The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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LJ In the Wind

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The news that long-time defensive line coach Larry Johnson would be leaving the Penn State football program after 18 years broke overnight, and a somber air hangs over Turkeyland this morning. Although this turkey had predicted that he would leave, I feel sad.

LJ was apparently offered to keep his old job and declined after meeting twice with new head coach James Franklin, according to PennLive.com.

We tend to think of things selfishly in Nittany Nation, but before you impute any nefarious motives (usually pinned on guys like Joyner and Erickson because Franklin is still in his honeymoon period), consider that this might be a good time for LJ to continue his personal development as a coach elsewhere. For one thing, if he’s going to have to be part of a new system after being passed over twice or three times for an upgrade, why not look elsewhere? He’s 61 and has some short time horizons to accomplish his goals in life. Time marches on.

Rumor has it that “elsewhere” is Ohio State. (Feeling shudders across the fertile Central Pennsylvania soil.)

Yeah, we recoil in horror. Why would LJ want to defect to the enemy? Well, think about it. You’re 61 and in a dead-end job where you’re loved but stagnating. You’ve been turned down twice for the head coaching job, and there was no interest in making you defensive coordinator. You could keep your present job — but under what terms? ????? ???? Of course, the contents of the discussions between LJ and JF remain secret and will be the subject of the usual unsubstantiated Internet rumors. It’s pretty clear that Franklin wants his own staff and his own team, wants to do recruiting his way, and that he will undoubtedly hire a DC who would be the third under whom LJ has worked since St. Joe’s departure from the program and from this earth.

Have you ever left a job for greener pastures? Have you ever felt like you were getting passed over? Have you ever been pissed off about being pissed on? Have you ever had doubts about how you would fit into a new boss’ scheme? Lots of things must have been going through Larry’s mind. If indeed an offer from Ohio State is on the table and it represents a personal upgrade for him, more power to him! Penn State loves Larry and Larry loves Penn State. That won’t change. He is not defecting to the enemy. He is doing well for himself and his family.

Small world. Mike Vrabel was defensive line coach at OSU, creating a vacancy that was perfect for LJ. Where did Vrabel go? He’ll join fellow former New England Patriot Bill O’Brien in Houston.

But it ain’t official yet. After all, the Columbus Dispatch reported that LJ had not returned a text from them. LOL ? ? (STFU!) ?

James Franklin’s plan to dominate recruiting in the Keystone State has been dealt a significant blow, as Johnson brings his recruiting skills and long-term connections with him wherever he goes. Better he should go to UCLA than OSU, that’s for damn sure!

His coaching and his love for the players has been unquestionably excellent through the years. Under his watch, seven first-team All-America defensive linemen and six first-round NFL Draft picks were produced by Penn State. At least one, Tamba Hali of the Kansas City Chiefs, is an All-Pro who could be headed to the HoF.

Franklin won’t be introducing his assistants individually. He will announce his team when it is finally assembled and complete.

I think Franklin wants to assume the “daddy” role that has been LJ’s bailiwick and wanted to take firm control of recruiting. Couple those two things with a new DC and new philosophies, and the time was ripe for a change. LJ would be in a constrained box that he had not known for many years at Penn State as his influence and internal respect grew. So, after consideration, he’ll have new, fertile ground to plow, another major program on which to make his mark. ??? ??? ????? It’s an exciting, albeit bittersweet, time for Larry and his family.

This is the last vestige of the St. Joe Administration slipping away. Two other holdover coaches from the O’Brien period, McWhorter and Strollo, were not part of the Paterno legacy. Their fate is unknown at the moment.

I’m sad to see him go, but I wish him well, always! You da man, LJ!

LJ, Sr. Throws Hat in Ring

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Per ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, Penn State interim head coach Larry Johnson confirmed that he’ll apply for the permanent head coaching position at PSU.

“I’ll let my work stand for itself,” he said. “I’m not going to change who I am to get this job.”

Johnson would be a popular choice for the players, the alumni and, of course,  the Paternoists. He has been a member of the coaching staff at Penn State for 18 years. He is an effective recruiter and an excellent position coach. Whether he has the goods to serve as CEO of the football program, as Joyner calls the head coaching position, is up to the search committee to decide.

Read the article. He was even asked about Vanderlinden.

Sudden Impact: What Now?

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Time to revive Sudden Impact for some brief thoughts on the Bill O’Brien departure and its aftermath.  I’ve been kicking things around in my mind with the help of my readers. I’m going to pull stuff from their comments and my responses to collect those thoughts here.

Here’s a facetious suggestion from Big Al on December 30:

How about Ron VanDerLinden. He’s available, has previous head coaching experience and is a former Penn Stater (sort of). Plus, it would be a great way to give BOB the figurative finger on the way out.

Cracked me up. It would sure make the Paternoists happy, though.

However, Al went on to say:

Seriously, I almost wish they would hire an interim head coach, and let the new AD and President choose the next permanent coach. My biggest fear is that whoever they hire now won’t be able to get along with the new administration (with Peetz running the clown circus the next Prexy is almost certain to be an asshole) and we’ll be repeating this fiasco in December 2015.

And the more thought I gave that notion, the more I liked it. So I responded to Al:

On the whole, though, I like your idea about hiring an interim guy until the Old Main changes are made. It makes sense on a lot of levels, and it doesn’t put the cart before the horse. If Penn State isn’t a football dominated institution, then why would it hire a head football coach before the imminent hire of a new prexy and AD, and ass-ume that the new administrators would automatically be happy about a department head in control of so much money that they had no hand in hiring? There’s a chance, albeit remote, that the new administration would fire the coach before the season even started. At the very least, it’s a crap shoot for the coach.

Then, in a separate comment, I proposed this:

How about LJ, Sr. as interim head coach, as long as I’m making out-of-my-ass suggestions. He could retire as head coach when the new broom sweeps clean.

I believe that many people are thinking that Penn State will be able to hire a primo head coach in a day or two. It doesn’t happen that fast. But they cannot afford to wait very much longer, so an interim appointment makes eminent sense.

So, today, in response to a K. John comment, I wrote:

The forthcoming flux in Old Main is a big [factor in the coaching search]. Who will want to work in a situation where his boss(es) will change within six months or so? On the other hand, who would want to start coaching sometime around or after the Blue-White game? However, to wait that long to hire someone means a rudderless ship for half a year, right through National Signing Day and beyond — devastating to the recruiting effort, which is already in bad enough shape with prospects’ uncertainty over O’Brien leaving.

That combination of facts tells me that there’s almost certainly going to have to be an interim appointment, as Big Al proposed. Hell, Dr. Joyner is in a pickle here. O’Brien is likely to take most of his staff with him. If Schiano balks at Penn State’s overtures, which he should, if he is in his right mind, the guy who in my mind would be the logical choice for interim head coach would be Larry Johnson, who one would have to believe that O’Brien would have no interest in taking and who himself would have no interest in going. (Just thinking out my ass here.) He’d provide a transition and he would keep the waters smooth in a time of turmoil, kind of like an old, well broken-in pair of shoes. He would have to take the reins for an entire year, though.

Right around the same time as I wrote that, Bob Flounders of the Patriot News published this piece, which proposes the same thing. Great minds think alike? This might be the first and last time Flounders and I ever agree about anything.

The path forward is not as smooth as it seems to be. I’ve seen lots of speculation and found lots of underlying assumptions to be flawed, the worst of which is that the Penn State job is something any college coach in his right mind would want. Digging beneath the surface, I can find a lot of good reasons why a coach like Al Golden, who is secure in his present job, wouldn’t abandon it for Penn State. I suppose there are lots of nuances and my thinking is necessarily clouded by my lack of personal contact with these guys to determine their motivation.

What I find clouding lots of people’s thoughts is the notion that all other things being equal, a coach candidate would choose Penn State over all other offers regardless of how juicy those offers are. This Penn State pride thing gets in the way a lot. Express it this way, just as counterpoint: What coach would choose to move his family to remote Central Pennsylvania to run a program replete with problems and uncertainties when he could choose a prestigious program like UT-Austin? I mean, sometimes I hear this thinking that rationalizes Penn State as the best place in the world to coach. It just ain’t so. Call me a traitor for saying that. That’s why I think James Franklin will be the next head coach at Texas.

There are many fine institutions on par with Penn State or of greater stature. Get over the secular notion that Penn State is the be all and end all. (And Flounders, please don’t publish a story that paraphrases what I’m writing here, or I’ll think that you are getting the NSA feed from my cable modem.) Also, not only is Penn State inferior to a handful of other programs on the surface, but if you dig down you find the remnants of the Sandusky Scandal, the huge sanctions, the changing situation at Old Main, and so on and so on ad nauseam. If I were doing the hiring, I would want the prospect to strongly convince me how he (or she — oy, vey!) will cope with those issues and be able to surmount them.

A sign of the trouble facing the next Penn State coach is inherent in the crap David Jones published last night. The Paternoists are still hanging around wanting to have their way with the program. I’d sure as hell like to know the precise story about Ron Vanderlinden. At the time of his departure, I viewed it as an indication that O’Brien wanted complete control of the program and Vanderlinden, a vestigial Paternoist, was getting in the way. I believed that LJ and Vanderlinden were forced upon O’Brien, and this created friction between him and Joyner. Just who did what to whom with respect to Ron, we might never know. But it might have been the proverbial tipping point, to use a hack writing expression I abhor.

(Yeah, I’m a crusty old fuck.)

So, what do you think about this idea barfed up by Big Al, Bob Flounders, and me? Larry Johnson, Sr. as interim head coach — for a year. Your comments, please!