Official '26 PSU - Wisconsin game thread

[pendal1]

11-2
10-3
13-3
3-3

So what wasn’t working?

The BIG added UCS, Washington, Oregon, and UCLA. For most of his tenure he needed to beat Ohio State and Michigan and we know that story.
Penn State had more talent than every team in the BIG except for the two kids at top. Now with nil and the additions of the teams I mentioned we are middle of the pack.
James did a solid job at Penn State but he failed miserably in big moments. I'm not sure that's changing for us anytime soon.

 

[Ludd]

Demanding new coordinators then losing to a horrible UCLA team followed by NW.
We also had the easiest path the the final anyone will ever have because they fixed the system and still couldn't get there.
During the time frame his big wins were SMU and Boise?
Not play dumb...you're not.. you know last year wasn't acceptable with the money spent

I agree last year wasn’t acceptable, but I also don’t think you fire a coach because they have a down year.

 

[Ludd]

Oh stop Ludd. You know what wasn't working. PSU was rated number 2 and was 3 and 3.

That wasn't what was working. It was abject failure.

So we fired him for a half a season, got it.

 

[Ludd]

Of course they do
If a company loses money do they fire the CEO and other leaders or the front line workers. Football is the same...you can't get rid of all the players (technically probably could) but you can hire the man at the top

But not every loss is the coach’s fault. And there are a lot of CEO’s that don’t get fired for losing money.

 

[Ludd]

Whatever. Some of those coaches won NCs or played for NCs but moving the goalpost for James.

How many were fired six games after playing for a NC?

 

[pendal1]

How many were fired six games after playing for a NC?

Did james play for an nc. I must have missed that.

 

[Ludd]

The BIG added UCS, Washington, Oregon, and UCLA. For most of his tenure he needed to beat Ohio State and Michigan and we know that story.
Penn State had more talent than every team in the BIG except for the two kids at top. Now with nil and the additions of the teams I mentioned we are middle of the pack.
James did a solid job at Penn State but he failed miserably in big moments. I'm not sure that's changing for us anytime soon.

But he didn’t fail in what many consider the small moments very often which is how you get to 10 or 11 wins. It doesn’t matter if you can beat OSU every once in a while if you turn around and lose to someone like Wisconsin.

 

[KingLando]

I agree last year wasn’t acceptable, but I also don’t think you fire a coach because they have a down year.

Generally I would agree but not when he told you if you go get Knowles and spend money on Singleton and Allar (who he should have told to enter the draft) then you lose 3 straight with losses to UCLA and Northwestern plus allegedly went over the AD's head to get a raise what do you think is going to happen.
I think we all agree he couldn't win big games--then he started losing games he couldn't. Had we just beat the teams we were supposed to last year he's still here and Kraft is likely gone but he failed miserably.
It's like poker--he went all in and didn't have the hand he thought he had--at that point you're done.

 

[CaliLion79]

 

[KingLando]

How many were fired six games after playing for a NC?

Had he played for the NC it may have been different

 

[Ludd]

Did james play for an nc. I must have missed that.

You get the point, I hope. There’s a difference between getting fired years after being in the hunt for a NC due to having multiple bad seasons than getting fired six games after you had one of the best seasons in a long time for the school.

Generally I would agree but not when he told you if you go get Knowles and spend money on Singleton and Allar (who he should have told to enter the draft) then you lose 3 straight with losses to UCLA and Northwestern plus allegedly went over the AD's head to get a raise what do you think is going to happen.
I think we all agree he couldn't win big games--then he started losing games he couldn't. Had we just beat the teams we were supposed to last year he's still here and Kraft is likely gone but he failed miserably.
It's like poker--he went all in and didn't have the hand he thought he had--at that point you're done.

So we fired him for a half a year, got it.

 

[KingLando]

So we fired him for a half a year, got it.

No, we fired him because he failed to deliver what he promised
Just like countless others are fired for the same thing
Keeping him for the rest of the year wasn't going to change that
Why do you keep skipping the part about him making a power move to go above Kraft? You know that's relevant, right?

 

[Ludd]

No, we fired him because he failed to deliver what he promised
Just like countless others are fired for the same thing
Keeping him for the rest of the year wasn't going to change that
Why do you keep skipping the part about him making a power move to go above Kraft? You know that's relevant, right?

We don’t even know for sure if it’s true and if it is, we don’t know exactly what happened. If that was the reason, why didn’t Kraft fire him before the season?

 

[KingLando]

We don’t even know for sure if it’s true and if it is, we don’t know exactly what happened. If that was the reason, why didn’t Kraft fire him before the season?

Because he already financially committed to him and that as the lone reason wouldn't have gone over well following a nice (even if easy) playoff run
Then Franklin's team collapsed and it was easy

 

[Ludd]

Because he already financially committed to him and that as the lone reason wouldn't have gone over well following a nice (even if easy) playoff run
Then Franklin's team collapsed and it was easy

So it wasn’t that big of a deal.

 

[KingLando]

So it wasn’t that big of a deal.

It clearly was--what do you do for a living?

 

[Ludd]

It clearly was--what do you do for a living?

If it was that big of a deal, he would have been fired immediately. No matter where you work, if someone does something that’s a fireable offense, they don’t wait around to see how you do before they fire you. “Our salesman skimmed money from the company, but let’s wait and see how much he sells before we do anything.” (Eye roll)

 

[KingLando]

If it was that big of a deal, he would have been fired immediately. No matter where you work, if someone does something that’s a fireable offense, they don’t wait around to see how you do before they fire you. “Our salesman skimmed money from the company, but let’s wait and see how much he sells before we do anything.” (Eye roll)

Because he's not a salesman--that's what you would do with a player that was out of line or went over their leader's head
It's not what happens at the level of Franklin or Kraft. That's before even factoring in the buyout that James had. Kraft needed approval to fire him--he didn't have the authority to do it himself.

 

[Ludd]

Because he's not a salesman--that's what you would do with a player that was out of line or went over their leader's head
It's not what happens at the level of Franklin or Kraft. That's before even factoring in the buyout that James had. Kraft needed approval to fire him--he didn't have the authority to do it himself.

So again, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

 

[SkiSkiSki]

If it was that big of a deal, he would have been fired immediately. No matter where you work, if someone does something that’s a fireable offense, they don’t wait around to see how you do before they fire you. “Our salesman skimmed money from the company, but let’s wait and see how much he sells before we do anything.” (Eye roll)

It was more, "Our salesman tried to go over his boss' head for a raise, but he performs at an acceptable level, so the boss didn't have the necessary backing to fire him. He then gave the boss the leverage with management he needed to be able to show him the door with a huge golden parachute."

 

[KingLando]

So again, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Clearly it was--this is a weird line in the sand to draw
Look the big picture--no one should any confusion about why he was fired

 

[Chumboshifko1]

King, your throne awaits thee.

 

[Ludd]

It was more, "Our salesman tried to go over his boss' head for a raise, but he performs at an acceptable level, so the boss didn't have the necessary backing to fire him. He then gave the boss the leverage with management he needed to be able to show him the door with a huge golden parachute."

So again, it was not a fireable offense so not that big of a deal.

 

[Ludd]

Clearly it was--this is a weird line in the sand to draw
Look the big picture--no one should any confusion about why he was fired

Because the AD is incompetent, which is something everyone here seems to agree with.

 

[SkiSkiSki]

So again, it was not a fireable offense so not that big of a deal.

4-21 was the foundation. Getting everything that you asked for resource-wise to go out and spend $3mil on a DC and to go get a new OC and laying an egg with the number 2 team in the country was fireable. Going over the bosses head was a piece of straw on the stack of wood on the camel's back.

 

[KingLando]

Because the AD is incompetent, which is something everyone here seems to agree with.

Kraft can be incompetent while it is still true that Franklin deserved to be fired.