Relating to Penn State and every other team in college football and every other sport, people have varying opinions on “bulletin board material.”
For those who don’t know, “bulletin board material” is given out by players, coaches etc. who say things leading up to a game— particularly a big one— that could fire up the opposition and, thus, have a negative affect on their team.
Many Penn State fans are also Philadelphia Eagles fans, and Eagles fans of a certain age remember a great example of “bulletin board material” taking place in January 1996. Ahead of the Eagles Wildcard playoff game against the Lions at Veterans Stadium, Detroit’s All-Pro offensive tackle, Lomas Brown, guaranteed a Lions win. The Lions would have won… had they scored 22 more points or allowed 22 fewer.
The Eagles could have won anyway without those comments, but it’s safe to say Brown’s prediction didn’t help in retrospect.
There are times when guarantees can work out, with Joe Namath being the most famous example.
The difference in how Brown’s guarantee looks in retrospect compared to Namath’s illustrated why people are split on now much “bulletin board material” matters.
Does it fire up the other team, as it did when Brown made his guarantee? Does it inspire the team of the player/coach saying it, as it did when Namath made his? Or where these guarantee’s irrelevant in the outcome of both of these games and all others, nothing more than a fun footnote?
Every case is different, so it’s hard to say what the answer is.
Leading up to Saturday’s season opener at West Virginia in Morgantown, there have been comments thrown Penn State’s way that the team could throw on the board.
From within the WVU program, defensive back Garnett Hollis Jr. said Penn State doesn’t show much respect for programs that aren’t perennial Big Ten powers Michigan and Ohio State. Earlier this week, defensive tackle Eddie Vesterinen said he took Penn State scoring a controversial last-second touchdown at the end of last year’s game “very personal,” and hopes his teammates feel the same way.
Then, there’s Pat McAfee.
As anybody who knows anything about McAfee should expect, the former West Virginia punter turned media superstar is hyping up his alma mater ahead of its biggest home game in almost six years.
He’s said, among other things, that West Virginia will “run wild” on Penn State.
So what’s PSU coach James Franklin’s response to all this?
James Franklin: "I love @PatMcAfeeShow and his energy & enthusiasm for sports. I think his ability to speak freely is unique and fun."
We're in for a good one Saturday between Penn State and West Virginia.@AndrewClayTV | #NittanyNation | @evanfoxy | @aqshipley pic.twitter.com/r35zFbZzbx
— Allie Berube (@allieberube) August 26, 2024
“First of all, I love Pat McAfee and his energy and enthusiasm for sports and specifically college football,” Franklin said Monday at his first weekly presser of 2024. “I think he’s been good for college athletics and sports in general. I think it’s fun, right?”
“You know, I think his ability to speak freely is unique and fun in a lot of ways. For us it’s a fine line, right?”
Franklin referred to “bulletin board material” as “the old billboard material,” which has the same meaning.
Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t want his players giving any to the opposition.
“I want to make sure that our guys and staff don’t say anything that creates billboard material,” he said. “For some people that motivates them, right?”
Franklin isn’t a huge fan of his players using social media
“I want to make sure I’m not talking out of both sides of my mouth with our staff and our players,” he said, “because I also strongly recommend our players getting off social media, especially in-season. Which is easier said than done. It’s amazing how many of them say ‘well, I’m good with it.’ A year later, ‘yeah, I’m probably going to get off social media this year.’”
QB Drew Allar said late last season he stopped using social media during the campaign.
Franklin also admitted that the posts from his X (formerly Twitter) account during the season are posted by somebody else.
“I would like for more of them to take the advice on the front end,” he said. “No different than me handing my phone over to (Director of External Operations Destiny (Rodriguez) during the season and let her manage those things. I think it’s the healthy way to go.”
Franklin then said he’s able to see things on social media through Penn State’s strategic communications department.
“When you guys (the players) are on social media, you’re reading whatever comes in. There is no filter. What we can do is I can have Destiny or Greg Kincaid or Kris Peterson pull things out to show to me and strategically say, we want to use these things. There is a filter there.
So we do a little bit of it, but not a lot of it, for those very reasons. I want to make sure what we’re saying is consistent but look at it like old bulletin board material.”
Franklin than said Penn State is a “true bulletin board material team.”
He didn’t say what specifically Penn State was looking at as far as this week’s game goes, but said the program does notice when things are said that could create extra motivation.
“We just cut out what’s in the newspaper,” he said “where there are some staffs and coaches get on their computer and create stories that never existed to try to motivate their team. We’re not going to do that. There is enough out there you can find it on your own.”
