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Post by vollectator on Dec 8, 2021 21:29:17 GMT -5
We sure Penn St. is making the tourney next year? The day is drawing nearer when we miss a tournament, for sure. This program is getting gutted. It's amazing. I thought there were some excellent recruits coming in? One played on the U18 national team? |
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Post by jagdpanther on Dec 12, 2021 20:32:10 GMT -5
Hord officially in the Portal.
*sigh*
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Post by vup on Dec 12, 2021 20:33:53 GMT -5
Noooo  |
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Post by psuvbfan10 on Dec 12, 2021 20:54:16 GMT -5
Look, would it be great to have Hord, Blosson, Parker and Hampton back in Happy Valley, sure! However they have played their 4 years and they are fortunate enough to get a 5th year and start grad school. Great for them.
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Post by photos1 on Dec 12, 2021 20:58:16 GMT -5
Just one thing, has anyone just asked Russ if he plans on coming back to coach volleyball at Penn State next year? I always thought him bringing in Pritchard and Rollins as a last best effort to win another title. And now, it seems the main talent of this team will be gone in 2022- setter(gone), libero(gone), AA MB (gone), ect… it sure doesn’t look like what remains or what recruits are coming in will make them even a top 8 B1G team. Again, has anyone just asked Russ if he’s planning on coaching at Penn State next year, because it sure doesn’t appear from the outside like that is going to happen. I guess we’ll see in the next couple of weeks, unless someone just asks him. . . 👀
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Post by psuvbfan10 on Dec 12, 2021 22:02:08 GMT -5
Just one thing, has anyone just asked Russ if he plans on coming back to coach volleyball at Penn State next year? I always thought him bringing in Pritchard and Rollins as a last best effort to win another title. And now, it seems the main talent of this team will be gone in 2022- setter(gone), libero(gone), AA MB (gone), ect… it sure doesn’t look like what remains or what recruits are coming in will make them even a top 8 B1G team. Again, has anyone just asked Russ if he’s planning on coaching at Penn State next year, because it sure doesn’t appear from the outside like that is going to happen. I guess we’ll see in the next couple of weeks, unless someone just asks him. . . 👀 I believe he signed a 4 year extension in 2020, so he knew what his rosters were looking like. While I have no inside knowledge, I am sure that they will be competitive. I know that having a true spring training season will help a lot. |
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Post by jagdpanther on Dec 12, 2021 22:05:54 GMT -5
I am sure that they will be competitive. That is not the goal at Penn State. |
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Post by psuvbfan10 on Dec 12, 2021 22:46:37 GMT -5
I am sure that they will be competitive. That is not the goal at Penn State. I know , I meant that they will not fall into the abyss. Competitive for a Nat'l title, yes. |
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Post by jagdpanther on Dec 13, 2021 20:22:33 GMT -5
I know , I meant that they will not fall into the abyss. Competitive for a Nat'l title, yes. But... we're not. We've not really been competitive for a few seasons now. We're a middle-of-the-road Big Ten team while Wisky has become the star of the conference and teams like friggin' Pitt have become consistent top performers. |
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Post by Wiswell on Dec 13, 2021 21:30:54 GMT -5
How would focus on football all of a sudden negatively impact volleyball? Football is the overwhelm focus there like it was when they were winning titles. Penn State's Athletic Department is... a bit different. Basically, it has been on "limp mode" for a long time. Yes, it is profitable. Yes, it has several programs with long-standing success. But the Athletic Department basically did nothing. It was just kinda "there." It lazily pushed some funds around, didn't really do much fundraising, and just let football bring in cash without really working to invest that cash or try to put out some effort to bring in even more cash. Occasionally a donor would want to fund a pet project, like develop D-I hockey at Penn State, and they'd go along with that, but that's about it. This is largely because in the past it really didn't have to do jack squat. But even 10 years after Joe Paterno was ousted they have yet to really adapt to a world where they actually have to do real work. What has changed the last several years, really since James Franklin took over football, is that he has been working overtime to get the Athletic Department to finally give a flying sh** about investing and doing work. Football pays all the bills, and to continue paying all the bills into the future it needs significant investment. Its facilities are horribly out of date and getting outright lapped by top-tier programs and even just passed by mediocre or even truly awful programs who understand the college football arms race is real and not going away. So what does this have to do with v-ball? It means that basically every dollar that has come in has been shunted to football-related things like salaries, facility upgrades, recruiting budgets, etc. There's enough money being given to non-rev sports to keep them afloat, but not much else. No one is really getting upgrades or new things unless private donors are bankrolling those things. Even beyond the Athletic Department, the University administration proper still is stuck in the past and refuses to really consider athletics a necessary investment. Our athlete housing is AWFUL. It is basically unchanged since the 80s. Meanwhile, at other universities, athletes are living in luxury (with schools bending NCAA rules enough to make it look like it's not an improper benefit by allowing rich non-athlete students to pony up to live in the same accommodations). It's not just the Sandusky scandal; we have a large segment of our University administration that would *love* to go down the Stanford road and totally deemphasize athletics. What has apparently given them pause as of late was seeing how hard the University as a whole and the State College area was devastated by the total lack of athletics-attendance-driven income in 2020-21. It was a wake-up call. But the going is still tough. So, yes, while football has always been king, the need to bring the football program into the present day from where it's stuck 15-20 years ago is causing a drain of resources on most other athletic programs within Penn State, and I think that at least partially explains why women's volleyball has fallen off the last 7 years to where it is now which is a middle-of-the-road Big Ten program. Your posts above can call it recruiting rather than resources, but recruiting is inherently tied to resources. The lack of recruiting and talent can be attributed in no small part to the drain of resources from the program. Sorry for quoting a long post, but this is spot on. Penn State can't just live on its brand anymore. |
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Post by ntylynbby on Dec 14, 2021 6:07:07 GMT -5
Penn State's Athletic Department is... a bit different. Basically, it has been on "limp mode" for a long time. Yes, it is profitable. Yes, it has several programs with long-standing success. But the Athletic Department basically did nothing. It was just kinda "there." It lazily pushed some funds around, didn't really do much fundraising, and just let football bring in cash without really working to invest that cash or try to put out some effort to bring in even more cash. Occasionally a donor would want to fund a pet project, like develop D-I hockey at Penn State, and they'd go along with that, but that's about it. This is largely because in the past it really didn't have to do jack squat. But even 10 years after Joe Paterno was ousted they have yet to really adapt to a world where they actually have to do real work. What has changed the last several years, really since James Franklin took over football, is that he has been working overtime to get the Athletic Department to finally give a flying sh** about investing and doing work. Football pays all the bills, and to continue paying all the bills into the future it needs significant investment. Its facilities are horribly out of date and getting outright lapped by top-tier programs and even just passed by mediocre or even truly awful programs who understand the college football arms race is real and not going away. So what does this have to do with v-ball? It means that basically every dollar that has come in has been shunted to football-related things like salaries, facility upgrades, recruiting budgets, etc. There's enough money being given to non-rev sports to keep them afloat, but not much else. No one is really getting upgrades or new things unless private donors are bankrolling those things. Even beyond the Athletic Department, the University administration proper still is stuck in the past and refuses to really consider athletics a necessary investment. Our athlete housing is AWFUL. It is basically unchanged since the 80s. Meanwhile, at other universities, athletes are living in luxury (with schools bending NCAA rules enough to make it look like it's not an improper benefit by allowing rich non-athlete students to pony up to live in the same accommodations). It's not just the Sandusky scandal; we have a large segment of our University administration that would *love* to go down the Stanford road and totally deemphasize athletics. What has apparently given them pause as of late was seeing how hard the University as a whole and the State College area was devastated by the total lack of athletics-attendance-driven income in 2020-21. It was a wake-up call. But the going is still tough. So, yes, while football has always been king, the need to bring the football program into the present day from where it's stuck 15-20 years ago is causing a drain of resources on most other athletic programs within Penn State, and I think that at least partially explains why women's volleyball has fallen off the last 7 years to where it is now which is a middle-of-the-road Big Ten program. Your posts above can call it recruiting rather than resources, but recruiting is inherently tied to resources. The lack of recruiting and talent can be attributed in no small part to the drain of resources from the program. Sorry for quoting a long post, but this is spot on. Penn State can't just live on its brand anymore. Players are being recruited on what was not what is! |
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Post by bkedane on Dec 14, 2021 8:18:24 GMT -5
Sorry for quoting a long post, but this is spot on. Penn State can't just live on its brand anymore. Players are being recruited on what was not what is! How many of the recruits have you spoken with about this? Or are you just making it up? |
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Post by jagdpanther on Dec 14, 2021 20:15:23 GMT -5
Sorry for quoting a long post, but this is spot on. Penn State can't just live on its brand anymore. Unfortunately (for Penn State fans), that thinking still prevails with a lot of critical people in the AD, University-proper administration, and booster fanbase. It is going to take many more years, if ever, for things to change. Penn State is at a very dangerous fork in the road right now. Either it takes the correct path and works its way back toward being a top-tier Division I university, or it takes the incorrect path and inescapably falls into the abyss of irrelevancy. It is not unrealistic that that second thing occurs. |
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Post by Wiswell on Dec 14, 2021 20:26:56 GMT -5
Just one simple example:
Every school in the country has some (in the students' minds, anyway) alternative football uniform.
The big transformative uniform for FB was 1) names on uniforms under Bill O. or (wait for it) numbers on helmets (retro). Because of course, don't want to mess up the "brand" too much.
Now, personally, I don't care what the uniform looks like. But marketing people and the athletes do. The traditional uniform is starting to scream "we're not cool."
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Post by azsker on Dec 14, 2021 20:48:30 GMT -5
Just one simple example: Every school in the country has some (in the students' minds, anyway) alternative football uniform. The big transformative uniform for FB was 1) names on uniforms under Bill O. or (wait for it) numbers on helmets (retro). Because of course, don't want to mess up the "brand" too much. Now, personally, I don't care what the uniform looks like. But marketing people and the athletes do. The traditional uniform is starting to scream "we're not cool." lol so explain Alabama’s situation to us. Bc they change nothing… |
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