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Is it time for PSU fans to admit that we're actually pretty good?

Seasons since 1980 that PSU has been better than it has been under CJF in 2016, 2017, 2019 and (if things finish 11-2 this year) 2022:

1981 (arguably)
1982
1985
1986
1991 (arguably)
1994
2005
You forgot 99, 02, 08 and 09 were better. 08 by a very very wide margin. This year's team has played the weakest schedule Penn State has played since joining the Big Ten, and not by a little bit.
 
Right, but you can't make the playoffs (in the current format) unless PSU accomplishes at least two of the three he mentioned...they all work together
And everyone, including the players, coaches and fans, would like that to happen and cheer for it to happen. The argument here is when it doesn’t happen, some on here act like the team should bag the season and stop playing. That’s not what college football is about for the coaches, players and most fans. It’s about winning as many games as you can every year no matter what happens. In fact, that’s the goal of every athletic team. I guess most high school teams shouldn’t even play since they realistically have no chance to win a state championship.
 
This is misleading. Franklin does not deliver a top ten team most years. He occasionally does. Nor does deliver a NY6 game most years. His career average is essentially 8 and 4 with no indicators State is capable of getting above the 10 game ceiling. At the same time, .600 is the floor so he'll always make a bowl game. In the end, he is our coach for the next five or six years so we are stuck with him unless he leaves so it is what it is. He doesn't earn his pay and constantly whines for more resources at the expense of every other varsity team. So long as he runs a clean program (that includes not tampering with other team's players), graduates players with meaningful degrees (there is some indications this could be becoming a problem), players stay out of trouble, he stops whining about resources (everyone knows he does) and they make progress towards competing with Ohio State and Michigan/State when they are good, he can stay, even at the salary he clearly hasn't and doesn't earn.
Joe did not produce a too 10 every year either. His career record was about 9-3 and he did not inherit sanctions from Rip Engle.
 
Joe did not produce a too 10 every year either. His career record was about 9-3 and he did not inherit sanctions from Rip Engle.
This is just a dumb post on a number of levels. For starters, the sanctions didn't really impact a single Franklin team. Period. This is excuse is nonsense. It is an excuse to cover up the fact that Franklin was in over his head when he showed up and he brought a bunch of clowns with him to coach the offense. Deal with it. Second, Franklin hasn't sniffed a playoff birth which is a much lower bar than actually competing for a title, which Joe did many times, even late in his career. It also must be said that Joe's staff recruited at a level much higher than Franklin even after they were past their prime.
 
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This is just a dumb post on a number of levels. For starters, the sanctions didn't really impact a single Franklin team. Period. This is excuse is nonsense. It is an excuse to cover up the fact that Franklin was in over his head when he showed up and he brought a bunch of clowns with him to coach the offense. Deal with it. Second, Franklin hasn't sniffed a playoff birth which is a much lower bar than actually competing for a title, which Joe did many times, even late in his career. It also must be said that Joe's staff recruited at a level much higher than Franklin even after they were past their prime.
You’re second sentence makes this post an even dumber one on even more levels.
 
This is just a dumb post on a number of levels. For starters, the sanctions didn't really impact a single Franklin team. Period. This is excuse is nonsense. It is an excuse to cover up the fact that Franklin was in over his head when he showed up and he brought a bunch of clowns with him to coach the offense. Deal with it. Second, Franklin hasn't sniffed a playoff birth which is a much lower bar than actually competing for a title, which Joe did many times, even late in his career. It also must be said that Joe's staff recruited at a level much higher than Franklin even after they were past their prime.


"The sanction did not impact Franklin?" That is moronic!! Psu only had about 6 scholarship OL when Franklin took over. Two of those 6 were RS freshman. Psu had no scholarship punters until 2016. Franklin only had 5 LBs when he took over and Wooten was not a P5 LB.

You are clueless! All the two stars that psu signed during sanctions were on the roster. Psu signed guys who were headed to marshall, UMass, Toledo and so on. Probably about a dozen+ out of 65 were guys that would of ended up at mid majors. The 4 stars did not transfer back to psu.

In 2014 psu had zero qbs with more than one season experience. It was hack and freshman. Hack was not even ready.

Even when psu got the numbers back it was 5 years before we had a full roster with full experience.

Ps. Who gave Sandusky a key to the locker room? It was not Franklin. Success with honor.
 
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You forgot 99, 02, 08 and 09 were better. 08 by a very very wide margin. This year's team has played the weakest schedule Penn State has played since joining the Big Ten, and not by a little bit.
Name the year PSU played 2 teams that were undefeated after 10 games. We opened the season on the road against the team that returned more starters than any other big 10 team from a 9 win year. Purdue was significantly more of a challenge in week 1 at home than at this point of the season. We also destroyed a Minnesota team that is tied for the big 10 west.

Keep beating the false weak schedule line. I've attached a link below that has PSU as having played the 7th toughest schedule so far. Current College Football SOS

Why are you so hellbent on crapping on this team?
 
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Name the year PSU played 2 teams that were undefeated after 10 games. We opened the season on the road against the team that returned more starters than any other big 10 team from a 9 win year. Purdue was significantly more of a challenge in week 1 at home than at this point of the season. We also destroyed a Minnesota team that is tied for the big 10 west.

Keep beating the false weak schedule line. I've attached a link below that has PSU as having played the 7th toughest schedule so far. Current College Football SOS

Why are you so hellbent on crapping on this team?
He has an agenda…he doesn’t like Franklin so he’s going to sh!t on everything Franklin related.
 
This is just a dumb post on a number of levels. For starters, the sanctions didn't really impact a single Franklin team. Period. This is excuse is nonsense. It is an excuse to cover up the fact that Franklin was in over his head when he showed up and he brought a bunch of clowns with him to coach the offense. Deal with it. Second, Franklin hasn't sniffed a playoff birth which is a much lower bar than actually competing for a title, which Joe did many times, even late in his career. It also must be said that Joe's staff recruited at a level much higher than Franklin even after they were past their prime.
Having 40 something scholarship players didn’t affect the 2014-15 teams? You’re out of your mind. And Franklin did an incredible job of redshirting guys in 2014-15 to give us a chance to compete when we went back to full strength in 2016. He manipulated the roster masterfully during that tricky time. Getting us back so quickly has led to the intensifying criticism. 2016, 2017 and 2019 we certainly were in “sniffing” distance of the playoff. Winning a few of those close games that were decided by a play or two would only change the perception of him, not his actual coaching job. 2021 is literally the only season where there’s a legit gripe but you could say the staff did a great job keeping this team in games with zero run game. It’s certainly improved this year and the team is set up really well moving forward. Franklin deserves credit for that. At this point the good far outweighs the bad. But that’s a big picture view as if a fan can take a step back from the last thing they saw..
 
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Name the year PSU played 2 teams that were undefeated after 10 games. We opened the season on the road against the team that returned more starters than any other big 10 team from a 9 win year. Purdue was significantly more of a challenge in week 1 at home than at this point of the season. We also destroyed a Minnesota team that is tied for the big 10 west.

Keep beating the false weak schedule line. I've attached a link below that has PSU as having played the 7th toughest schedule so far. Current College Football SOS

Why are you so hellbent on crapping on this team?

Ummmmm...... because he is a douche posing-fan troll. He is not a PSU fan - his act, like his fellow posing-fan trolls, is old and tired.
 
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You forgot 99, 02, 08 and 09 were better. 08 by a very very wide margin. This year's team has played the weakest schedule Penn State has played since joining the Big Ten, and not by a little bit.
You think 99, 02, 08 and 09 were better than 16, 17 and 19? Maybe equivalent to, but better?

Seriously curious.
 
Just one rebuttal though… a Big Ten East Championship and a run at the National Championship pretty much are the same. You don’t win our division without being in strong consideration for a playoff spot.
Sure...I guess I'd just say that PSU should be competitive and muster somewhere above a .333 win percentage against OSU and probably better than .500 against Michigan, which has been a dumpster fire since Lloyd Carr's departure.
 
This is just a dumb post on a number of levels. For starters, the sanctions didn't really impact a single Franklin team. Period. This is excuse is nonsense. It is an excuse to cover up the fact that Franklin was in over his head when he showed up and he brought a bunch of clowns with him to coach the offense. Deal with it. Second, Franklin hasn't sniffed a playoff birth which is a much lower bar than actually competing for a title, which Joe did many times, even late in his career. It also must be said that Joe's staff recruited at a level much higher than Franklin even after they were past their prime.
You’re kidding, right? The 2012 and 2013 squads had 65 players on scholarship. That’s what he inherited. It was increased to 75 for his first season in 2014 and then 80 in 2015 before the full 85 in 2016. The transfer rules weren’t what there are now, so it was almost exclusively freshman being brought in to refill things to 85.

Not near enough appreciation for O’Brien and Franklin having four winning seasons with 65, 65, 75 and 80 scholarships (and the many other challenges).
 
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1000%. His list is ridiculous, per usual. Great, so we have played a bunch of .500 and above teams..big whoop. The B1G West is dog**** with crappy offenses, sans Purdue, who is one dimensional. Some people on here look at overall record as a huge metric...if we go 10-2 each of the next five seasons as a carbon copy of this one, losing to OSU and Mich, that is a good, but still overall disappointing. I measure the program based on our two biggest threats on the field and in recruiting...others are content annually with being almost, but not quite b/c winning is hard, lol. No doubt, improvements have been made on the OL and we have not lost a game or two against an inferior opponent which is the JF special (at least so far). At least there has been tangible improvement in areas that needed it badly. I'm very excited for the future. But, the idea that finishing 3rd in the division is an overall "success" b/c this was a "rebuilding" year is one of the funniest things I've seen on this board in awhile. No more rebuilds in CFB...not in the current climate of guys playing immediately, portal, etc. This isn't the old days of redshirting everyone and starting them junior year. "Rebuild" is an excuse.
Read the title of the thread. We are pretty good, if you can't admit that then I can't help you. Are we elite? No.
 
Sure...I guess I'd just say that PSU should be competitive and muster somewhere above a .333 win percentage against OSU and probably better than .500 against Michigan, which has been a dumpster fire since Lloyd Carr's departure.
From '16-'20 we went 3-2 against Mich. Then they caught fire. Key is to catch them now.
 
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Lol. Going on the “road” you say as if they flew to the west coast instead of driving a couple hours to a stadium that probably had a sizable PSU crowd in attendance. (Pitt had been good for about 6 years at that point.)

I’m not detracting from the 81 squad. I listed them as arguably better than any of Franklin’s 11-win teams. But yes - I do believe McSorley, Saquon, Sanders, Gesicki, Godwin, etc. would compete with them.
The offensive line on that team alone would grind any Franklin team into the dust.

I was at that 1981 Pitt game…probably the most hostile environment I have ever been in…by a wide margin. Against a team with an NFL HOF QB and brimming with NFL caliber talent. And undefeated and #1 ranked.

1981 team also went into Nebraska and defeated a perennial power Nebraska team. One of the toughest places to win in the country at that time.

And then defeated USC in the Fiesta Bowl that featured Heisman Trophy winner and NFL HOFer Marcus Allen.

Light years beyond anything Franklin has produced.
 
Joe did not produce a too 10 every year either. His career record was about 9-3 and he did not inherit sanctions from Rip Engle.
Joe built Penn State (the football team and the University) into a national power.
 
The offensive line on that team alone would grind any Franklin team into the dust.

I was at that 1981 Pitt game…probably the most hostile environment I have ever been in…by a wide margin. Against a team with an NFL HOF QB and brimming with NFL caliber talent. And undefeated and #1 ranked.

1981 team also went into Nebraska and defeated a perennial power Nebraska team. One of the toughest places to win in the country at that time.

And then defeated USC in the Fiesta Bowl that featured Heisman Trophy winner and NFL HOFer Marcus Allen.

Light years beyond anything Franklin has produced.
“Pitt played a weak schedule—Florida State, which ended with a 6-5 record, was the only first-rate opponent among the Cincinnatis, Rutgerses and Armys.”

 
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The offensive line on that team alone would grind any Franklin team into the dust.

I was at that 1981 Pitt game…probably the most hostile environment I have ever been in…by a wide margin. Against a team with an NFL HOF QB and brimming with NFL caliber talent. And undefeated and #1 ranked.

1981 team also went into Nebraska and defeated a perennial power Nebraska team. One of the toughest places to win in the country at that time.

And then defeated USC in the Fiesta Bowl that featured Heisman Trophy winner and NFL HOFer Marcus Allen.

Light years beyond anything Franklin has produced.
To be clear… your rebuttal to my assertion that there were probably a lot of Penn State fans at that road game is that you, a Penn State fan, were at that road game?
 
1) We are knocking on the door of a top 10 ranking with 2 winnable games remaining.

2) The only 2 losses are to undefeated #2 and undefeated #3.

3) 2 wins over 7-3 teams and 2 wins over 6-4 teams. Two of those 4 are leading a division of their conference and may play for their conference championship.

4) We seem to be getting better in spite of more injuries and more young players pressed into key roles.

5) Most 2 loss teams remaining have had weaker schedules to this point and some have games remaining that are likely losses.

Now I know we aren't a playoff team this year but we aren't that far off and we are a very young team and we seem to be improving each week.
I don’t think anyone disagrees that we are pretty good. The bitch is that we aren’t elite or competing for Big Ten championships.
 
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Is this a glass is half full view point? Are you really serious?

PSU will finish no higher than 3rd place in their own division.
No BIG championship game appearance.
No CFP appearance.

All the wins have come against 2nd tier and bottom dweller teams with losing records.

Man, what a total failure this year has been then. We have some of the worst fans in CFB.
 
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With a 9-3 career average and a losing record vs osu.
Is this a serious comment? He is tbe winningest coach of all-time, with wins in all major bowls and the best big game records (bowls - when no one opted out) of any coach.

He was grotesquely underpaid and even at that donated millions to Penn State.

Yes, terrible, terrible…
 
The offensive line on that team alone would grind any Franklin team into the dust.

I was at that 1981 Pitt game…probably the most hostile environment I have ever been in…by a wide margin. Against a team with an NFL HOF QB and brimming with NFL caliber talent. And undefeated and #1 ranked.

1981 team also went into Nebraska and defeated a perennial power Nebraska team. One of the toughest places to win in the country at that time.

And then defeated USC in the Fiesta Bowl that featured Heisman Trophy winner and NFL HOFer Marcus Allen.

Light years beyond anything Franklin has produced.


Who coached the 2003 team?
Is this a serious comment? He is tbe winningest coach of all-time, with wins in all major bowls and the best big game records (bowls - when no one opted out) of any coach.

He was grotesquely underpaid and even at that donated millions to Penn State.

Yes, terrible, terrible…


Do you count joes wins vs non top ten teams? It seems like you only count Franklin's wins vs top ten teams.

Jow was the winningest all time with a career average of 9-3. Don't complain when other coaches go 9-3.

Joes salary is not relevant. He should have hired a better agent.
 
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From '16-'20 we went 3-2 against Mich. Then they caught fire. Key is to catch them now.
And "Mr Baseball" led the club in 9th inning doubles in the month of Aug.
I don't say that to be a d*ck, but stats can be carved up to say anything.
The conversation is about Franklin and he is 3-6 against Mich and 1-8 against OSU.

I mean, Mich was a dumpster fire under DickRod and Hoke, and then they hired khaki pants who is a giant wierdo who alienates every employer he's had. He has one less year at Mich than JF has at PSU. Saying "they caught fire" without acknowledging that Harbaugh has apparently turned scUM around and is outperforming JF is a tad misleading.

 
Sure...I guess I'd just say that PSU should be competitive and muster somewhere above a .333 win percentage against OSU and probably better than .500 against Michigan, which has been a dumpster fire since Lloyd Carr's departure.
[/QUOTE
And "Mr Baseball" led the club in 9th inning doubles in the month of Aug.
I don't say that to be a d*ck, but stats can be carved up to say anything.
The conversation is about Franklin and he is 3-6 against Mich and 1-8 against OSU.

I mean, Mich was a dumpster fire under DickRod and Hoke, and then they hired khaki pants who is a giant wierdo who alienates every employer he's had. He has one less year at Mich than JF has at PSU. Saying "they caught fire" without acknowledging that Harbaugh has apparently turned scUM around and is outperforming JF is a tad misleading.

Okay I guess Jimmah has turned them around. It's 2 years and they may not make the playoff this year but I'll give it to you since they will get to the Rose worst case. Think about this though. What will you think about scUM if they go 0-3 in their next 3 games vs PSU and O$U (O$U in '22 and '23 and PSU in '23) and don't make the playoff in either season. And we finish ahead of them in the B10 East next year. Not saying we win the division just finish ahead of scUM.

Then what? Has Jimmah turned it around or not?
 
He has an agenda…he doesn’t like Franklin so he’s going to sh!t on everything Franklin related.
I think Franklin isn't doing as well as he could but he's doing pretty well considering . And you have to give credit where it's due . The Michigan loss would have been blunted if we could've beat OSU.
And that's the rub, always falling short , just a tiny bit but I'll take 10-2 over worse. Most games have been enjoyable with certain obvious exceptions lol. Maryland being my favorite .
I love seeing a loss on every play by Maryland and them punting on something like 4-29. That's an encouraging sign.
 
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Good article from Jones today on who we are vs Ohio State and Michigan. You have to have a pennlive subscription to read it, but it basically says we are what our recruiting talent says we should be and that it dates back to the mid-90s.
 
So you think the team's goals aren't any or all of the 3 that are mentioned? LOL ok. I literally read a quote from Ji'Ayir today saying they expected to make the CFP this year. So, accomplishing the goals listed above in the thread are implied in that.
If those aren’t the three goals, we really have a problem.
 
This is just a dumb post on a number of levels. For starters, the sanctions didn't really impact a single Franklin team. Period. This is excuse is nonsense. It is an excuse to cover up the fact that Franklin was in over his head when he showed up and he brought a bunch of clowns with him to coach the offense. Deal with it. Second, Franklin hasn't sniffed a playoff birth which is a much lower bar than actually competing for a title, which Joe did many times, even late in his career. It also must be said that Joe's staff recruited at a level much higher than Franklin even after they were past their prime.
Add to that, early in Joe’s career, that were fewer games in a season. I remember 11-0 twice in a row which included the Orange Boel wins ove KS and Mizzou.
 
ryoder1 said:
Okay I guess Jimmah has turned them around. It's 2 years and they may not make the playoff this year but I'll give it to you since they will get to the Rose worst case. Think about this though. What will you think about scUM if they go 0-3 in their next 3 games vs PSU and O$U (O$U in '22 and '23 and PSU in '23) and don't make the playoff in either season. And we finish ahead of them in the B10 East next year. Not saying we win the division just finish ahead of scUM.

Then what? Has Jimmah turned it around or not?


It's very possible that this is an anomaly and Mich regresses, but however you characterize it, it's inescapable that JF is 3-6 against Mich (3-5 against Jimmah) Moving to 4-6 next year would be positive, but I don't think it's crazy to think that PSU should be no worse than .500 against Michigan. JF is currently 3 years of perfection away from that at this point.
 
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It's very possible that this is an anomaly and Mich regresses, but however you characterize it, it's inescapable that JF is 3-6 against Mich (3-5 against Jimmah) Moving to 4-6 next year would be positive, but I don't think it's crazy to think that PSU should be no worse than .500 against Michigan. JF is currently 3 years of perfection away from that at this point.
Right about where psu should be based on recruiting. UM has out recruited psu 7 out of the last 10 years. OSU hans out recruited psu 10 out of the last 10 years. What should PSUs record be vs OSU?
 
Right about where psu should be based on recruiting. UM has out recruited psu 7 out of the last 10 years. OSU hans out recruited psu 10 out of the last 10 years. What should PSUs record be vs OSU?
Michigan has outrecruited PSU in 7 out of the last 10 based on which site? It appears to be close to even during that time. Not to mention, IMO, PSU has put out FAR better players in the NFL than Hairball has during his time -- even more of an indictment about not reaching the heights that we should have. On a separate point, so even if Michigan has slightly been better in recruiting (which I think is negligible) that means we shouldn't be able to rise up and play better -- to be able to win these big games against them? There are so many examples in every CFB season of teams beating others who might have more talent -- and in TAMU, Miami, and a plethora of other cases, teams with great recruiting numbers who lose to garbage annually. But, this idea that we shouldn't be beating Michigan more b/c of recruiting is ridiculous...the numbers I bet are so close averaging the stars, so to speak. And, as we all know, recruiting *stars are many times subjective and biased. We can simply tell by watching the games, which team has better players at certain positions, etc. If you look back at JF's games vs JH, simply based on players on the field, there aren't many positions you would take JH's guys over ours -- except where it really matters, the LOS. Hence, why PSU is stuck in a rut annually.
 
Michigan has outrecruited PSU in 7 out of the last 10 based on which site? It appears to be close to even during that time. Not to mention, IMO, PSU has put out FAR better players in the NFL than Hairball has during his time -- even more of an indictment about not reaching the heights that we should have. On a separate point, so even if Michigan has slightly been better in recruiting (which I think is negligible) that means we shouldn't be able to rise up and play better -- to be able to win these big games against them? There are so many examples in every CFB season of teams beating others who might have more talent -- and in TAMU, Miami, and a plethora of other cases, teams with great recruiting numbers who lose to garbage annually. But, this idea that we shouldn't be beating Michigan more b/c of recruiting is ridiculous...the numbers I bet are so close averaging the stars, so to speak. And, as we all know, recruiting *stars are many times subjective and biased. We can simply tell by watching the games, which team has better players at certain positions, etc. If you look back at JF's games vs JH, simply based on players on the field, there aren't many positions you would take JH's guys over ours -- except where it really matters, the LOS. Hence, why PSU is stuck in a rut annually.
247. Pick any site you want and look it up. Want to go with rivals?
 
"The sanction did not impact Franklin?" That is moronic!! Psu only had about 6 scholarship OL when Franklin took over. Two of those 6 were RS freshman. Psu had no scholarship punters until 2016. Franklin only had 5 LBs when he took over and Wooten was not a P5 LB.

You are clueless! All the two stars that psu signed during sanctions were on the roster. Psu signed guys who were headed to marshall, UMass, Toledo and so on. Probably about a dozen+ out of 65 were guys that would of ended up at mid majors. The 4 stars did not transfer back to psu.

In 2014 psu had zero qbs with more than one season experience. It was hack and freshman. Hack was not even ready.

Even when psu got the numbers back it was 5 years before we had a full roster with full experience.

Ps. Who gave Sandusky a key to the locker room? It was not Franklin. Success with honor.
I get it that some people just don't care for Franklin. That's ok. But there are some who have Franklin derangement syndrome like that guy and all objectivity is lost to bull$shit and bluster.
 
247. Pick any site you want and look it up. Want to go with rivals?
Ok...if you think the talent gap is that seismic with us and Michigan, I think you are wrong...I don't have the time to look it up. Clearly both programs are under OSU. But, your general premise is that what you are, you are, and shouldn't expect more. Yet, literally every week in CFB, pretty much disproves that. And, the talent difference b/w us and MIchigan, if there even is one, is so small. It's not like us and Bama.
 
Agree that we are looking like a top ten team, but lets wait till after the Rutgers/ MSU games and the bowl game to make a final judgement.
 
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