On September 27, Pitt lost to Louisville in a lonely field beyond Fort Pitt. It was Pitt's second straight defeat.
On September 27, Paterno-Sandusky, 3-0 and ranked 2nd in the country, lost to O in OT on Shower Stall Field at Lesch Family Stadium.
When you googled each coach, Pat Narduzzi, and James Franklin, after, the search results had "buyout" attached to the names.
Narduzzi made a major change after the "Panthers" second straight loss. The Mason Heintschel Happening resulted.
PSU fell slightly in the polls, to 7th, with its loss to O. Franklin made no major change of which I am aware, certainly none as significant as changing QBs.
The next Saturday, October 4, Pitt righted, ending its two-game L streak, blowing out Boston College 48-7. That same day PSU looked to take the waters in balmy SoCal to get better. A storm was bruin. Penn State capsized in the Pacific. Two-game losing streak. Still Brother James made no major changes.
And then, a week later, today, October 11, Pitt went to Tally, I feared a scalping, but instead added to Chief Mike Norvell's own two-game losing streak. And also today of course, James Franklin matched Novell's 3-game L streak by losing in Towel Snappy Valley to Northwestern. Now Franklin, of necessity, has to make the major change that Narduzzi made of volition.
When to change? I don't know. Sports is confounding. PSU is not right in the head. Pat Narduzzi recognized that he had to do something and that something had to happen right now. Franklin has not. So much of sports is psychological. The most confounding thing I ever saw in sports was Manchester City's sudden drop in form last season. There was something mentally debilitating in the Manchester waters, I don't know what it was, a stale roster, a psychic inability to sustain unparalleled success indefinitely, something, I don't know what, but it was sudden. So too, PSU's present. There is palpable psychic insult that has occurred to the entire PSU football operation. After today's Homecoming loss, Northwestern's HC said this:
“The message was really that we were facing a football team with its back against the wall, maybe even questioning who they are."“He was Drew’s [Allar] security blanket, and he was so many different things.”
Like City last season, PSU was a favorite to win it all this season. Both failed. Once second in the land, PSU fell completely out of the top 25 after the UCLA Debacle. And now, you look at their schedule and they could very likely lose every game except the last, at Ruptures. Pitt's schedule is not the mirror opposite but three more dubs is very likely. 7-5 is eminently reasonable for Pitt. For PSU 6-6 looks most likely. Who would have thought before the action got started on September 27 that Pitt, PITT would finish the season with a better record than PSU? Not I.
