I think it’s pretty evident at this point that sometime in December Matt Rhule will be named Head Coach. He basically confessed his love for Penn State openly yesterday while generically saying how much Nebraska means to him. There are bigger forces at play here and they have a voice. Franklins firing and higher Rhule, a Paterno player, is an obvious appeal to bring in more donors that may have withdrawn or withheld due to the way Franklin carried himself and ran the team. It’s not 1994 anymore, I do not believe this is smartest choice to launch Penn State into the top tier of CFB. Penn State will continue to fall victim to a traditional way of doing things that has not worked in decades while other teams adapt and maneuver. Rhule is more similar to Franklin than he his different from a team building perspective with no real accomplishments outside of trending a program upward. Perhaps he brings Raiola with him and that could be a fringe benefit for a season while he collects himself. This fan base has tasted blood and Rhule won’t have 12 years to prove himself. Nebraska is a shaky 5-1 and won’t make the playoffs so the mid December timeline works perfectly. I really hope I’m wrong about Rhule but as of right now I don’t see it. Rhule is 2-23 against the Top 25, he’s 0-11 against top 10 teams. He’s 0-18 against ranked teams since leaving Temple. He’s never made a college football playoff. Rhule has the two most important tangibles you can have right now though, he’s a relic from the Paterno era and he vacations with Pat Kraft. Welcome home Matt Rhule.
My thoughts exactly and I also think this move will cost Kraft his job.
We are well into the 21st century and people that think doing things the way it was done in 1986 is the way to go are completely out of touch.
The Paterno way and the old Penn State way of running a football program are dead.
@psujoe when was james Franklin and Bob ever Joe Paterno guys? It may be Joe Paterno guys we need because James Franklin turned into a shit show and I believe Larry Johnson would’ve done a better job than Bob did. LJ. Sr would’ve been able to hold on to Silas Redd and the WR we lost to Oklahoma I can’t remember his name and we don’t lose to Ohio. I believe we win 10 or 11 games had LJ Sr took over in 2012 that was a team built for a NC run. Bob never felt the sanctions and we go 8-4 and 7-5
Franklin was definitely not a Paterno guy and we see how that ended up, lol!
In the end JF ran what appeared to be clean program and did well based on the circumstances. His fault was being to loyal to players and assistant coaches, and recruiting the wrong style of player for some positions. If I recall, JoePa did the same thing regarding loyalty to players and assistant coaches.
In today's game, the HC has to be a master of relationship leadership and understand all the puzzle pieces e.g. portal, NIL, coaching staff moving on fairly quickly, booster money, getting out of the way of competent assistants and letting go of ones not, etc. The portal piece is really about understanding how to use it and maybe even prioritize to some degree over traditional recruiting for certain positions.
If your bird hunter this will make sense: it's great to buy a pup from great lines, train the pup and go hunting to see what you got along the way, but it can be a lot cheaper to buy a started pup or a cast away b/c you know what your getting for the most part without going through 2-3 years of development time and cost...
I am not so sure Rhule is going to be the hire here...Part of this is wishful thinking on my part as I don't think he is the right person for this job...I am going to sit back and see how this process works itself out...One thing I am certain of is that this is going to be entertaining and interesting...
@the-funeral-director what’s wrong with Matt Rhule? Dude has Nebraska smelling winning again and that place was a dumpster fire when he took over. I like Matt and imo he’d be a great fit.
