Around the Big Ten

[Mike]

I'm not sold on Franklin as a head coach. He was abysmal against us last year. It looked both coaches were trying to throw the game. We KNOW Michigan will get much better but I don't know how much better PSU will get.

[froot loops]

I don't know much about Franklin, he didn't impress in that Michigan game. It sounds like he's a good recruiter, but to me he has similar facial expressions of NBA coach Mike Brown. I can't take him seriously.

To me it's not even close with OSU and PSU. I like Columbus, we probably go there two or three times a year. It's centrally located, easy to get to. Penn State is in the middle of nowhere.

I'd have Michigan far ahead of PSU in ceiling.

[hack]

It's an awfully nice middle of nowhere, though. And in fact it's not that far off I80. But I agree overall.

[WM Wolverine]

In the medium term, Harbaugh > Franklin (imo)... I'm not sold on Franklin either, too early to tell from his tenure at PSU.

[Dr. Strangelove]

PSU is a bigger name than Michigan on the east coast. They might not recruit as nationally as Michigan does but they don't have to. Neither do we.

Franklin might not get it done but he's done nothing so far to suggest that PSU can't be an elite recruiter. Kids from NJ and Virginia probably think East Lansing or Ann Arbor sounds a lot more "middle of nowhere" than anywhere in PA does.

[WM Wolverine]

Everything being equal, I'd give a slight edge to PSU. Lots of talent in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Jersey that PSU gets first dibs at. M has to fight for leftovers in talent in Ohio and nationally. M has a lot of things going for it, but if PSU could be every bit as successful as Ohio if the right coach was in place.

[froot loops]

One thing OSU has is the ability to get the right coach. It is an underrated aspect of their program is how many successful coaches have ties to the program. Penn State was built around a cult of personality in Joe Paterno with lackey assistants who never went anywhere else.

[hack]

One thing OSU has is the ability to get the right coach. It is an underrated aspect of their program is how many successful coaches have ties to the program.

OSU strikes me as having a clear vision of who they are and what they're gonna do. I'm sure it has its dysfunction like any massive institution, but it obviously hasn't yet suffered on the field from a bumbling administration. I thought Geiger was a pretty good AD. What would they have done if Meyer weren't available? Dantonio would have gone, no? In retrospect, that would have been a pretty good choice. Not a grand slam like Meyer, but a pretty good choice.

[Jeff Buchanan]

osu from the Governor down, including every major decision maker within the university sees osu football as THE front porch of the that school. They are a classic SEC Program right down to the rabid fans and glorification of the likes of proven liars like jim tressel ..... brings to mind Auburn fans and that University culture.

Winning football is valued above everything else even though, there is no denying that osu has really elevated its stature as a leading university over the last two decades.

Frankly, as far as modern college football goes, it's always been that way and that's why regionally and nationally they are where they are.

It's easy for M fans, among others, to stick up their noses and claim osu cheats and have cheated their way to the top. I think there is evidence that they operate in the gray areas and in places where other institutions may not want to operate, Michigan in particular, but too bad. There's little evidence of overt cheating .... IMO, they've advantaged themselves by that and fairly.

What has held M back in that regard is the stultifying institutional culture that defines Michigan and, to one man's view, places them above the CFB fray and out of the mud. Adding to that is the continuing hangover from the Chris Weber and Fab Five scandals ..... ooohhh, don't ever look bad again.

Those two things are what held M back through the DB era in particular when great leadership and a clear pathway for Michigan football could not be located. The remarkable sequence of events involving the Regents and Dr. Schlissel that brought possibly the best coach in CFB (assuming he lives up to his rep) does tend to signal an end to that deadly combination of stultifying culture and fear of doing the things needed to compete for championships.

Good times are ahead.

[hack]

M and OSU have different visions. OSU has executed its OSU vision better than M executed its M vision. In both cases it's a golden goose, but OSU did a better job understanding that and acting accordingly. M may be coming out of its no-vision/bad-execution phase. We'll see.

[Hannibal]

Penn State was built around a cult of personality in Joe Paterno with lackey assistants who never went anywhere else.

I highly doubt that you will ever see that arrangement again. That Paterno held onto so many highly regarded assistants for decades is quite amazing. Jerry Sandusky and Fran Gantner could have easily been head coaches. Tom Bradley and Larry Johnson Jr. could have made it to that level too. I think that some of them just stuck around because they expected him to retire and they wanted the head coaching job. But then Joe just kept on hanging around and then none of them got the job.

[lineygoblue]

The thought of Jerry Sandusky as a HC .....

[THE_WIZARD_]

Brokeback University?

[froot loops]

I highly doubt that you will ever see that arrangement again. That Paterno held onto so many highly regarded assistants for decades is quite amazing. Jerry Sandusky and Fran Gantner could have easily been head coaches. Tom Bradley and Larry Johnson Jr. could have made it to that level too. I think that some of them just stuck around because they expected him to retire and they wanted the head coaching job. But then Joe just kept on hanging around and then none of them got the job.

I agree with that never happening again. But I think it hurts them currently. There's no farm to reach from.

When MSU hired Saban, Ganter's name was thrown around and I think he even had a cursory interview. But nothing ever came of it.

[Hannibal]

I thought Gantner actually turned the job down or didn't show interest? Wasn't he the #1 choice? It has been a while but I seem to remember Saban being a somewhat underwhelming hire at the time.