[Postgame Thread] Northwestern Defeats Penn State 34-13

[u/CFB_Referee]

Box Score provided by ESPN

Team	1	2	3	4	T
Penn State	0	7	0	6	13
Northwestern	10	14	7	3	34

[u/surgingchaos]

Three things can be true at the same time.

• Penn State was correct to can James Franklin despite it being an unprecedented firing. He was not recovering from that Oregon/UCLA/Northwestern death spiral and the context surrounding it.

• Penn State had first crack at the carousel and they bungled the entire hiring process.

• RANK NORTHWESTERN YOU COWARDS!!!

[u/RulersBack → u/surgingchaos]

Perfect storm of a fuckup. They dragged their feet big game hunting while a ton of good jobs came open and it was too late

[u/surgingchaos → u/RulersBack]

Yup and their AD also disregarded G6 candidates. A huge mistake given that both UCLA and Florida got clear upgrades there.

[u/ziegwaffle → u/surgingchaos]

Chesney was my #1 pick. In addition to the success he was having, he was a PA guy. Would've been a good fit.

And after hearing his offer to Lanning to check in on Dante Moore at the hospital, i just like the guy even more now.

[u/Sp3ctre7 → u/surgingchaos]

Obviously there is a TON of settling to be done, you can't make a judgement on a coach being a true upgrade in the first year unless they win 3-4 more games than the previous year OR get a bowl/playoff win, but Florida looks to have done very well with their hire.

[u/surgingchaos → u/Sp3ctre7]

I agree, it's more of the fact that Penn State eliminated options that could have potentially helped them. Especially since they dragged their feet so much on the hiring process.

[u/deptofnahmsayns → u/surgingchaos]

They tried to win the coaching cycle and because they were first to market a lot of the potential hires got big assurances from their current schools before the season ended.

I get why they had to fire Franklin when they did but maybe they could have landed a higher profile before another AD had time to lock things down.

[u/Boomhauer_007 → u/Sp3ctre7]

UCLA has already surpassed their win total from last year lol, obviously we are not as big of a program as Florida but relatively speaking the switch was just as much of a home run

[u/johneaston1 → u/Boomhauer_007]

If we win this weekend we'll have matched our win total from last year too

[u/Docnoq → u/johneaston1]

We already have matched our win total from last year, we went 4-8 last year. This week is our chance to surpass it

[u/Herewego27 → u/johneaston1]

We went 4-8 last year, and we're already at 4-0 to match our wins from laat year. A win today puts us a 5-0.

[u/Captain_Nipples → u/Sp3ctre7]

As of right now, Florida looks like the best team in the country (to me anyways)

[u/Jackson3125 → u/Captain_Nipples]

Smart not to watch the Georgia game last week. It wouldn’t have been good for your mental health.

[u/Captain_Nipples → u/Jackson3125]

OU handed them most of their points. Even Kirby admitted that

[u/JoeWim → u/surgingchaos]

People were calling Sumrall a bad hire when Florida picked him up. I’m not sure Penn State made a bad decision there based on what was known at the time.

[u/Dangerous_Golf_7417 → u/RulersBack]

Hey, they may have managed to fuck over A&M by having us extend Elko

[u/Blaine1111 → u/RulersBack]

Honestly maybe theres a reason we had like 5 seasons of Matt Campbell appearing in coaching search lists but never getting hired

[u/LogicianMission22 → u/surgingchaos]

Seriously, these fuckers had the first dibs on coaches and their fans must be PISSED. Florida and UCLA looking good, and PSU could have had either Sumrall or Chesney.

[u/goodsam2 → u/LogicianMission22]

Sumrall felt like an SEC coach from the start. Getting him to go north would be something.

Some guys stick to their coast.

[u/Sryan597 → u/LogicianMission22]

While I am biased and didn't want them to take Sitaki, I think they were so focused on him, it kinda wasted a lot of time and resources on their search. Plus, I don't think he would have worked out as at Penn State anyway, esspcily recruiting wise.

[u/LogicianMission22 → u/Sryan597]

Sitake is a good coach but just not a good fit for the east coast or mid west. He’s fine at BYU, but I could see him having decent success at west coast teams like USC, UO, or UW.

[u/Another_Name_Today → u/LogicianMission22]

Don’t you put that evil on me Ricky Bobby.

[u/Mattp55 → u/Sryan597]

I agree with what u said. I don’t think Sitake would be better than Campbell (even after tonight) for PSU. 

Kraft is a fool for locking in on Sitake 

[u/IThoughtThisWasVoat → u/surgingchaos]

Something that Nebraska learned. It’s not easy to hire good coaches after firing successful ones.

[u/92fordtaurus → u/IThoughtThisWasVoat]

Only Georgia and LSU are immune to that for some reason.

[u/BoogerSugarSovereign → u/92fordtaurus]

Extremely good local recruiting advantage I'm guessing 

[u/Patrick2701 → u/surgingchaos]

They could just hired Bob Chesney but Pat Kraft wanted a big name to take a step down job.

[u/Salty_Dog3 → u/Patrick2701]

😊😊

[u/ironwolf1 → u/Salty_Dog3]

I’m gonna die mad about this one, I was banging the drum for Chesney as soon as Franklin was fired. Gonna hurt like hell when y’all beat us whenever we next play.

[u/dkviper11 → u/Patrick2701]

I think Chesney might be good but I had serious reservations about hiring a coach that never had spent a single season with a P4 program. Everyone wanted to compare him to Cig but Cig spent his life around major programs, including a long stint with Alabama.

[u/InspiroHymm → u/dkviper11]

That is fair. Chesney was however on IU's hot board even back when he was at Holy Cross. (So was NDSU's Matt Entz)

Leipold does show the risk of moving up many levels without prior experience, but I guess you win some and you lose some

[u/dkviper11 → u/[deleted]]

That’s a totally different scenario. He played at the most stable program of all time and then was an assistant at multiple major programs.

[u/goodsam2 → u/Patrick2701]

Chesney felt like low floor high ceiling pick... Seems like we are getting the high ceiling version of this.

[u/Electromotivation → u/surgingchaos]

UCLA is pretty good now, even if they lose to Oregon.

*Has the potential to be the first JMU franchise loss of the season

[u/UCLA_FB_SUCKS → u/Electromotivation]

i don't know about that just yet; if we are then i'll have to change my username to u/UCLA_FB_IS_PRETTY_GOOD

[u/PresidentRevrac → u/Electromotivation]

You have the JMU-Indiana branch, JMU-California, and JMU prime

[u/Wolfebane86 → u/surgingchaos]

All of this is true! RANK NORTHWESTERN

[u/goodsam2 → u/surgingchaos]

I think the death spiral was real but you need a better plan and the Penn State AD fucked this up.

IMO Penn State would have looked better with a high school recruiting class they just sent down the drain being idiots. These coaches fight for inches and Penn State AD gave Campbell a handicap with the high school class

[u/Mattp55 → u/goodsam2]

Ur spot on tbh. 

I like Franklin, but the man couldn’t even answer a question if he wanted to be our coach. 

Kraft is a fool and I’m willing to give Campbell some time because this roster just plain STINKS this season

[u/narcbynight08 → u/surgingchaos]

Best take

[u/BlurryGojira → u/surgingchaos]

That’s also my take. I was actually pretty shocked Penn State fired Franklin even when I thought it was the right call. I didn’t think they’d actually have the guts to do it when Franklin also did a ton of work to build the program back up.

I just couldn’t believe how long they dragged their feet on committing to someone. It’s like they were riding this high of the satisfaction of firing Franklin after so many frustrating seasons, sobered up, and started panicking.

[u/Captain_Nipples → u/surgingchaos]

They got Matt Rhule and Cignetti a hell of a deal though (and it looks like a few others)

[u/IAmNotKevinDurant_35 → u/surgingchaos]

Part of canning James Franklin is committing to a full rebuild. It might get worse before it gets better. They might have fumbled the coaching search but it’s still too early to say. I say this as someone who is about to go through this process yet again

[u/Mattp55 → u/[deleted]]

Yup not only does the team  sucks  ass, but you also have   people make horrific child rape jokes to you to bait a reaction or act like they’re better than you.  

[u/Abeds_BananaStand → u/surgingchaos]

In alll seriousness, who were the big name alternatives they did (or should) have chased?

I don’t remember

[u/arbadak → u/surgingchaos]

I thought it was a mistake then and still think it was a mistake.

[u/m1a2c2kali → u/surgingchaos]

He was not recovering from that Oregon/UCLA/Northwestern death spiral and the context surrounding it.

Man maybe not that year but if Luke fickell can recover from the Wisconsin death spiral no reason James Franklin couldn’t have. Now whether he would have been able to get to the heights penn state wanted idk but I still think he deserved a year to try to right the ship.

[u/Mattp55 → u/m1a2c2kali]

Man we looked like shit vs FIU (10-0 at half) and had @Iowa, @OSU, and IU coming up. 

It was Joever as soon as they lost to Oregon. The effort level was abysmal by Northwestern, dude even got asked if he wanted to be our coach and he wouldn’t answer it….

[u/m1a2c2kali → u/Mattp55]

Not gonna argue that last year wasn’t a disaster class, but I think he earned one terrible year and an offseason especially after winning a couple big playoff games just the year prior.

[u/Mattp55 → u/m1a2c2kali]

Man if he wasn’t an all time historically bad 4-24 in top 10 games he would have. 

He was 1-11 vs OSU, what’s crazy is that series was 13-14 when he showed up. It’s not even considered a rivalry anymore we got smoked so bad! 

[u/smitherenesar → u/surgingchaos]

Sharone Moore is available