An important message to Penn State Football ‘fans’

I am not a beat writer, I am a contributor for FanSided…a platform by the fans, for the fans. The best part about it? I get to speak from a fan’s perspective, and I have a message for a certain fraction of people who claim to be fans of Penn State Football.

Stop harassing your own players if they don’t play to your standard. This is the collegiate level, they are amateur athletes, not professionals.

“They are getting paid to play now.”  No they’re not.

Players are not getting paid a salary directly to play football, they are simply now able to benefit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), understand the difference.

Brandon Bell, a former Penn State Football linebacker, who also briefly played professionally, tweeted out about Roberson “lay off the kid…this stuff ain’t easy…let’s keep it classy”.

There was a little bit more to that tweet, but you get the point.

Bell is a guy who has been there and done that on a football field … he gets it. Then, you have a lot of the following being said by people who have not played football (or probably any sport) at the division 1 level, or even close to it.

I saw a comment on social media saying “Ta’Quan Roberson should not be allowed back into State College”. Then there is also this guy;

https://twitter.com/RoniRigatoni/status/1446987468754984965?s=20

The message that comments like this sends is simple; If you are a superstar (Saquon Barkley, Micah Parsons, etc), these fair weather fans will build shrines to you and worship the ground you walk on.

However, if you don’t live up to the standard of these ‘fans’ who have never played football at the division 1 level, you will be chastised and verbally ‘attacked’ as if you are a terrible person, just because you make some mistakes on a football field.

Do you know who is on social media to see these messages? Recruit

And in some cases, recruits’ parents, and their families, too.

The following are replies to tweets from the father of current Penn State Football defensive back, Zakee Wheatley.

So, not only do recruits see these types of reactions, but their parents do, too.

“But other fanbases do it too”. I’m not worried about other fanbases, I’m worried about Penn State.

If We Are going to hold our student-athletes and coaches to a high standard, then we should also hold ourselves to a high standard.

It is pretty sad that after a bad start to the season last year, Sean Clifford had to turn off comments on his social media platforms because ‘fans’ of his own team were scrolling way back into his account, just to express themselves towards the quarterback.

On an Instagram post that Clifford made in September of 2019, a ‘fan’ went back to in November of 2020 just to comment “0-3 bum. Disgrace to this school”. There is plenty more than that, but that’s just an example. That’s a great look for recruits.

And to those who are calling Clifford “soft” for leaving the game against Iowa … first off, you have no idea what his injury is, or the severity of it. Second, Jack Campbell, the player who hit Clifford, is a 6’5″ 245 pound division 1 linebacker who hit him at full force. If you’re so tough sitting on your couch, you get out there and take that hit and see how you feel.

“If he can be out there walking around the sideline, he can be in the game”. Not sure if you know this or not, but there is a big difference between walking around on the sideline…and running around, throwing, and taking more hits from 200+ pound division 1 athletes.

Out of curiosity, I went to Ta’Quan Roberson’s Instagram to check things out…and he too has to have his comments turned off because of negative comments from ‘fans’. I also checked Brenton Strange’s page, one comment (that includes some racist remarks), said that he was the “most unathletic tight end in Penn State Football history”. It’s funny that even if that were true (which its obviously not), he is still 100x more athletic than the nameless/faceless person who commented that.

Now, I understand frustration and wanting to win.

Nobody wants to win more than me, my mentality is always championship or bust…but I am going to support this program and it’s players 100%, regardless of their performance on the field.

I also don’t know of a person who lives as vicariously through Penn State Football as I do, and as upset as it makes me to see them lose, even I don’t feel the need to go back and make these negative comments. So to those who do feel the need to do that? You must really have a lot of free time and are not happy with your own life.

There is also a difference between being critical, and being ignorant. Saying something along the lines of “Player X needs to be better”, is much different than some of the comments that were shown earlier.

And while we’re on the subject, lets talk about the coaches as well.

Hindsight it 20/20, and it’s easy to coach from your arm chair and from the stands after a mistake is made. There is probably a reason that you are in said chair, and not on the sidelines.

Could the staff have had Roberson better prepared? Sure, but at what cost? Clifford was getting approximately 90% of first-team reps in camp, if Roberson is worked into that rotation more, it might have sacrificed Clifford’s development/improvement from last year to this year.

Could they have gotten him more in-game reps in a couple games this season? Yes, but there is a big difference between playing in the second half of a blowout against Ball State and Villanova, and playing one of the best defenses in the country in one of the toughest environments in the country.

Saying that Franklin is not a good coach because he was unable to recruit more worthy backups? He was also the same coach he found a diamond in the rough in Trace McSorley, who almost nobody else in the country recruited to play quarterback. Plus, Franklin was able to bring in an elite coordinator in Joe Moorehead to help develop McSorley.

As far as getting a transfer quarterback to backup Clifford, most quarterbacks looking to transfer are not doing so to be a backup, they are transferring somewhere where they will start.

Realistically, you could trace any negative detail in a loss back to the head coach in one way or another, but if you are going to do that for the losses, then every small positive detail that happens in win, you should do the same.

A big-time passing play for a touchdown? Kudos to Franklin for recruiting the quarterback who threw it, the receiver who got open and caught it, and the offensive linemen to block for the play. Also a credit to the coordinator (who Franklin hired) who called that play, as well as the positional coaches (also hired by Franklin) for developing all the players involved in that play See? It works both ways.

If Franklin brings in a high level recruit, don’t just say that player bailed out the coach. A big part of being a good college coach is being a good recruiter. A player who was a lower rated recruit that turned into a star? Also credit to the coach and the staff, not only to see the potential in that player that others did not, but to develop that player. Enough of the narrative that, when a loss happens it’s on the coach, but when they win, they were bailed out by great players. Who recruited and developed those players?

Franklin certainly deserves a fair chunk of the blame for the loss to Iowa, but there are plenty of others who do too. Penn State Football is top 10 in the country in total wins since James Franklin took over in 2014, and incase you didn’t know, Nick Saban doesn’t grow on trees. So to anyone who thinks Franklin should lose his job, just remember that there are probably only 10-15 coaches in the country better than him, and none of those coaches will be leaving their current job anytime soon unless they retire.

Most programs would love to have James Franklin as their head coach, just ask Vanderbilt. The Commodores were 2-10 in each of the two seasons before Franklin arrived there, and in his three years there, he led them to two 9 win seasons (in the SEC), and three total bowl appearances, winning two of them. Vanderbilt hasn’t won a bowl game since Franklin’s departure eight years ago, and their best record in that stretch is 6-7. They also have not been ranked since Franklin left.

Ultimately, my message is this…be better as Penn State Football fans, especially towards the student-athletes. The players are better athletes, and the coaches know the game far better than any of us, that is why they are out there, and the rest of us are watching from the stands or on TV.

The smartest thing you can do in life is to know what you don’t know. Us fans do not understand the game to nearly the same extent that these players and coaches do, even if some people think they do.