Players, coaches and officials compete and as such they "screw up." Guess who never screws up? Fanboys who watch.
Good ole boy Ricky Rahne takes a cheap shot at Penn State
- Thread starter Efejle
- Start date
Franklin's 149 game record at PSU was better than the 150 games prior to his arrival. Your record over 300 games probably reflects the strength of your program. Who will be the villain if Campbell doesn't win 10,11,13 games and have a better record than Franklin? Let me guess. Why it's James Franklin! LOL
26-9 criminal. Entitled and delusional is no way to be a fan.
people here remember a period of "eliteness" that we never actually had
We were elite in the late 60's through '94. Not every year, of course, but if you look at programs during that era we would be one of the elite programs. Who do you think was elite then? Michigan, who lost 11 of 13 Rose Bowls?
Bama, OU, and Nebraska all won more Nattys during that time frame than we did. ND and Miami won as many.
And since then.......
Okay, so if guys keep slipping and missing tackles and the coach keeps trotting them out there, who’s responsible?
Or the time we were 15 points down to Michigan, needing two possessions, late into the 4th quarter. We get momentum and score to cut it to 9 points. When given the choice of narrowing the game to one possession and keeping momentum but the boneheaded coach decides to go for two and fails, keeping it a two possession game.
There are people on this board who think they have elite reasoning powers but they never did.
So now you accept it as "established"
Didn't the opener show how much better MC was at getting them prepared to tackle for an opener?
Perhaps it's just me, but I believe that Rahne is actually a more intelligent football coach than Franklin. He, at least, seems to understand the game and the important moving parts.
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And he didn't wear the right color shoe strings.
Dude — the laces are a cool gesture by Campbell, that’s all. No one is making it out to be anything other than that.
It actually is the coach’s responsibility for poor tackling.
Have you noticed a difference in the quality of PSU tackling in 2026 vs 2024/2025?
You just asked Marshall to acknowledge improvement in something under MC....are you feeling okay?
We were still elite and don't forget we didn't even get a shot in '68, '69, '73 and '94 despite being undefeated. We get one of those four and we have three.
Since then Joe got old, a scandal and then in the last ten years as we recovered from the scandal we had a guy who couldn't win a big game if his life depended on it. So no, we have not been elite since '94 but your post implied we have never been elite.
my bad.....but it sure seems like 50I’m no LionJim, but I think 1986 was 40 years ago?
I might wait until there is an actual football game (not a scrimmage) before I claim improvement. PSU won't see anything close to equal talent and similar experience until USC. Until then, it's best to claim 5 Ws and remain reserved in any opinions that our ship has come in. LOL
P4 teams have different goals and as a result can approach non conference games in a variety of ways.
Last week was more emotional and under greater scrutiny than if it was a roster of PSU veterans returning under an incumbent coach.
I've already stated that they played a very crisp game and executed well against Marshall. It's just a matter of how much are you willing to invest in results vs Marshall, Temple (a poor team with 3 OL out) and is it Buffalo?
Play well, develop chemistry, integrate potential depth, add a win and most importantly, pray that no key injuries occur. Those should be the goals IMO for the remaining 2 non conference games. All the suggestions to create a "The Campbell Family Football Experience" room at Beaver, should be on hold until 3 full seasons are complete.
Just a suggestion. You and the BWICAC might want to start formulating an excuse if PSU doesn't automatically achieve "elite" status in the next 3 years. Blaming everything on Franklin will have an expiration date. Remember, we have a promise of "excellence at the highest level." You don't have James Franklin to kick around anymore.
I was a student 70-74. I do remember Joe's saying back then was pretty much every kid he recruited he said he wants to play for at leat 1 Natty during their tenure. If not a Natty since back then there was no playoff a legitimate chance to argue you were Nat champs. They pretty much did that from 68-94. That was elite, but the world was very different then from $$$ to our primary recruiting demographics.
So when comparing non conference scrimmages over the past few years its easy to see which defense was better prepared. Regarding of any attempted spin
'68-'72 for me, and yes those were great years. What we have been is a very, very good program- but if you're going to be honest about our history, we aren't (and weren't) at the level of the truly "elite" programs.
Expecting a return to a time that never was isn't very logical, good luck finding the coach who can deliver that.
Coaching is , of course very important. But not as important as talent. For years PSU lagged behind other programs in player living accommodations. facilities in general (other than the stadium). Just when we started to join the upper echelon, the game changed drastically and became all about buying talent. PSU is not in the top 10, likely not top 15 and could be 20-22 in that category. Could the stars align and you win anyway? Of course. It could possibly happen. But recruiting is an indicator of how far PSU needs to go to be a top 10 program virtually every year. I think the stadium renovation should have been scaled back with safety issues addressed and more emphasis on funneling $$$ to the product on the field. Campbell has proven he can be competitive in the Big 12 with less resources than other programs. Should he be expected to be "competitive in the Big 10 with less resources than Ohio State, Michigan, USC and Oregon?
Being competitive is not the standard....is it?
It’s possible the money slowly ran dry as each donor realized no matter how much they gave Franklin, he just couldn’t take the program from great to elite. Despite being top 3 in NIL in 2025, somehow Franklin’s team performed WORSE than the previous years and we were missing talent at entire position groups (WR, DT, and only one LB). And that money isn’t automatically coming back for Campbell. They’re waiting to see what he does with what he has first.
If Campbell wins, the NIL money will come. It appears he’s trying to juice it a little with the nods to Paterno and PSU’s past.
top 3? I can't find anything showing PSU in the top 10 for NIL in 2025
2025 nil rankings by team - Search
College football NIL collective leaders for 2025: NCAA estimates nation's top-25 spenders
PSU was never top 3 in NIL. You are on drugs. Kraft professed that this staff had an increase in both NIL and staff funding. I fully support the university honoring Joe. Perhaps it's safe for the cowards to come out of hiding. If wearing white shoelaces and mouthing "success with honor" is intended to increase NIL and not being done because it's the right thing to do....then it is most unfortunate.
Here's something to chew on binkie, in the 30 years since the 1994 squad that certainly was deserving of NC consideration....PSU has only finished top 10 in the AP 9 times. 5 of those were James Franklin coached teams. Just a friendly piece of advice, you might want to reassess your "Franklin is responsible for world hunger" approach and pray that after the 2028 season PSU has elite NIL money and has achieved "excellence at the highest level." Because matching Franklin's record, 9-3 on average, isn't going to cut it.
I don’t have anything against Franklin. I appreciate him like I appreciate Rip Engle. He won a lot of games and PSU was relevant during his time, but just wasn’t able to take that last step.
You may take it as bashing when I point out things like no top 25 teams feared him (35% win rate against top 25). Or that it was nearly a guarantee we’d lose if facing a power 4 top 10 team. Or that Franklin’s teams tended to follow up a top 10 loss to pretty much anyone they played the following week. But these are just facts. I don’t know why you expect that people should just accept this. You claimed to be a coach—was that your coaching philosophy? “Almost is good enough.”
If anyone would know, it’s Kraft. But if he’s lying, then that means we had even fewer resources after retaining Allar, Singleton, and Allen. And after throwing a half a million at Liam Clifford. Which makes it more poignant that the donors were turning off the tap, believing their money wasn’t being used wisely.
Kraft may know how much NIL Penn State is bringing in. I say "may" because there can be private deals he's not fully aware. What other schools are bringing in? Fuggedaboutit.
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