The Lions' Pride

Yeah but Penn State had it for 35 years straight (1964-1999) -- And in that time had 6 either MNCs or undefeated seasons, and built a program following that would sell out 107,000 seats a game.

Prior to 2000, for 35 years straight, Penn State would be mentioned in the national championship discussion going into EVERY SINGLE year.

Facilities that are top-5 in the country. A top-10 in total program wins.

On tradition alone, there are very few that are higher than Penn State. Add in the fan following, facilities, and the fact that the recruiting ground is AT A MINIMUM "not bad" -- You have an overall program that is easily in the top-10 discussion.

There have been some rough times during your short lifetime, but even then, because it's Penn State, the program clawed back and was 2 seconds (and a few terrible calls) away from another undefeated season. And since then, with the handicap of a head coach that DOESN'T EVEN RECRUIT, the team continued to be reasonably decent.

I can't think of many other programs where if the HC just stopped recruiting, they could still be as successful as Penn State was able to be between 2005 and today. It's crazy to me that after seeing that (success without even recruiting), anyone could even consider Penn State out of the top-10 coaching gigs.

Urban is a smart guy, knows where the talent is.

I agree, this recent loss to aTm has much greater consequences that any bowl loss I can remember. OU always had the ability to say we were the best team in the immediate area, except for those two years Texas felt like showing up to the dance, and that we beat the living bejesus out of aTm more often than not. That coming to OU meant competing for titles. Now, kids (that aren't staring at Texas and drooling) are shifting their attention from OU towards aTm and the SEC rodents they brought with them. Bobby and Co. can definitely recover, and I still believe he is one of the best HCs in CFB, but they need to bounce back quickly. He's gotten fat, literally and figuratively, and IMO he's let some programs slip by him.

IMO a BCS bowl win, something more than possible and within their grasp nearly every season, would put them back to where they should be in Texas. Who knows if that will happen though. Now that derp-derp-Landry is gone, maybe OU can start winning some close games again?

Texas is much more big time than PA but you can not limit Penn State to just pennsylvania. Although i think there is still of un tapped talent in the state. Beleive me I played for the best teams this state has ever seen.... With Penn State clicking on all cylinders like it was before the sanctions. Factor that in for another year or two, get results on the field. Your looking at the penn state of old where it was a force in the northeastern states and maryland.

PS. I would LOVE to get down to Texas and see one of those highschools game......Def something im looking to do.

Poor recruiting year for Oklahoma...recently. Isn't recruiting very heavily based on what happens recently? Hm.

I'd disagree. I think of it more as which are the top jobs in general, not just for me personally. If it was me personally, I'd simply put Penn State #1 and be done. Not much argument when it's based entirely on opinion.

Another reason: money. Texas is tops in money, and that's what drives CFB. There's a reason money plays a huge part in which jobs are ranked so high. Penn State is right up there. Before the Sandusky stuff, they were 3rd in the nation, very close to Georgia, in annual net. As Seltz said long ago in this thread, money is a VERY significant factor.

They're an experience, that's for sure. My HS was awful, dreadful- but the district we were in was REALLY good, and the DFW area is one of the best (I'm biased and say it is ) HS FB areas in the country. I got to see some big time D1 recruits BTHO my friends every year, so that was fun.

I think PSU will be there again, and I believe we have the right guy at the helm to get us there. We just have to stay afloat through the sanctions, and then we'll get back to where PSU belongs in the CFB world.

Given all the talk that I put way too much stock in recent recruiting, we should definitely end the argument based on one recruiting class.

Yep, makes sense.

/argument

Florida has recruited that area very well recently, but as a whole no one program dominates. I'm surprised we haven't been able to be more successful in those areas since we're essentially the only power in the area.

Hyperbole. We won a league title in 2008 and were quite possibly on our way to another one when all hell broke loose. Not as mighty as in the past, yes. Crippled? I disagree.

I'm excited to see where BOB takes us.

Hopefully we can hold onto him, at least through the sanctions.

It is amazing to me that Joe kept his job like he did, despite the program running at about 50% capacity for the majority of the last decade.

New England? Or the PSU area that I have defined? Because over the last couple of years, Florida hasn't taken a kid out of New England and they only took four total from PSU's area. Of those four, one of them was a legacy (Anzalone) and one of them was Skyler Morningwig who BOB didn't exactly cry over when he left for Florida. 4 players in 2 years... I don't see how you could say they are recruiting it "very well" especially when 2 of the guys are outliers.

Prior to two years ago, Urbs was doing the recruiting, which is a whole different story.

I was referring to Urban and his recruiting of the area.

Muschamp doesn't seem to have hit the area as hard though, which is good for us.

True. I did the same, I was on this board harping about Joe having earned the right to call it quits when he wanted to, but I was praying somebody could talk him into retiring.

Also, a lot of other programs aren't considered to be national powers. This wouldn't have happened at any other school, no way no how. Barry Switzer was one of the most successful coaches ever seen at OU, and he was ridden out on a rail by the Board of Regents.

That being said, I'm never going to forget being there for 400 or 409. Probably the greatest sports experience of my life.

Exactly! While the program was running at 50% capacity, we won two B1G titles, and as fortheglory said, were in contention for another before the $hit hit the fan.

I mean, look at that. If a program can win B1G titles, and usually win their bowl games, while running on cruise control at 50% capacity -- Who wouldn't want that job?

We saw what happened when USC was running at 50% capacity in the 90s. We saw what happened to Alabama when running at half capacity in the 90's - early 2000's

Penn State had a reputation of stale offenses and bend-but-don't-break defenses in the past decade, but decent to great kids still wanted to come play for Penn State. And you can say, "well that's because they wanted to play for the legend Joe Paterno," but if you look at how things were going in OB's first recruiting cylce, it got EVEN BETTER.

I mean, if Penn State was that easy of a sell for recruits when hardly anyone was trying. And it was even that much easier of a sell with a FIRST YEAR head coach (before any games were played), what does that tell you?

Look at Oklahoma in the 90's before Bob Stoops finally came in there.

If you rewind the clock to before the sanctions (as this article basically claims it was trying to do), out side of UT (Texas), I think Penn State would be in the debate for 2nd place with everyone (especially if the writer thinks FLORIDA is the #2 job. I think that's an absolute joke -- maybe a type-o?).