Please stop the ********. Franklin is no longer the head coach. Penn State had an 11 point second half lead against Iowa and blew it. There is lots of valid criticism to be leveled against Franklin including the quality of his recruits, but he recruited more talent than the players on Iowa, Michigan State, Nebraska and Rutgers. If Penn State loses to MSU, Nebraska or Rutgers that will be squarely on the present coaches and the players on the team.
Had season tickets from 1978 until 3 years ago. Have no interest in going to another game and watching the juvenile fan clown show.
The marketing end of the game experience is also terrible. Music too loud, not enough from the Blue Band, "make some noise!" over and over again, the Ozzy "All aboard" - it's all too much and at the same time stale.
A rare serious response from you, Bob!
I don't see how Franklin could have continued with the constant Fire Franklin chants and people throwing stuff. He go so concerned about safety he didn't want his daughters walking with him anymore. Also, I am thinking there were more underlying issues we are not hearing about. Word on the street, and many here, have alluded to infighting over NIL. I wonder what old heads still have their paws in the collective?
Terry was his assistant Head Coach. The losses are on him regardless, second only to James.
Well a good head coach should "meddle" with the coordinators if their play calling is not up to par.
Exactly.
It's as if his porky self was trying to cover 60-80 yard TD's the other day. No chance.
This. I remember back in the day watching the Dallas Cowboys, not that I liked the team, but sometimes they were the only team on or they were playing a team I liked. Their offense had this way of coming up to the line, as a unit, and getting into their stance all together, almost like they were choreographed. It was impressive, and it had to be a bit intimidating to the defense (facing a quite cohesive unit). Of course, if you want to go further back, coaches like Tom Landry wore suits and ties on the sideline (remember his hat?). I remember an old coach who rolled up his pants (sometimes with whales on them) and led his team onto the field with a tie on. These guys set good examples. Today, it seems "anything goes" and no rules. The hair dangling down so that you can't even read the player's name on the jersey gets me. Football used to set a relatively good example. Not anymore. I will say that what I watched of Indiana's game the other day, they looked quite clean-cut and sharp for the most part. Then again, they have an older coach who is quite likely more of a true coach and disciplinarian.
I love how so many message board posters with no real connection to the team at all know exactly what is wrong with the team.
Franklin became a cancer to the team and community. The only reason he wasn't fired after UCLA was because of the new transfer rules that started on October 7th.
Terry was given an opportunity to showcase his skills for other positions. So far he's failing miserably.
When does everything stop being Franklin’s fault? 2026? 2027? Never? As I said, I get the firing and he can be blamed for many things but losing games when he is not coaching is not one of them. And yes he can and was blamed for losses to less talented teams (although my recollection is his loss to Pitt was during his first year when Penn State did not have more talent than Pitt due to the sanctions. Is Terry Smith immune from criticism for the team blowing an 11 point second half lead to Iowa? Especially after he proclaimed the team was going to shock the world before the game.
Lousy play calling when Franklin was head coach and allegedly it’s his fault for meddling with the play calling. Same lousy play calling after he is fired and it’s his fault for not meddling when he was coach. You can’t make this stuff up folks.
Franklin defenders are still blaming the Sandusky scandal for his shortcomings
Maybe so but at least I ain’t one of those soiled fans attacking Franklin and making bleeps out of themselves because they “deserve better” right Kraft?
I talk to people connected w/ the team. For the most part their reaction to this collapse has been no different than reactions expressed on this message board.
You just want it to all go away, right? This season will always be Franklin's fault.
Franklin was a highly paid employee that didn't meet expectations. Criticism and chants of "Fire Franklin" are part of it. Attacking his family should be off limits but he set the expectations this preseason not the fans.
Maybe just me, but I think the problems lie more in the weekly practice and preparation than the "game day experience". The game day performances themselves have been so bad that if they played Muskrat Love, no one should dare critique it when compared to what is happening on the field and in the press box.It was flat for a long time. I remember when the Beav was labeled as the quietest 80,000 people you’d see.
State College isn’t exactly known for innovative thinking or cutting edge. It’s pretty much ‘this is how we’ve always done it’ thinking.
Over time they got Guido who, like or hate him, finally put some life into the game day experience. Then they got rid of him and everything was frozen- same songs, same experience. The only change was they made the speaker volume louder.
When you see how things are done at other schools you see how far behind PsU is in many ways in terms of gameday. The PSU crowd is now geared to get into it but no one is maximizing the potential. It’s just frozen at the moment.
So now we're mad he didn't meddle, after years of posts about being mad that he did meddle (despite many of us correctly saying that he didn't)? Love the board sometimes, unhappy no matter what.
Given how many times we've heard about changes from the head coach only to see those changes not happen, I'm wondering if the coordinators just aren't following orders from Franklin or Smith because they don't agree for whatever reason. At any other time they'd be fired for the insubordination, but Smith isn't likely to do so since they will be replaced at the end of the year anyway.
