3rd straight 10 win season
- Thread starter PSUJam
- Start date
We played all three in two of those four years. Somehow Air Force was left off the schedule in the other two.
I'm not arguing against the OP's intent; I think the consecutive 10 win seasons in this climate of college football is a tremendous accomplishment, as is the # of wins vs P4 Bowl-eligible teams. Kudos to Franklin and all around. I won't compare the college football of today vs. pre-Playoff/NIL/Xfer seasons. It's a different animal in that it is much tougher for coaches in a variety of ways.
Franklin has done a great job. Outside of a very few schools, it has been shown that winning 9+ games per season consistently is quite a feat. 10 wins, 3 consecutive seasons? We PSU fans should appreciate that with admiration and pride.
But when looking back at college football as a whole in the 70s, for example, the Eastern Independents are comparable to any other Conference in the imbalance of power. The Big Ten was called the Big Two for a reason. The SEC played each other in such a hit-and-miss fashion that two teams from that conference sometimes met in the Sugar Bowl. The ACC was often a one-hit wonder of a conference. The Pac 8(!) was USC.... and the flavor du jour. The SWC (again, 8 teams), was Texas and maybe Arkansas. The Big 8 was usually Oklahoma and Nebraska. Those conference champions didn't beat many - sometimes any - other top 5 teams, either. Gotta look at the whole of college ball at the time.
Paterno did not under-perform. He wanted a challenging schedule while still supporting the Eastern Independents. He was a leading advocate for playing more intersectional games to raise the prominence of Eastern football in general, to show the Eastern schools could play with the rest of the country. Pitt and others benefited from that. PSU had often had an interesting intersectional schedule outside of the affiliation, but Paterno took it to another level. His teams consistently played a variety of teams from each of the conferences - the same teams that the Big Two from those conferences got credit for beating without challenge.
The 1982 NC Team played the most difficult regular season schedule in history. They also were the first NC team to have more passing yards than rushing yards.
We long-time PSU fans have been fortunate to have cheered all those great players, great teams, and great coaches - especially Joe - and that is the on-field legacy that should be kept in mind, not torn down. Joe's tremendous impact on his players over 46 seasons speaks for itself, as probably 99% of those players revere him to this day.
Franklin is a different person than Joe, that's ok. He has to do things his way given the current state of the game. Again, all kudos to him and staff and players and teams. Well done, CJF.
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