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Bane

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I don't think Campbell is a home run for them, so in the context of why they fired Franklin over 50 days ago, it's a failure. But, times and contexts change and in the context of right now, PSU is in dire straits at the moment and Campbell will provide them stability. If he doesn't pan out you can always can him in a couple of years. Not ideal, but their best option at the moment.
 

Huntr

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In the end Penn State hired a sitting P4 HC, something only LSU did. Virginia Tech and James Madison are the only others leaving with a P4 HC.

Not the market chaos and poaching it was made out to be like the Freeman cycle.
Whole lot of coaches got PAID.
 

ab2cmiller

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I remember Campbell's name being brought up by some people. I don't remember any significant majority that was clamoring for him.
 

Sea Turtle

Slow and steady wins the race
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Campbell is a decent hire. It's low hanging fruit but let's be honest, PSU was scavenging on the ground for fruit that wasn't rotten or worm ridden.
 

IrishTusker

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My memory isn't the greatest, but I think three quarters of this board wanted to hire Campbell over Freeman.
*Fickell

The 2021 Cincy game ended up mattering a lot. If ND wins maybe BK doesn't leave because we're in the playoff (but he probably still leaves tbh). But it also likely means we end up with Fickell, not MF.
 

stlnd01

Was away. Now returned.
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My memory isn't the greatest, but I think three quarters of this board wanted to hire Campbell over Freeman.
I think he was on the short list, but behind Fickell. Like with Penn State, I think a lot of us would have felt like Campbell equalled settling. The memory of demolishing Iowa State in some bowl game was not that far in the rearview at that time.
 

Bane

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*Fickell

The 2021 Cincy game ended up mattering a lot. If ND wins maybe BK doesn't leave because we're in the playoff (but he probably still leaves tbh). But it also likely means we end up with Fickell, not MF.
I wasn't on the board, but I never wanted Campbell and would have settled for Fickell, but I wanted Freeman. His recruiting ability already excited me and seemed worth the risk to keep that recruiting class and the team together. Plus, as a first time HC he was going to be relatively cheap and if he flamed out in 3-4 years it wouldn't have cost much to cut bait. Thankfully, it worked out better than I could have dreamed.
 

sfk324

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I would disagree with the bolded. Jack hired MF almost immediately after BK left to get some Gumbo. This tells me Jack had a very good idea who MF was before he sat down for a serious discussion about the HC position. Did he know MF would get to the NCG so fast? I doubt it, but I think he had a pretty good idea success was in his future. Jack was a planner and hit a lot more homeruns during his tenure than he struck out.
This is ignoring the fact that Fickell removed himself from consideration because he wouldn't pull a BK/Kiffin and leave Cincy before the end of the season, and ND didn't want to wait. It's entirely possible they would have still hired Freeman, but there were a decent number of dominoes that fell the right way in a short span of time that resulted in Marcus getting the job.
 

sfk324

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I remember Campbell's name being brought up by some people. I don't remember any significant majority that was clamoring for him.
Campbell and Ruhle were on a lot of lists to varying degrees of popularity. I think Fickell was generally the top choice for the people who valued some HC experience combined with the fact he had beaten ND at ND earlier in the season, with Freeman the preference for those who were willing to take a gamble on someone...but there were certain places in the ND message board sphere who were pretty pissed that Freeman got the job, who conveniently "nuke" their boards from time to time and will actively gaslight that it was going on.
 

Polish Leppy 22

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I've only been to Penn State once, and it was for a job interview. I can't even begin to describe how in the middle of fucking nowhere that place is.
Penn State's shortcomings aren't because of location. Plenty of big time college football schools are in the middle of nowhere (Oregon, Texas A&M, Michigan, ND, Auburn, Clemson). It's a really fun college town with 40,000 undergrads.

Their biggest setback is the majority of people who run the place operate like it's 1994.
 

Valpodoc85

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College football is a bit like monopoly, takes a certain amount of luck to win.
 

dankgesang

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That could have and should have happened 55 days ago, but Penn State higher ups are delusional.
Because fifty-five days ago Pat Kraft was in a room snorting Adderall and talking (screaming at a mirror) himself into the idea that Penn State was done fucking settling and was going to fucking choose between Kalen fucking Deboer or (as much as it fuckin pains him to say it you guys) Marcus Fuckin Freeman
 
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