NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
Fair enough.I don't think it is all about the nattie for Penn State fans. While that might be part of it, they are mostly sick of taking dumps in big games.
Franklin is 4-21 against top 10 teams. In 15 of those games, both teams were in the top 10. He is 3-12 in those match-ups.
It gets worse. In those 25 games against top 10 teams, 9 games have been at home. Franklin is 1-8 in those 9 home games. And get this, that one win against a top 10 team at home was in 2016, almost a decade ago.
Penn State fans are sick of getting their ass kicked by really good teams, home and away, even though they typically have a highly ranked team as well. Plus I think Franklin's personality slow wears on folks, too.
To somewhat contradict my first post, I think any fanbase gets to a platue point where they feel like their coach has taken them as far as he can go and after a while its not good enough. Put another way, this is as good as it is ever going to be, and at times, it will be worse. The only coach that ever really defied that sort of gravity was Saban. He spread his natties out like a drug dealer to keep that fanbase loyal.
I think we all saw that with Fran. He brought the program up from the ashes, and was a consistent top half of the conference coach, and brought some great individual stars through the program. But, he shit the bed every March. Collectively, we were ready for a change, even though Fran's level of winning was very good.
I sense that the fan base is not all that far off with KF. Another 8-5 campaign, while winning football, feels stuck.