here. This is the least talented front seven Penn State has had this century. We have talent at corner but safety is an issue. Brisker is above average but it is easy to stand out when the play around you is so bad.

 

[JoeLion]

I don’t know enough about what happened last year to comment other than to say as a fan it sucked,

 

[ChiTownLion]

Having a hard time believing these are real quotes from real coaches.

 

[PearlSUJam]

Every year the 🤡 that pass for sports journalists have to build up some coach or team to generate interest.

Why does it have to be ND every flippin year?

 

[PearlSUJam]

Having a hard time believing these are real quotes from real coaches.

Let's play a game. Assign the quote to a coach.

 

[lazydave841]

Let's play a game. Assign the quote to a coach.

75% of them came from the BWI Coaching Advisory. Lol

 

[sluggo72]

Losing parsons was worth at least 2 wins. Lb group played poorly last season, he would have changed that and probably wins the IU game for psu in week 1. Not saying they beat osu but it's closer and then I dont think the team attitude is the same at 1-1 vs 0-2 going in to umd.

We were never going to have Parsons last year. Even without COVID he would have opted out. IMO

 

[marshall23]

If anyone wishes to read this publication and believe there is even a scintilla of truth in it......LOL.
So the premise is that Big 10 coaches are giving expert insight into all conference member opponents.
So please think this over......a shavetail scribe leaves a message for James Franklin (and all Big Ten coaches) "Hey James, this is Joe Blow from the Athlon....I'm doing an article in which coaches will anonymously evaluate the other teams/coaches for an article I'm doing.
Yeah, I definitely see Day, Harbaugh and Franklin calling right back. THEY TRY TO SELL MAGAZINES.
Trust me, a high school coach knows better and wouldn't engage in this sort of BS.

 

[AWS1022]

He does not bother me. He is doing what he thinks he needs to do to have Indiana be successful. Even with our Running Back issues, and loss of Parsons, we should have beat Indiana last year, we had/have better talent and it never should have went to overtime. The fact that we lost is on the PSU team and coaches IMO.

The officials didn’t help either.

 

[fkkkjm]

"We’ll find out pretty quickly if they’ve used the pandemic year as an excuse for their record, or if things really just got sideways on them."

Offensively, it was part pandemic, mostly new offense and bad luck.

Defensively, it was all talent and lack of coaching. The pandemic had no impact.

"Defensively they’re more talented this coming year from back to front and they have to replace some guys on the line."

I am calling PB here. This is the least talented front seven Penn State has had this century. We have talent at corner but safety is an issue. Brisker is above average but it is easy to stand out when the play around you is so bad.

least talented front seven? Brandon Smith and Curtis Jacobs were both borderline 5 star guys. PJ Mustipher and Isaac top 100 guys as well. They have plenty of stars. Pry needs to be more than a stupid meathead. He can’t scheme plays. He’s a bum in my opinion who doesn’t put his guys in position to succeed. We lost our good DL coach Spence and it showed. Players have to overcome the opposing team knowing what Penn State is playing and fighting through it. Send him to Old Dominion with Rahne.

 

[fairfaxlion2]

Having a hard time believing these are real quotes from real coaches.

Agreed. What coach talks like this? There is a 0.0% this are the actual words of a coach and a 100.0% chance that a journalist made it up and attributed it to 'anonymous coach'

"This is going to be a fascinating team to watch. Franklin is going to try to convince his program everything that went wrong last year can be contained to last year, and I’m not so sure it can be.”

 

[bvillebaron]

Yes Tom Allen's side line antics is a big turn off for me.
IMO if any of the 3, Brown, Cain or Micah play that game we win and we probably also win the Nebraska game.
And if all 3 of them play it makes the MD, OSU and Iowa games much, much more interesting.

Agree with you on Allen 100%. As for the rest, woulda coulda shoulda. No excuse for the defense to gaffe on 4 chances to still pull out the win against Indians even without the defensive players you mentioned.

 

[Nittany_93]

least talented front seven? Brandon Smith and Curtis Jacobs were both borderline 5 star guys. PJ Mustipher and Isaac top 100 guys as well. They have plenty of stars. Pry needs to be more than a stupid meathead. He can’t scheme plays. He’s a bum in my opinion who doesn’t put his guys in position to succeed. We lost our good DL coach Spence and it showed. Players have to overcome the opposing team knowing what Penn State is playing and fighting through it. Send him to Old Dominion with Rahne.

Pry defenses in the second half seem pretty good. Assuming it's halftime adjustments. First half is another matter entirely

 

[N&B4PSU]

Pry defenses in the second half seem pretty good. Assuming it's halftime adjustments. First half is another matter entirely

If you can play vanilla in the first half and your talent keeps you in striking distance, it's fun to make adjustments (especially if you already have figured out what will work even before the game) at the half, and the other guy has no real chance to adjust back.

Works both sides of the ball... and if you start working up too big a deficit, you go to the real plan sooner. There's your chess match.. who can outfox the other guy.

 

[McCloudersportLion]

Culture problem- I would say the sign of greetings about TY from the PSU Defense on the first turnover of the year was a bad start. That sound like some corny sharts that Eric Cartmen would leave at ya mom's house, frankly. Real Warren Sappy in a navy outfit doing doo wop with Vinny stuff there man, tighten it up.

 

[Ian]

We’ll know in the first half at Madison. Pry is consistently average. Franklin is playing Russian roulette at QB with more than one bullet in the chamber. That’s scary and all the “talent” elsewhere is mute if you can’t score more than 2 TD’s a game.

 

[Omar81]

He does not bother me. He is doing what he thinks he needs to do to have Indiana be successful. Even with our Running Back issues, and loss of Parsons, we should have beat Indiana last year, we had/have better talent and it never should have went to overtime. The fact that we lost is on the PSU team and coaches IMO.

Well, and the refs . . . Despite everything else that came before, they got the final play just plain wrong.

 

[Zenophile]

Pry is consistently average.

The good news: Pry’s defense consistently elicits Heisman-level play out of very average talent.

The bad: It’s the talent playing QB for the other team.

 

[BBHorn86]

He does not bother me. He is doing what he thinks he needs to do to have Indiana be successful. Even with our Running Back issues, and loss of Parsons, we should have beat Indiana last year, we had/have better talent and it never should have went to overtime. The fact that we lost is on the PSU team and coaches IMO.

Bingo! Whether we are a contender or pretender this season and future ones comes down to game day coaching. No question our staff can recruit talent but we can't get out coached by teams like Indiana and Maryland if we want to get over the hump.

 

[Obliviax]

The good news: Pry’s defense consistently elicits Heisman-level play out of very average talent.

The bad: It’s the talent playing QB for the other team.

At the B1G media say that cash was held up as the right way to officiate. The ref was in the perfect spot and had to make a call. He did; TD. They invoked replay and the TD was not 100% overturnable. If it had been called short during play, that would have not been overturned either. Luck and home field cooking IMHO.

now, Wisconsin will be the 10th time in the last 11 years we start out B1G schedule on the road (IIRC). Sandy should be screaming her head off at the next B1G meeting demanding our next nine seasons start the B1G campaigns off at home.

 

[bison13]

@Tom McAndrew Not sure if this should go in the articles/tweets thread, so please move if you prefer.

Anyway, here are the 'anonymous B1G coaches' talking about Penn State 2021; linked the full article below:

Penn State

"We’ll find out pretty quickly if they’ve used the pandemic year as an excuse for their record, or if things really just got sideways on them. The talent on this team should make them better by default, but even with the amount of distractions last year what you saw on the field was poorly coached football."

"Kirk’s [Ciarrocca] firing is understandable to some, to other guys it’s pretty rough. You can’t put everything on him, some stats they weren’t that bad, but they had trouble finishing drives."

"If it was a culture issue with James [Franklin], James should’ve been able to see that coming before the year."

"Mike Yurcich seems more like a Franklin guy, he’s really fiery and more hands-on with players."

"They have good running back depth and some nice pieces on offense and I think Mike is a really creative play-caller, so it’s going to come down to how comfortable they are with the quarterback and vice versa."

"Getting [wide receiver Jahan] Dotson back was absolutely huge for them, that was James recruiting hard."

"Defensively they’re more talented this coming year from back to front and they have to replace some guys on the line. Brent [Pry] has been so consistent with those guys, you know what you’re getting there. He’s a great recruiter and they like to let their guys loose to make plays. They’re not going to chess match you, they want to lean on their talent first and impose their will."

"This is going to be a fascinating team to watch. Franklin is going to try to convince his program everything that went wrong last year can be contained to last year, and I’m not so sure it can be.”

Big Ten Coaches Talk Anonymously About Conference Foes for 2021

Big Ten football coaches talk off-the-record about teams for the 2021 season.

athlonsports.com

My guesses are quote 1 is Dantonio
2 is Fleck
3 Jimmah
4 Ferentz
5 Day
6 Locks
7 Fitz
8 sounds like Gerry Dinardo and not a coach.

 

[BBrown]

Pry defenses in the second half seem pretty good. Assuming it's halftime adjustments. First half is another matter entirely

+1. Its probably my biggest criticism of Pry, well outside of his blitz schemes.
I still am not sure why it took 1/2 the game to adjust to Minny's "unbalanced line" in 2019. SMH.
Is that why Franklin hired KC?

 

[BBrown]

He does not bother me. He is doing what he thinks he needs to do to have Indiana be successful. Even with our Running Back issues, and loss of Parsons, we should have beat Indiana last year, we had/have better talent and it never should have went to overtime. The fact that we lost is on the PSU team and coaches IMO.

My dislike of his sideline antics started way before last years game. IIRC it wasn't even a PSU game where I thought "ok this guy's got a screw loose".

 

[BBrown]

My guesses are quote 1 is Dantonio
2 is Fleck
3 Jimmah
4 Ferentz
5 Day
6 Locks
7 Fitz
8 sounds like Gerry Dinardo and not a coach.

Those are good but I put Locks at #1. He's not happy with our recruiting haul out of MD...not at all.

 

[bison13]

Those are good but I put Locks at #1. He's not happy with our recruiting haul out of MD...not at all.

2 reasons I think it's dantonio and not Locks are dantonio seems to infer in some of his press conferences that he out coaches guys like Harbaugh who have more talent and second, a very locksley related story from when I went out with some fellow coaches after a football coaching clinic a few years ago.

 

[Midnighter2]

Those are good but I put Locks at #1. He's not happy with our recruiting haul out of MD...not at all.

Well, to be fair it says 'B1G Coaches' - not 'head coaches'. So, could be anyone on the sideline with a whistle (and most likely is).

 

[AWS1022]

Our board experts will undoubtedly know so I look forward to the education and their hypocrisy as you can only be a “board expert” if you think everything is sunshine and lollipops.

If you bitch and complain after an 11 win season, you might be a board expert.