Can't let it go? Delusional PSU theories you HAVE to hear
These are from the mouths of a couple ardent PSU fans who relayed to me some of the things other PSU fans talk about. This is what happens when its You vs. The Rational World. More proof that truth is stranger than fictio -- you couldn't make up some of these (#2 and #4 in particular), I mean, unless you actually believed them to be true.
1. ITS THE SANCTIONS -- You've all heard this, but it continues to this day. Why did PSU not have backup linebackers? B/c the sanctions crippled recruiting over the years. Why does the OL suck? B/c for years the sanctions deprived them of having full teams for practice. It's the one excuse that explains everything away, and continues to do so.
2. COACHING CONSPIRACY -- This one's my favorite. We all "know" B1G schools have been negatively recruiting PSU. And coaches who have been most successful at this have been "rewarded" with HC gigs "in PSU's main recruiting territory," to continue that negative recruiting. The proof:
MSU DC Narduzzi --> PA (Pitt)
OSU DC Ash --> NJ (Rutgers)
UM DC Durken --> MD (UMd)
See? You can't deny those "facts." People involved in negatively recruiting PSU for things that aren't PSU's fault (Sandusky, media frenzy, Hackenberg, etc.) are now put in position to further undermine PSU's ability to restock itself.
3. ITS NOT THE COACHES -- Franklin is a great guy and no one could be expected to do well against the forces against him. Oh, and Bill O'Brien? He didn't abandon ship. Rather, he wants to be HC of the Patriots when Gawd retires, so he wanted to get into the NFL as an HC as soon as he could and prepare himself for that.
4. IT'S ACTUALLY ALL HACKENBERG'S FAULT -- Kid was a mess between the ears, and because he sold the program to rely on him so much, he single-handedly tanked the program's recovery. Had the kid been good, we wouldn't be here talking about the demise of PSU. They'd have been winning, getting top recruits as a result, etc.
5. IT'S THE MEDIA'S FAULT. The media LOVES tearing down successful programs. They's rather that USC, PSU, etc. all suck than be successful. (Of course if you take this logic to the extreme... then the media would prefer that all the blue bloods suck, and the national championship be decided between Boise St., Northern Illinois, Connecticutt and Purdue.)
Dudes and dudettes, when you have this much blame to go around ... of course PSU fans can feel victimized by everyone else.
September 25th, 2016 at 2:32 PM ^
less PSU in my life, the better.
September 25th, 2016 at 10:08 PM ^
....and less psu in the B1G is even better!
BTW, FUCK penn state and all their delusional joepa and conspiracy loving fans!!!
September 25th, 2016 at 10:08 PM ^
....and less psu in the B1G is even better!
BTW, FUCK penn state and all their delusional joepa and conspiracy loving fans!!!
September 25th, 2016 at 2:38 PM ^
September 25th, 2016 at 2:44 PM ^
Any comparison between Paterno/PSU and Hoke/Michigan is nuts. The two situations aren't remotely similar.
September 25th, 2016 at 2:52 PM ^
I think it was pretty clear he meant Franklin vs. Hoke, not Paterno vs. Hoke.
James Franklin is the most similar coach to Brady Hoke I've ever seen. Strong recruiter, horrible in game coach, praised for being liked by his players/pushing academics, but sounds stupid in press conferences. Had a few successful, yet kind of flukey, seasons at small programs before being hired, but mostly meh ones. Stepped into a Blue Blood program after they had been down, but failed to actually improve anything.
They are HC twins.
September 25th, 2016 at 3:07 PM ^
hoke had the full 85 scholly limit franklin did not, till last year and as far as i know the BIG only allows 27 signee's a year and 6 early enrollee's. plus psu will have the sandusky black eye forever. don't get me wrong i think franklin is a mac coach at best. but in no way can you compare only being allowed to have 70 scholarshipped athletes to having a bad coach that recruited well. this is the year that you would feel the ramifications the most from the sanctions imo.
September 25th, 2016 at 3:12 PM ^
Well, yes you can compare them. I was already factoring that in. Hoke had one excellent season (11-2). And his 2012 season was also far better than any of Franklin's three.
So, Franklin's handicap for scholarships makes up for the fact that Hoke had far more on the field success.
September 25th, 2016 at 4:22 PM ^
September 25th, 2016 at 4:42 PM ^
You can attribute almost all of PSU's on field issues to scholarship limits;
PSU has a full 85-man complement of scholarships. Franklin has brought in three recruiting classes, of 26, 25 and 20 players, respectively. Their senior class is a little small (12) but that's it.
Michigan has not one but two small classes - the current junior (14) and sophomore (16) classes. Next year they'll be our upperclassmen, and yet, I bet we won't totally suck like PSU does now.
Their primary problem is that their coach is terrible.
September 25th, 2016 at 3:27 PM ^
He really is reminiscent of Hoke, except that I don't know if he even has a particular area of expertise like Hoke did with the defensive line.
September 25th, 2016 at 4:13 PM ^
September 25th, 2016 at 4:15 PM ^
I thought we proved that it was Mattison who had the expertise with the D-Line, thus why we are dominating even now. Hoke now runs Oregon's... well whatever their "defense" resembles.
September 25th, 2016 at 4:30 PM ^
Hoke and Mattison both have good track records as DL coaches. It doesn't have to be an either/or thing. Hoke shared DL duties with Mattison in 1995 and '96, and coached our DL alone from 1997-02.
Saying that Hoke was/is a good DL coach doesn't mean he's a good DC. He might be bad, although Oregon's defense has been terrible for a few years, so I don't know how much of a reclamation project that was.
September 26th, 2016 at 1:22 PM ^
They've had six four-star defensive recruits total in the last four classes. Except for 2011 I can't remember a Michigan class that had fewer than five.
September 25th, 2016 at 6:53 PM ^
September 26th, 2016 at 3:44 PM ^
"I will not hire an assistant coach until I've seen his wife."
I can't imagine those words coming out of Brady Hoke's mouth. Or imagine Hoke personally involving himself in the selection of program hostesses, or "reaching out" to one of the hostesses he'd selected in the aftermath of her alleged sexual assault by one of his players.
Bringing in James Franklin in the Sandusky aftermath was the worst hire in the history of hiring. They'll probably go after Art Briles next.
September 25th, 2016 at 2:56 PM ^
September 25th, 2016 at 4:24 PM ^
"Because of the prior regime's actions"
Fuck outta here.
September 25th, 2016 at 5:02 PM ^
were, a third world Big Ten power whose fans want to crown them as victims of circumstance. If you want to crown them, be my guest, but they are what we thought they were, their fan base and coach be damned.
September 25th, 2016 at 10:11 PM ^
Hey, Denny Green is on MGoBlog!!!
September 25th, 2016 at 4:25 PM ^
If you are open about being in denial of Hoke's foibles and irrationally supporting him, why should anyone listen to anything you have to say now?
September 25th, 2016 at 2:37 PM ^
Penn State fans just need to shut the hell up.
September 25th, 2016 at 2:37 PM ^
who cares? we kicked their ass. onward...
September 25th, 2016 at 3:15 PM ^
September 25th, 2016 at 2:38 PM ^
September 25th, 2016 at 2:49 PM ^
It's Sandusky's fault for his heinous actions. It's JoePa's fault for condoning it and not reporting it. It's the administration's fault for not doing anything about it. The problem wasn't one person. An entire system and its people were at fault. Now though? Now, it's the fans fault for continuing to glorify a person that they know is wrong. I don't care how much of a positive impact JoePa had on his players. That doesn't erase the magnitude of the mistake he made and the lives that were ruined.
September 25th, 2016 at 2:39 PM ^
I don't know about you guys but I certainly agree with all of their points, which is why I strongly support a contract extension for James Franklin at PSU.
September 25th, 2016 at 3:02 PM ^
Original comedy from jmblue! Never heard a fan use that one.
September 25th, 2016 at 4:18 PM ^
Like a Kirk Ferentz contract extension.
September 25th, 2016 at 2:39 PM ^
Have a source very very close to team and I can tell you they don't like him. Sorry to be one of those fake insider types we all love to loathe but it's good information.
September 25th, 2016 at 2:42 PM ^
September 25th, 2016 at 2:50 PM ^
September 25th, 2016 at 10:15 PM ^
....or how do I get to be an assistant for Jim???
September 25th, 2016 at 2:40 PM ^
One of the beat writers was saying that Michigan had so many more seniors than Penn State. Take your loss like a man.
September 25th, 2016 at 2:45 PM ^
That's because our program managed to avoid enabling a serial child rapist for decades and hence, we were not sanctioned by the NCAA four years ago. Funny how things work out.
September 25th, 2016 at 2:41 PM ^
seems like a well thought out, good and reasonable idea.
September 25th, 2016 at 2:49 PM ^
If Penn State had not been in the B10, then maybe they keep talent like Mke Hart, Terelle Pryor, and Chad Henne out of the hands of their biggest B10 rivals (to say nothing of the NJ pipelinfe that Michigan opened up).
So I would agree to the extent that Penn State ccoming into the B10 ultimately is the reason they haven't be and wil never be the power they have been...
Just so, Nebraska will never be the power that they were in the Big 12....but the Big 12 is a more complicated situation...but Nebraska had access to the Texas pipeline and they no longer do.
I go for that one because I hate for a good conspiracy theory to go to waste
September 25th, 2016 at 2:55 PM ^
September 25th, 2016 at 9:05 PM ^
http://dataomaha.com/huskers/state/TX
http://dataomaha.com/huskers/state/CA
The only name that I recognized off hand from the Texas list was Turner Gill's. When you look at the California list, I see a lot of familiar names....not so umch with Florida, though...Nebraska recruited Texas more than Florida, it eems.
September 26th, 2016 at 3:22 PM ^
had one player from Texas. The top states were Nebraska (34), California (11), Michigan (6) and Illinois (5); 64 of 88 were from what's now the Big Ten if you include the Dakotas. The first team All-Americans on the team were Larry Jacobson (South Dakota), Rich Glover (New Jersey), Willie Harper (Ohio), Johnny Rogers and Jeff Kinney (Nebraska), Jerry Tagge (Wisconsin)--all (extended) B1G footprint.
September 25th, 2016 at 3:24 PM ^
"So I would agree to the extent that Penn State ccoming into the B10 ultimately is the reason they haven't be and wil never be the power they have been..."
Back during their heyday as an independent PSU got to pick their own refs. It wasn't a big secret that if they didn't like someone they weren't invited or weren't invited back. The closest I can think of is the refs at ND who regularly made what seemed to be awful calls from the outside.
Look back to the season Alabama thrashed them. The refs gave ND wins vs Stanford and Pitt. Those are type of seasons that regularly happened in Happy Valley until joining the B10. IMHO, independent PSU=independent ND.
September 25th, 2016 at 9:10 PM ^
with the inclusion of Penn State (which is really where they belonged in the first place) is another interesting question...
The conference would still be a basketball powerhouse and then adding Penn State to Miami, Va. Tech, Pitt, and Syracuse...natural rivalries all over the place...who knows whether the Big East would be around and quite forminable if Penn State had joined.
EDIT: Must include the counter-argument
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/zeise-is-right/2016/09/08/Paul-Zeise…
September 25th, 2016 at 10:06 PM ^
Most of you have probably never heard of Stan Ikenberry. But more than anyone else ---- he is the man most responsible for PSU's invitation to the Big Ten. He was the Illinois President in 1989 and had previously been in an administrative position at Penn State. Because of such, he had a strong personal relationship with then-PSU President Bryce Jordan.
The first expansion conversations occurred between Ikenberry and Jordan --- Ikenberry took the idea to the Big Ten's "Council of Ten" (10 B1G Presidents), and then things went from there.
Jordan has been quoted several times as saying the thing he was most proud of during his tenure as PSU President was (paraphrasing) "bringing PSU into the nation's premiere academic and athletic conference." That was his legacy. Well, that, and having his name on a 80% empty basketball arena.
Personal relationships and legacy-building matter. And even if PSU had joined the Big East, Jordan would have been approached. And Jordan would have listened. I do think that PSU to the Big Ten was likely inevitable regardless of what did/did not transpire with the Big East in the 1980s.
September 26th, 2016 at 1:47 PM ^
They also played a schedule based around the other eastern independents. And while Pitt, Syracuse, WVU and BC all had good stretches in those years, they were all inferior to the Michigans and Ohio States of the world at the end of the day.
September 25th, 2016 at 2:43 PM ^
September 25th, 2016 at 2:49 PM ^
September 25th, 2016 at 2:56 PM ^
thats how losers are. you just got wrecked 49-10, but all you can do is brag about how your obese kicker ran and knocked someone down. wow, really impressive.
September 25th, 2016 at 3:07 PM ^
It actually is pretty impressive that a guy that huge could get down the field so quickly. The PSU defense could use someone like that...