Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1546586
OCTOBER 2026/VOL. 42, NO. 2 MANAGING EDITOR Matt Herb CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Stu Coman, Steve Downey, David Wasson, Cathy Jones, Chris Riffer WEBSITE PUBLISHER Sean Fitz WEBSITE EDITOR Nate Bauer STAFF WRITER Greg Pickel RECRUITING REPORTER Ryan Snyder FOOTBALL ANALYST Thomas Frank Carr CONTRIBUTING WRITER Jim Carlson PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Manuel, Mark Selders, Frank Hyatt COVER PHOTO Mark Selders/Penn State Athletics DESIGN Jeanette Blankenship Chris Miller F F F PUBLISHER Jeanette Blankenship BUSINESS ANALYST Sarah Boone CIRCULATION COORDINATOR Beverly Taylor ADVERTISING AND MARKETING Elena Rehberg CUSTOMER SERVICE: (800) 421-7751 Lacey Perry, Elena Rehberg magazines@on3.com BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED (USPS 742-550) is published monthly, except June, by Coman Publishing Co., a division of On3 Sports, LLC,located at 922 Broad St., Suite D, Durham, NC 27705. A one-year (11 issues) subscription is $75.00. First-class, digital and foreign rates available on request. Periodicals postage paid at Durham, NC 27701 and additional mailing offices. Printed by The Papers, Milford, Ind. POSTMASTER: Please send address correc- tions/changes to BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Durham NC 27702-2331. For advertising or subscription information call 1-919-688-0218 or write BLUE WHITE ILLUS- TRATED, PO Box 2331, Durham NC 27702-2331. Site Lines C O M M E N T S F R O M T H E L I O N S D E N A T B L U E W H I T E I L L U S T R A T E D . C O M W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M ON PENN STATE'S PLACE IN THE BIG TEN HIERARCHY … Any objective person knows that by 2001, PSU had fallen behind Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and was maybe tied with Michigan State as a confer- ence power. Within five seasons, James Franklin ce- mented PSU as the third-best team and was challeng- ing for No. 2. … He far outperformed Joe Paterno in fewer seasons and with greater barriers to overcome, and it wasn't even close. Again, I know that emotions are high, and the revisionists will remember PSU being elite in the Big Ten before Franklin, Franklin destroying the program, and Matt Campbell saving it after domi- nating Marshall. I will beg to differ. — thebusbandit Joe won two of his three Big Ten titles after 2001. (Remind me, how many did Franklin win?) I totally get the point that Franklin had obstacles early on, but Joe clearly did not have his fastball at the end, and yet he was still arguably more successful than Franklin on- field. I'm grateful for James, his recruiting, his program building, but in no universe was he a better game-day coach than Joe was in his prime (and maybe not when he was in his 70s). — acg116 If you had told people in September 2011 (i.e. pre-scandal breaking) that we would get a coach in after Joe who would consistently have us winning double-digit games for 10 years and be on the doorstep of competing for a natty, every single person in the fan base would have taken that given the state of the program at the time. In December 2011, probably nobody would have even believed it was possible ever again. The playoff has totally warped people's perspectives of success in this sport and Penn State's place in it. I yearn for the day when Franklin is simply regarded as one of the program's great coaches and every discussion doesn't devolve into some nonsensical alternate history about how he destroyed the program, when in fact he is the person chiefly responsible for saving the program from the brink. — MrClean2323 I think the Big Ten has become very top-heavy, and the middle of conference has been me- diocre for a number of years now, with the bottom being pretty bad. There are steep drops between tiers. It's been commonplace for us to pick at least 10-2 records for years now, in part because we've been pretty good (not elite), but the schedules were fairly soft outside of two games a year. — Pittston-Lion It's rhetorical, but I don't think anyone in their right mind would choose Franklin over Joe if you had to pick a coach to win one game. — EpicBeardMan 4 O C T O B E R 2 0 2 6 Fans have vigorously debated James Franklin's legacy following his 12-year tenure as head coach of the Nittany Lions. PHOTO BY FRANK HYATT 1. Publication Title 2. Publication Number 4. Issue Frequency 5. Number of Issues Published Annually 6. Annual Subscription Price 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher (Not printer) 9. 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