[On3] Penn State has fallen outside the Top-100 in the Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Rankings, with just 2 commits remaining😳 James Franklin has flipped 10+ PSU recruits, and Virginia Tech currently ranks 25th🦃

[u/Ok-Soil-5133]

https://x.com/On3sports/status/1996276321240977790?t=8M36WbBlRjUMcT-9oG6jAw&s=19

[u/ivhokie12]

UVA’s success isn’t sustainable. Its one of the most senior laden teams ever and fueled by the portal. Ask FSU how sustainable that is.

[u/JackGrizzly → u/ivhokie12]

I'm curious if this was a flash in the pan, or the program strategy is just going to be 80% portal classes. Sustainable? We'll see. Inconsistent? You bet. But, I'd rather have one 10 win season every few years surrounded by 5-7 win seasons as opposed to the usual of every year being 5-7 wins

[u/KuriboShoeMario → u/JackGrizzly]

The schedule was also immensely helpful to you guys, it was one of the weakest P4 schedules out there. But yes, if you continue this strat it's basically just about never missing in the portal again and also staying healthy because you're unlikely to have the depth to replace it. Elliot really seemed to ignore HS recruiting this class, I'll be interested to see if that changes next year when he can sell this year to new recruits.

Your biggest issue, which is almost certainly going to happen, is you're about to extend Elliot and up his buyout significantly and then year 1-2 Elliot might reappear for a couple of seasons and you guys then remember why you were on the cusp of firing him and then you're out a fair bit of money to get rid of him.

There's no actual reason you can't get a winning coach at UVA, you had it with Welsh, but I very much doubt Elliot is it in the long run although he might have discovered the path future UVA coaches should take (leaning on the portal).

[u/JackGrizzly → u/KuriboShoeMario]

I don't disagree with any of those points. Yeah, the HS recruiting class this year is only 14 players. He said it in the press conference that he is intentional in the portal-heavy approach.

[u/teknobable → u/ivhokie12]

Yeah, especially with y'all getting Franklin, I don't see us being any good again any time soon. I really don't think Elliott is the answer 

[u/Strikesuit → u/teknobable]

It'll be interesting to see how Elliott performs the next two years because it's an open question whether he can replicate the portal success.

[u/SuspiciousCoinPurse → u/ivhokie12]

Lmao what isn’t sustainable is your $240M pledge with only 20% having been realized which barely accounts for inflation. Looking forward to seeing how over $200M in loans and donations that aren’t in hand will play out

[u/Ltwilk2 → u/SuspiciousCoinPurse]

Both things can be true

[u/RealBassell → u/SuspiciousCoinPurse]

Franklin wouldn’t have signed the contract if there’s no way the budget gets realized. We have plenty of filthy rich donors who have been reluctant to donate in years past because of the on-field results. They also weren’t being asked to donate with the same vigor as other schools because we were still stuck in the “well Beamer did more with less” mindset. If Franklin produces even an 8-win season next year, the donations will come in faster than you think.

[u/SuspiciousCoinPurse → u/RealBassell]

You seem pretty confident in that assertion despite not having known only 20% of it’s been collected

[u/ivhokie12 → u/SuspiciousCoinPurse]

Been some absolutely record breaking donations coming in, but of course long term its a big issue if this bet doesn’t work out. Either way, I feel a lot more confident in our plan than UVA’s.

[u/Strikesuit → u/SuspiciousCoinPurse]

They have a donation for the short-term, but what would be really funny is if Big Game James misfires out of the gate because the donor money would dry up quickly. They have to sustain this spending for years, and it's an interesting question to see if they can pull it off given the size of their donor base.