PennLive writer admits M is better this year -- but only because the B1G sucks
Read the title; essentially the author admits M is the best but it only happened due to timing and dumb luck.
Google suggested this article -- I didn't search it out on my own. Don't @ me.
https://articles.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/index.ssf/2018/10/penn_state_football_michigan_h.amp
October 30th, 2018 at 12:15 PM ^
Like the dumb luck it took PSU to get to the B1G championship a few years ago? Ok.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:42 PM ^
And M was about 5 touchdowns better than them that season. Getting absolutely smoked and winning a title is very dumb lucky
October 30th, 2018 at 12:54 PM ^
Exactly! PSU was one JT Barrett 4th down spot away from missing the B1G Championship Game in 2016. If Michigan wins this weekend, Harbaugh will be 3-1 against Franklin (worst case is 2-2).
As far as being stuck in the past goes....perhaps the writer missed Patterson's 81 yard TD run against Wisconsin. Or McCaffrey's 44 yard TD run. Or Joe Milton's 23 yard run....
October 30th, 2018 at 1:39 PM ^
Patterson didn't score, but damn was it awesome seeing him sprint down the sideline towards me.
October 30th, 2018 at 2:05 PM ^
It's okay. James Franklin probably missed those as well. He was too busy trying to call time out.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:15 PM ^
Bryan Mac pointed some Pennlive stuff out on Twitter this morning that is pretty funny.
That's all I needed to see of this trash to form an opinion on it equal or better than Pennlive's opinion on anything football related.
October 30th, 2018 at 2:44 PM ^
Holy avalanche of straw men, Batman!
By clearly not having watched Michigan play at all this year, the writer is able to assume that Michigan only appears to be good only because Ohio State and Penn State are bad--despite the fact that Michigan has played neither! He then states that Michigan can't win by playing old school physical football because Penn State and Ohio State play modern football, only they are not very good this year because they aren't physical and can't tackle!
What a fucking tool!
October 30th, 2018 at 4:13 PM ^
Same here. You have to just shake your head over the ignorant homer-ism, or just laugh at the idiotic assumptions he portrays as "truths". One of the biggest chuckles I had was his line "with three accomplished yet disparate coaches with different styles inside his own division - Franklin, Urban Meyer and Mark Dantonio - it would be difficult enough for him to simply win the East" WHAT? Where does he see that at Harbaugh's arrival in 2015? I'll give him Meyer, and even Mork as he had improved Sttaee some by then.
Franklin was 24–15 at Vandy never better than 4th in SEC East and had just completed his first B1G East season for 6th place with a 6-6 record.
Harbaugh had gone 29-21 turning around Stanford from an academic milquetoast to a still consistent program able to make (and get) serious bids for 5star athletes. He had had two 2nd place, 1 loss seasons and just left the NFL after guiding the 49ers to 3 NFC championship games in four years.
October 30th, 2018 at 4:33 PM ^
Also I firmly believe that Saquon Barkley carried PSU through a potential coaching change.
If they hadn't hit on such a spectacular player, someone else would be coaching the Nittany Lions right now. I had checked and Barkley wasn't heavily recruited with only 4-5 P5 offers. As I remember there was significant discussion to remove Franklin after the 2015 season, but then Barkley just exploded and IMO saved Franklins job.
We'll see how Franklin fares in the future. That holds more truth to it I believe.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:30 PM ^
Franklin is pretty much done when McSorley leaves, IMO. McSorley is now the one keeping Franklin's regime afloat.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^
I thought "Timing and Luck" was the story of MSU's decade of relative success.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:44 PM ^
Don't forget that Harbaugh won at Stanford because of Luck.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^
And David Shaw
October 30th, 2018 at 12:18 PM ^
"Hi, I'm a writer from Pennsylvania and I have no fucking clue what Michigan actually does, but since I'm a member of the media, I can assume whatever I like and it'll get taken as gospel."
October 30th, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^
Haha, yep. He even references his own hot take from 4 years ago about JH to make his point.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:18 PM ^
Screw those enablers. I want to see a repeat of 2016.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^
Someone save the link for this so we can revisit it in 5 years when Franklin isn't the coach at PSU anymore and Harbaugh has a powerhouse.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^
I’d put that more like 3 years, but yeah.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^
I don't follow recruiting and other schools as much as I used to. That said, Penn State and their fans used to have a bit of a tin foil hat reputation. Does this still exist? There was a percentage that still wanted to leave the conference, surely that's all gone away now.
They had a few notable online posters, one was a crazy woman named Carol? (Jesus, if I remembered that correctly, I really need to do a better job clearing room in my brain for useful information) And then there was one other guy, I don't remember his name at all, but he was a pretty prolific poster, or even MAYBE a writer for Blue and White, but I think he was just a tin foil hat guy with a lot of time on his hands. Someone they respected. He was a lunatic.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:41 PM ^
Carol passed a few years ago, as I recall reading. You did remember the name right.
I am fairly active on BWI, it's my home PSU board. Been there since the early-to-mid 2000s. Long time. There is a larger-than-normal "tin foil" element there. Your comment in that regard is fair. Then the Sandusky story breaks in November 2011. That made it worse. From then and throughout the O'Brien era, there were seemingly more posts about the Freeh Report and the BoT than about football. For lack of a better phrase, BWI became "the center of the resistance" among PSU boards.
But it's changed to a more football-focused (and more sane) view IMO in recent years. Time marches on.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:41 PM ^
winning cures conspiracies i guess?
i used to post on FOS fairly regularly, but the board became quite toxic to visiting fans, especially those from Michigan, when inconsistencies in their conspiracies were pointed out.
The Avant "toe heel" catch was particularly galling to FOS fans... oddly enough, the iffy PI call on Michigan for PSU's go ahead TD in the series before never seems to get mentioned in their narrative...
PSU fans, in real life, have been generally very nice however...
October 30th, 2018 at 2:45 PM ^
The Avant catch will live forever among some.
The root problem: the NCAA simply didn't have anything in their rule book regarding that sort of situation. So the referee honestly could have called that EITHER way and they wouldn't have been wrong.
Rule 7-3-6-XV covers that situation today. The correct ruling would be "incomplete pass."
But that rule didn't exist in the 2005 rule book. That rule first made it's appearance in the 2008 rule book. That rule was likely added as a result of a few toe-heel calls that occurred in games in that era (I also remember the same situation in a 2005 Fresno State/Louisiana Tech game).
So, bottom line: the 2005 Avant call wasn't wrong.
Leon Hall's pass interference: I disagree with you, but fair enough. That sort of stuff just leads down the rabbit hole anyway. Hart, for instance, had a fumble no-called earlier in the quarter. Ki-Jana Carter had a fumble no-called in the 4th Quarter of the 1994 game. On and on it goes.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:46 PM ^
You seem like a very knowledgeable and logical PSU fan so I'm going to ask you this: Why do PSU fans harbor such fierce hate for Michigan? I never realized that they viewed us as one of their arch rivals until I lived in NYC for a while where I'd run into PSU alumni and they'd comment on us being "huge rivals" And if I ran into them when they were drunk, man did they spew some vitriol regarding U-M.
October 30th, 2018 at 2:34 PM ^
I sort of feel that question deserves a whole blog post - there were a lot of "perceived slights" each way in those first few years and some folk on each side have held a grudge all these years:
1989-1990: PSU was, apparently, accepted in the B1G. But then there was some backlash - so then they weren't. Then the actual vote and they made it by literally one vote. Bo made some comments that the PSU folk viewed as a slap against them (though Bo was more mad at Delany). James Duderstadt was one of the "no" votes on Penn State's acceptance.
1990-1992: There was a 2-3 year gap there between PSU being voted in and them actually joining the conference. Their non-Olympics teams got kicked out of the A-10 and had to play as an independent for that period. PSU folk feel that other B1G ADs and coaches didn't help their teams out terribly much from a scheduling POV during that era.
1992-1993: All sorts of various talk from each side. PSU: "the Beast of the East is going to show the B1G what real football is about." U-M/OSU: "time for PSU to play some B1G football instead of playing Rutgers, Temple and Bucknell every week. They won't survive conference play."
1993-1996: PSU's football schedules come out, and they get a bye each of their first 4 games right before Michigan! Also a bye each of their first 2 games right before Ohio State. U-M and OSU folk didn't like that at all and thought PSU was getting favorable treatment.
1993:Michigan wins the first match-up with the infamous goal-line stand. Michigan fans viewed that game, particularly the goal-line stand, as proof that PSU wasn't up to the challenge of B1G football. PSU fans were upset about U-M trying to draw crowd-noise penalties during the game.
1994: PSU had an undefeated elite-level team, but a team that finished #2 to Nebraska. They didn't get much voter support from AP voters in the traditional B1G country. Some PSU folk felt disrespected by that. They felt that folk from B1G country were trying to keep them down.
1995: Game was played 2 days after a (literal) 2-foot plus snowstorm. I vaguely remember Lloyd Carr having some comments prior about "PSU may need to forfeit, we're not moving that game if they can't clear the snow." They did clear the snow from the fields, but not from the stands. Which meant there were lots of snowballs thrown at Michigan players. Amani Toomer took one straight to the eye. Not classy behavior by the PSU folk, for sure.
-------------
Things sort of cooled off from there. But, for those of us old enough to remember that era, it wasn't an overly smooth entry period.
October 30th, 2018 at 7:13 PM ^
Great summary. I remember about half of it. The snowballs were something that I forgot about. Losing the game and getting pelted by snowballs. It was an awful afternoon.
October 30th, 2018 at 5:11 PM ^
Marsh Creek was the other name I couldn't think of. I really need to do a better job with my mental recycle bin.
October 30th, 2018 at 6:10 PM ^
Marsh Creek Eagle was a character. You got his name (mostly) right.
He was a source of insider information, so people would listen to him. But also increasingly angry by the year. He didn't like Joe Paterno, and he took absolute delight in the Sandusky story once it broke. Irrational delight - I didn't really like JoePa either but I wasn't doing victory laps over the story either. Anyway, that led to all sorts of board arguments and he packed up his bags and left a short time after.
Fun times. Every CFB board seems to have its characters.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^
I think David Jones (an Ohio State grad, for what that is worth) is a pretty good writer overall. He has good insights. He's my favorite post-game read on Sunday AM among the PSU writers.
That said, he spends about 20% of his time writing pure troll articles. This is one of them.
And he definitely does have some sort of stick in his butt as regards Harbaugh. He just doesn't like him, refers to him as "Sharkface" all the time. He's been like that since 2014.
Jones is what he is. Don't take him too seriously.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^
yeah, that was basically a not-so-subtle hate article about JH, made worse by the fact that it was based on so many incorrect and foolish assumptions.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^
I mean is sharkface even an insult? Sharks have awesome faces. Incredibly potent senses. Pure killing machines. They possess an attitude any football coach would want to distill into his football team.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:57 PM ^
except with McElwain around he better watch out
October 30th, 2018 at 7:29 PM ^
I don’t see nothing wrong with a little bump and grind
October 31st, 2018 at 8:44 AM ^
My mind is telling me no!!!!!
October 30th, 2018 at 12:57 PM ^
LOL, ok, Jim McElwain.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:04 PM ^
Found McElwain's account.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:51 PM ^
I don't know about an insult, but it's not a good face to have when Jim McElwain is on the staff.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:56 PM ^
Aww, crap, posted the obvious response and then immediately realized I had opened tab quite a while before I had a chance to read it, and of course others had beaten me to the punch.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:07 PM ^
Well, if he does spend 20% of his time "writing pure troll" articles, it makes your point about him being a "good writer overall" completely irrelevant IMO. If a writer spends any time being a troll, it undermines his/her credibility for whatever else they write. I will take your advice though about not taking him too seriously - I won't even click on the link.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^
Yeah, not giving that jag any money.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:41 PM ^
Agreed. 20% troll is 100% troll, with some some moments pretending not to be a troll.
I did make the mistake of clicking on the article. The guy knows nothing whatsoever about Michigan football, and appears to know nothing whatsoever about any other Big ten team. This article is pure fabrication.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:20 PM ^
Sounds like that Steve Politi dude from nj.com who back in 2015 trashed Harbaugh, doing everything but calling him a phony, while simultaneously holding up Kyle Flood as this bastion of morality and a real "man of the people" type.
Good call, dumbass.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:44 PM ^
I just read the title of the article, "Harbaugh might finally get his Big Ten title, but Franklin has Penn State aimed at loftier future", and it was all I could do to not burst out laughing. I don't know what your opinion on Franklin is, NittanyFan, but I don't know how anyone can defend that position with Penn State racing to a meh 9-3 / 8-4 record in Year 5 of Franklin's tenure.
October 30th, 2018 at 3:54 PM ^
If Franklin/PSU goes 8-5 this year, I'm fine with that. It's coming off of 10 and 11 win seasons, of course.
Outside of Alabama, who always goes 12-1, there are plenty of teams that play college football at (on the aggregate) a high level and still have individual seasons that are more "meh." Michigan 2017 and Georgia 2016 to cherry-pick a couple recent examples.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^
Best delusional comment I've seen in awhile!
October 30th, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^
People who act like the B1G is utter shit this year are stupid. PSU is "down" to their usual (no Barkley) selves, OSU lost their semi-usual head-scratcher, and MSU is MSU.
The only real difference is that Michigan is (1) pretty healthy, (2) not rolling with our 2nd/3rd string QB, (3) getting good OL coaching for possibly the first time in Harbaugh's tenure.
Penn State lucked into that championship after getting pantsed by Michigan. Franklin is riding that horse for all its worth.
October 30th, 2018 at 1:47 PM ^
....oh yeah, wasn't that when he said the healing has begun.
BTW, FUCK ped state and all their delusional joepa loving fans and all the paternos!!!
October 30th, 2018 at 2:05 PM ^
Yes, that was. Who knew that lucking into a football championship can heal years of child sexual abuse victims' pain?
Franklin is a fucking scumbag and an idiot. He's easily the 4th best coach in the B1G and even that is debatable. I bet Frost's team kicks PSU's ass when they get rolling - if Franklin hasn't been fired by then.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^
So...
Michigan can never be truly good because Harbaugh will intentionally sandbag his QB...
Penn State, despite not being able to win the B1G East without help every year, is a superior collection of players, with a superior coach, who will get them to championship despite not being able to win the B1G...
Did I get that right? Are we living in some world where Franklin has a winning record against:
Michigan (1-3)
Harbaugh (1-2)
Ohio State/Urban Meyer (1-4)
Michigan State/Mirk Dinininio (1-4)
Wtf kind of Twilight Zone did we just enter here???
October 30th, 2018 at 12:27 PM ^
Did Hoke really beat Penn State in his last season? I blocked all those games from my memory.
October 30th, 2018 at 12:29 PM ^
18-13, UTL