At least it will be hopefully in a few weeks. We just need Penn St to lose one more so they can miss the expanded playoffs. Bunch of underserving t***s. They have one team in the top 25 on their schedule and lost at home to them. Hopefully one of these bottom feeder B10 team can destroy their hopes.
Our Long National Nightmare is Over!
- Thread starter Dointhatrag
- Start date
Not happening. If there’s one thing we can credit Penn State for, it’s winning the games against the mediocre teams of that conference. I wish it were true, but history tells us Penn State will take care of business.
Worshington at home... no chance
At Purdue... no chance
At Minnesota... very little chance
Maryland... no chance
And they're not even barely in; they are comfortably in.
At Purdue... no chance
At Minnesota... very little chance
Maryland... no chance
And they're not even barely in; they are comfortably in.
Their schedule is laughably easy
But they get a pass - since they are a “name “ program .
I just said basically the same to someone else. While it’s easy and fun to poke at them for the record against top teams, they handle their business otherwise WAY more often than not.
As fun as the Pickett senior season was, losing to directional Michigan still stings.
Losing at home against a 7-5 Miami team that season wasn't exactly a shining moment, either.
We criticize Penn State for beating up on lesser competition, but we fail to do the same almost every season.
100%.
Franklin honestly has to have one of the highest winning percentages in history as a favorite.
They will beat Minnesota but it'll be close, like 23-17. Those B10 girls teams can't get to 20 on PSU. If they lose that one, I dont see how they get in.
Well, the reason for that is their defense is championship-caliber.
The problem with them this year is the problem they seem to usually have: the offense just doesn't "click." So that will prevent them from winning a championship. They should open it up. But, hey... maybe doing so would make them more susceptible to losing to some of these lesser teams. So maybe Franklin has a little Tomlin in him.
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Their defense is always championship-caliber. Even during the late JoePa years when they were down. They'd lose games 13-10 every other week. So sick of how good that D is year in and year out. And its the LOOK of those dudes. I always say they are roided up and though some are, other players at other schools are roiding up too. PSU's D just has that look of guys you dont want to come across in a back alley. That tow truck driver can attest to that first-hand. Try towing a PSU's linebacker car. You'll find out. Dudes are beasts.
Their defense was not their strength during early the Franklin era. Pitt ran for like 400 yards against them without throwing a real forward pass.
Best case scenario for Pitt is to win the remaining games, and have Miami and SMU play in the ACC Championships game. Then Pitt gets in without risking another loss.
i just dont think we'd get the invite, not being in the game. but this is a new system so maybe im wrong.
That's because they lost 3 scholarships for the institutional cover-up for child rape but they were roiding up again before you knew it.
That was my thought, Tomlin pre-RW. at least.
That series of plays when they got to the three yard line in the third was historically bad.
First, dude kept running a formation with an offensive lineman at split end, and he missed most of his blocks, who would have thunk having a 300+ dude trying to block in space would be problematic.
But, he ran three basic run plays, which got stoned before a play action pass on fourth down. Literally the first thing they teach you in football 101 is you don't run on the first three downs and pass on the fourth in situations like that.
Their best offensive player, outside of Singleton is Tyler Warren. If you want to get creative, use him in the wild cat or on the tush push ... Almost guaranteed if they would have used him like that they would have punched it in.
Just brutal.
I didn't catch much of that game, but I could have told you what the score would be (within a few points), and I can tell you what the score will be for the next ten PSU/OSU games. Just crazy how they continue to basically field the same team every season. They did seem to open it up a bit with McSorley back in the day I guess.
But it's usually:
1. An offensive line that we're told is good and has multiple pros but doesn't actually perform all that well
2. A highly-touted QB who never plays to his potential
3. Some NFL receivers they don't find a way to utilize well
4. NFL running back
5. NFL tight end
6. Pro-style offense (I think; I don't pay that much attention) that can't seem to get out of its own way
... and then a phenomenal defense.
From what I learned this past 10 day pre and post Ohio State game. I have never seen a more entitled fanbase and media group. They think the networks owe then prime time games, and the refs are against them and they should win the national title every year.
Its bizarre. Franklin got to be HC by running a spread offense as an OC.
I thought he was a bit over rated, but he was able to get the ball downfield and ran effectively with the delayed run game. As you noted, when he had McSorley, he had an aggressive downfield passing game, but increasingly over time has become more and more conservative.
The last few years very MTpostBenish conservative.
And, as a very good, not elite, but very good recruiter, it is incredible that they have not had any good WRs the last few years.
They had Hamler and Dotson not too long ago, but yeah... definitely a far cry from what Ohio State is lining up out wide in general. I'm honestly not sure what they have this season at receiver, but the stats seem to tell me they're not exactly star-studded.
In their defense, they've earned that name by largely doing what we've dine this season fairly consistently for 60 years.
In the 60's they had seasons like ours but were treated with similar disregard to what we're seeing today.
We just need to maintain for a few more years.
Their games vs OSU and Michigan will forever be at noon now with the new TV contract. Fox wants to own the noon timeslot, conceding 3:30 and primetime to Disney. So the Big Ten "Game of the Week" will always be at noon. If they dont like that, tell them to do like Florida State did and say its an unfair contract and sue to get out of it.
ESPN has a playoff predictor app. If you plug Pitt in winning their last 4 games its 99% chance of making it in the playoff and 81% chance of hosting a first round game.
but if we did that, we'd have made the ACC championship game. My point was, i dont think its ever going to happen that a Big 12 or ACC team put a 3rd team in the playoffs. Meaning a team that didnt make the conference game.
probably should never say never. every time i do, it doesnt age well
Cephas was one of the top WR transfers in the portal last year, wasn't he? He flamed out at PSU. Fleming was a 5 star recruit coming out of the high school, but I'm not sure he has done much this year, either. I think PSU just doesn't develop WRs very well. I'm not sure they develop any of their talent very well at any positions. They recruit very good and get lots of talent, but can't maximize it for whatever reason. It seems that coaching is an issue.
Inefficient to me is what, like, Florida, Texas, USC, Miami, Florida State, etc. have done over most of the last decade or so - top 10 classes and losing/underwhelming seasons.
Penn State, on the other hand, is pretty much succeeding with where they recruit. They just don't usually recruit at an elite level.
2020 - 15
2021 - 21
2022 - 6
2023 - 14
2024 - 15
They're not Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, etc. You won't see any of those schools landing WPIAL 3-stars any time soon. Penn State is just not in that top tier - plain and simple. They can dislike Franklin for not getting them over the hump, but he's done a pretty good job of at least getting them to the hump.
Yeppers SMF. They want the cash, so they have to tow the line.
We could easily win the last four and not make the ACC championship game. Both SMU and Miami are going to be favored the rest of the season, and SMU could lose one more and still be ahead of us on the tiebreaker.
Most of the teams in both the top 25 and the top 12 are going to lose at least one more game this year. It would be very much an outlier of a season for that to not happen.
an accurate assessment. The teams they routinely beat all recruit worse than the rankings you showed. Pitt, on the other hand, doesn't recruit significantly better (or maybe worse) than Louisville so that's why games like that are usually a 50-50 chance of winning.
