RickinDayton
Active member
Oops. I just reread. Thanks.
Big 10 contenders
- Thread starter LudicrousSpeedGO!
- Start date
I hate to say it, but until proven otherwise Ohio State is the number one team in this conference. I think Penn State should be a clear number two then all of the other ones that you mentioned starting with Oregon. Michigan should not be counted out just because of the guys that they have on both lines
LudicrousSpeedGO!
Well-known member
Good argument. I can also see the argument for us as top dog this year with all of the returning experience. But it gets settled on the field.
GregInPitt
Active member
I don't see it that way with the Oregon transfers. PSU is looking for a number of the incoming transfers to make an impact, but none were rated above .91 as transfers, Pena and Campbell.
Oregon got a transfer rated .93 interior OL (#3 IOL in the portal) and .98 OT (@1 OT in the portal) and .91 OT. The Safety from Purdue is a .95 rated transfer, #1 Safety in the portal. They likely have a better returning roster of WR's but still got a .91 incoming transfer WR. These are mainly 4th and 5th year players that went to Oregon to play and fill holes. PSU desperately needed WR's and got 3, the nos 26, 30 and 48th rated WR's in the portal. Oregon has the #1 true freshman WR incoming and very likely a better returning WR roster (hard no to) and still got a higher rated WR than any that PSU managed to bring in.
- PSU is relying on a young player to step in to start at Safety and for the top backup Safety to replace Winston and Reed. Oregon went out and got the #1 Safety in the portal.
- Oregon must have lost a number of olinemen from their starting oline and they went out and got top transfer olinemen to replace them. On the other hand PSU didn't lose much from the oline but lost plenty from the dline but couldn't get ANY immediate starters at either DE or DT even though we know Franklin and Barnes were trying.
Oregon seems to have addressed their graduation losses much better than PSU and wasn't satisfied to play their incoming high school players when they could bring in talented starters, even though Oregons 2015 class was top 5 compared to PSU's which was rated 15-20 and very likely has less immediate help. Who besides 2 or 3 of the portal WR's will even start for PSU? And the PSU portal WR's seem to be starting because the PSU WR cubbord was bare. Even Campbell at LB may not start for PSU.
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You may be right. I'm not very familiar with all of them. Still, it's a lot of players to bring in and make cohesive. What other program has done this with similar recruiting? Ole Miss has been a successful portal team, but they don't recruit like Oregon.
For the sake of our team, I hope they finish 11-1.
Oregon won't beat us. There is a reason they are a 4.5 dog. Breaking in a new QB for a White Out is brutal. Yeah, they picked up some talent in the portal to replace guys they lost. I guess your point is they now have a significant talent upgrade vs last season despite only returning 5 starters? Again, I understand they got high level talent in the portal but that talent has to seamlessly fold into the roster with good chemistry. Also is that talent going to be better than what they lost? Unless their new QB is a superstar that position most likely sees a decline and it is the most important position on the field. Your message reads like they have no weaknesses on their roster. That talent has to gel and actually perform for them. We ran all over them last season. What did they do to dramatically improve their run defense?
GregInPitt
Active member
Who said Oregon would beat us? Obviously them replacing their 6th year QB that got drafted is a very big deal. And playing them early in the season helps the team with experienced leadership and QB play. And at home.
But I did say they did a better job in the transfer portal of going out and getting players to start and fill the holes that graduation opened.
LudicrousSpeedGO!
Well-known member
Greg makes a strong argument in how they filled their holes aggressively, but they just lost too many starters for me to not think that they don't take a step back. And of those 5 returning starters, their #1 returning WR is likely out for the year already. So really, they are only returning the center on offense and the linebackers on defense. Every other position is going to be a new starter. That's just too much to replace even with the money they threw around in the portal to not step back somewhat.
I agree. Great, they did well in the portal but will take a step back and I bet don't make the playoffs. Maybe they make it in '26 but that depends if their QB is any good.
RickinDayton
Active member
They certainly went portal heavy. They have to gel. Different strategy. Looking ahead for PSU with so many key player graduations after this season, what will they do?
Keep an eye on our backup QB development. If we have a good QB in '26 then that can help cover up other deficiencies.
LudicrousSpeedGO!
Well-known member
We'll take a step back after next season as well. Too much experienced talent will land in the NFL draft. 2025 is our shot.
GregInPitt
Active member
I doubt that Franklin will have the resources to bring in the #1 portal OT and the #1 Portal Safety and a number of other top linemen and skill players like Oregon did. Sure PSU will be favored to win this year's game vs Oregon, but I doubt that PSU can reload like Oregon is doing for this season. It will be interesting but a good bit of the recovery is how a team can replace their multi year starting QB. I didn't go back and look at the QB's on the Oregon roster and how talented they were purported to be, but since they didn't bring in a top QB from the portal and surely they had the $$$ to get one of the top one's that went to schools that don't have Oregon cash, they must believe they have the QB position convered with returning players.
Wouldn't it be a surprise if Franklin does direct enough NIL to the portal to get some top 5 at their position portal starters for 2026......
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RickinDayton
Active member
We shall see. I don't think PSU will have a paradigm shift and start overloading with portal players. About the same as usual and maybe less if they pursue a few definite starters for key DL positions, a WR, and CB.
LudicrousSpeedGO!
Well-known member
Agreed. I will also say that PSU has a lot of NIL money coming off the table this next year. I would imagine nearly all of that of that money will go somewhere- 2027/2028 recruiting classes, portal finds, and some to underclassmen break out stars on the current roster. We aren't going to sit on cash available.
My expectation is that the big NIL money no longer going to Allar, Singleton, Allen, DDS, Durant, Wheatley, Dinkins, Deluca, Fisher, most of the OL, our WR transfer contingent, and probably Harris, maybe even Rojas, and any other NFL draft picks that could emerge WILL GET SPENT on a fairly even mix of future starters/emerging stars on the current roster, and more aggressive top recruit and transfer additions. There is A LOT of money coming off the table after this season. The staff will have a lot to work with, and I doubt that they just dole it out evenly to what remains of the current roster. They are going to be more aggressive in attracting top talent with a significant portion of it IMO.
I disagree for one reason: why wouldn't they pay some of the '26 guys? There are high end guys in this class that money could have been spent on that won't overlap with the players who will graduate this year. Why wait until the '27 or '28 class to spend it on another batch of recruits that are just as "what will they produce"?
Truth be told, I don't even know if we can say that the current MO is roster retention. '25 is the first year under Franklin we didn't lose essentially every draft eligible player to the draft. We have all long whined about guys finally hitting their stride and turning pro to be 6th rd draft picks.
This is very interesting. I'm curious how portal.heavy we go next year. How heavy will we need to go is perhaps more important.
LudicrousSpeedGO!
Well-known member
You may be correct. It would make sense to make the offers to the 26 class and I'm guessing that big money didn't go to many of them. we certainly lost out on some big fish. But maybe they are overly cautious in money to recruits verses what they see on the roster. But over time, if you aren't competitive with the top recruits, you aren't going to need to spend it to retain because you just won't have as many top returning players. Recruiting is the life blood. That is unless you go portal heavy which I don't think we will.
At some point, you need to start throwing some money at top recruits to stay competitive. I don't want A&M's nonsense. I want to pick a handful of realistic top recruits that are a great fit and be competitive enough to win those battles. We'll find out soon enough because there is a ton of NIL coming off the board after this next season.
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Maybe it wasn't NIL that caused us to miss on some of our top '26 targets, O'Brien comes to mind as one. He is Catholic and wanted ND.
With that said we are paying a lot to all the returning players so how do we know we just didn't have enough in the coffers to land those guys we missed out on.
LudicrousSpeedGO!
Well-known member
It's hard to say. My guess is that it had some impact. How much? We don't have that information and can only speculate.
Sherriff Coffee
Well-known member
Regarding Oregon, I think we can all agree that the most important position in the field is QB. A friend of mine who is associated with the Browns told me that the team has been blown away by Dillon Gabriel's decision-making ability and absorption of the playbook. They are not sold on his size and arm strength, although they think his arm strength is adequate for an NFL QB. But as a college QB, leadership and decision making are paramount. My point is that Oregon lost a lot in Gabriel, and that will be hard to replace. I know the kid coming in is highly regarded, but practice and physical ability don't make up for lack of game time/pressure experience.
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