A major difference is that Joe earned a lot of good will from 1967-1999. He had a buffer that Franklin doesn't enjoy and hasn't earned, although that buffer was mighty thin by the end of 2004. Joe earned around 1 Mill a year at the end of his career. Our Six Million Dollar Man isn't earning the loyalty from the fanbase to see him through a couple more dark years. I wonder how closely the AD and administration monitor relative satisfaction? No one gets stoked from beating MD and Rutgers (and friggin' Villanova). They get awfully damned depressed from losing meaningful games though. James Franklin is a good man. I'm just not sure that he can ever become a great coach, and that's what 107,000 paying customers ultimately want. What say you?
Is the anger/apathy now as bad as it was during the Paterno "dark years"?
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I feel like we’re on that season one episode of the Office where Michael tells everyone he has a big surprise that will be revealed at the end of the day and he even does his own drumroll and gets everyone excited but it ends up being nothing and the employees get up and walk out pi$$ed off. I feel the Illinois game was that moment. The best it’s going to get under Franklin is an occasional NY6 bowl, with 7-5 , 8-4 seasons as the norm.
Hot seat? Because people bitch on a free board? What evidence is there that the administration will dump him? I reckon there is none. As I've said before, PSU is unlikely to pay him over $25 million to walk away and then hire another coach at $5-$6 million. Let's revisit in two years time when he has 2 years left on his contract. That is, if his contract is not extended.
Don’t know a single alum in real life who is angry/calling for his head. Disappointed sure. Then ten guys with pitchforks on each psu board overestimate their numbers.
You might want to got out a bit more…not only are loyal alums feeling that way, but many of the Lettermen are reaching the end of their patience.
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Nothing to do with any free message boards. I think they dump him if he doesn’t produce. Next year. If he has two more 7-8 win seasons they dump him.
The current results obviously have people worrying about the state of the program. The degree of worry will vary between folks but it’s safe to say Franklin is on real thin ice with many.
I don’t think Sandy or Barron will fire him unless revenues significantly decrease and/ or there are lots of empty seats in the stadium.
That said, the incompetence of Sandy and Barron (both on the way out) could really put any new prez or AD in a real bind if they keep approving very 1 sided contracts that are not in PSU’s favor.
I don’t think Sandy or Barron will fire him unless revenues significantly decrease and/ or there are lots of empty seats in the stadium.
That said, the incompetence of Sandy and Barron (both on the way out) could really put any new prez or AD in a real bind if they keep approving very 1 sided contracts that are not in PSU’s favor.
Seriously.
I don't know a single alum, outside of message boards, who is at all happy with the current state of affairs. Most of us would love to see him walk out the door on his own, but don't want to piss away the $ for the ridiculous buyout option that he was handed.
If he is given another red cent for anything other than assistants' salary, the noise will definitely start to grow. And if there is anything else spent on facilities/equipment beyond much-needed stadium improvements, then it had better come from donations, and not with additional debt.
He doesn't deserve another raise outside of his current contract before achieving consecutive top 10 finishes, and even then he won't be anywhere close to sniffing a national championship. He's just not the guy for all that!
I have been in a state of apathy since December of 2014. It didn't take me long to realize that Franklin isn't good enough. The key moment was when he refused to fire Donovan, Rahne, Hand and Gattis. He wasn't smart enough to realize that he should have left them in Nashville. He wasn't smart enough to fire them after his first season. Heck, he wasn't smart enough to fire them after his second season. Sandy had to make him shake things up. Why, because Franklin is not accountable and won't admit he is wrong. Just my opinion.
You are very likely correct. They will not fire him, not right now anyway. Not with Barron and Sandy on the way out over the next two years. But, that doesn't mean he won't be on the hot seat if and when they start 3 and 5 next year. Franklin's constant whining about facilities and salaries when he has been given everything he needs and more to win is wearing thin.
Its hard to tell. My guess is if we were living in the total info, blog, internet, tweet age then that we are now it probably would have been worse.
The difference for me is that I intensely wanted Joe to right his ship and finish his career on a winning note. I now just feel that Franklin is joined at the hip to his scheme and has maxed out. Instead of "taking the next step" from great to elite, his teams have taken a step backward: good but not good enough. Call me apathetic.
Hardly anyone ever questioned Paterno no matter how stupid the play calling got. They just assumed he knew best, played the best players, did the best he could, etc. Plus you knew he wasn't leaving and wasn't going to get fired.
Now, every bozo on here thinks they have all of the answers
Now, every bozo on here thinks they have all of the answers
IMHO not even close.
Let's look at the season:
We need a better OL, to avoid injuries, depth at OL/DL, and to develop QBs so we have two competent people in that position. It is not like the dark years where we were really depleted in both player recruiting and development as well as other deficiencies.
Let's look at the season:
- horrible inexcusable loss to ILL
- Loss to #3 ranked team, at their stadium, because our QB got hurt
- Loss to tOSU, they outplayed us but we were competitive
- Loss to UM in a 50/50 game
We need a better OL, to avoid injuries, depth at OL/DL, and to develop QBs so we have two competent people in that position. It is not like the dark years where we were really depleted in both player recruiting and development as well as other deficiencies.
Was always upset the CJF never adapted his offense to match his players skill sets or to how enemy defenses played it. This year he finally made changes so I will be satisfied to wait to see what changes the OC makes next year. He will have two great QBs and great RB, and know his players better. Hoping next year will be a pleasant surprise since everyone expects another bad year.
you can go through my posts. I’m critical of Franklin. This season has sucked. I’m also not a dramaqueen like a handful of people here. You can be disappointed in where we’re at and not desire to burn it all down for a guy whose never beaten a team ranked in the top 20 and wouldn’t come even if the seat was open.
Comparing the last two seasons to the dark years is laughable, we’re less than 24 months removed from a top 10 finish, played one abbreviated season during a pandemic, will finish this season above .500 and have a fantastic class coming in. We’d need losing seasons in 21,22 and 23 for this to equal the dark years. (I’d support moving on if any upcoming seasons finish below .500).
Bunch of overdramatic old men with too much time on their hands. If you want to talk about not thinking, we’ve got people on here talking about requiring assistants commit for 7 years before getting a job offer and suggesting we fire Franklin eat his buy out and just pay someone half.
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Good except for the shot at old men. Know a lot of young guys harping and bitching.......
I don't want Franklin going anywhere. I think the team will be highly competitive over the next 2-3 years and PSU will rightly give him a contract extension.
I would be disappointed if the admin listens to any of the online idiots calling for Franklin to be fired.
I would be disappointed if the admin listens to any of the online idiots calling for Franklin to be fired.
Franklin never had a recruiting class ranked #92 with 11 total commitments (Rivals, 2003). Let that sink in (Poz was in that class FWIW).
Agree with everything you said EXCEPT the "overdramatic old man" part. Its jush a hunch but i bet a lot of the torch and pitchfork crowd are younger or they are the old "Joe can do no wrong" fans.
And before anyone asks I'm older than 55 but younger than 60.
Check back next year sparky, keep drinking the Koolaid.
@Purdue - L
@Auburn - L
Ohio State - L
@Michigan - L
and that is within the first six games.
and they were going to start 1-2 this year as well. Still 3 games to worry about losing this season before waving the white flag for Purdue.
Definitely. With Levis we finish off the Iowa game and beat Illinois. Still most likely lose to OSU, not sure about the UM game. I would go with 8-2. We have lost 4 games by a total of 18 points (3 by 9 points), it is unfortunate to be on that side of those games.
I think there should be great concern going into next year though if Clifford decides to not come back.
I'm not part of the "fire franklin" crowd, but I don't think your analogy is accurate.
My analysis of Franklin is that he is closer to Steve Spurrier as a football coach than Joe Paterno. Joe could "Coach." Spurrier conversely could recruit well in a talent rich area. His offenses were largely average QBs chucking it up to very good WRs. His Florida teams won on talent. They also lost every year (but one) when facing a team of similar talent. Franklin recruits pretty well. PSU wins a lot of game on talent. What we haven't seen much under Franklin is winning games against teams with similar talent and he is apt to lose games against well-coached teams with less talent.
That is not true. We did exactly that under Moorhead. We JoeMo adapts to match the talent on hand and the defenses they play. Nobody could have got more out of the players they had than him.
well, we'll have to great freshmen QB prospects as well as two s
Good grief. You have games almost a year away marked as losses when you know absolutely nothing about what those teams or Penn State will look like. Yet you're the realist, right? 🙄
A reasonable take. But with two glaring exceptions:
1. The offensive line and running game is among the very worst in the nation. And no I am not exaggerating. And this is not a new development - it has been this way for most of Franklin’s tenure.
2. The team (all phases) lacks the prerequisite mental and physical toughness needed to succeed at a high level. This has also existed through Franklin’ tenure.
This has been the undoing of the program and has delivered us to the current state: a mediocre program in a mediocre conference. And it appears to be getting - slowly but surely - worse.
It is time for a change.
Agreed. This program has faced unprecedented scandal and sanctions in the past decade. The past two years seem "tame" compared to all of that.
The other thing is that save for a wonky 2020 season, this program hasn't stared down 3-4 win seasons like it did during the "dark years."
And while frustrating, most of the losses have been in competitive games. That wasn't the case 20 years ago. Those games felt lost at opening kickoff.
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