Can Franklin achieve what Harbaugh has accomplished?
- Thread starter BrucePa
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Four contracts in nine years for Franklin. He definitely plays Penn State for more money every couple years under the guise of taking another job.
I have a vague recollection that he missed the season with injury, but don't hold me to that!
and yet Cristobal, Fickell, Rhule, Fisher, Tucker and Kiffin are all paid more. In fact, Franklin is about #13 highest paid.
If you‘re talking about winning the Big, Franklin can do it. He did it in 2016, and may have been able to do it in 2017-2018 but lost 4th Q leads to OSU. In 2018, the loss seemed to change the rest of the season. BTW, since 2015, OSU only went undefeated in the Big once, in 2019, but won it multiple times. I’m not counting the weird, Covid shortened 2020 season. Michigan won the Big last year with a conference loss. This is possible for Franklin with his recruiting ability and more effective use of the portal.
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The most notable thing is making adjustments at half-time. Franklin doesn’t do this at all. Harbaugh and his staff have been excellent at it. Come hell or high water, we stick to trying to force the run between the tackles, and throwing to the sideline, short of the 1st down marker.
The other notable thing from this season was Harbaugh wasn’t afraid to put his 2021 starting QB (McNamara) into a platoon situation with McCarthy at the start of the season— something anyone in their right mind would’ve done at Penn State, as well.
Harbaugh didn’t play favorites, and McCarthy took over the starting job in week-3. Now McNamara is transferring to Iowa.
Franklin did play favorites and refused to platoon Clifford no matter how much he struggled, while our star recruit flushed a year’s worth of valuable real-game development and experience down the toilet.
Franklin’s loyalty to Sean was totally irrational, and it was not what was best for the team. Can Franklin match Harbaugh’s achievements? Being a head coach is all about making tough decisions. And that starts with who gets to play and who doesn’t. It’s not show-friends it’s show-business. Franklin needs to be better about making these calls, instead of playing buddy-system.
It should be noted that Franklin won a conference title five years before Harbaugh did. But now all of the sudden Harbaugh is a genius and Franklin is a bumbler.
Come on….. you’re better than that. The whole using “Franklin fanboys” and “sunshine pumper” and “blue colored glasses” sayings as a pejorative is getting old. I’m one of the biggest CJF fans on here and I can admit that scUM has passed PSU and sits with tOSU in the tier-1 category. At least for the past 2 years. Why would me liking CJF have anything to do with that???
From the 247 Team Talent Composite (which was updated just two days ago). It's not a world of a difference between UM and PSU when it comes to overall raw talent. They, however, have been able to recruit and develop talent a bit better than us in some really important positions. Plus, they recruit toward a clearly defined identity they have on offense and do a good job in helping guys that they have really pan out. Teams that can do these things can punch above their theoretical talent weight. I think we will see similar attributes in our Rose Bowl opponent.
Yes. What exactly has harbaugh achieved? Beat OSU twice, won the conference twice, was annointed a playoff team twice. That's it. Franklin did it once, and was one point away from being able to do it two other times.
Franklin was robbed of a playoff spot and betrayed by his own conference. When will harbaugh achieve that? Never, because he coaches michigan and they are special due to their decades of cheating and alumni in high places.
The michigan slobbering is bad enough in the press, seeing it here is nauseating.
Michigan didn't just beat Ohio State twice. They smoked them twice. There were no blocked kicks or funny trick plays. Smoked. Michigan is in different air right now than Penn State. I told you guys earlier this year how you can get there but I don't think Franklin and even moreso Yurcich have the stomach for it
Yawn all you want. We're BEATING Ohio State like a drum. Even mentally now...we've got Ryan Day by the balls. You guys are too worried about trying to BE Ohio State. This isn't trash talk. I watch Penn State alot. There is ZERO excuse for you guys to lose to them next year and Michigan showed Franklin and Yurcich the recipe. You have the players to do it but you have to spend the offseason committing to it with the oline.
Two in a row over OSU after losing 15 of 16. You're on a roll. Keep beating that drum.
We're going to. Thats my point. You can get on board with it or you can sit here and pat yourselves on the back every year for beating 10 mediocre (or worse) football teams
I think this is absolutely the reason. Meatchicken doesn’t have an overabundance of skill players (like tosu or even PSU), but they have found a way to develop big uglies in the trenches better than any other team in the conference. They just grind teams down and then take over in the 4th quarter. Kind of like what UGA does, except UGA has both OL/DL and skill players (and more depth). That said, Franklin needs to scour the portal to fill the trenches on both sides of the ball 2-deep with talent. Then we’ll compete with and beat meatchicken.
Perhaps he would do better to let fans choose who plays and who doesn't. Amazing how one can evaluate team talent without attending a practice.
Harbaugh is just a better coach. His success at Stanford and in the NFL (and now Michigan) bears that out. He’s ruthless in his desire to win and knows what it takes to get there.
James is a good coach, but hasn’t yet proven to be on Harbaugh’s level.
There’s wisdom here. QB play has been a consistent negative theme for virtually all of Franklin’s tenure here.
The next question is why? It took a few years, but Harbaugh fixed his QB problem. In a big way. And he didn’t let player loyalty get in the way of going from good (2021) to great (2022). He brings a ruthless, NFL-like attitude in that way.
It's as if some have short term memory only.
What do those 16 games have to do with the last 2? Ohio State did alot of gloating on the early 2000's after we had dominated them in the 90's. How many games/titles do we need to win in a row to make it okay? Michigan is back to being the best of the Big Ten. We're going to be even better next year. I'm not getting any younger. I'm going to do some gloating while I can
Cool, tell that to the tOSU faithful. So glad you came over here to gloat because fans that do that typically are a-holes....but not you, you're cool.
Yeah, thrilled to be back here but here is the deal on JCF and our return to excellence. Jimmy McMuffin made the move to hire the coach who was with Bret B at Wisconsin and then Arkansas. That guy turned the Michigan linemen into pipe hitters who mauled us this year and Buckeyes this year and last. JCF can recruit, he needs to broaden his expertise to recruit guys that can develop into the monsters we see every year now on the OSU O-Line and the Michigan O and D lines. That's how close we are. How he does it is the story of his future. BUT, by no means should Penn State fans tolerate being behind those two wannabe schools.
Really? Weird, because I pointed to actual things Harbaugh did this season. You came back at me with [checks notes] a feeble ad hominem?
Did you have some substance that you’d like to use to support your brilliant thesis statement or shall we just use your diploma when we run out of TP in the Lion’s Loft women’s room?
It’s weird that you would use this argument to defend Franklin and fail to realize that it does arguably more to condemn him.
So, we’re to believe that in practice — when conveniently no one is watching — Clifford is the best guy on the field? But then on game day… well, we all know the story, don’t we? Here’s an article showing his numbers, in fact:
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This is the best guy we have, is it? That’s the argument you want to stick with? Penn State can’t get ANYONE better at QB?
Penn State is never doomed, ever. Our "down" eras are what other programs dream to be. Look, we wanted Rucci I get it. It hurts when legacy players opt for other schools. But, here is the deal, if Rucci fails to ascend under Fickel, a coach who promotes toughness, then we were better off with Tengwell and Fashanu
They also play kids that are seriously injured without the player knowing according to Cade at 9:30 in this video:
Credit @SDBaller
He hired the former coach from Wisconsin and Arkansas two years ago. That guy is the transformative hire in the BIG.
Hate to say it but Mr Michigan is correct. PSU has the talent to compete with Deliverance Mobs in OH and MI but Harbaugh made great leadership decisions, both with coaches and QBs, and now is the top dog. He commands respect for those relatively quiet decisions. He also is grinding OSU heavily with the "born on 3rd base" mentality. Credit where credit is due. BUT, the beauty is that PSU is a top flight university with the resources to quickly turn the worm and OSU and UM are prone to overlook us despite five decades of excellence.
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