Info From Big Maryland Supporters On Franklin!

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

I was invited to the Pirate Game yesterday and had several conversations with Maryland, Penn State, and Notre Dame Big Contributors and they addressed some information on questions I asked of them. I really hate going to Baseball Games, so I never watch the game, and just talk to people until it is over. It was children day and although I wish the Pirates to be successful, I just gave up on Baseball Years Ago, and I had to attend this game for Business purposes! We had a special place under Score Board with some catering and it was a great day to see the game. The only part I watched was when the Pirates tied and took the lead in the 7th!

Maryland Fan:
The Maryland Contributor made his presence known with his Hat and Jerseys. I talked to him and asked him how Maryland will do against Penn State this year? He responded, Randy Edsall is a good coach but UMD really has had big problems with coaching the last 5 to 7 years, but should beat Penn State at home this year. He made a degrading remark on Penn State in the process, saying he had a terrible time at Penn State last year, the way fans yelled at him before, during, and after the game. He said, he expects Banter but they start crossing lines as they start losing, and then just trash Maryland bringing up how much better they are than Maryland, and just shook his head, they are awful people towards other fans!

I asked him, how much he knows about the Maryland Program and he bragged about how much he gives and is in the inner circle of Big Contributors. So, I took the opportunity to ask more questions. I asked, why did Maryland leave the ACC? He said it was about the money and it is way more money than anything they could get from the North Carolina ACC! He went to say, I know Pitt just joined the ACC but you will find out that the North Carolina Schools are a big problem and run the conference to their advantage and he is glad to be out it.

I then asked about why Franklin was promised the Head Coaching job at Maryland but moved on to Vanderbilt instead of waiting another 2 years? Boy, did he rip on Franklin to my surprise. He said I know Franklin and know him well, he is just a salesman not a doer. He said, look at what he did at Vanderbilt and how he left Vanderbilt? I said, well he recruited very good and won games there did he not? He said, he had more players from the previous coach and the players he recruited actually caused problem for the school and now has them in the dumps. I said, well he recruited a Top 15 Class at Penn State and in spite of what you told me, I think Franklin's staff is pretty good as far as coaching is concern. He responded, just wait and see, he won't be able to beat the better Teams in the Big Ten will pad his schedule with light weights and leave within a few years, and just is not good Game Day Coach. I told him, everybody I meet tells me how great guy Franklin is and he just said, look I have to leave, but just wait and see and like I said, he is a Salesman but he won't deliver the goods they will expect at Penn States, trust me, I know that guy and good luck in the ACC with UNC because they cheat!

Notre Dame Fan:
I then had a discussion with a Notre Dame Fan that lives in Pittsburgh and has ND Season Tickets. He said he loves Kelly but ND is still more concern about graduating its Players at 100% and that CFB is more concern in making the Players a Farm System for the NFL and he expects fewer players will even stay at schools after 2 to 3 years. He brought up that he is glad Golson left and his head just got too big for the Program and glad he is gone. He said, he always come to PITT-ND games and Pitt fans are some of best he ever met even if ND loses the game. He is looking forward to this year and he thinks Pitt hit a home run with Coach Narduzzi! I asked him what he thought about the Penn State Scandal and he said, Paterno was an ego manic and covered up many things at Penn State and disagreed with me when I said, I thought he was a good coach? He said, they won against lightweights and one can see once they played a Big Ten Schedule they have not won as often. I said, well they just added ND to their schedule and he was amazed to hear it, and said that is one game I will not attend at Penn State the fans are horrible! His Facial Expressions were just like the Maryland fan contributor showing disgust.

Penn State Fan:
Finally , talked to a PSU Fan and he was not excited about all the changes at Penn State and admitted they made big mistakes under Paterno and said they should have retired or fired Paterno way back in 1999, but no one had the power to do it and everyone was afraid to do it. He was not excited on Franklin and had a wait and see attitude.

I did way more listening and did not give my opinions on what they were saying to avoid any changes in them giving me their private opinions. These were all older guys and I wanted to hear what they thought.

On the Maryland Fan, I disagree with him on Franklin, even if Franklin is just a salesman as he said, I think Franklin has a Very Good Staff and Football Program Resources to win 10+ games at Penn State. I just have heard too many people that are Pitt Fans speak very good remarks about him after meeting him, and recruits are listening too, in my opinion. I think what he said of the ACC and UNC is accurate though but I cannot see Maryland ever winning more games in the Big Ten either. The money may be good but the Program has a long way to go to win more games in the Big Ten than they could in the ACC!

ND Fan and PSU Fan seemed not to agree with my opinion on Franklin becoming a Top Coach in the Big Ten and both feel he will leave for another opportunity even if he does do well at Penn State! I think he will stay if he wins 10+ games more than less, but that is just my opinion. Yet, if Franklin cannot beat OSU, MSU, and Michigan then Penn State may dump him after 5 years! Again, juts an opinion!

College Football is in a midst of so much changes I am starting to grow tired of it too, Just as I have in Baseball and all Pro Sports. It was an exhausting day just to be at the game at 11:30 AM and stay there until 4:00 PM. I got Free Tickets and Meals and still no longer enjoy the games live as I do on TV but on TV I can walk away and do other things.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I was invited to the Pirate Game yesterday and had several conversations with Maryland, Penn State, and Notre Dame Big Contributors and they addressed some information on questions I asked of them. I really hate going to Baseball Games, so I never watch the game, and just talk to people until it is over. It was children day and although I wish the Pirates to be successful, I just gave up on Baseball Years Ago, and I had to attend this game for Business purposes! We had a special place under Score Board with some catering and it was a great day to see the game. The only part I watched was when the Pirates tied and took the lead in the 7th!

Maryland Fan:
The Maryland Contributor made his presence known with his Hat and Jerseys. I talked to him and asked him how Maryland will do against Penn State this year? He responded, Randy Edsall is a good coach but UMD really has had big problems with coaching the last 5 to 7 years, but should beat Penn State at home this year. He made a degrading remark on Penn State in the process, saying he had a terrible time at Penn State last year, the way fans yelled at him before, during, and after the game. He said, he expects Banter but they start crossing lines as they start losing, and then just trash Maryland bringing up how much better they are than Maryland, and just shook his head, they are awful people towards other fans!

I asked him, how much he knows about the Maryland Program and he bragged about how much he gives and is in the inner circle of Big Contributors. So, I took the opportunity to ask more questions. I asked, why did Maryland leave the ACC? He said it was about the money and it is way more money than anything they could get from the North Carolina ACC! He went to say, I know Pitt just joined the ACC but you will find out that the North Carolina Schools are a big problem and run the conference to their advantage and he is glad to be out it.

I then asked about why Franklin was promised the Head Coaching job at Maryland but moved on to Vanderbilt instead of waiting another 2 years? Boy, did he rip on Franklin to my surprise. He said I know Franklin and know him well, he is just a salesman not a doer. He said, look at what he did at Vanderbilt and how he left Vanderbilt? I said, well he recruited very good and won games there did he not? He said, he had more players from the previous coach and the players he recruited actually caused problem for the school and now has them in the dumps. I said, well he recruited a Top 15 Class at Penn State and in spite of what you told me, I think Franklin's staff is pretty good as far as coaching is concern. He responded, just wait and see, he won't be able to beat the better Teams in the Big Ten will pad his schedule with light weights and leave within a few years, and just is not good Game Day Coach. I told him, everybody I meet tells me how great guy Franklin is and he just said, look I have to leave, but just wait and see and like I said, he is a Salesman but he won't deliver the goods they will expect at Penn States, trust me, I know that guy and good luck in the ACC with UNC because they cheat!

Notre Dame Fan:
I then had a discussion with a Notre Dame Fan that lives in Pittsburgh and has ND Season Tickets. He said he loves Kelly but ND is still more concern about graduating its Players at 100% and that CFB is more concern in making the Players a Farm System for the NFL and he expects fewer players will even stay at schools after 2 to 3 years. He brought up that he is glad Golson left and his head just got too big for the Program and glad he is gone. He said, he always come to PITT-ND games and Pitt fans are some of best he ever met even if ND loses the game. He is looking forward to this year and he thinks Pitt hit a home run with Coach Narduzzi! I asked him what he thought about the Penn State Scandal and he said, Paterno was an ego manic and covered up many things at Penn State and disagreed with me when I said, I thought he was a good coach? He said, they won against lightweights and one can see once they played a Big Ten Schedule they have not won as often. I said, well they just added ND to their schedule and he was amazed to hear it, and said that is one game I will not attend at Penn State the fans are horrible! His Facial Expressions were just like the Maryland fan contributor showing disgust.

Penn State Fan:
Finally , talked to a PSU Fan and he was not excited about all the changes at Penn State and admitted they made big mistakes under Paterno and said they should have retired or fired Paterno way back in 1999, but no one had the power to do it and everyone was afraid to do it. He was not excited on Franklin and had a wait and see attitude.

I did way more listening and did not give my opinions on what they were saying to avoid any changes in them giving me their private opinions. These were all older guys and I wanted to hear what they thought.

On the Maryland Fan, I disagree with him on Franklin, even if Franklin is just a salesman as he said, I think Franklin has a Very Good Staff and Football Program Resources to win 10+ games at Penn State. I just have heard too many people that are Pitt Fans speak very good remarks about him after meeting him, and recruits are listening too, in my opinion. I think what he said of the ACC and UNC is accurate though but I cannot see Maryland ever winning more games in the Big Ten either. The money may be good but the Program has a long way to go to win more games in the Big Ten than they could in the ACC!

ND Fan and PSU Fan seemed not to agree with my opinion on Franklin becoming a Top Coach in the Big Ten and both feel he will leave for another opportunity even if he does do well at Penn State! I think he will stay if he wins 10+ games more than less, but that is just my opinion. Yet, if Franklin cannot beat OSU, MSU, and Michigan then Penn State may dump him after 5 years! Again, juts an opinion!

College Football is in a midst of so much changes I am starting to grow tired of it too, Just as I have in Baseball and all Pro Sports. It was an exhausting day just to be at the game at 11:30 AM and stay there until 4:00 PM. I got Free Tickets and Meals and still no longer enjoy the games live as I do on TV but on TV I can walk away and do other things.

Yea, the thing about Franklin is his his recruiting will assure 8 eventually wins per year against a weak conference and week OOC schedule. The only games he could lose are games against OSU, Michigan, MSU, and maybe a good West division team.........and some of those games will be at home. He may lose to Maryland and Illinois now but he's recruiting too well for that to continue. You can't continue to have Top 10-15 classes and lose to teams like that so they'll pretty much only have a 4 game season with 2 being at home.

 

[duffycob16]

I am sure that Maryland guy is very credible, especially when he says Maryland will beat Penn State this year. Maryland lost the majority of their team and are predicted O/U to have 4.5 wins this year. Sounds like a lot of sour grapes and wishful thinking. As for how he was treated at games, I've seen more people comment on how well they were treated at Beaver stadium than how poorly. They badmouthing happens at every stadium across the country and probably comes from 18-22 year olds.

The good news about Franklin's "game day coaching" which seems to be the running theme for rivals is everyone will find out soon enough. If he can't coach, he will be replaced by another top dollar coach. I'm willing to bet anyone that he can. Make fun of Vandy's schedule all you want and who they beat, then go back and tell me who they beat the 80 years prior.....no one. Franklin took that team to levels Vandy fans haven't seen. Go look at their Scout board, there are threads monthly about Franklin and how they wished he would have stayed. The other good news is fans have already started to rally about the "ya but he schedules cupcakes" when he is successful.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

If he can't coach, he will be replaced by another top dollar coach. I'm willing to bet anyone that he can. Make fun of Vandy's schedule all you want and who they beat, then go back and tell me who they beat the 80 years prior.....no one.

So, you're endorsement of Franklin's coaching is: "He beat more creampuffs at Vanderbilt than the utterly lousy coaches that coached there previously." Nobody knows if Franklin can coach. He might be a good coach, he might not be but what he did at Vanderbilt against below .500 teams doesn't say anything.

 

[chethejet]

Recruiting talent trumps coaching in college football. It remains to be seen just how good a recruiter he is. The idea of bringing back the mighty nits is folly. By every measure the program hasn't been nothing more than slightly above average for 20 years. One outright Big Ten title is not exactly great. Losing records against like and kind programs and of course the quest for being a NC contender with playing no one the next number of years OCC schedule. But the record will be padded with wins that make them feel good, but mean nothing relative to the conference. Franklin can bring in enough talent to beat teams that they should beat. The question is can he win against the like and kind programs that will establish his credentials. I don't think so.

 

[9nationalchampionships]

Love the Ped Staters that hang on our board and defend their football program. Let me know when Ped St beats a good team…….yawn

 

[Jeffburgh]

I agree that there just is something that is missing with Franklin. His offense is just flat bad. Maybe when/if they can get a real dual threat guy it will work better. And, he has displayed a tendency so shat his pants on game day.

As noted, he is going to win 8-9 games, that is what they are set up to to do - easy schedule, beat the teams they should beat, get those 8-9 wins and feel superior to everyone else. However, I do get the sense from the fan base that they are tentative with him. Waiting to see. Things felt super special with JoPa, and he did get big bowl wins and NCs, so he could get by with those 8-9 win seasons and everyone feeling special.

BUT, two things - first, they have gouged the ever loving snot of their fans with ticket prices and that was hitting a critical mass even before the sandusky scandal broke, so that has changed things a bit. And, Franklin is not JoPa. At some point he has to WIN something. A B10 title at the very least. He goes a few seasons getting those 8-9 wins, but can't beat the big dogs or win the B10 or get a big bowl win with a top 10 finish, and the fans will get a lot more restless with him than they did with JoPa.

 

[duffycob16]

Love the Ped Staters that hang on our board and defend their football program. Let me know when Ped St beats a good team…….yawn

I enjoy banter between teams. I think it's pathetic when posts get deleted discussing it or people are too soft to hear other sides. I think Franklin's a good coach. I'm sure Urban Meyer would agree after battling him for recruits and getting taken to double OT against him last year with talent stacked in Meyers favor.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I enjoy banter between teams. I think it's pathetic when posts get deleted discussing it or people are too soft to hear other sides. I think Franklin's a good coach. I'm sure Urban Meyer would agree after battling him for recruits and getting taken to double OT against him last year with talent stacked in Meyers favor.

You are entitled to think Franklin is a good coach. I think its a possibility that he is, but beating below .500 SEC teams and 4 OOC creampuffs while at Vandy is not impressive to me. The SEC East was probably the worst its ever been during his tenure.

At Penn State last year, he was favored in 10 of their 13 games, but somehow managed to only win 7. He lost all 3 games against the teams that had better players than him and only won 70% of the time against teams he had better players than. You can talk about what he did at Vandy. Lets talk about what he did at PSU last year. 7-6 was a poor performance, needing OT to beat a terrible BC team that we blew out of the building on the road.

 

[HailtoPitt]

I asked him, how much he knows about the Maryland Program and he bragged about how much he gives and is in the inner circle of Big Contributors. So, I took the opportunity to ask more questions. I asked, why did Maryland leave the ACC? He said it was about the money and it is way more money than anything they could get from the North Carolina ACC! He went to say, I know Pitt just joined the ACC but you will find out that the North Carolina Schools are a big problem and run the conference to their advantage and he is glad to be out it.

You've got to appreciate the irony of Maryland fans criticizing the the ACC for allowing the NC schools too much power, while the Terrapins are in the Big Ten.

 

[PSUPALY]

You are entitled to think Franklin is a good coach. I think its a possibility that he is, but beating below .500 SEC teams and 4 OOC creampuffs while at Vandy is not impressive to me. The SEC East was probably the worst its ever been during his tenure.

At Penn State last year, he was favored in 10 of their 13 games, but somehow managed to only win 7. He lost all 3 games against the teams that had better players than him and only won 70% of the time against teams he had better players than. You can talk about what he did at Vandy. Lets talk about what he did at PSU last year. 7-6 was a poor performance, needing OT to beat a terrible BC team that we blew out of the building on the road.

I hear what you're saying, but if you knew anything about our offense and the defficiencies we had, it's not too shocking we lost those games. We had no OL, top 4 receivers were Soph & 3 Frosh, and avg RBs at best....oh, our special teams were horrendous (outside of S Ficken) due to coverage/return units made up of walk-ons. sure, we could've won those games (Michigan, Maryland, Illinois)...but we didn't. we also could've lost UCF, Rutgers, & BC....but we didn't.

brass tax....we weren't a good team. I feel like some of you guys are saying we should've been. I don't know why. 7-6 season with a bowl victory considering a coaching change, sanction depleted OL, roster mostly comprised of freshmen & sophmores.....PSU fans feel very fortunate how last year turned out. sure, we could've possibly had 9 wins.....we also could've had 3 wins.

yes, you guys handled BC easily (i watched that game). obviously, there were other Pitt games last year that didn't go as expected.

 

[JHud986]

Isn't it ironic that ups'ers are on our board but we are not allow to debate on their board.
I guess it's just the accepted double standard that applies to ups. Child molestation and cover ups are
ok at ups but not anywhere else.
As for ups fans, I do rate them 2 steps above mountain queer fans. But that is not saying much.

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

I agree with you Duffycob16, there is no question he is Big Contributors were many Big Contributors at this gathering and from various Corporate Parties for this Pirate Game next to the group that invited me, but that does not mean they know their Team's future. They are Boosters and will always be that regardless. I can't see UMD beating PSU this year or for years to come and that is wishful thinking.

In addition, I agree that this guy underestimated the good job Franklin did at Vandy and they did try to keep him. As I pointed out, Franklin's Staff in my opinion looks pretty good. I asked if this guy was he upset that franklin did not wait for the Head Coaching job, and he avoided that question, was just too tough on Franklin in general. You are correct in my opinion, Vandy under Franklin did do better and the Maryland Contributor claiming Vandy went back to losing after Franklin says more positives about Franklin.

Finally, I think with the money the Big Ten Schools are getting from the Big Ten is going to rise the level competition within it. Indiana is finally funding all 85 Scholarships every year now. Illinois was improving on recruiting and of course Michigan brought back the Savior and MSU & OSU does not look to lose a step now. Also, adding Notre Dame to the schedule is not a weak Team?

Finally, everyone forgets Franklin had trouble of even having healthy OL last year. This year he will have a better OL. Once PSU gets protection for hack and opens up holes for Barkley & Lynch, and Defense be just as good, I can see PSU winning 9 to 10 Games this year.

We shall see?

I am sure that Maryland guy is very credible, especially when he says Maryland will beat Penn State this year. Maryland lost the majority of their team and are predicted O/U to have 4.5 wins this year. Sounds like a lot of sour grapes and wishful thinking. As for how he was treated at games, I've seen more people comment on how well they were treated at Beaver stadium than how poorly. They badmouthing happens at every stadium across the country and probably comes from 18-22 year olds.

The good news about Franklin's "game day coaching" which seems to be the running theme for rivals is everyone will find out soon enough. If he can't coach, he will be replaced by another top dollar coach. I'm willing to bet anyone that he can. Make fun of Vandy's schedule all you want and who they beat, then go back and tell me who they beat the 80 years prior.....no one. Franklin took that team to levels Vandy fans haven't seen. Go look at their Scout board, there are threads monthly about Franklin and how they wished he would have stayed. The other good news is fans have already started to rally about the "ya but he schedules cupcakes" when he is successful.

I am sure that Maryland guy is very credible, especially when he says Maryland will beat Penn State this year. Maryland lost the majority of their team and are predicted O/U to have 4.5 wins this year. Sounds like a lot of sour grapes and wishful thinking. As for how he was treated at games, I've seen more people comment on how well they were treated at Beaver stadium than how poorly. They badmouthing happens at every stadium across the country and probably comes from 18-22 year olds.

The good news about Franklin's "game day coaching" which seems to be the running theme for rivals is everyone will find out soon enough. If he can't coach, he will be replaced by another top dollar coach. I'm willing to bet anyone that he can. Make fun of Vandy's schedule all you want and who they beat, then go back and tell me who they beat the 80 years prior.....no one. Franklin took that team to levels Vandy fans haven't seen. Go look at their Scout board, there are threads monthly about Franklin and how they wished he would have stayed. The other good news is fans have already started to rally about the "ya but he schedules cupcakes" when he is successful.

 

[jrfsu]

A Terrapin fan complaining about being treated badly by another fanbase equals a pot calling a kettle black.

Ask ACC fans who have travelled extensively to away league games about their experiences. I bet many will rate the fans at Byrd (UMD) and Carter Finley (NCSU) stadiums as the most obnoxiously rude in the conference.

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

SMF, I do not think it is all about the scheduling for Franklin, he has a great Program with many Resources that can rival any Top Ten Program in FBS, and he does recruit at a high level.

I don't have any reason to dislike Franklin and it is up to all other Programs, Coaches, and Teams to beat him, and I think he is a good coach.

Yea, the thing about Franklin is his his recruiting will assure 8 eventually wins per year against a weak conference and week OOC schedule. The only games he could lose are games against OSU, Michigan, MSU, and maybe a good West division team.........and some of those games will be at home. He may lose to Maryland and Illinois now but he's recruiting too well for that to continue. You can't continue to have Top 10-15 classes and lose to teams like that so they'll pretty much only have a 4 game season with 2 being at home.

 

[pittmeister]

Isn't it ironic that ups'ers are on our board but we are not allow to debate on their board.
I guess it's just the accepted double standard that applies to ups. Child molestation and cover ups are
ok at ups but not anywhere else.
As for ups fans, I do rate them 2 steps above mountain queer fans. But that is not saying much.

Yes, the UPS'ers don't understand why we have a problem with differing opinions.... LOL! What a bunch of hypocrites. There is no debate anywhere when a nitter is in control of a social network. Their "opinion" becomes "fact". Others "opinion" becomes "trolling" and is subject to deletion AND being banned. Oh the irony...

 

[Saboteur]

Yea, the thing about Franklin is his his recruiting will assure 8 eventually wins per year against a weak conference and week OOC schedule. The only games he could lose are games against OSU, Michigan, MSU, and maybe a good West division team.........and some of those games will be at home. He may lose to Maryland and Illinois now but he's recruiting too well for that to continue. You can't continue to have Top 10-15 classes and lose to teams like that so they'll pretty much only have a 4 game season with 2 being at home.

This assumes the other Big ten teams will stay as they are....I'm not so sure...

 

[pittmeister]

SMF, I do not think it is all about the scheduling for Franklin, he has a great Program with many Resources that can rival any Top Ten Program in FBS, and he does recruit at a high level.

I don't have any reason to dislike Franklin and it is up to all other Programs, Coaches, and Teams to beat him, and I think he is a good coach.

You said the magic words; I think....

I think Narduzzi is a good coach as well, but I don't have definitive proof. Certainly not enough to invade other team's message boards pounding my chest and saying how great we are. That's the difference. They want to say they have proof that Franklin is a good coach by what he did at Vandy. But when dig in deeper, you will find that Franklin has a losing record against winning teams, he has no signature wins, and had a cupcake schedule. His game day coaching is very questionable. Those are facts.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

7-6 season with a bowl victory considering a coaching change, sanction depleted OL, roster mostly comprised of freshmen & sophmores.....PSU fans feel very fortunate how last year turned out. sure, we could've possibly had 9 wins.....we also could've had 3 wins.

You guys must have very low expectations then because as I see it, regardless of the circumstances, when the ball was kicked off, your players were as good or better than 10 of the 13 teams you played, 11 of the 13 if you count the fact that you were only an underdog at Michigan because it was on the road. Yet, you only won 7 games. You may have had some roster shortcomings, but you weren't playing world-beaters. Its not like they didnt have roster short-comings also.

Last season was a failure for PSU. Given your easy schedule, I cant see how any PSU fan can think otherwise. Franklin's coaching sucked last season. Perhaps, it'll be a lot better this season. For sure, it can't get a whole lot worse.

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

I disagree, I can see many Coaches that did great recruiting and still had trouble winning at the higher level.

I think recruiting is a big part of Coaching but Coaching at practices, improving every game during the season, having a great Staff, and the ability to execute game Plans on Game Day is more important.

I think Franklin proved and made his Bones going from an Assistant to Head Coach at Vandy. I also feel Franklin did far better than Chryst did at Pitt making the same transition. To me, Chryst is still learning to be a Head Coach while Franklin has proven he is a Winning Head Coach!

It is tough to be a First Year Head Coach, even Paterno, Sherrill, and many others needed a year to be better.

Recruiting talent trumps coaching in college football. It remains to be seen just how good a recruiter he is. The idea of bringing back the mighty nits is folly. By every measure the program hasn't been nothing more than slightly above average for 20 years. One outright Big Ten title is not exactly great. Losing records against like and kind programs and of course the quest for being a NC contender with playing no one the next number of years OCC schedule. But the record will be padded with wins that make them feel good, but mean nothing relative to the conference. Franklin can bring in enough talent to beat teams that they should beat. The question is can he win against the like and kind programs that will establish his credentials. I don't think so.

 

[76Stingray]

A Terrapin fan complaining about being treated badly by another fanbase equals a pot calling a kettle black.

Ask ACC fans who have travelled extensively to away league games about their experiences. I bet many will rate the fans at Byrd (UMD) and Carter Finley (NCSU) stadiums as the most obnoxiously rude in the conference.

Never been to Maryland, but NCSU fans are just better dressed WVU fans.

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

I disagree, I can see many Coaches that did great recruiting and still had trouble winning at the higher level.

I think recruiting is a big part of Coaching but Coaching at practices, improving every game during the season, having a great Staff, and the ability to execute game Plans on Game Day is more important.

I think Franklin proved and made his Bones going from an Assistant to Head Coach at Vandy. I also feel Franklin did far better than Chryst did at Pitt making the same transition. To me, Chryst is still learning to be a Head Coach while Franklin has proven he is a Winning Head Coach!

It is tough to be a First Year Head Coach, even Paterno, Sherrill, and many others needed a year to be better.

Then there are Coaches that take over a program and win at first and quickly start to lose, showing they did not have the stuff to be a good Head Coach. Kraglethorpe at ULou, Zook at Florida and Illinois, Foge Fazio at Pitt, Holgrosen at WVU, and Orgeron at Ole Miss, they took over other programs and then could not win later. Sometimes they need for than one chance to make it.

Yet, a true Good to Great Head Coach might have a tough first year or two like Dantonio did at a few places, but one can see the winning in his coaching and Teams improving.

All I know is when I see a Team better in the 8th to 12th games rather 1st to 4th, it is a sign of being a good coach that players start to listen and win such coaching.

 

[PSUPALY]

[QUOTE="Last season was a failure for PSU. Given your easy schedule, I cant see how any PSU fan can think otherwise. Franklin's coaching sucked last season. Perhaps, it'll be a lot better this season. For sure, it can't get a whole lot worse.[/QUOTE]

gosh...that's rough. i simply disagree. again, I feel you personally are saying we should've been much better. I just don't think so.

we could've squeaked out some more wins, sure...but how we finished was fairly accurate on how good we were....which was not very....

you think Franklin s*cked....ok. I'm not saying I didn't scratch my head on a few plays, but he couldn't have a normal offense. how can you call a normal offense with that OL? He lost 4 OL from the previous year, then lost Miles Dieffenbach in the Spring game......that's 5 OL with major playing time from the previous year that were gone. All we had was Donovan Smith & Angelo Mangiro with playing time from the previous year........2 players! So that forced him to convert 2 DL...to start for him. Then he had B Mahon & A Nelson who were RS Freshmen and W Laurent RS Sophmore to finish out the pathetic 7 man rotation. outside of plugging in his 4 true freshmen he brought in, he had no help on that line. that's a lot to ask

Conversely...what about his defense? our defense (with the same players) s*cked in 2013 under O'Brien. but nobody will give Franklin credit there.

I'm not ready to put Franklin in the coaching hall of fame, but he's a longer leash considering the cards he was dealt.

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

I agree, and these are all opinions more than facts, but I think your comments have been fair.

It is up to Pitt, Penn State, WVU all to improve and win more games under new coaches and I accept that is not an easy task anytime in the first year of coaching.

I think a lot of Pitt fans have wishful thinking when it comes to Franklin's coaching. I'm not here to beat my chest about anything I'm just saying you better get the "well the schedule was easy" excuse out going forward. A lot of the same fans saying he cannot coach were slobbering over him being Pitt's head coach 3 years ago. Pitt went 6-6 last year. I'd love to see how they would do this year with Mike Grimm(RS Freshman), Bookser(RS Freshman), Connor Hayes, Mike Herndon, and Justin Moody(DLineman) playing oline this year with the backups being Tony Pilato, Paulina, etc and hoping you don't have to burn their redshirts. Then at starting wideout Elisha Zeise(RS Fr), Tre Tipton(True FR), and Quadree Henderson(True FR). My guess would be not too good.

 

[PSUPALY]

You guys must have very low expectationsQUOTE]


very low expectations? i mean...I'm always hopeful, but it's more about being realistic

 

[pittmeister]

I think a lot of Pitt fans have wishful thinking when it comes to Franklin's coaching. I'm not here to beat my chest about anything I'm just saying you better get the "well the schedule was easy" excuse out going forward. A lot of the same fans saying he cannot coach were slobbering over him being Pitt's head coach 3 years ago. Pitt went 6-6 last year. I'd love to see how they would do this year with Mike Grimm(RS Freshman), Bookser(RS Freshman), Connor Hayes, Mike Herndon, and Justin Moody(DLineman) playing oline this year with the backups being Tony Pilato, Paulina, etc and hoping you don't have to burn their redshirts. Then at starting wideout Elisha Zeise(RS Fr), Tre Tipton(True FR), and Quadree Henderson(True FR). My guess would be not too good.

EXCUSES... When you start 14 four star players and lose against Illinois and Northwestern at home and struggle to beat BC, there is room for questioning Franklin's ability. That is not wishful thinking. The "wishful thinking" comes from your side of the argument. You refuse to see it . How many star players did Northwestern have? How many 4 star players did MSU have? How many did Wisconsin have?

I don't remember anybody drooling about getting Franklin as a coach. He was an unknown.

I also don't remember anyone making excuses or accepting them when Pitt lost to Akron. Pitt was the youngest team in Division I last year. They had a first year QB. None of that matters. The loss was on the coaching staff, nothing else...

Until Franklin proves otherwise, his ability will be questioned by everyone outside Happy Valley, not just by Pitt fans. The way I currently see it (subject to change) is if PSU is happy winning 8 games a year, then Franklin is your man...

 

[9nationalchampionships]

The programs are somewhat equal over the last 15 years. The difference is that Pitt knows we have been average and Ped St thinks they are elite! Having a bunch of people parking in a cow pasture and going to a game in the middle of nowhere does not constitute elite, it only shows how low the bar is for winning big games.

 

[load1079]

I think a lot of Pitt fans have wishful thinking when it comes to Franklin's coaching. I'm not here to beat my chest about anything I'm just saying you better get the "well the schedule was easy" excuse out going forward. A lot of the same fans saying he cannot coach were slobbering over him being Pitt's head coach 3 years ago. Pitt went 6-6 last year. I'd love to see how they would do this year with Mike Grimm(RS Freshman), Bookser(RS Freshman), Connor Hayes, Mike Herndon, and Justin Moody(DLineman) playing oline this year with the backups being Tony Pilato, Paulina, etc and hoping you don't have to burn their redshirts. Then at starting wideout Elisha Zeise(RS Fr), Tre Tipton(True FR), and Quadree Henderson(True FR). My guess would be not too good.

Actually, we have a pretty good idea what Pitt's record would look like if we were playing all freshmen and sophomores because it happened last year. We were 6-7 with some terrible come from ahead losses to Iowa, Houston, Akron, Duke and NC. In all honesty, only GT and Akron beat us handily. We were playing and starting true freshman and sophs all over our defense at key postions like DE, LB, safety and corner.

On offense, people tend to forget that Boyd, Connor and Voytik were all sophs last year. Jared Jones Smith was a reshirt freshman playing tackle with true sophomore Dorian Johnson starting as well. We were rotating true freshmen next to Boyd at WR and got absolutely no production from them. We had the highest total of underclassmen of any team in the country. So we can use the youth excuse as well, though I for one think it's a BS excuse.

Pitt and PSU had basically the same season last year with the exception that Pitt's coach had quit before the bowl game and we had basically the worst 4 minutes of special teams and defense I've ever seen. Otherwise, we have identical 7-6 records.

Penn St is recuiting much better than Pitt right now. Anyone who argues otherwise is a complete moron. However, as much as we don't know what we have in Narduzzi (though I'm very optomistic he'll be better than our former dud of a milkman/coach), you don't really know what you have in Franklin because the points others are making about Franklin beating bad teams to pad his record at Vandy are valid. You'd like to see your coach have some big wins against teams with better talent. Franklin doesn't really have those on his resume and got a bit lucky from a timing perspective with how bad the SEC east was when he got that job. You don't know if you have Nick Saban or Lane Kiffin at this point, though I'm fairly confident you don't have Saban.

Just because you have better recruits on paper does not mean you will have a better team. Does Miami out recruit Pitt and Penn St for that matter? Of course they do. Pitt still took it to Miami at their place last year. Two years ago Pitt beat a much more talented ND team. Talent is the most important element of a successful college football team, but if you have a mediocre coach, better coached teams with "less" talent will beat you.

All this "talent" Penn St is accumulating will be sophomores next year when we play with a few juniors. You'll still be a pretty young team breaking in a new QB. Meanwhile, while we lose Conor and Boyd, we'll be stacked with upperclassmen NFL potential on the offensive line, return a 3 year starting QB, loaded with quality RB depth (we're hurting at WR though), and our defensive players will all have had another year to develop under a vastly superior defensive coaching staff. Those Nitters claiming that Penn St's roster will be greatly superior to Pitt's next year don't appear to know all that much about football. Maybe in 2017 or 18 if Pitt can't recruit better, but if we have a decent season this year, look out for Narduzzi on the recruiting trail...

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

[QUOTE="Last season was a failure for PSU. Given your easy schedule, I cant see how any PSU fan can think otherwise. Franklin's coaching sucked last season. Perhaps, it'll be a lot better this season. For sure, it can't get a whole lot worse.

gosh...that's rough. i simply disagree. again, I feel you personally are saying we should've been much better. I just don't think so.

we could've squeaked out some more wins, sure...but how we finished was fairly accurate on how good we were....which was not very....

you think Franklin s*cked....ok. I'm not saying I didn't scratch my head on a few plays, but he couldn't have a normal offense. how can you call a normal offense with that OL? He lost 4 OL from the previous year, then lost Miles Dieffenbach in the Spring game......that's 5 OL with major playing time from the previous year that were gone. All we had was Donovan Smith & Angelo Mangiro with playing time from the previous year........2 players! So that forced him to convert 2 DL...to start for him. Then he had B Mahon & A Nelson who were RS Freshmen and W Laurent RS Sophmore to finish out the pathetic 7 man rotation. outside of plugging in his 4 true freshmen he brought in, he had no help on that line. that's a lot to ask

Conversely...what about his defense? our defense (with the same players) s*cked in 2013 under O'Brien. but nobody will give Franklin credit there.

I'm not ready to put Franklin in the coaching hall of fame, but he's a longer leash considering the cards he was dealt.[/QUOTE]
The funny thing about your assertion that your offensive line was so bad that Franklin was some miracle worker to win 7 games is that nobody knows bad offensive lines like Pitt fans. Pitt wrote the book on bad offensive play (post 1980s). However, despite, embarrassingly bad offensive lines, Walt Harris was able to light up the scoreboard with his passing game and he was a purely average coach. To be honest, if Walt Harris was coaching Penn State last year, you would have went 11-1 with that D you had. With a 1st Round draft pick at CB and high profile young players at WR plus talented TE's, you should have gone 11-1, maybe, maybe 10-2. You're making too many excuses for your team.

Your argument is the same as the argument I have with fellow Pitt fans. They make excuses about the cards Chryst was dealt. When the ball was kicked off, Chryst had enough players to beat Akron, UVa, Duke, etc but couldn't.

Just be thankful that Franklin's recruiting will guarantee 8 wins per year because so far, the arrow is pointing to "not a good coach" based on his fails last season..........but there's a long way to go. He could prove me wrong. Problem is with your recruting and easy schedule, I feel like this argument will continue for years. You'll win the 8 games you are favored in, lose to Ohio State and either Mich or Mich St, then maybe lose another game to finsih 9-3 and we'll be back to square 1.

 

[PSUPALY]

gosh...that's rough. i simply disagree. again, I feel you personally are saying we should've been much better. I just don't think so.

we could've squeaked out some more wins, sure...but how we finished was fairly accurate on how good we were....which was not very....

you think Franklin s*cked....ok. I'm not saying I didn't scratch my head on a few plays, but he couldn't have a normal offense. how can you call a normal offense with that OL? He lost 4 OL from the previous year, then lost Miles Dieffenbach in the Spring game......that's 5 OL with major playing time from the previous year that were gone. All we had was Donovan Smith & Angelo Mangiro with playing time from the previous year........2 players! So that forced him to convert 2 DL...to start for him. Then he had B Mahon & A Nelson who were RS Freshmen and W Laurent RS Sophmore to finish out the pathetic 7 man rotation. outside of plugging in his 4 true freshmen he brought in, he had no help on that line. that's a lot to ask

Conversely...what about his defense? our defense (with the same players) s*cked in 2013 under O'Brien. but nobody will give Franklin credit there.

I'm not ready to put Franklin in the coaching hall of fame, but he's a longer leash considering the cards he was dealt.

The funny thing about your assertion that your offensive line was so bad that Franklin was some miracle worker to win 7 games is that nobody knows bad offensive lines like Pitt fans. Pitt wrote the book on bad offensive play (post 1980s). However, despite, embarrassingly bad offensive lines, Walt Harris was able to light up the scoreboard with his passing game and he was a purely average coach. To be honest, if Walt Harris was coaching Penn State last year, you would have went 11-1 with that D you had. With a 1st Round draft pick at CB and high profile young players at WR plus talented TE's, you should have gone 11-1, maybe, maybe 10-2. You're making too many excuses for your team.

Your argument is the same as the argument I have with fellow Pitt fans. They make excuses about the cards Chryst was dealt. When the ball was kicked off, Chryst had enough players to beat Akron, UVa, Duke, etc but couldn't.

Just be thankful that Franklin's recruiting will guarantee 8 wins per year because so far, the arrow is pointing to "not a good coach" based on his fails last season..........but there's a long way to go. He could prove me wrong. Problem is with your recruting and easy schedule, I feel like this argument will continue for years. You'll win the 8 games you are favored in, lose to Ohio State and either Mich or Mich St, then maybe lose another game to finsih 9-3 and we'll be back to square 1.[/QUOTE]


ok...so you thought we were a 10-11 win team last year? got it

 

[pittdan77]

I really have never met a Maryland fan that wasn't bitter. They are all proud of themselves for getting paid and are very quick to rip the ACC. Good luck with that. Couldn't win in the ACC and now you're lower than PSU in the pecking order. You think the ACC was a NC conference, talk to PSU fan about how they're still the ugly stepchild in the B1G.

Your ND guy sounds like my ND friend. No shock there. They tolerate Kelly because everyone else has been a disaster. The graduation excuse is cute but doesn't explain what success they've had (that was still pass interference, LOL). They enjoy complaining as much as we do so it's all good.

I live in the heart of Central PA. The PSU faithful I know all seem a little worried about Franklin. Not that he'll fail but that he's a snake oil salesman that will only do what benefits him. The irony is sort of lost on them. Even the ones that think that will quietly accept whatever success he affords them. Nothing to see here. Personally, I think Franklin is a genius. He's set up to win 9 games this year and should win 10 even with the o-line they have (it looks really bad right now). He'll get a good bowl and will leverage it into another good recruiting class regardless of the outcome of that game. He knows he's not going to beat O$U any time soon and is smart enough to know Michigan is back on the map. Michigan State and Wisky will be what they are and who knows if anyone else will get their act together. He's set up for as long a run as he wants because he knows that 8-10 wins is good enough and has been for a really long time. Maybe he gets lucky and goes over the top one season but that would ultimately work against him. Nope, he's good. Right where he wants to be and nobody up here is about to suggest otherwise.

 

[PSUPALY]

Actually, we have a pretty good idea what Pitt's record would look like if we were playing all freshmen and sophomores because it happened last year. We were 6-7 with some terrible come from ahead losses to Iowa, Houston, Akron, Duke and NC. In all honesty, only GT and Akron beat us handily. We were playing and starting true freshman and sophs all over our defense at key postions like DE, LB, safety and corner.

On offense, people tend to forget that Boyd, Connor and Voytik were all sophs last year. Jared Jones Smith was a reshirt freshman playing tackle with true sophomore Dorian Johnson starting as well. We were rotating true freshmen next to Boyd at WR and got absolutely no production from them. We had the highest total of underclassmen of any team in the country. So we can use the youth excuse as well, though I for one think it's a BS excuse.

Pitt and PSU had basically the same season last year with the exception that Pitt's coach had quit before the bowl game and we had basically the worst 4 minutes of special teams and defense I've ever seen. Otherwise, we have identical 7-6 records.

Penn St is recuiting much better than Pitt right now. Anyone who argues otherwise is a complete moron. However, as much as we don't know what we have in Narduzzi (though I'm very optomistic he'll be better than our former dud of a milkman/coach), you don't really know what you have in Franklin because the points others are making about Franklin beating bad teams to pad his record at Vandy are valid. You'd like to see your coach have some big wins against teams with better talent. Franklin doesn't really have those on his resume and got a bit lucky from a timing perspective with how bad the SEC east was when he got that job. You don't know if you have Nick Saban or Lane Kiffin at this point, though I'm fairly confident you don't have Saban.

Just because you have better recruits on paper does not mean you will have a better team. Does Miami out recruit Pitt and Penn St for that matter? Of course they do. Pitt still took it to Miami at their place last year. Two years ago Pitt beat a much more talented ND team. Talent is the most important element of a successful college football team, but if you have a mediocre coach, better coached teams with "less" talent will beat you.

All this "talent" Penn St is accumulating will be sophomores next year when we play with a few juniors. You'll still be a pretty young team breaking in a new QB. Meanwhile, while we lose Conor and Boyd, we'll be stacked with upperclassmen NFL potential on the offensive line, return a 3 year starting QB, loaded with quality RB depth (we're hurting at WR though), and our defensive players will all have had another year to develop under a vastly superior defensive coaching staff. Those Nitters claiming that Penn St's roster will be greatly superior to Pitt's next year don't appear to know all that much about football. Maybe in 2017 or 18 if Pitt can't recruit better, but if we have a decent season this year, look out for Narduzzi on the recruiting trail...

I agree with pretty much everything you just said.

 

[TIGER-PAUL]

PSU has historically beaten the teams favored to with nowhere near the wtf, season killer losses that Pitt has. If he can keep that up, I'm guessing you're going to see some big win seasons playing md and rut every year and now with a body bag ooc schedule philosophy.

 

[pittmeister]

These nitters act as if PSU is the only team to have turnover or have to play true freshman. This is what we are talking about when Pitt fans say nitters live in their own little world. Look around. Compared to most programs, PSU had more than enough talent to perform better than 6 regular season wins.

Pitt had coaches leave and had massive turnover with players (much more than PSU). But I didn't hear any nitter fans taking that into consideration when we lost games we should have won, nor should they. We had enough talent to beat those teams. The losses were on the staff...

 

[PSUPALY]

Pitt had coaches leave and had massive turnover with players (much more than PSU). But I didn't hear any nitter fans taking that into consideration when we lost games we should have won, nor should they. We had enough talent to beat those teams. The losses were on the staff...


fair argument....but you're conveniently excluding the sanctions PSU had

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

ok...so you thought we were a 10-11 win team last year? got it

Yes, and so did Vegas, who know more than both of us about which teams should win or lose.

 

[pittmeister]

fair argument....but you're conveniently excluding the sanctions PSU had

How did the sanctions effect last year's team? The sanctions were designed to affect PSU in the long term. Now that the sanctions have been lifted, it will have little affect if you compare PSU with other schools. Again, there was enough talent to win a few more games. The jury, in my opinion is still out on Franklin. If he has double digit wins in 2016 and gets a signature win, then the doubts will be lifted...

 

[duffycob16]

EXCUSES... When you start 14 four star players and lose against Illinois and Northwestern at home and struggle to beat BC, there is room for questioning Franklin's ability. That is not wishful thinking. The "wishful thinking" comes from your side of the argument. You refuse to see it . How many star players did Northwestern have? How many 4 star players did MSU have? How many did Wisconsin have?

I don't remember anybody drooling about getting Franklin as a coach. He was an unknown.

I also don't remember anyone making excuses or accepting them when Pitt lost to Akron. Pitt was the youngest team in Division I last year. They had a first year QB. None of that matters. The loss was on the coaching staff, nothing else...

Until Franklin proves otherwise, his ability will be questioned by everyone outside Happy Valley, not just by Pitt fans. The way I currently see it (subject to change) is if PSU is happy winning 8 games a year, then Franklin is your man...

You keep beating that 4 star drum, but fail to mention Penn State was the 2nd youngest team in Division 1 with the least amount of scholarship players. The position that was affected most was the OLine where I don't care if you have 5 5star lineman if they are Redshirt freshman or were recruited as Dlineman you will struggle. The other position was receiver. We will see what happens in the coming years. The good news is in 2016 you will get to find out first hand if Franklin can coach.

As for Franklin being an unknown that is laughable. I specifically remember Pitt fans on this site calling for him to be the hire when Chryst was hired.

 

[PSUPALY]

Yes, and so did Vegas, who know more than both of us about which teams should win or lose.

last year? you're going to have to provide the link on that one because it wasn't close to 10 wins. i'm pretty sure it was 7.5 (at most 8.5)....same as 2015.

 

[PSUPALY]

How did the sanctions effect last year's team? The sanctions were designed to affect PSU in the long term. Now that the sanctions have been lifted, it will have little affect if you compare PSU with other schools. Again, there was enough talent to win a few more games. The jury, in my opinion is still out on Franklin. If he has double digit wins in 2016 and gets a signature win, then the doubts will be lifted...

there is no debate on this one....the sanctions greatly affected our team in 2014, at it's peak.