This is Franklin's ceiling

[fairfaxlion2]

From the best I can decipher on this thread everyone agrees Franklin has hit the ceiling. The debate is whether we can ever get a National Championship with a different coach.

I think we can. It won't be easy but it is possible and not possible like Indiana can possibly win a NC possible.

I believe our troubles beating OSU and more broadly "the big game" is a cultural disconnect with Franklin and the roots of Penn State football. I think if you ask many of the star lettermen from the Paterno era; Blackledge, Millen. Ham, Fusina, Cefalo, Guman, Warner, MRob, Parlevechio, Bauer. Conlan, Dozier on and on that they would say Franklin has underperformed and we need to get a coach who instills more of a culture of toughness, grit and being mentally strong. Franklin's teams do not embody this. Our offensive line has been lousy for years, some improvement but not up to PSU great standards. Our defensive line is not great. We seemingly wilt in big moments. To the point now you just wait for us to fail in the clutch. It pains me to write this but I believe these are the brutal facts.

If we move on from Franklin is there a chance we turn into Nebraska? Maybe. That is certainly a risk.

Look at it this way. If you are Pat Kraft are you happy with Franklin producing for the next ten years what he has done say the last seven? Win 9-10 games but not in the running for a NC. I know a lot of the people on this board think that is great and is not only Franklin's ceiling but Penn State football's ceiling. I completely disagree.

Do you think if Todd Blackledge asked Pat Kraft tomorrow what are his goals for Penn State football he is going to tell him...."Win 9 or 10 games and win a bowl game but we will not realistically win a national championship." Hell no. Call me unrealistic, a dreamer, whatever but I firmly believe Penn State can climb that mountain again. And not in the too distant future. It needs a new leader who can make us elite. We are ready for it.

2024 is when it will get very difficult for Franklin, because it's going to be more than just two big games every year. PSU wont be able to hide a bad year behind an 11-2 record anymore. the expectation will be getting to the playoff and if that doesn't happen i think psu will move on within 2 years. he is going nowhere this year, though. he will be at psu in 2024

 

[LMTLION]

I am not downplaying it, I think it’s reprehensible! I am just a realist when it comes to what I saw that afternoon. We gave up 400+ yards rushing. The last time I remember seeing us do that was against MI State when we gave up 200+ to two different RBs in East Lansing in the late 90s.

Again, the UM performance, both offense and defense, was significantly impacted by the cheating scandal. I don’t think we can take any aspect of that game as being valid. I am not saying Franklin has been perfect. His game plan of shrinking the field to a 20 yard box for Allar now needs to change. And I blame USC Rose Bowl squarely in him (although he seems to have learned from that over the years.). I do think overall we are very unfair with him in terms of not recognizing the unique impediments he has dealt with from the impact sanctions had over the first several years of his PSU career to the pandemic to the fact that we know UM and Hairball have cheated their way to success recently.