Truthfully....not a fan? Where does your allegiance lie?
Truthfully? I'm a coal region, Pa. guy born and bred. Attended Southern Columbia and took in my first PSU game 11/5/66.
Sat in endzone bleachers and watched Floyd Little beat PSU with a punt return. I didn't realize till many years later that it was Joe's first season as HC. PSU was already a popular team in my area as a local Coal Township football hero (Bernie Sabol) was playing at PSU for Rip Engle. Incidentally, as fate would have it, he would later be my college coach. My high school coach was Joe Sarra, and I was honored to visit him often at spring practices over the years.
I will forever hold Joe Paterno head and shoulders above any coach I've ever seen. He not only made PSU a "blue blood" but enhanced the national image of eastern football in the process.
As my family grew up we made every effort to be as close to PSU football as possible, making spring practice a habit and bowl games, Rose, Fiesta, Cotton, Outback, Capitol One, Ticket City, Pinstripe, Taxslayer and Citrus Bowl and a few others.
Admittedly, I've never 100% recovered from what the Trustees and Administration did to Joe and the bs that largely excludes him from being recognized properly (and he continues to be victimized by the current administration).
Franklin inspired me at the Pinstripe Bowl with an overtime win and a speech after the game championing "Penn State Culture." A bold and courageous statement at the juncture (with the sanctions only being partly lifted).
I enjoyed his tenure and felt he did an excellent job representing the football program and the university.
His time came to an end last fall. Frankly, under the circumstances, it was inevitable. I do deeply resent and am ashamed of those fans who hurled personal insults at him and his family. I did think that PSU fans were better than that. By the way, so did Matt Rhule (look at his press conference on youtube). It was shameful.
I am very happy that Franklin found a good job and so far he's doing well.
If I am not qualified by the BWICAC to be a "real" PSU fan, I will be here, alone, distraught, crying my eyes out.
In the meantime, I'll stick by my position that PSU under any coach will not improve it's results on the field without a few playmakers on both sides of the ball. Until this happens, "the standard will be" what it was for the 150 games before Franklin got here ....which were quite similar to the results he achieved in this 149 games. 300 games is a pretty large sample size (you might want to look up the results of those 299 games yourself).