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To be fair, I know many Penn State fans who have lobbied to fire Franklin even before this year. So, I don't think they regret firing him; they just really screwed up the replacement hiring.
like Amway - I lost a good friend to Amway after college. They scammed him so hard that they basically got him to ditch all of his old friends for his new "friends". It's pretty sickening
Not sure if it's been posted here, but someone on X mentioned Brent Pry to JMU as parody but I'd be happy for him, and who knows, maybe it would be a good fit. Plus, JMU wouldn't have to worry about a P4 school poaching their coach anytime soon.
if he hammers the portal hard and basically flips PSU's starting roster and finds a great QB we can easily win 9 games in 2026 and that will help solidify the 27 recruiting class. We might even crack the top 15
People have a really hard time admitting they were wrong. It is one of the reasons people double down on bad decisions and continue to fall for scams even when they've been shown its a scam.
The best part of this whole thing is watching Penn St fans cling desperately to the notion that they didn't massively fuck up in forcing Franklin out.
This 100%. It's amazing how vitriolic their fan base is in defending the decision. At some point you have to acknowledge that if everyone is saying the same thing, maybe it's you!
During his press conference, he mentioned that building a recruiting class is a two year process. (He and his team scrambled and were able to lean on those existing relationships to pull this off and it is amazing, especially considering some of those people don't have titles or salaries yet)
Next year will tell us a lot about how recruiting will go in the future I think. These current relationships were built on his Penn State record, coaches, etc. and he was probably given some benefit of the doubt by players and parents. I expect that he will be able to replicate a bunch of his success, but we won't know until he actually does it. Staff hires, coordinators and on-field success will carry a lot of weight with those TBD Virginia Tech relationships.
Franklin has some established pay structure that he wasn't willing to bend
I think this shows his respect for the players and the fans. There is an unspoken contract amongst all of us Hokies that needs to be honored. This is quite refreshing. It places at least some constraints on NIL and how he perceives its use is good with me.
All of those guys are part of the Franklin coaching tree via Pry. If Pry vouches for them, Franklin is going to take them in...whether its getting them a job on our staff or vouching for them at another school.
100% and why we have such an opportunity to dominate quickly if we can get the ball rolling. Franklin operated in a very high level in the Big Ten, he does the exact same thing here and we stand out quickly like Clemson did a decade ago
As a long-suffering Falcons fan if Tomlin was available I hope we'd interview him within 30 seconds of the announcement
Fortunately, we are part of the ACC - the conference no one wants to win. That should help us, even with young guys filling in the gaps, win more quickly.
You bring up a good point and something we should keep an eye on.
Yes, it's great that we have this class and will likely have some great guys coming in via the Portal as well. But the key is making it happen again next year and the year after that. We do that, and we set ourselves up to have a better and deeper roster than we have had in a very, very long time if not ever. Reason for that is that in the past when we've had these classes they are something the coaching staff has built up for for a few years and it sustains us with excellent starters for a while but the depth hurts. We keep doing this, bringing in upwards of 10 4* players a year spread over the roster and you enter a spot where you have great players all over the 2-deep of the roster and THAT is the point a single 5* player can push you over the top. That is what we struggled to regain after those Vick years and something we would do very well to get back to, especially in this shit conference.
Yeah they canceled classes at about ten AM(too late for me since I ha an 8 o'clock class that morning and froze my ass off). BT only has three buses inside a heated area and didn't use or have block heaters for the other 27 buses so the diesels froze solid. The VT health service made them close the school cause anyone standing outside waiting for a bus would have any expose flesh freeze within 30-60 seconds!
Tomlin would have no shortage of NFL suitors if he left the Steelers, college probably would be a distant backup plan
This is what I was hoping would happen to Penn State via NCAA sanctions. Bill O'Brien got them through the sanctions, that didn't last long enough, and then James Franklin comes in and has them winning the B1G as soon as they're off sanctions. Sometimes karma is instant, and sometimes it comes in cold, like revenge.
Not to be pedantic but it's a trashed RACCOON not a panda...
Local paper has an article this morning that quotes Ben Rothlesberger as saying it's time for the Steelers and Tomlin to mutually agree to move on; and Pedo State would be a good landing spot for Tomlin.
Earlier this week Fanduel (I believe) came out and said that both UVA and Duke would be 3pt dogs to Penn State (6-6) on a neutral field if they played this Saturday.
I couldn't imagine them approving them to play in those conditions nowadays. But I love VT Football, I love Christmas season, and I love snow... Put the three together and it would be quite the experience for sure.
Hes' got a solid foundation of Freshmen for next year. If he does for us like this in the portal, I will not complain. I'd say he has a solid foundation started from the recruiting organization and 1 yr player standpoint.
Step 1 complete.
Charlie Weiss Jr. to coach Ole Miss in CFP (if they make it)
Posting this here because its tied to the carousel. This is just the coaching variant of what happened to FSU 3 years ago when Travis got injured. Ole Miss keeping Weiss Jr. around to minimize the damage caused by the Kiffin departure in the hopes that the committee doesn't view the current Ole Miss team as being significantly different that the team that just beat up on Mississippi last weekend.
If only the CPB relied on something like conference championships and W/L records to determine playoff seeding....weird concept, i know.
On the upside of this, many of these highly rated players are from VA. It looks as if he's working on the idea, with players, that the best in VA stay in VA.
He was good with VA before, while convincing them to go out of state. Dollars for donuts says the Staying local theme, plays well with 'rents.
Also, a question. Does that mean that the athletic dept is only charged with in-state rates, vs out of state tuition and therefore is a budget savings that can be used elsewhere? Is this an under-the-LOS way to maximize impact?