Are we hiring a boy scout leader or a head coach? Damn straight Urban is a good idea.
Franklin is Out as Head Coach
- Thread starter Midnighter
- Start date
I think there was a time when Urban wanted to coach at PSU, though short-lived. The University's treatment of JVP put an end to that.
You know, the more I think about it, you are right. Dumb idea on my part and makes absolutely no sense.
I agree. They need an innovative young coach. Either a hot coach in G5 or innovative P4 OC. Established recruiting pipelines he can use at PSU would be great too.
@Midnighter and others:
Things got a little wonky on the board, as least on the Admin end, for a bit today. However, I'm not sure if it was actually with On3, or with my computer. The end result was that this thread got accidentally merged with the Post-NW bitching thread. If caught right away, I can unmerge, but I didn't realize it for some time, so I ended up having to go to through a lot of work to pull the appropriate posts out of the bitching thread and recreate this thread.
My apologies to anybody that wondered where this thread went for an hour or two, or what was going on while I was recreating this thread.
Things got a little wonky on the board, as least on the Admin end, for a bit today. However, I'm not sure if it was actually with On3, or with my computer. The end result was that this thread got accidentally merged with the Post-NW bitching thread. If caught right away, I can unmerge, but I didn't realize it for some time, so I ended up having to go to through a lot of work to pull the appropriate posts out of the bitching thread and recreate this thread.
My apologies to anybody that wondered where this thread went for an hour or two, or what was going on while I was recreating this thread.
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Wasn't there some kind of rumor that Urban had agreed to take over for Joe. Once the BOT blew up Joe and the whole Sandusky issue Urban said no thanks
Regardless, I’d hope that Kraft had been building a plan and that this wasn’t a reactive, emotional decision.
If he had a plan, then chances are the next coach has been contacted and expressed interest.
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After last week may have been emotional but this was deserved.
They may not have contacted anyone yet. It's highly likely this will be a large(r) search
I believe that was more than rumor. Phil G was adamant that Urbs had agreed to come on.
He had a look of detachment during the UCLA game. Joe had that same look in the early 2000s.
I think we need a fixer for a number of years, THEN a young coach - preferably proven as great from PSU's own staff.
Someone has to clean this mess up and 30-something y/o coaches have likely never even cleaned a trash can. Or a gutter. Or a grease trap. Also it's an unfair burden on them to come in to an empty roster w/ a billion dollar stadium on the horizon.
Remember "success with honor"? Or......"the Grand Experiment". Penn State loved to put itself above most of the major football powers as some sort of sub Ivy where academics are as important as athletics, and student athletes are just that truly student athletes. Let's flash forward until today. Not even going to rehash the Sandusky fiasco....but this is an institution who is shutting down branch campuses, ditching majors, closing the university run radio station yet are spending all this money to upgrade the football stadium, facilities, and now another $50 million to fire a coach, and likely a similar contract to hire a new one not to mention the likely $20-30 million they are paying on the roster. Anyone see a problem of this. I always say, when an alien or future generation starts doing the autopsy on our current times, especially in the US, the biggest confusion will be with the academic world being about truly academics and solving problems or being a defacto pro sports for stupid, retarded rural hillbillies.
Penn State in its pursuit of football excellence has become Alabama without the stupid drawl.
Penn State in its pursuit of football excellence has become Alabama without the stupid drawl.
I had personal knowledge of this possible scenario. My daughter’s best friend (daughter of a NFL assistant coach) worked in the UF football office at the time and told me so. He had checked out the situation at Penn State regarding the recruiting class, facilities, etc. when he came to broadcast a game before JoePa was fired. After the firing and looming sanctions he exited the picture for the greener pastures at OSU.
Better than decent chance to beat Rutgers. Last time Rutgers had a chance to beat a weak Penn State team was over ten years ago, and they blew it. Schiano knows how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
But urban meyer loves fickell.
I think the only jobs he would take would be ND or Bama, and it looks like Bama won't be open. There is also his health issues. I believe he is enjoying the TV gig, no pressure. I would be absolutely shocked if he ends up @ PSU.
Blah blah blah. The university is a fraction of its size without the football program. The football program has been semipro since ‘80s.
Interesting but his team is currently ranked for CFP slot. He seems to have turned that program around and might not want to leave. If his team does make the CFP then you can be sure A&M will increase his pay; probably to a point PSU won't be able to match.
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Maybe accept 9-3 and 8-4 years without the big spend , settle for 85k attending, settle for your coach to not break a 3-4 million dollar barrier in salary. nothing wrong with all of that except it will vastly hurt [ego bruise] the water cooler pride population that never had skin in the game in the first place
Exactly the football team pays for all the the other sports teams at PSU. Like it or not it is what it is ... Feed the beast or get left behind
EMERGENCY COLUMN: It Was Time (maybe past time) for James Franklin to go. It Remains to be Seen if his Replacement can do Better.
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So many choices ... Coaches at GT, Tulane, aTm etc etc etc ... In about a week I am going to be really looking forward to see who the new coach will be albeit it may not be announced until after the season
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Before deleting my post (again) HCJF should have been given more time to break thru like UMICH & tOSU did. When Corn canned Frank Solitch look @ how long it took Corn to recover from that. They are about middle of the pack right now. You just discouraged any great coach from coaching @ Beaver Stadium because of the brotherhood in the coaching profession. Your only chance is to find a great HC that was a fellow Lion. Disagree with me all you want to I'm only stating facts.
I doubt it happens but AK offensive schemes were built upon the RPO. I would love to see Coach Terry throw caution to the wind and put Jaxon in at QB and tell AK to crank up his offense. Then we find out if JF was the issue or AK was the issue
The grand experiment was actually expecting student athletes to be students at a time where many places didn’t care or only paid lip service to that. Penn St did emphasize that more than others.
Universities closing branch campuses or ditching some majors is not necessarily a bad thing. There’s economics involved in dealing with academic bloat and reassessing resources over the years.
University restructuring is not linked to athletics. PSU has no cross over of athletic and academic budgets which is how it should be. Many others use academic funds to subsidize athletic issues and I agree that’s a mistake, but it’s not new.
I agree some places do have priorities out of order but that’s true with any group in society. The amount of money involved in some college sports is ridiculous and hurting the sports in the long run but that’s a different argument for another day.
Universities closing branch campuses or ditching some majors is not necessarily a bad thing. There’s economics involved in dealing with academic bloat and reassessing resources over the years.
University restructuring is not linked to athletics. PSU has no cross over of athletic and academic budgets which is how it should be. Many others use academic funds to subsidize athletic issues and I agree that’s a mistake, but it’s not new.
I agree some places do have priorities out of order but that’s true with any group in society. The amount of money involved in some college sports is ridiculous and hurting the sports in the long run but that’s a different argument for another day.
How much more time did you want for JF? His record against top ranked teams was horrific
I agree completely that college sports has become ridiculous. I'd say one good start is stop making these guys be students and pay them what they're worth as athletes. Just have some kind of sports on the side and let the school be the school. And if the players decided to attend school too then treat them like any other student.
I agree completely that shutting down branch campuses is bad, but getting rid of majors and shutting down the student radio station strikes me as a good thing (depending on what the majors are). Universities have become bloated and suffer from mission creep and they do way more stuff than they ought to. PSU ought to get rid of about 75% of the administrators too.
Universities are supposed to serve the public, which is why getting rid of branch campuses particularly galls me. I think there should be more and more branch campuses and the main campus (be it at PSU or some other state flagship school) should be smaller. It's 2025 and information is easily cheaply and easily transmitted and people shouldn't have to move to a main campus to get an education.
As far as college sports being de facto pro sport for stupid, retarded rural hillbillies, the stupid, retarded rural hillbillies aren't the ones making the decisions on increasing the size of college sports nor are they funding it. College sports becoming de facto pro sports is because of the people running the universities and the big companies and big donors funding them.
If you think PSU would finish 9-3 paying a HC $3 million I have some beautiful swampland in the Everglades here for you to buy cheap ...
Yeah, a lot to unpack there. The money kept growing and spoiled a huge part of what made college football special in the process. I’m not opposed to players getting paid, but only because the $ is so much now that only a degree doesn’t seem on par with how much everyone else is making.
As for education, higher learning is under attack these days. I won’t get political here, but the narrative being pushed by a growing faction of our public leaders and elected officials doesn’t place the pursuit of knowledge in high esteem.
In the end, the games in Happy Valley are a weekly means to tune into nostalgia. I know it’ll never be the same, but I still love those plain blue & white uni’s.
As for education, higher learning is under attack these days. I won’t get political here, but the narrative being pushed by a growing faction of our public leaders and elected officials doesn’t place the pursuit of knowledge in high esteem.
In the end, the games in Happy Valley are a weekly means to tune into nostalgia. I know it’ll never be the same, but I still love those plain blue & white uni’s.
Elko is ann interesting choice, forgot that he was an East Coast guy. I think maybe more importantly is that he’s at an Adidas school. I’m hearing from a few people that Adidas made a phone call to craft yesterday after the game. They don’t necessarily want their future investment turning into a loss and they’re willing to help with some of this buyout to get the right guy in.
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Given the hiring of Cael Sanderson away from his Alma Mater (who was a top 3 team at time), this could be interesting imho. Football and wrestling are the two sports that have mattered most in Pennsy - again, could be interesting....
Respectfully, he was given well over a decade to get the job done. Just about every request he had was granted- his salary increases, assistant salary increases, NIL, facility upgrades, stadium reno currently underway. PSU gave him far longer than he would have received at any other major program, much less any SEC team. Coaches know that.
Franklin’s reputation in big games was under water nationally which started to affect fundraising and recruiting as he was roundly criticized by ESPN and other national media. This wasn’t out of the blue and coaches nationally know this.
First off, cut the moderators a little slack. This board was unusually crazy over the past 24 hours. If the moderators deleted your post, they did so with the best intentions.
Second, I'm merging this post into the Franklin is Out as HC thread. So it's not going away -- just being moved to a different location.
That's 1 for 4 on facts, so you're not 'only' stating facts.
Secondly, how much more time did you want? If he didn't get it done this year, it wasn't going to happen. And if you couldn't see that he's a terrible in-game coach and has been that way for virtually his entire PSU career, then you might want to look a bit closer.
That is the best outcome one could see with worse outcomes as well no one said year in and year out