College football week 5 thread: Happy Valley P.T.A.

[I Should Coco]

Interesting post, @dixiehack ... I went and looked up Franklin's all-time win percentage (Vandy and Penn State), and he's at 69%. Kirk Ferentz, mostly during a quarter-century in Iowa City, is a bit north of 62%. Yet Hawkeye fans, while grumbling about the old-school offense, can't really complain when Kirk and his staff crank out 8 or 9 wins a season, with an occasional conference title contender when they have some future draft picks on defense, offensive line and tight end.

I suppose too many Penn State fans remember national title teams. If you're an Iowa fan, you have to be on Social Security to remember the Hawkeyes' last championship era (the late 1950s).

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

if you remember Penn State’s last national championship, it’s time to schedule your prostate exam. I don’t know why it takes forever for narratives to die in this state (Philly with Santa, Pittsburgh with blue collar steel workers) but they do.

 

[DanOregon]

Oh Staters remember them, I remember there were calls for JoePa to step down, fire his son at least - until he had a brief resurgence before the scandal hit.

 

[Chet Lemon]

And for all that, how exactly does Arkansas get better?

They could actually try.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I'm an Oregon alum, so take all of this through that prism, but...

I watched last night's game against Penn State thinking "Who the heck do these guys think they are?" Oregon went 13-0 through the Big 10 championship last year and beat Penn State in the process. The Duck are undefeated this year, had beaten the heck out of everyone they played... and the Penn State fans are booing because it's a tie game in the first half? The network announcers are speaking in awe about the White Out, and Penn State is now 11-7 in White Out games? The whole thing felt weird.

Penn State is a very good program, but it's not the 90s anymore. They can fire James Franklin for not winning the biggest games, but don't be surprised when the next guy is putting up eight win seasons. For the foreseeable future they are battling USC and Washington to be the fourth best program in the Big 10.

Good take but I think you are grossly overestimating Washington. I think they are going to struggle. Not UCLA-level struggle, but between 5-8 every year, trending more toward 8 than 5.

Indiana has become the real wild card in the Big 18. I'm starting to believe last year wasn't the fluke many made it out to be. And Rutgers, Minnesota and even Maryland aren't the train wrecks they were. Schiano and Fleck seem perfect fits and will consistently win 7-8 games and be tough outs.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Good take but I think you are grossly overestimating Washington. I think they are going to struggle. Not UCLA-level struggle, but between 5-8 every year, trending more toward 8 than 5.

Indiana has become the real wild card in the Big 18. I'm starting to believe last year wasn't the fluke many made it out to be. And Rutgers, Minnesota and even Maryland aren't the train wrecks they were. Schiano and Fleck seem perfect fits and will consistently win 7-8 games and be tough outs.

Yeah, you could absolutely be right about all of that.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Yeah, you could absolutely be right about all of that.

I hope so. I never want anything good to happen to the Huskies.

 

[tapintoamerica]

They could actually try.

They have the same limits as everyone else in direct institutional spending, but could they use the Walton and Tyson cash to turn every player into a chicken and Wal Mart endorser?

 

[DanOregon]

Good take but I think you are grossly overestimating Washington. I think they are going to struggle. Not UCLA-level struggle, but between 5-8 every year, trending more toward 8 than 5.

Indiana has become the real wild card in the Big 18. I'm starting to believe last year wasn't the fluke many made it out to be. And Rutgers, Minnesota and even Maryland aren't the train wrecks they were. Schiano and Fleck seem perfect fits and will consistently win 7-8 games and be tough outs.

Another thing that was kind of lost in the break-up of the Pac-12, the competition being in an NFL market. Its not really surprising that USC's last golden era was before the Rams, and now the Chargers were in town. Seattle is more nuts about the Seahawks than they are UDub and ASU used to be the king in Phoenix and now has the Cardinals and MLB to contend with. Those corporate dollars that might have found their way to college sports are going to pro sports.