Penn State fires coach

Good!

I don’t know the guy. Nothing to do with his personal worth.

Sorry fellow fans & fellow alum. Obvious he had to go. 

PSU’s history makes it obvious: PSU wants to like their coach more than they want to be excellent enough to win. Also true at ND since I was there with Holtz. 

I like the sentiment. But if your program is about excellence, that pursuit has no compromises. Look at that word, “compromises.”

Ignore the 1st 3 letters. What’s it say?

The promise of excellence can’t go on forever. 

PSU has to exploit the transfer portal like ND has. No premium QB wants to go to PSU or ND. ND got recent ones through the portal, and last year beat PSU and were in the final. Has to be done.  

I love the underdog success as much as most. And if underdog exceptions are what you want, JoePa got his (how many times🙄). Holyz got his (1988, though his ethics were questionable next to JoePa’s). They’re rare. Not dynasties. If you want to be a dynasty like Bama, Georgia, Oregon, OSU, there’s a cost. ND’s last title (1988) had a cost too. But we keep routing for the good guys, the best guys, like Duke, ND, PSU, to win it all while also being the good guys.

I like that hope. I hope for it too. But each time it does NOT happen, I say it’s because excellence is compromised. Easiest way to do that is like a coach and ignore the failure to achieve excellence.

And what’s important to me to realize is that these teams do NOT lack excellent players. They lose to more excellent *coaches*.

Failure to execute a coaching plan doesn’t mean 22 guys failed!!!

Their smaller staff did. That staff ain’t coaching themselves. They’re coaching the excellent plurality!

To believe in goodness, I have to believe in excellence too. When a good/goodness program doesn’t win, it’s not yet excellent. Every institution I recognize as a dynasty – from the tribes of Israel, the Roman Empire, the American experiment… I recognize as dynastic because excellence is in them. THROUGHOUT them. We hail Patton, but Patton in a bar is one man, not an army, and the history snippet can’t name every GI. “Patton” names them all. Like “Saban” or “Brady” or “Jordan” names the countless faces of excellence who served him.

Let’s GO

[= “Let *US* GO!” Plural “us.” “Let (singular) *him* go,” is different.]