The only part that confirmed my suspicions that their was a rot inside Lasch was at the end of the article:
"But that day in Norman, the Cyclones stunned Heisman Trophy winner
Baker Mayfield and third-ranked Oklahoma 38-31.
It's the kind of victory that has eluded Penn State in recent years, as the Nittany Lions lost 15 straight games to AP top-10 opponents under Franklin. Campbell has already begun challenging his players to change that narrative. "
It gets brought up a lot in our team meetings -- he makes sure we know about it," Becht said. "The fans should expect us to win those big games because of the history of Penn State.""
Two things:
a. IMO, Franklin could not get the loser mentality out of the locker room. I think he hoped another Saquon or a new coach would come around and change everything for him, but it never happened. Since he couldn't get his players to believe that they were winners and actually could win the big games, he had to find a new source of motivation for them. So...
b. I think Franklin turned the players on the PSU fans and the admin. Some of the posters on here seem to mimic this narrative also. Not enough resources, not giving him money for NIL, not upgrading facilities, wanting him to spend money on outside transfers and not the guys who had been here for a few years, etc, etc. That would also explain his verbal fights with the students, some of his weird answers at press conferences about the whiteout and expectations, and the players basically saying "we are with coach Franklin, not this school" after he left and they followed him. All a guess of course, but boy does it seem to track with what Becht said in the article.
www.espn.com
www.on3.com
