Nobody knows who did it— and nobody might ever know— but somebody leaked audio of a private meeting between Penn State AD Pat Kraft and the football players, which took places before the team’s regular-season finale against Rutgers last week.
It was quite interesting, to say the least.
In the audio, we learned that Pat Kraft really, really doesn’t think too highly of Michigan or Oregon, and doesn’t think Penn State is too far away from Ohio State, the top team in the Big Ten.
We also learned that Pat Kraft feels the way most Penn State fans and media do about young receivers Koby Howard and Tyseer Denmark not getting playing time until late in the season.
Here are some highlights (warning: There were a lot of f-bombs here).
KRAFT ON THE BIG TEN
“Ohio State’s Ohio State, but fuck, it’s not like they’re way, light years better than us talent-wise. We just haven’t been able to get over the fucking hump. Michigan fucking stinks. A fucking joke. Cheated their balls off. That’s real by the way, what they did.
“Oregon? The fucking quarterback was shaking in overtime.”
Pat Kraft acknowledged that Penn State hasn’t done a good job in wining their biggest games, with James Franklin’s 4-21 record against top 10 teams being a big reason for his firing in October.
“But we have to win those fucking games and it comes with you guys and a plan and a strategy to go and fucking beat Notre Dame and Marcus (Freeman). Fuck them. And then go and beat Ohio State in the national championship game. All part of everything we’re talking about.
“It pains me, as you know, to compare any of these assholes to us. But we have to be real with ourselves in the room, too.”
WHY PENN STATE LOSES RECRUITS
Players gave their input throughout this audio, too, and one issue that Pat Kraft and a player agreed on was that the location of State College is a big part of why Penn State misses on some top talent.
“That’s why a lot of people de-committed,” the player said. “Because, you’re telling me, I could go getting recruited from like Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, places that are big and have like things around it, and then I have to come here and be in the middle of nowhere and be far away from anything, and (players are only) here to be here? I’m telling you, that’s the biggest reason why people don’t come here, and I asked the recruits, because I host the recruits, why they don’t want to come here, and that’s the reason why.”
Pat Kraft agreed with the player that location is an issue, but also added:
“Alabama ain’t around shit,” he said. “Oregon, have you all been to Oregon? Ain’t shit going on. It’s a bunch of fucking weirdos.”
Another player— who we probably can assume was safety King Mack, since he talked about his time at Alabama and is the only Penn State player that transferred from Alabama— talked more about the surrounding area.
“(Tuscaloosa) Alabama’s also a city too,” Mack said, “which people don’t know about. It’s a city there. So you have Birmingham, that’s literally 35 minutes away. Then you have Atlanta. Atlanta, that’s two hours away. So most of the time, after the games on weekends, everybody’s going to Atlanta.”
“Do they really?” Pat Kraft asked
“Yeah,” Mack responded. “Everybody’s going to Atlanta.“
“That sounds like a recipe for good stuff to happen. But whatever, what’s good.”
‘WE AREN’T HERE TO BE CLOSE’
When Penn State lost to No. 2 Indiana Nov. 8, it was a different feeling from Penn State’s previous big-game failures.
There’s always disappointment that comes with coming within a miracle catch of a massive upset.
But when the players left the field at Beaver Stadium, there were cheers, not boos, and the same went for interim HC Terry Smith.
This is different from past scenes after tough home losses to the Ohio States, Oregons and Michigans of the world, and it’s because, given how the season had gone— a coach getting fired, and quarterback getting injured— almost beating Indiana seemed pretty good.
Kraft appreciated what the team did that day, but made it clear that the result wasn’t good enough.
“Fuck that,” he said. “We ain’t here to be close. So yeah, we played great through adversity, and I’m proud of what you guys did. But those of you guys who come play, that ain’t fucking good. Right, Tony (Rojas?) I mean, you weren’t out there, you would have helped. You see what I’m saying, though? You cannot let the thing be the thing, right? Like you guys played outstanding, but they fucking beat us.”
*for context, Rojas has been out with a season-ending injury since October.*
“I don’t want us to lose sight of that, because what’s happened here too many times at Penn State is we fucking settle for second best,” Kraft said. “That’s why we made the move (to fire Franklin).”
“If I were to keep status quo, I would have said ‘fuck it,’ and just rolled with James, man. That’s not why I’m here. That’s not what I’m ok with. And your point is well taken, but as you guys grow up, you have to figure out, what’s the fucking solution? There’s a lot of things that were fucking wrong here that needed fixed. From the way you guys train, to the lack of resources. The lack of technology that we had.
Kraft then went back to talking about other major college programs, and took a dig at Oregon.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“That’s what Ohio State, Michigan, as it pains me to fucking say, Georgia, ‘Bama, and Oregon right now— although I think they’re frauds. I think they’re not tough. That’s our edge is the toughness.”
For all that’s said about Franklin, his players loved him, and that wasn’t lost on Kraft.
“All the things that you’re talking about, and you should be angry,” he said. “(I) went through a coaching change (as a player at Indiana). Fucking pissed. Furious. ‘Fuck you, you don’t know what’s going on.’ I get it, and you should have been angry at me. There’s a reason I put Terry in there. Because of all the things you said, to get us to where we need to be. And yes, you’ve played exceptionally better.”
Kraft then talked bluntly about his alma mater, which is playing for the Big Ten title Saturday.
“Fuck them,” he said. “That ain’t the No. 2 fucking team. My team’s better than them, and I don’t want you guys to fall victim to what the crowd is saying.”
Kraft then sighted Penn State’s double-overtime loss to Oregon as an example of how good this team could have been.
“I know we didn’t get the outcome we wanted,” he said. “Man, we played our fucking balls off and started moving people, moving people. That was a small glimpse.”
EXIT LIGHT
Kraft also talked about what Penn State could have down differently in the transfer portal this past cycle, and took a jab at Franklin’s new employer along the way.
“All the kids that are on visits to Virginia Tech, they’re not even top 500 kids,” Kraft said. “Is that going to help us win. You need help. You need a wide receiver. You needed a wide receiver. We couldn’t get the fucking dog for you to help open things up. Am I wrong? Would you have taken (Ohio State’s) Carnell Tate?”
There was speculation after Ohio State’s national championship season that Tate would enter the transfer portal, and if he had, Penn State would have been wise to target him.
Speaking of Ohio State, a player then mentioned a guy who was once thought to be a candidate for the Penn State job.
“The best receivers are going to O-State because of Brian Hartline,” the player said.
Kraft responded.
“He’s a dude,” he said, “but it’s the culture they’ve built around wide receivers all of a sudden. It’s like our own LBU or tight ends.”
“They know Brian Hartline produces the best receivers,” the player said, “and I think we just don’t have that presence or haven’t had that presence, that position coach here in a while.”
“How do we fix it,” Kraft said, “because it’s not good enough.”
HERE COMES THE MONEY
Kraft confirmed what anybody who follows Penn State already knew— the team spent a lot of money on this roster—
“This is one of the highest-paid rosters in the country,” Kraft said. “From the money that is spent, right now. Texas Tech is $40 million, because that billionaire (Cody Campbell) is dropping money on them, it’s just crazy, it’s fucking nuts. This roster that’s on the field right now, probably top four. Now, how the money was spent was a different story. But money in the program… it’s the strategy behind it that matters.”
How Franklin and the coaching staff managed the roster raised a lot of questions both before and after his firing,
Kraft and others in the room agreed that it took Penn State too long to give true freshman WR Koby Howard a shot.
Kraft was also blunt when talking to Rojas.
“Without you, the whole fucking defense falls apart?” Kraft said. “Why aren’t we playing the young kids more? I love Dom (DeLuca) but we’re finally starting to do that. But there’s no reason a 90-year-old quarterback from Iowa should be able to run for 180 yards against us with a torn ACL.”
Indeed, Iowa QB Mark Gronowski— who is 24 years old— ran for 130 yards against Penn State.
Penn State started to play true freshman LB Alex Tatsch late in the year, and playing these young contributors is one of the reasons the team wants Smith to be promoted to full-time.
It should be noted that, since this recording, Penn State beat Rutgers, Alabama beat Auburn— effectively ending Penn State’s chances of landing Kalen DeBoer— Penn State almost hired BYU’s Kalani Sitake, and Rojas let his thoughts be known on social media.
But Kraft’s signature line from the recording still very much applies.
“If I don’t get this right, my career is over,” he said. “Understand that. If I don’t hire the right person, my career is over. So it’s very serious to me. You all are going to graduate and move on. If I don’t find the right person, in two years, they will fire my ass, and I don’t get another AD job. How do you fuck up Penn State?”
