2014 7-6
2015 7-6
2016 11-3
2017 11-2
2018 9-4
2019 11-2 with Clifford QB
2020 4-5
2021 7-6
I’m not making excuses, I’m just trying to figure out what happened. There is no excuse for the last 2 years but there’s a reason why we lost and it’s not because of talent because we’ve recruited good at all positions including the OL!
2014 7-6
2015 7-6
2016 11-3
2017 11-2
2018 9-4
2019 11-2 with Clifford QB
2020 4-5
2021 7-6
I’m not making excuses, I’m just trying to figure out what happened. There is no excuse for the last 2 years but there’s a reason why we lost and it’s not because of talent because we’ve recruited good at all positions including the OL!
Yeah, you're making excuses. You aren't trying to figure out what happened, you're reaching for anything to justify poor coaching the past 2 years.
COVID? Other coaches delt with it fine. Contracts? Other coaches deal with that all the time. Stadium upgrades? Why on earth would that affect coaching performance? Again, if it did that's just plain stupid.
I'll tell you what went wrong, here you go: Franklin lost his OC and replaced him with someone who ran a completely different system, and didn't let the guy run his system. He tried to make him run our system. Then he replaced that guy with another OC, and what a surprise... the offense looked nothing like what that OC had run in 8 previous years. I wonder why????
Oh, and the offensive line effing sucked in run blocking. For whatever reason, and I'm not going through it with you for the 100th time, they just plain sucked and we couldn't run to save our lives. Then Franklin just decided to keep trying to run, because why not I guess. That's why we lost games, we placed WAY TOO MUCH on Clifford and absent a Heisman contender at QB with an offensive line like that you aren't going to have success if you keep trying to run into a brick wall.
@roaminglion I remember saying many times this was James Franklin fault you must have missed it. I also said I wish he had left for USC or LSU and I said he didn’t deserve a contract extension because he didn’t deserve it because of the play on the field and I really crawled his ass for firing Limegrover. Didn’t I just say there is no excuse? I’ve said more than once that the last 2 years are unacceptable. I’ve said many times that bad decisions have been made the last 2 years and it’s unacceptable..period! I can’t be more plain than that I’m just hoping we get back on track this year. Didn’t you say after the Illinois game last year the contract talks should’ve been handled before or after the season? That’s exactly what I’m saying.
Here is what I think.....and believe! Saban or Day would have this year's Penn State team sitting at 7-0 before Ohio State comes to town....with distractions or not! Now, how does JF go about doing the same thing? It surely can't be by making decisions like he did last year!
Seriously, there is something he just isn't getting year after year. I am at point now where I ALMOST believe WE HERE, could make better game day decisions and win as many games or more than he does!! That's saying that we keep his coaches and ONLY take over the play calling!
What do I know!!! Not much!!! LOL
IMO here is why we are were we are it in regards to win/loss:
- Coaches recruit, develop and coach
- Players play at their level with few microburst
- Coaches have not developed O'line players
- O'line has been really bad for years
- Special teams were not prepared and flat out sucked for several years
- Generally speaking without a solid foundation e.g. O'line, offense isn't going anywhere for the long haul; same goes for defense
- HC runs the ship
- HC may have reached the apex of the Peter Principal
IMO everything will look worlds better if the offensive line can block. I'm telling you the difference would be night and day if we could only run block. The trickle down effect to everything else would be tangible: Passing attack would be more efficient, less turnovers due to 3rd and longs, less pressure on Clifford, less pressure on defense to get stops, etc. etc. etc
He does have responsibilities outside of coaching/recruiting. Now I am going to back up and say that the facilities are important for ....recruiting. But would we allow Joe's Library project to interfere with football? I guess Joe didnt much worry about his or the assistants contracts but that was a different era.
So he, like any other highly paid executive, does not get to say 'I was distracted, sorry we didn't make earnings'. Now maybe he was distracted, if so, he needs to learn to be a better administrator and let others do their jobs. Was COVID a distraction? For sure. Did all schools operate under the same rules? Not really. Did a historical model exist for navigating the problem? NO.
Problems were clear. No offensive line, no backup QB, coaching changes.
Or maybe it was just Sandy's upcoming retirement....
Like Dion basically said, the difference between AL and everybody else is the 'big hogs' in the middle.
I would like to see a moneyball type calculation for football. I have a theory that lots of average QB's are made great by offensive lines. When Marino was great he hardly got rushed or touched. In 94 the great PSU QB was sacked what, 3x all year. AL has had some superstar QB's that I suspect were 80th percentile with a 100th percentile O-line.
So hear is my NFL theory, load up on great offensive lineman and throw away hybrid QB's that nobody else wants. One gets hurt, next man up.
We have proven that good QB's and RB's are impotent behind our offensive Defensive Line.
