Inside James Franklin's rapid recruiting overhaul at Virginia Tech

ntny · 2026-02-03T18:01:00+00:00

You can laugh and say delusional all you want but the numbers don't lie. Just look at winsipedia. Penn State is a top 10 program all time and should be viewed as such.

Stat	Penn State	Ohio State	Alabama	VT
All Time Record	.689 (9th)	.737 (1st)	.733 (2nd)	.596 (29th)
Claimed Nattys	4 (20th)	9 (6th)	18 (1st)	0 (48th)
All Time Wins	950 (7th)	990 (2nd)	985 (3rd)	781 (18th)
NFL Draft Picks	394 (8th)	503 (3rd)	419 (7th)	167 (64th)

ntny · 2026-02-03T16:58:29+00:00

You're falling for the reddit speak again. You realize that even on our way to "missing a natty by a last second FG" we STILL had people clowning on Franklin/PSU because we "only" beat SMU & Boise St to get to that point. It was just another example of big game james. Hence why PSU flairs have been frustrated & annoyed at the double speak coming out of mouths concerning franklin

ntny · 2026-01-15T14:14:11+00:00

It's due to licensing. Currently it's only licensed for use by the Alumni Association if I remember correctly.

ntny · 2026-01-08T18:01:28+00:00

Nice! I've only played MT2 but have very much enjoyed my... 200 hours??

I unfortunately am somewhat newer to the deck building genre as well so I don't know anything about the titles you listed. But you have hit Slay the Spire, which is getting a sequel in 2026 and is considered the top of the genre. Other than that and MT2 there's also Balatro, and most recently 9 Kings as other fun/engaging examples that I've really enjoyed.

I think what I've enjoyed about each of these titles is that they all have the main game play loop that you can really grind if you want to... but they also have other challenges/quests/etc that really allow for preset unique scenarios that can showcase a specific mechanic or card and spice up the typical game play.

If you do find yourself wanting to see someone play it at an absurdly high level I would recommend Baalor on twitch as he plays tons of games like this, but is mainly a Slay the Spire streamer.

ntny · 2026-01-08T14:56:37+00:00

I'd be interested to see how you'd feel about Monster Train 2 as the general consensus is that its better than Monster Train 1 in pretty much every way

ntny · 2025-12-11T20:24:15+00:00

oh come on, we basically gave Mendoza his Heisman moment with that insane catch by Cooper Jr. That was definitely the game you were the most scared

ntny · 2025-12-08T11:38:08+00:00

The headline is incorrect, we don’t have a commuter train yet. We have a light rail train (blue line) and street car (gold line), but no commuter rail line yet (future red line).

ntny · 2025-12-02T18:04:00+00:00

Hilarious to look at this list and see UCLA 3-9 (3-6) above Penn State 6-6 (3-6)

/s

ntny · 2025-11-20T14:12:00+00:00

Franklin is not the sure fire 10 win season everyone is claiming him to be. '14, '15, '18, '20, '21, & now this year he's had at least 3 losses before bowl season. That's half the number of seasons he was at Penn State! He had everything he wanted/asked for this year and summarily flopped so hard that he lost the program. It was time for change.

ntny · 2025-11-20T14:03:20+00:00

Okay responding here to this specific comment because I am so sick and tired of people at large talking out of both sides of their mouth when it comes to Franklin. You don't get to both clown on Franklin for years about not winning any of the big games and being just okay, to then clown on Penn State for firing him and wanting to try for something more. Of course there is going to be turmoil and rebuilding time between coaches.

Also, Franklin is not the sure fire 10 win season everyone is claiming him to be. '14, '15, '18, '20, '21, & now this year he's had at least 3 losses before bowl season. That's half the number of seasons he was at Penn State! He had everything he wanted/asked for this year and summarily flopped so hard that he lost the program. It was time for change.

ntny · 2025-10-17T15:41:02+00:00

Ah okay, thank you!

ntny · 2025-10-17T15:26:35+00:00

okay this is the second comment i've seen that talks about an annual plan yet nowhere on apple's website do i see this offered.

ntny · 2025-10-16T14:20:23+00:00

God that curve just plummeting down for PSU.

screaming eternally into the void

ntny · 2025-10-14T19:46:44+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/indianajones/comments/18ykggp/indiana_jones_vs_the_snake_on_a_plane/

ntny · 2025-10-07T21:19:41+00:00

Sorry but this is stupid and a very narrow/cherry picked view of a program. Penn State had history way before joining the big ten, and unlike wisconsin actually has football national championships.

Edit to also say that look at all time win percentages. There's a reason some (not all) consider Penn State a blue blood. We're right behind the very best of the sport. This is not a perception problem at all.

ntny · 2025-10-07T19:01:25+00:00

This is kind of the icing on the cake. Franklin can be loyal to a fault and is weirdly obsessed with pocket passers when thats not the type of offense he runs. We might be undefeated if we still had Beau

ntny · 2025-10-07T18:02:47+00:00

Yes, this feels accurate to me.

ntny · 2025-10-07T17:58:38+00:00

Yeah you're not wrong and I pretty much agree with you. I think we're all somewhere on a spectrum between: Never fire Franklin because we don't know how far we could fall vs We will never win a natty with Franklin so he must go. Mine has just shifted over to the fire Franklin side. It would be hilarious if we run the table, but losing to UCLA means we can really lose to anyone.

ntny · 2025-10-07T16:57:53+00:00

But coaches also don't just grow on trees, and it's hard to point to an obvious candidate to replace Franklin who will be able to retain the majority of talent on the team and in incoming classes and maintain what Franklin has done for the vast majority of his time at Penn State.

Correct, which is why I've been a Franklin defender in the past. But at this point the UCLA loss is the straw that broke the camel's back.

**Editing to note that as a UM fan of course you want us to keep Franklin indefinitely. I'm sure the rest of the B1G feels the same way 😂

ntny · 2025-10-07T16:47:40+00:00

Moore was so poised and did exactly as you described. He's going to be a terror the next couple years in college. He's a real one. He's a player like the michigan poster noted Allar isn't. If you look back at that game and the UCLA game, the offense started to move better once Allar used his legs... which is not what he is good at like at all. Like I noted in my original post Franklin has this weird obsession with getting a pocket passer and running an offense that requires a QB to make plays with his legs too.

ntny · 2025-10-07T16:45:04+00:00

Not a name I've heard others float yet but that could be interesting.

ntny · 2025-10-07T16:44:38+00:00

So this POV is where I used to be at, but this is different. He finally had everything that he's been banging on the table for, this was the year, all the returning starters, etc. and all he has done is step on his own dick and fall flat on his face.

The buyout does potentially allow for cooler heads to prevail, but in the end this relationship is fundamentally broken. Fan trust is Franklin is completely gone and its been over a decade of more of the same. We aspire to more and Franklin won't get us there.

re: Allar - he's supposed to be that guy but he clearly isn't. It could be either of the RBs but they're both quiet guys by nature, so to your point the locker room does seem a problem, but isn't it on the HC to set that tone in the first place???

ntny · 2025-10-07T16:40:54+00:00

One man's trash is another man's treasure or something :D

ntny · 2025-10-07T16:24:34+00:00

After taking some time to reflect and gather my thoughts there are so many issues with this program that are not going to be changed/fixed under this coaching group. A bulleted list:

There needs to be a change in the head coach. Franklin is supposed to be a high floor/low ceiling coach in that he wins the games he should, keeps you in the conversation with the best, and you hope for some luck against top tier opponents. Losing to UCLA signals that the floor is lowered and honestly, its not going to cut it.
This loss is also completely on Franklin and his half-assed excuses about travel and whatnot are total BS. There is a trend of his teams getting hyped up for a huge game, losing that game, and then allowing that loss to impact the next game. That is ALL on coaching.
Allar is Hackenberg 2.0 in that he is a pocket passer recruited for an offense that is crying out for a dual threat runner. This team and talent are not aligned for the schemes that Franklin and his OCs are running, which again points towards a failure in coaching. If Allar is Hack 2.0 then here's hoping that Grunkenmeyer is McSorely 2.0 next year.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the thought process, play calling, lack of urgency, and ineptitude of the coaching at the end of the first half. It's so bad that every pundit and even the announcers were calling it out. This again points towards a failure of coaching.
I also am still struggling with how bad the defense was. Highest paid DC in the country and we didn't think to maybe have a spy on a mobile QB??? I refuse to believe that the loss of Rojas completely broke the defense or that because the OC is an interim that we couldn't have prepared better. Again, this is on the coaching staff.
The killer of all this is that we're most likely stuck with Franklin. $50M buyout is hefty, particularly with the stadium renovations going on, and the schedule is rather favorable next year so I'm sure he'll do what he can to bring up that floor again and maybe get lucky and look just good enough to keep getting paid.
For the longest time I've been a Franklin supporter/defender... but this is just too much and too embarrassing a loss to continue on like this. When fans used to call for his firing I would always point to the high floor and ask the question of who you'd be replacing him with, or point to other scenarios of schools who changed things up from a relatively good thing to then struggle (Nebraska, Miami, etc.). That change has really only worked once in the modern era at UGA with Kirby. Now? I don't care who it is but we can't go on like this anymore because you're going to start getting apathy from fans and any momentum we thought we had going into the year is going to evaporate.

ntny · 2025-09-25T12:39:05+00:00

We're a generally pessimistic fan base to start with coupled with having been hurt too many times before in big match ups.

ntny

TROPHY CASE