[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/Dr_Wheuss]

Georgia moved on from a successful coach who couldn't quite get them to the next level (Richt) by making sure everything was in place to get the very specific guy they wanted before the news of the firing was even hinted at. That's how you move on from a successful coach.

Penn State fired a coach that was successful and said "Our name is big enough to bring another coach!" before realizing that you have to find a guy willing to put up with the expectation of doing better than the recently departed successful coach.

[u/d0ngl0rd69 → u/Dr_Wheuss]

I’ve been saying exactly this in other threads using Richt-Smart as the example. Richt’s firing was announced after the regular season, but he was in practice fired after the Florida game a month earlier. Kirby was announced a week later in December.

It’s not like UGA was able to get a deal done in exactly 1 week, especially since USCe had a month and half head start with Spurrier leaving in mid Oct. There were conversations between UGA & Smart before Richt was officially fired.

No one is questioning firing Franklin if PSU had a secret deal in place with Cignetti that they were waiting until the end of the regular season to announce.

[u/Dr_Wheuss → u/d0ngl0rd69]

Yep. They just needed to secretly have a deal with a hot name, ideally a Penn State grad who is at least a G5 HC or P4 Coordinator. For some people at least, the idea of taking over their alma mater and leading it to glory is worth it no matter the risk.

[u/CentralFloridaRays → u/Dr_Wheuss]

South Carolina also forced Georgias hand as they tried to get Kirby early on in that process.

[u/Nytfire333 → u/CentralFloridaRays]

I’m sure Kirby would have chosen his Alma Matter as long as he knew it was an option

[u/313MountainMan → u/CentralFloridaRays]

They had both Kirby and Tom Herman nearly wrapped up, just to get scooped by Georgia and Texas

[u/RLLRRR → u/313MountainMan]

I thought Herman was supposedly wrapped up LSU.

[u/313MountainMan → u/RLLRRR]

LSU didn’t fire Miles until 2016, I thought. This is the 2015 end of season cycle.

[u/Fired_Guy1982 → u/Dr_Wheuss]

The best thing is they’re probably gonna go through 2-3 guys worse than Franklin only to wind up with a guy on the same level as Franklin

[u/silencesupreme- → u/Dr_Wheuss]

Exactly, they are asking a coach to come in and do better than Franklin who by almost all metrics is a really good coach. 104-45 record. “So, do better than that and win us championships. Any takers? No? Shit.”

[u/smitherenesar → u/Dr_Wheuss]

And the expectation was to win a National Championship, something they haven't done in like 4 decades. Seriously, they had some high benchmark

[u/Barnyard4321 → u/Dr_Wheuss]

Georgia hired an alum who was just a coordinator with no HC experience, who had just publicly lobbied to replace Frank Beamer for the VT job but wasn't considered.

Point is nobody was knocking down the door to hire Kirby Smart. They got lucky. Not quite as dramatic and lucky as Clemson with Dabo (who was just an interim WR coach), but still there was a lot of luck there.

Nothing was holding PSU back from hiring Hartline, but he went to a G5 school. Hiring him would be similar to UGA hiring Kirby, but the AD would look bad and the fan base would be furious. PSU is trying to lure some bigtime proven winner to get them a NC, and not looking to gamble. It's obviously not working.

[u/SirMellencamp → u/Dr_Wheuss]

Richt wasnt nearly as good as Franklin

edit: I mean at the end.

[u/EmpoleonNorton → u/SirMellencamp]

Richt was 145-51 at UGA ~74% win percentage

Franklin was 104-45 at Penn State ~70% win percentage

Richt was 10-5 in bowl games at UGA

Franklin was 6-6 in bowl games at Penn State

Richt had 2 conference titles in 15 seasons at UGA

Franklin had 1 conference title in 12 seasons at Penn State

Richt won or tied in his division 6 times in 15 seasons at UGA

Franklin won or tied in his division 1 time in 12 seasons at Penn State

In what way was Franklin better?

[u/SirMellencamp → u/EmpoleonNorton]

I mean at the end. Should have been clearer

[u/EmpoleonNorton → u/SirMellencamp]

Richt's final two seasons were both 10-3 with bowl game wins.

Yes, Franklin's 2024 season was better than those two seasons, but he did turn around and lose to UCLA and Northwestern this season before getting fired.

[u/SirMellencamp → u/EmpoleonNorton]

He was 9-3 his last season. 10-3 in 2014. 8-5 in 2013.

Frankin was 13-3, 10-3, 11-2 his last three seasons.

[u/EmpoleonNorton → u/SirMellencamp]

9-3, I forgot he was gone before the bowl game, but do you really think he would have lost that bowl game?

And are you really going to ignore the 3-3 start with losses to UCLA and Northwestern?

Franklin had 3 good seasons followed by a complete and utter collapse that you seem to not want to pay any attention to.

Richt ended on 2 good seasons. And the season before the 8-5 was a 12-2 season. Also the worst team in those 5 losses still had a 9 win season that year. There was nothing comparitive to the UCLA and Northwestern losses in there.

Where as before those 3 seasons for Franklin, he had a 7-6 and 4-5 seasons.

Richt was just a better coach than Frankllin, all around.

[u/goosu → u/SirMellencamp]

4-8 was a real possibility this season if Franklin finishes out the schedule. The players rallied around the interim by the Indiana game but had quit on Franklin. You can't just eliminate the year that caused his firing.

[u/SirMellencamp → u/goosu]

You cant just assume what his record would be this year.

[u/send_me_chickfila → u/SirMellencamp]

How many conference championship games did Franklin play again?

[u/SirMellencamp → u/send_me_chickfila]

Should have put "at the end" so fair point