Will we hear from Kraft today?

[northwoods]

And if he had a coach but he had to wait for an announcement until after the championship games wouldn't that information be important to share with recruits. I guess they would leak it but I have a hard time believing we have some great coach but we can't announce it until after the championship games.
And if the BYU guy was his top target I think that was nuts. He's an alum of BYU and a West Coast guy and obviously all these schools have big donors that are willing to step up.
I think we should have went after Chesney. His ceiling is high.

He has been my favorite for quite some time. Someone mentioned that his interview with Kraft wasn't that great, but that could be hearsay.

 

[BocaBob]

Hiring Terry Smith is not a responsible decision, it is a desperate one.

Exactly.

Let's play out the hire Terry camp's dream: Kraft is fired tomorrow in a similar manner to Kiffin's exit from the Raiders - full PowerPoint on all of his shortcomings, etc. - and we announce Terry is taking the job immediately. This doesn't somehow magically let us redo the Signing Day we just botched - maybe a few less kids go into the portal, but most are still going to "test the waters" in the transfer portal no matter who is hired at this stage.

I understand the frustrations of the hire Terry camp, but Terry knows that he wasn't the first choice and offering him this second doesn't change those facts or make him more qualified than the other individuals you identified and preferred.

And, sorry to break it to you, but Terry's not going to be the coach and Kraft is going to stick around for a bit.

Ask yourself, not with blue and white tinted glasses, how can the administration/Athletic Department say everything went fine in the search and sell whoever is now hired (because it's going to be a tough sell after being denied and mocked for the rejection). There is no way Kraft can make a justified explanation for why Terry was only hired now if he's the "guy" to lead us to championships - he should have known that before Signing Day. If the Admin fires Kraft then it's just telling every coach that the entire program is in disarray and causes the headache of trying to attract the coach to a situation where the AD is still in limbo and would (likely) want to hire his guy.

NFL coaches will get fired and some may be open to the possibility of coaching in college.

Maybe, given the stage we've reached, new candidates like Schumann and Haines can be given a look and maybe they impress more than anticipated in the interview.

It sucks now getting punked on by the #SoakSquad - it'd suck even more to let the wrong guy lead the program deeper down into the quagmire (really hard to sell to recruits Terry is our guy and will be here for years when they know we only offered him after X, Y, and Z) instead of getting a new foundation in place for the new era.

 

[WVilleLion23]

Because of the massive damage Krafty The Incompetent Clown has done - Smith is in the best position to limit further damage, triage the situation and start turning the tanker so we can have a 2026 season that is something other than an unmitigated disaster. If you don't understand this, your ignorance and lack of cognitive power really doesn't bother me in the least - that's your problem and a problem you will continue to have to live with.

Yawn. Lol. You are such a clown, like Crafty Krafty.

Your ignorance and lack of cognitive power that promoting Smith to HC at this point is still an unmitigated disaster is your problem and your problem to continue to live with.

 

[BuckIdoc]

I am frustrated with your program and I don’t understand the information from your insiders. I am NOT a Penn state insider — I know some things about OSU’s program — and even I knew some of this stuff was false.

Your signing class shouldn’t hurt 2026 much — very few freshmen get meaningful time — but 2027 and onward will be hurt. I have considerable knowledge of the portal, and it is best used to plug a few holes. It is very challenging for a coach to completely rebuild through the portal, because most of the best players want to go to a program that has a good chance of success AND get paid - the money isn’t the only factor. These players still want to get to the NFL, and it is much harder to get noticed on a team that is doing poorly (I.e. how do you succeed at running back if the line is terrible? How much attention do you get if you are the only OL who is not missing his block but your QB is constantly getting sacked?) Some coaches can bring a ton of players with them, but most successful programs will hold on to most of their players because the players trust the program.

Your AD needs to be talking to and reassuring your current players so they are not committing mentally to leaving now. I doubt he is doing this because he clearly didn’t contact and reassure your incoming recruits. Without a coach in place, that is his job.

Your team will be decent next year if you can keep it intact, but the negative rumors surrounding your program are not helping. Your current roster is definitely being examined by other teams right now. Time is of the essence and the AD needs to have open communication with the team — frustration from current players is becoming evident, and even if you get a great hire, once a player mentally loses confidence in a program it is hard to get it back.

 

[BocaBob]

I am frustrated with your program and I don’t understand the information from your insiders. I am NOT a Penn state insider — I know some things about OSU’s program — and even I knew some of this stuff was false.

Your signing class shouldn’t hurt 2026 much — very few freshmen get meaningful time — but 2027 and onward will be hurt. I have considerable knowledge of the portal, and it is best used to plug a few holes. It is very challenging for a coach to completely rebuild through the portal, because most of the best players want to go to a program that has a good chance of success AND get paid - the money isn’t the only factor. These players still want to get to the NFL, and it is much harder to get noticed on a team that is doing poorly (I.e. how do you succeed at running back if the line is terrible? How much attention do you get if you are the only OL who is not missing his block but your QB is constantly getting sacked?) Some coaches can bring a ton of players with them, but most successful programs will hold on to most of their players because the players trust the program.

Your AD needs to be talking to and reassuring your current players so they are not committing mentally to leaving now. I doubt he is doing this because he clearly didn’t contact and reassure your incoming recruits. Without a coach in place, that is his job.

Your team will be decent next year if you can keep it intact, but the negative rumors surrounding your program are not helping. Your current roster is definitely being examined by other teams right now. Time is of the essence and the AD needs to have open communication with the team — frustration from current players is becoming evident, and even if you get a great hire, once a player mentally loses confidence in a program it is hard to get it back.

The transfer portal opens on January 2nd.

When Franklin was fired Terry kept the staff in place - the unfortunate position of either getting rid of coaches mid-season and not providing your current players the right resources or allowing guys you know will eventually be part of another staff to whisper sweet nothings to every back-up, guy complaining about his NIL funds, or recruit on your campus for the past 50 days - players that initially committed to Franklin are going to enter the portal after their position coaches make the move and remind them that there's no harm in entering and seeing what VaTech offers at least.

It'll be interesting to see if any of the BYU recruits ever admit that they were told to hold off on signing (can't imagine it'd make them the most popular guys at a time when vibes are good in Provo).

The expectation for next year is large roster turnover. It's a feature, not a bug. The selling point is whatever coach we hire has the ability to target players that fit their scheme instead of being handcuffed to players another coach recruited (nothing stops them from re-recruiting PSU guys in the portal if there's alignment).

You can point to our roster and say we'll be decent next year if we keep it intact - but we started the year thinking this roster was championship caliber, it clearly wasn't based on the results on the field. Now what happens when you subtract the numerous contributing seniors from the roster that produced those disappointing results?

People realize that Franklin needed to go and that the proper culture was not present in the locker room at the end of his tenure. Y'all need to re-watch the UCLA and Northwestern games - the guys Franklin recruited and sold as world beaters quit on him before week 6. This was always going to be a teardown with significant roster/staff changes.