How Attractive Is the Penn State Head Coaching Job?
A heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Oregon in the White Out game, followed by inexplicable defeats to a winless UCLA squad and a Northwestern team
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FC: How Attractive is the Penn State Head Coaching Job?
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My own guess: with the exception of maybe ten, every non-NFL coach has given the position some thought. Big time money and a great tradition.
Whiney, entitled fanbase- which is pretty commonplace these days.
I'd rather to be the guy after the next guy, but show me the money.
I'd rather to be the guy after the next guy, but show me the money.
Imagine perhaps the most loyal fanbase expecting a signature win more than once a decade?
Whiney indeed!
You're not wrong, Best and worst fans around. I love the ones that think this has solved everything and a MNC is just around the corner. PSU is closer to becoming Neb than they are tOSU....tough pill for some to swallow or hear, but time will tell. Maybe PSU is the team that doens't spiral into a coaching change every 2-3 years though and just wins MNC's in the era where everyone can pay.
Historically yeah but as for trajectory, PSU has the $ and recruiting base to get back to the top with the right hire. As for Nebraska, those days are over. Nebraska will never be able to attract enough talent to win it all again.
We are…. More Sidney Sweeney than a Rosie O’Donnell. Only thing missing in the resume is recent NC. We are… very doable .
Exactly. Heaven forbid the best win in 9 years be better than Boise St.
You think so...UM, tOSU, USC, and Oregon alone just in our conference can spend and recruit with us.....some with even more $$'s to throw around. This notion that we are just a coaching change away of a fun dream for sure, but the odds are against PSU winning a MNC in the next decade with or without Franklin. I understand the change as you can sell it as this being the year an tank that badly, but I just think many fans are naive to think this is the big step they think it is. If this job is so great we'll see who ends up filling it and what support they get.
The one thing people forget or refuse to accept is PSU still has idiots that fought against progress for the program for years. Money for assistants was a battle, upgrades to the football facilities was a battle, recruiting budgets to stay in step with our rivals were a battle. I hope they knock it out of the park with the hire and PSU goes on a crazy good run, but I'm also pretty realistic about it....and it may not pan out the way some are thinking.
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We fans are the biggest strength and the biggest difficulty for anybody taking this job. We’re not realistic about the challenges here. The article is correct about location. When Joe was in his prime, western PA produced huge amounts of high school football talent. That is no longer the case. The youth population and corresponding high school football talent in western Pennsylvania has fallen off a cliff. Eastern PA is still strong, but not strong enough to compensate for the decline of Western PA talent, which used to be the best in the country. Franklin to his credit recruited the mid Atlantic very well.
This is why when people bring up Smart and Richt that they don't understand.....Georgia is a top 5 producing state and it sits on top of a top 3 producing state. Is there enough talent around in the northeast and mid atlantic to compete....sure, but ND, tOSU, UM, and the entire SEC also go up there. PSU now more than ever has to look further than before and to be fair they were doing ok with it, but nothing compared to the schools that CONSISTENTLY bring in top 5-7 classes. PSU may have one a decade and the rest of the time they are at 10-15, that is the reality of it.
I would argue that Eastern PA has fallen off a cliff as well. Just not as steep as Western. Our roster used to be packed with kids from the Scranton/Wilkes Barre, Lehigh Valley and Bucks/Montgomery areas. You still see some, but not many. The one possible exception is Philly and we lose a lot of them to the other guys.
Which college football team has the most fans? Why (we think) Michigan edges Ohio State
We looked at tickets, revenue, social media and more to investigate an unanswerable question: Which college football team has the most fans?
www.nytimes.com
We came in 6th most popular composite. There is a lot of fan support. So unhappy "noise" is magnified by hundreds of thousands.
Home attendance 2nd
Living Alumni- 2nd to Indiana
Merch Sales- 9th
Stub Hub tix demand- 7th
TV veiwership , rated over 4 mill views 2021-2024, 6th
Facilities, NIL, and coaching salaries ( IIRC last season composite staff was #1) are all in place. Fans are fired up after JF himself said best players, best staff in 12 yrs LTFI. Any top ten position is going to be rabid for big time wins. This is a big stage. Best bring your big boy pants.
Very. And the salary of the next guy will prove it; likely top three in college football. All that alignment-ing Franklin did will pay off too. And if you really want to see alignment, watch if Rhule is hired - Kraft will give him whatever he wants.
To us, it’s meh.How Attractive Is the Penn State Head Coaching Job?
A heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Oregon in the White Out game, followed by inexplicable defeats to a winless UCLA squad and a Northwestern team
To Billy Bob Johnson, coach of any program in the South, it’s $$$.
Which college football team has the most fans? Why (we think) Michigan edges Ohio State
We looked at tickets, revenue, social media and more to investigate an unanswerable question: Which college football team has the most fans?
We came in 6th most popular composite. There is a lot of fan support. So unhappy "noise" is magnified by hundreds of thousands.
Home attendance 2nd
Living Alumni- 2nd to Indiana
Merch Sales- 9th
Stub Hub tix demand- 7th
TV veiwership , rated over 4 mill views 2021-2024, 6th
Facilities, NIL, and coaching salaries ( IIRC last season composite staff was #1) are all in place. Fans are fired up after JF himself said best players, best staff in 12 yrs LTFI. Any top ten position is going to be rabid for big time wins. This is a big stage. Best bring your big boy pants.
We need more Walmart fans.
It’s not unique to PSU. Michigan fired two coaches in six years including RichRod after two. If you think Bama would have kept Saban around with the kind of record Franklin put up against ranked opponents, I have a ballroom in DC to sell you.
No doubt. The printing press of borrowed money PSU has rolled out, and will likely to continue to roll out, is the #1 attraction - to a situation that was plenty attractive to begin with.
That said, PSU has 4, maybe 5 years tops, until the $$$ wheels come falling off of the train. (PSU won't be the only school with such issues, of course, but the $700 M and "best in class" bonfire-ing of cash, kind of cemented PSU into a spot where their conundrum will be among the most severe)
Then there will have to be a "great reset", and no one knows how that will be dealt with. Those are issues most college football Coach candidates are going to be "zero" concerned with (or even aware of), but it does put a timeline on the termination point of business as usual.
Great points. This is a top 10 job. Even some of the schools people are putting ahead of it have major downsides:Which college football team has the most fans? Why (we think) Michigan edges Ohio State
We looked at tickets, revenue, social media and more to investigate an unanswerable question: Which college football team has the most fans?
We came in 6th most popular composite. There is a lot of fan support. So unhappy "noise" is magnified by hundreds of thousands.
Home attendance 2nd
Living Alumni- 2nd to Indiana
Merch Sales- 9th
Stub Hub tix demand- 7th
TV veiwership , rated over 4 mill views 2021-2024, 6th
Facilities, NIL, and coaching salaries ( IIRC last season composite staff was #1) are all in place. Fans are fired up after JF himself said best players, best staff in 12 yrs LTFI. Any top ten position is going to be rabid for big time wins. This is a big stage. Best bring your big boy pants.
Oregon has next to zero tradition, a stadium capacity of 50k, and really no viewerships outside of some casuals in the PNW. Unlimited money? Sure. But that fanbase is one of the weaker in college sports, especially vs a PSU.
USC? Their fan attendance is embarrassing. If you take out the Carrol years, USC was only relevant in the 60s and 70s. They're just another college team in a pro sports town. SoCal has good recruiting grounds but everyone knows you can't build a program's trenches on the west coast. They have BIG donors and that's about it.
With the rumored salary Kraft is throwing around, let's allow him to cook a bit. There's no reason to panic nor think we're going to get some sort of scrub. He's either going to get someone that's playing into December or he's going to snag a young up and comer that's going to jolt some life into the program. This won't be over until December IMO.
I think the only way to get the hype and winning back is with a home run hire of someone who is or has been successful. If the hype(close to winning NC) and winning comes back, the money will flow in to cover the costs of new stadium and salaries. If the money doesn't flow, the wheels will come off
How Attractive Is the Penn State Head Coaching Job?
A heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Oregon in the White Out game, followed by inexplicable defeats to a winless UCLA squad and a Northwestern team
With Kraft as your boss, not very.
You’ll know you’ll be coming in with unrealistic expectations, spoiled, fair weather fans, and a two or three year leash tops. BUT…..you can probably sign a huge buyout, steal a LOT of their money over that period of time while you look for a better job, and have your wife and kids live somewhere warm where they won’t be devastated when you either move on, or more likely, get fired after only winning 70% of your games.
Pay me enough money and give me a high enough buyout???? I’m in like O’Brien until I can find something better or get fired. Otherwise, no thanks (unless I’m Matt Rhule, Terry Smith, or maybe, knowing Pegula has your back, Joe Brady).
ESPN Has the PSU job as the most attractive opening so far - University support and recruiting area that stretches far South with no other traditional powers near by. It is ESPN though.
That says a lot since they’re pro-SEC and anti-PSU. I think so far we have the number one slot follow closely by Florida. If LSU comes into the mix, I would say that’s a better landing spot. Florida State is certainly in the conversation if they make a move.
Why is competing for national championships an unrealistic expectation for our program?
Franklin got 12 years, including all those losses to OSU, so I don’t know where this “two or three year leash” comes from. Yeah, it got ugly at the end, but I think PSU fans and administration showed a lot of patience.
Yeah it's not like 100,000 plus people show up to home games or we have the greatest sports spectacle on earth or a blue blood tradition to realistically expect to beat a team with a pulse once in a while....oh wait.
Do you have any facts to base your assertion on that we will be Nebraska? Just like Texas A&M is this year or Georgia has been or LSU? Let's plan to fail, we're doomed!
There are zero big time college football programs who will spend what PSU is (and has been) spending and say 10 wins a season and a nice bowl is the ceiling and expectation. Curious to me are the supposed fans of Penn State who are sh*tting on the things that make it great (support, fans, tradition, facilities, etc.) in a desperate effort to be right about Franklin. I get 12 years of 'next year!' is a tough, jagged pill to swallow, but have some dignity. Hilarious.
Do you know the difference between a fact and an opinion?
You want to make a bet we don’t win a MNC In the next decade? I'll take that bet all day long.
In terms of FACTS, the odds are stacked against PSU to do so, but you can pretend they aren't. Do you think the odds are in favor of PSU to do this? The odds are probably better PSU doesn't win a MNC and probably a bit greater it takes a step back. Maybe they hold server with 3-4 10 win seasons in the next 5 years too. LSU was down for decades. Neb, OU, ND, PSU, Tenn, A&M, Oregon, UW, UF,......etc. all haven't won titles a decade if not a few decades.
Nobody is planning to fail but this notion PSU is just a coach away from a MNC is a joke. The playing field is now leveled with pay for play. Hell PSU cannot even get IU's coach which wasn't concurring just 10 years ago more than likely. The B1G has 3-4 programs that are just as big as PSU and put out just as much money.....more in some cases. Sorry my post hurt your wittle feelings, but maybe they hit a homerun hire this time and I eat my words....but I'm not counting on it. I've seen larger clubs, programs, and teams in various sports go way longer without a title, but you do you.
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So I'm in Middletown, OH a few years ago, taking our daughter back to school (Miami U.). What an odd town, racked by unemployment and opoid use. Just sad. Anyhow, I had to go to the Walmart for something. I walk in and the place is downright scary -- empty shelves, carts everywhere, not an employee in sight and odd looking people walking around the store. I mosey around and come to the clothes. There I find the most extensive collection of immaculately presented Ohio State merchandise I have ever seen. Every rack, every shelf, every hat perfectly merchandised as if I'm at a men's boutique on Saville Row. To me, that's Ohio and Walmart.
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I was really hoping to see another Natty in my lifetime (class of '72, you can do the math). Not deserving, not demanding, just hoping.
Would Franklim have gotten us there? I don't know and neither do you.
What I do know is that if you are already building on a program that's been winning you are a lot closer than if you are rebuilding- especially if you haven't hired one of the two or three top coaches in the game.
So I will wish the new guy success, but not with much hope.
Would Franklim have gotten us there? I don't know and neither do you.
What I do know is that if you are already building on a program that's been winning you are a lot closer than if you are rebuilding- especially if you haven't hired one of the two or three top coaches in the game.
So I will wish the new guy success, but not with much hope.
Go cheer for ND you're not a fan. You are a passive aggressive Franklin jock sniffer. Plan to fail great strategy. And yes I think we can and will win a NC in the next 10 years. You are afraid of your own shadow, must be difficult going through life like that.
No he didn’t. Kraft gave him 3 and a half years after he was hired. Franklin was 34-8 in Kraft’s first three years and got within a bad play call/throw of playing for the National Championship last year. A game he could have conceivably won knowing how hard it is to beat a good team twice in the same year.
Even if you throw in this year’s 3-3 record, Franklin still ended up with a 77% winning percentage In his time at Penn State.
Franklin had ONE losing season in his 11 1/2 years and that was the COVID year. He would have made the Playoffs in 7 of his first 11 years under its current configuration, and once you’re in the Playoffs, anything could have happened.
Think about that for a second. Franklin would have had us IN the Playoffs NO LESS than SEVEN TIMES since he was hired in 2014. The ONLY years we would have missed them would have been his first two years when he was rebuilding the Program, and the two years we were dealing with the Covid pandemic and its aftermath. We would have already been IN the Playoffs in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
In short, Kraft was bat **** brain dead to fire Franklin so quick. His post firing presser didn’t help matters. If you don’t think other coaches look at Kraft and think he’s a raving, illogical maniac, especially since he will be following them around on the sideline in every game micromanaging their every move, you’re crazy.
Pay me a LOT MORE of your hard earned money than anyone else is offering with a gargantuan enough buyout, fine. But I’m certainly not going to make any long range plans wrt Penn State and it’s irrational fan base and AD.
Ohio is a terrible place filled with uneducated, drug addicted OH State fans. Worst state ever. I read where cheater Tressle is the Lt Governor now? SMH...
LOL, so you cannot handle what I said and you're an emotional little girl and your post proves it....I get it. I clearly said Franklin had to go after he tanked those 3 games and basically this whole season away. He had all the expectations and he failed...no way around it. This was his make or break year and he choked it away, but this notion it's plug and play at PSU isn't the reality some think it is.
Urban was talking about the opening right after Franklin was fired and mentioned that the new job comes with one of the most patient administrations in the country.
You forgot education, getting their degrees. What MADE us great was that Joe always emphasized the importance of getting your degree. Franklin carried that torch on pretty good in that his graduation rates were excellent while he was here.
Kraft’s presser subliminally screamed that’s now all out the door. It’s now all about money and winning at all costs. I even got a weird vibe that he was willing to bend corners wrt the rules.
Sorry, but buying a “Championship“ doesn’t get my juices flowing if the majority of these kids end up pumping gas the rest of their lives. A good mix of academic and athletic discipline will get these kids a LOT further than the transfer portal, NIL, and a $100,000 paycheck. Hopefully, the next Coach takes that into consideration when he looks over his shoulder during a game, and sees Kraft breathing down his neck.