Staturdays

minnesota

  • We Need to Get Better … as Fans

    I don’t know who needs to read this and I hate to break it to you but your opinion sucks and it is wrong. You’ve managed to convince yourself that you found the one reason Penn State lost this football game and it is an argument you won’t budge from no matter what. You are so angry that PSU got upset by Minnesota so you and your brilliant football mind were able to calculate the one big reason that the Nittany Lions weren’t able to get it done.

    Congratulations! You did it! You, in hindsight, were able to decipher why Penn State lost this game and took to the internet to let everyone know. Ricky Rahne (whose last name you’ve probably been pronouncing ‘Rain’) is your culprit, right? Or is it James Franklin, who despite bringing Vanderbilt to its first 9-win season since 1914 and being one of the two active coaches to have won a B1G championship, who needs to be fired immediately? Maybe Sean Clifford needs to be benched and it is time to give Will Levis a chance because “you don’t like what you’ve been seeing out of him”? Brent Pry is overrated and hasn’t been able to coach a half-coherent secondary in his tenure at Penn State, right?

    Give it up. You don’t know what you’re talking about and your emotional tweeting after a loss makes for some cringe-worthy and anger inducing content following an already horrible afternoon. Everything you think is probably right in some ways and completely wrong in all the others. You do not know what goes into scheming for a game. You do not know the different intricacies of every play and what went right and what didn’t. You DEFINITELY don’t know what goes into being a head coach of a football team and you don’t have a better option in mind should our current head coach leave or get fired.

    The Nittany Lions are 8-1 and thousands of tweets have been sent to James Franklin encouraging him to pack his bags and go coach at USC as if that is going to be a solution. And I am not telling you not to be upset at this loss. Many people will say “Well if you said that we’d be 8-1 back in August you’d take it right?” – but I won’t. I understand that context matters and I certainly understand more than the next guy how heartbreaking it is to be ranked #4 for the first time in PSU history under the new CFP system just to have your dreams crushed 4 days later. But what we all need to understand is that winning in College Football is really hard. Only one team can win it all every year and only 4 of 130 can make the playoff. This Penn State program is right on the precipice of that and blowing up the ship because of a minor let-down is borderline insane.

    We need to, as a fan base, step back and take a look at the state of this program. Is there a problem playing ranked teams on the road? Yes. Is Penn State recruiting elite talent and developing NFL prospects and hanging in the top 10 perennially? Also, yes. You tweeting at James Franklin telling him to kick rocks or fire his staff doesn’t help anything. Sending tweets out that “PSU will never win under these XYZ coaches” isn’t really saying anything. It isn’t impressive to say that this one team out of 130 isn’t going to be the best, that is just you playing the odds (99.23% to be exact) and hedging your happiness by trying to “right” instead of positive. Your emotions only serve as a way for you to vent and don’t actually help anything and don’t actually change the outcomes of games and quite frankly nobody wants to see or hear it.

    I’m pissed. I was heartbroken this Saturday afternoon and I haven’t really gotten over it yet. I watched a game that had just about everything go wrong for my team and it still wasn’t until the last offensive play of the game that it was officially over. I am freaking out over this Indiana game because a win or a loss is the difference between any sliver of hope and a complete waste of a once promising season. I’m also extremely thankful that people who are much smarter and better at football than me are the ones taking control of winning next week and all I have to do is watch. I suggest you do the same. We are, 8-1.

  • 4 The First Time

    I am anxious. We spoke a while ago about how if Penn State could go 3-0 in the Iowa/UM/MSU stretch then they would be a national championship contender ranked somewhere in the top 6 of the nation. Well late last night, it was revealed that Penn State would be starting their CFP Committee rankings at #4. Number four. For the first time in committee history, Penn State is ranked in the coveted top 4 meaning that if the season ended today, they would be playing for a national title. This is huge. Just from an optics standpoint and in terms of national conversation, being ranked in the top 4 this late in the season, at any point, is a massive achievement. The work that PSU players and coaches have put in get recognized in a way that no other ranking system could and it really does prove that under Franklin, this program is up there with the nation’s elite. Seeing Sean Clifford in the ESPN top 4 graphic along with the top 3 QBs was enough to give me and most PSU fans alike goosebumps. The excitement has now reached another high and the stakes are now even higher.

    The only problem… the season isn’t over. Not even close. The last 3 game stretch was hard but this upcoming one may be even harder. Starting with a trip to face off against an undefeated Minnesota team, followed by the best Indiana team since the Franklin era began, and concluding with the game that has been circled on everyone’s calendar against the team from Columbus. I’m not going to go through all of the scenarios again because there are really only two: win all three or nothing. I know there are different circumstances that could sway what happens and PSU can find a way to sneak into a B1G championship with a loss, but there is no point in even thinking that way. The College Football Playoff Committee has just told Penn State that they believe they are ELITE and now it is Penn State’s turn to prove it. We must go into Minnesota with swagger and confidence and play our best football because we all know damn well they will be just as motivated as we are.

    There are plenty of people already underestimating the Minnesota team because of their weak strength of schedule, but we all need to remind ourselves that they are 8-0 just like us. They beat the opponents that they had ahead of them and we are no different. They have not faced a defense or offense like ours, but that doesn’t mean they are not up to the task. They have 3 wide receivers who are playing at an extremely high level and will be the toughest core that PSU has seen this far into the season. They have depth at running back and a big strong offensive line that is likely to be another unit that is either the best or close to the best that PSU has seen. And oh yeah – their QB isn’t too bad himself. Truth is, this offense is going to be the best that Penn State has faced this season. We cannot assume that we have more talent and that alone will win us this game, because it will not. A confident team is a dangerous team and Minnesota does not lack any.

    Good news? Penn State doesn’t either. I think we match up well with the Gophers. Their QB is non-mobile which should open up some opportunity for our rested defensive line who I expect to be hungry. They have RB depth but we stop the run really well. Their RBs and TEs don’t pose much of a threat in the passing game, so our DBs can focus their attention a little more straight-up than against an Iowa or Michigan offense. Minnesota has a tough senior filled defense with a lot of talent at DE and LB, but I expect Penn State’s offense to have a great game plan to find ways to get our playmakers the ball and keep the Minnesota defense guessing. And guess what, Noah Cain is listed as RB1 for the first time this season, finally answering Kyle’s question.

    This should be a great game and I expect Penn State to win. I expect the Nittany Lions to go into the game hungry and play their best football late in the already impressive season. I expect that nobody in that locker room is underestimating the talent that the Gophers bring and will understand that the opposition is just as hungry as them. I expect Penn State to be 9-0 and ranked #3 in the country next Tuesday night.

    This team has come a long way. Penn State Football was supposed to be handed the death sentence 8 years ago and they have been nothing but resilient and impressive since. Bill O’Brien and then James Franklin have done a tremendous job not only keeping the program afloat, but allowing it to thrive and continue to grow. What Franklin has done with this program is not talked about enough. In the past four years only Nick Saban (Bama) and Dabo Sweeny (Clemson) have more wins attached to their program than James. If bringing his team to #4 in the country for the first time in program history under the new playoff system WITHOUT Barkley and WITHOUT McSorely and WITHOUT the rest of the superstar talent that left between 2016-2018 (Gesicki, Godwin, to name a few) doesn’t show you that he is one of the best coaches in the country, then I don’t know what will. The talent keeps reloading and it is time to prove that We Are among the elite programs that are contending year in and year out. I couldn’t be more excited than I am right now to say that I support Penn State Football and I am ready for the game this Saturday. We Are 8-0. Lets get that 9th.