Ah, ’tis political season. I know this, in part, because of the campaign yard signs that have sprung up like weeds on private and public land.

Garish, distracting and short on useful information, I ponder how effective they really are.

I particularly wonder when I see such signs posted outside the geographic boundaries of the offices for which candidates are running. I’ve seen signs for City of Johnstown candidates posted in Southmont, Upper Yoder, Richland, etc.

Similarly, I discovered at least one sign for a Southmont candidate that was posted prominently in a bucloic part of Upper Yoder.

Can I actually vote in Johnstown elections, despite living in Southmont? I know, I know, illegals from around the world have voted in United States elections of recent vintage, so anything goes in the lawless world of elections.

Still, if I’m a resident of Municipality A, I don’t want people from Municipality B, C, or D, deciding my leadership and, by extension, my fate.

This is a rather low-key election, long on local and a few state elections, and lacking for much in the way of national impact, unless you factor in a communist/socialist about to be elected mayor of New York City and a guy prone to urging shootings on social media who is running for high office in Virginia.

Here in the quaint borough of Southmont, we have borough council seats and the mayor job on the ballot.

Just minutes ago, a candidate for mayor, Mark Drummey, stopped by and we chatted at length.

He’s got my vote, for many reasons.

First, he had the initiative to go out and meet the electorate, not just depend on a bunch of yard signs to emblazon his name into our memories, and prompt a kneejerk vote from people reaching the polls without having done any research on the candidates.

Second, the interaction lasted beyond the time it took to hand me a card.

Third, and most important, he’s a kindred spirit in thinking that our sleepy borough is going to hell in a handbasket due to a general hands-off approach to serial scofflaws that passes for justice in precincts such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City.

Southmont’s fear of offending bullies and hoping they just go away is sickening.

I’ve witnessed the decline of Southmont in four decades of residency and if Drummey can do something to change that, I say it’s about time.

The Drummey campaign card he handed me promises quality neighborhood services and fiscal responsibility.

Drummey lists himself as a 37-year resident of Southmont, with former posts in various civic operations.

More to the point, our conversation indicated he not only sees a problem, he’s willing to do what needs to be done to correct it, no matter if it brings verbal tantrums from the usual suspects.

Alas, electorates tend to vote on impulse, blind loyalty to a party, hurtful agendas, or outright ignorance.

Drummey fights the uphill battle by speaking of legitimate issues and promising to address them.

I’m hoping he gets the chance and I will be voting for him. I encourage others who might live within the borough to consider seriously putting someone in office inclined to do the right thing.

Let us pause a moment to mourn the passing of an American institution, the independent mechanic/garage owner.

Once, these guys were as ubiquitous as corner stores, those stores long ago having disappeared, victims of nationwide chains, not to mention online shopping. The small-business mechanic is moving toward similar extinction.

The reasons are numerous.

Begin with the reality that cars have gotten so complicated, you need sophisticated computerized machinery to diagnose their ills. Dealerships and nationwide chains are better able to absorb the cost of the equipment and amortize it over large customer lists, while generally charging a small fortune to do even the most mundane of tasks.

There also is the general trend in society to devalue the skills of those who get their hands dirty. Everyone should go to college, the self-appointed arbiters proclaim, even though that isn’t true. This prunes the field of would-be mechanics.

Add on that it’s hard work running a small shop and dealing with customers who might not know a driveshaft from a camshaft, but doubt you when you tell them what is wrong with their vehicle.

I don’t know this for sure, but I suspect government regulation also makes it harder for the small-guy mechanics.

And so we are at an unfortunate stage when competent, independent mechanics are scarce as hen’s teeth.

By way of background, I’ve shared in past posts the problems of getting someone to address the automatic transmission problems of my Corvette from Hell.

After jerking me around for a month, the transmission shop didn’t want to work on its because the transmission was not stock and they might not be able to get parts. Never mind that the transmission is based on the GM turbohydramatic transmission of the past, of which many millions were made, or that the aftermarket speed provider continues to sell them, and parts such as rebuild kits online. I know, I checked.

I’d about given up on the Corvette being anything more than an expensive paperweight when a fellow car guy said there was a mechanic located near him who did great work, on almost anything, and to give him a call.

In one of those ironies of life, that mechanic’s name is Chance. So, I took a Chance.

It took some time to get an opening for the Corvette and some time for a solution, so if you’re looking for quick turnarounds, look elsewhere.

However, if you want a guy who’s old school in the best ways, such as talented, conscientous, willing to take on a challenge, and inclined to charge a fair price, Chance at Thomasdale Machine, just past Thomas Mills along Old Somerset Pike, is your man.

I thought he was a 30-something, but he told me he’s actually 41. This is a good thing because it’s likely Chance and his business will outlast me. Unfortunately, the garage located less than a mile away from my home that I’ve relied on to service my small fleet of cars, currently numbering six, has owners who are looking to retire.

The mere thought gives me the shakes.

Getting back to happier thoughts, Chance seems to have cured the transmission ills, finding many gaffes by the people who assembled my car, a Frankenstein-type effort I call the Vette Rod in homage to its non-stock nature, the sort of thing that really annoys the Corvette purists.

Chance wants to do some tuning on my Corvette’s valves next year, when I get it out of winter storage, and he’s willing to take on the balky mechanism of my convertible Mustang, yet another challenge that many mechanics, including at dealerships, seem either unable or unwilling to attempt.

I guess I really shouldn’t be spreading the word about Chance, who already is busy due to a great word-of-mouth reputation.

But, praises need to be sung of people doing a good job, as rare as that has become.

Barely had I finished writing my latest ode to “Big Game James” Franklin, suggesting the right thing for him to do would be to quit, but he wouldn’t do that, when word came that Penn State had fired the guy.

James leaves with what is variously estimated to be a $50 million severance package, free to lose to quality opposition with great frequency somewhere else.

Franklin was a good coach, but also highly over-rated.

Don’t feel too sorry for him. That $50 million can buy a lot of therapy.

President Donald Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize and Penn State football coach “Big Game James” Franklin failed to win a football game for the third straight weekend. Only here might you read how those two disparate situations share something in common.

Friends and enemies alike came out before and after the latest peace prize announcement to note Trump deserved it. When you have leftist media outlets such as CNN, The Hill and Newsweek making Trump’s case, along with Vladimir Putin, you have an unusual grouping, sort of like the modern Democrat Party.

Alas, Trump did not win the prize. As an aside, I always found it ironic in the extreme that Nobel prizes, including for peace, are named after Alfred Nobel, the guy who invented dynamite. Nothing says peace like blowing up something.

Moving on, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, a Venezuelan woman whose name was not exactly on the lips of the world, sang the praises of Trump’s peace efforts!

In an email exchange a week or so before the announcement, I had assured a cousin that Trump would not win because he doesn’t tick the right boxes of this leftist-run organization. I did add that should I be wrong and Trump did win, he ought to refuse the reward and call it out for the shallow PR stunt it has become.

It was curious to hear some from the Nobel crowd suggest that what Trump did in terms of bringing peace throughout the world in less than a year in office, including brokering the Israel-Hamas hostage deal, came too late in the cycle and might be considered next year.

Explain, then, how Barack Hussein Obama was nominated for the award after less than TWO WEEKS in office and, of course, won it months later. It was fitting that the hope and change guy won a Nobel prize for something he promised, but did not deliver.

Allow me to put on my cynic’s hat here and suggest just maybe Obama’s win had something to do with him not being a white male.

I am not alone on that front. Megyn Kelly, prominent media figure and former Fox News host, fell under Trump’s attack for months after she grilled him about being an alleged mysoginist during a debate.

But Kelly has become a huge Trump supporter and called out the Nobel people as leftists promoting leftists and sullying their brand in the process of ignoring success from those on the political right.

That brings us to Franklin. For many reasons, including DEI, in the past there has been a rush to deify Franklin, as represented by contract extensions and massive salaries.

Franklin has been portrayed as a savior of a once-proud football program. Not exactly.

If a coach can’t win at Penn State in this era, well, he’s not much of a coach.

Bill O’Brien inherited Penn State after Joe Paterno’s departure, with the program at a low ebb both on the field and off it due to sexual abuse of children by former long-time assisant coach Jerry Sandusky and the school’s failure to report it.

O’Brien faced scholarship limits and a four-season bowl ban among his challenges.

Yet, Penn State won at a .625 clip during his two years.

Penn State’s win rate under Franklin is .717. That’s better, but is it really that much improved considering he’s operating with full scholarships and bowl eligibility to allow recruitment of better players?

O’Brien’s Big Ten winning percentage was .625, while Franklin’s is .660.

Franklin’s success rate against Top 10 competition is an abysmal .160!

During O’Brien’s stay, the Penn State program was populated by players either who stayed out of a strong sense of loyalty, or came for the twin reasons of facing a challenge and not having better offers.

By the way, Paterno’s win percentage was .749. He also coached two national championship teams and arguably deserved a third with his unbeaten 1994 team.

The Penn State football program is in freefall under Franklin. He painted this as his best team in terms of talent, depth and coaching staff. The Nittany Lions were ranked as high as No. 2 nationally.

Then they lost at home to a talented Oregon team (which since has lost to Indiana), went on the road to be shocked by previously winless UCLA, then returned to Beaver Stadium to drop a homecoming contest to Northwestern Saturday.

Penn State is making history of the negative variety. It’s been more than 30 years since a college team at Penn State’s level managed to lose back-to-back games in which it was favored by 20 points or more.

Fans are wearing bags on their heads and screaming for Franklin’s firing.

Somehow, they expected more from a team that pays the head man in excess of $8 million a year, imported a new defensive coordinator at $3 million a year for three years, has a quarterback (now injured) pulling down $3 million in name, image, likeness (NIL) money and has total NIL income for the roster at a reported $14 million for 2025.

But, the man they call – sarcastically – “Big Game James” has a contract that would require a buyout reported to be $56 million or so should Penn State brass do the right thing and show him the door.

The hit would be a lot less if Franklin left on his own and went elsewhere in pursuit of another deification process.

Franklin said in the aftermath of the Northwestern loss how commited he was to his players and to righting the sinking ship. But, the best thing Franklin could do now would be to leave that ship and give someone else a chance at the helm.

Don’t bet on that happening. It’s as much a fool’s errand as betting on Franklin to win big games, or Trump to win a Nobel prize.

There is so much ground to cover and the clock is ticking on my internet service availability. Let’s get started.

President Donald Trump put on a quintessential show yesterday during a televised Oval Office session with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Trump was killing Carney with kindness, calling him a legitimate world class leader and even a great man.

One of the unwashed scibes took this as a chance to pull a gotcha on Trump, asking if Carney was such a great man, how come there had been no trade deal?

Without even blinking, or playing for time to come up with a response, Trump shot back “Because I want to be a great man, too.”

The room erupted in laughter and Trump called a close to the public portion of the event, showing his characteristic showman’s ability to leave on a high note.

As they say on periodic segments on Greg Gutfeld’s show, we don’t deserve him.

But, even the Great Trump cannot accomplish repeated miracles and he’s attempting two at the moment. The first is trying to deal with Hamas terrorists to attain peace in Gaza and the second is trying to deal with organized internal strife fomented by disingenuous Democrats.

First, regarding Gaza. Hamas types are subhuman. That is the unvarnished truth.

Their supporters, well, they don’t have much going for themselves, either.

Hamas, like Democrats domestically, exists to cling to power and when the grip is slipping, they become desperate.

Hamas will string along Trump with vague agreements, hoping to avoid his military wrath, but they are no more to be trusted than your dog with a steak sitting on the floor by its feeding dish.

Too many Democrats, sadly, are not to be trusted, either.

With each passing day, more and more evidence is released regarding Democrats weaponizing the justice system against Trump, from telling lies to get wiretaps on him, to persecuting him and his family on ridiculous charges, to harassing members of Trump’s administrations.

The bastardization of justice is now said to have been extended to spying on sympathetic members of Congress.

Today, former FBI director James Comey, was expected to take a perp walk for alleged sins, but slipped past the waiting public. Typical double standard. Maybe Comey was looking for seashells to spell out a message, or listening to some Taylor Swift songs he professes to know by heart.

Democrats, in the media and in government and in the spotlight, like Rob “Meathead” Reiner, bleat on about the end of democracy under Trump and the dawn of a Third Reich, yet they say nothing about actual Democrat abuses that are more egregious than anything Republicans are alleged – incorrectly – to have done.

Democrats have rushed to support illegal immigrants, assorted scofflaws, violent protesters and those such as Antifa who would take down the nation in pursuit of some sort of nihilistic end.

Given a clear-cut question of right and wrong, Democrats can be expected to come down on the side of what traditionalists would describe as wrong. Every time.

This sort of warped thinking infests our schools, the bureaucracy, the media and the justice system. It is an internal rot as bad as that which Hamas has visited upon Gaza.

As with Hamas and Gaza, there is no painless, easy cure regarding these wayward Democrats, no matter how high the hopes are of President Trump.

This is just a quick, informational post, to explain what I figure will be a paucity of posts in coming days (hopefully not weeks).

Simply put, I’ve had enough of paying champagne prices for beer, in this case weak internet service.

Almost always with Breezeline, it was passed off as a problem on my end, even though many company tech support types have told me they can’t believe my slow signal is still out there. Of late, spotty, glitchy, sometimes nonexistent service was supposedly the fault of my router, which I had purchased in lieu of renting from them. Yes, the latest tech support person said, I’d bought my latest router relatively recently, but it was an old model no longer supported by Breezeline.

This was despite Breezeline having told me specifically at purchase time it was suitable.

Judging by commentary I’ve heard and read, I am not alone in Breezeline problems. My brother, for example, is an unhappy Breezeline customer for TV and internet.

I dropped Breezeline and took a two-week trial with T-Mobile.

It was to cost a bit more than Breezeline, but was much faster – when it worked. And there’s the rub, T-Mobile was more dependable, but still far from flawless. The very first night I used it, the service slowed, dropped intermittently, and generally became almost unusable at about 11 p.m. until after midnight This was a familiar problem time with Breezeline, too.

Just last night, T-Mobile was spotty or gone from about 8 p.m. until midnight, when I gave up and went to bed.

I’m headed up to the Galleria later today to turn in the equipment and cancel, not because of the disappointing service, but because the quoted $75 monthly rate is “unavailable” to me and instead I’m expected to pay $166-plus a month.

No sale.

I will be able to continue to do some stock investing using my cell phone, although it is much more cumbersome than with my computer. Posting to this blog also will be more of a challenge.

AT&T has a waiting list to get on its internet service. Other options locally are scarce. For some reason, right in the heart of Southmont, I’m not at a suitable address. Neither is the AT&T guy I spoke with last night, who lives along a street in another part of the borough.

So, I wait for an internet miracle.

The post I am about to write and post shortly after this, might be my last for some time.

I take it all back. Penn State football coach “Big Game” James Franklin is a genius.

Tired of being panned for losing games vs. Top 10 opposition, Franklin has set about lowering expectations. It won’t take many more losses such as Saturday’s 42-37 defeat at the hands of previously winless UCLA to accomplish that.

Franklin seems intent on dropping the Penn State program to the point where any win is cause for jubilant celebration; tearing down the goal posts and rushing the field stuff. To repeat, the man’s a genius.

I was too foolish to anticipate this, and had the temerity to write earlier today that this was a game in which Penn State could name the final score.

Of course, I meant winning by a large margin and quieting the critics. But Franklin has been around long enough to have a 4-21 record vs. Top 10 opposition at Penn State. He knows he could win 16 consecutive games vs. Top 10 foes and still be under .500 for his career in such games at Penn State.

Franklin seemed resigned to it all after his latest big-game failure, losing to Oregon, admitting his shortcomings are not narrative, but facts.

Franklin seemingly has tried everything to remedy that – short of quitting. He’s changed players, assistant coaches, and for all we know pregame rituals. Yet the losses in big games dog him like the current government shutdown is dogging Democrats.

It is so much easier just to go with the flow. Continue to lose the big games, but add in losses to so-so teams, and even the terrible ones.

Lose, lose lose.

It’s not like Franklin doesn’t have job security. His contract runs for about 100 years, being extended repeatedly and his guaranteed salary is mammoth.

I saw some social media types wanting him fired on the tarmac of LA International, with many offering to take up a collection to raise the $58 million or so he still is owed contractually.

Relax, Nittany Nation, Franklin is yours and he’s going nowhere. Now that he’s had this epiphany, to lose as often as possible to lower expectations, you can expect more unpleasant afternoons such as today.

What a way Franklin picked to go on his new course of action. According to ESPN, this is the first time in 40 years a Top 10 team has lost to an 0-4 or worse opponent.

Franklin can’t make history in a positive way, but he has proven he can plumb historic depths.

Again, the man’s a genius. Just ask him.

He even has a new catch phrase for the school: “We WERE Penn State.”

The Steelers have a bye week, Penn State has the equivalent of an off week and MLB has gotten rid of a lot of the wild-card chaff. Let’s try to make sense of it all.

The Steelers are 3-1 and already in great shape in the AFC North standings. Blessed with yet another cake schedule, the Steelers have beaten three teams with a collective 4-8 record. Their lone loss was to the only legitimate team they faced currently with a winning record, 3-1 Seattle.

I had the Steelers 4-0 at this point, so I was a bit optimistic, having presumed that Seattle would not be quite as strong as it has appeared. The rest I anticipated, correctly.

Meanwhile, the entire AFC North is a mess. Cleveland is, well, Cleveland; terrible year after year.

Cincinnati, 2-2, again has lost quarterback Joe Burrow to injury and, without Burrow, Cincinnati pretty much is Cleveland.

Baltimore has played a tough schedule and has the bruises to prove it at 1-3, right there with the Browns. Baltimore has stumbled and bumbled, is compiling quite an injured list, and generally is looking to be in trouble.

Add in the hamstring injury to quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Ravens are a long way from the supposed Super Bowl contenders they were painted to be. Jackson, pre-injury, already was providing more of the same, spectacular plays punctuated with spectacular gaffes, so even with him, they likely were not destined for the Super Bowl.

Bottom line: The Steelers are making the most of an easy schedule and their division competition is imploding.

If ancient Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers can avoid injury, the Steelers are a virtual playoff lock. Once there, they will do little, as has been their recent history. But, enjoy the rest of the regular season.

Speaking of doing little, Penn State and its coach Big Game James Franklin are back in their collective comfort zone, playing a pathetically easy opponent — in this case UCLA.

Once, UCLA was a proud program. Now, not to much. The Bruins are 0-4 and ranked third in ESPN’s Bottom 10 of worst teams in college football.

Not only has UCLA lost every game, it’s lost those games to similarly pathetic opposition and fired a coach along the way.

Penn State can name the score today, just the way Franklin likes it. As one Penn State player said in the wake of the loss to Oregon last weekend, now the team can get back to doing what it expects, which is beating bad teams while waiting for the next good team to show up on the schedule and claim a Nittany Lion scalp.

As for MLB, Los Angeles didn’t dominate the regular season as expected, but the Dodgers sure did make short work of wild-card pretender Cincinnati.

Boston-New York was interesting, with the Yankees prevailing.

Chicago took care of San Diego in three games and Detroit got the best of Cleveland in a three-game series both teams looked like they didn’t want to win.

Nothing really has changed from my assessment of things before the MLB postseason began. The eventual winner will be one of the payroll heavyweights, with teams such as Cleveland, Cincinnati and even Milwaukee, inexplicably the team with the best regular-season record, there mostly to flesh out the field.

It will be interesting to monitor the Philadelphia-Los Angeles series. Forced to pick, I’d take LA.

Toronto vs. the Yankees has some spice. Again, forced to pick, I’d take the Yankees.

Milwaukee enters its series with Chicago needing to erase a stretch of playoff futility in which the Brewers have not advanced past the first round since 2018. This series should be close and could go either way based on a break or two.

Finally, I’d be amazed if Detroit, which backed into the postseason and almost disappeared in the wild-card round, could get past Seattle.

Enjoy.

In these uncertain times, it is somehow comforting that there are some things upon which we can count — day-after-day, year-after-year – like the Pirates missing postseason play in Major League Baseball.

Those postseason games begin today and yet again the Pirates are missing. And it is a familiar reason – terminal cheapness.

MLB circa 2025 is an economic caste system. If you want to make the postseason, and compete to win the World Series once there, you have to spend huge on salary. If you just want to have a franchise, sell tickets to your fans coming to watch stars on the other teams, you go the Pirates’ cheap route.

I know, the Pirates do have a star pitcher in Paul Skenes, among the best, if not the best, in the league. Rest assured, though, that Skenes will pitch for the Pirates only until he qualifies for free agency or the Pirates make a pre-emptive trade of Skenes for a bag of magic beans.

The Pirates never will spend enough to compete, and their organization is not clever enough to overcome that (see a list of those franchises who can and have done such later in this story).

The playoff field, with the notable exception of the New York Mets, is a celebration of payroll.

The defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers are back, with their reported payroll of about $347 million, highest in the league.

The Mets, who spent a reported $340 millon this year to challenge the Dodgers, instead find themselves on the outside looking in due to a monumental collapse in the closing months of the season.

So, the No. 2 payroll didn’t make the big show. But No. 3 (New York Yankees, ($298 million), No. 4 (Philadelphia, $290 million) and No. 5 (Toronto, $254 million) are present.

Most of the field mirrors this truth. But, there are a few outfits who spent what are comparatively frugal payroll numbers and still have made it.

Begin with Milwaukee, which had an MLB-best 97 wins this season. Yes, incredibly in this era of huge payroll numbers, there was not a single 100-win team for the first time since 2014. Several teams, most notably Detroit, staggered into the playoff field on sustained stretches of futility. Even the hapless Mets almost made it.

No one saw this coming. Milwaukee’s reported payroll for 2025 was $115 million, 24^th lowest in the game and about one-third of what the Dodgers spent. For even more perspective, the current Brewers owner bought the FRANCHISE in 2005 for $223 million, less than twice what he spent just this season in payroll.

The Cincinnati Reds, at $116 million are another playoff bargain. There must be something in the Ohio water because it is Cleveland, with a $99.6 million payroll, that provides the salary floor among the 2025 playoff field.

The Pirates are credited (blamed?) with spending just $90 million in 2025.

I don’t expect Milwaukee (despite that record), Cincinnati or Cleveland to go deep into postseason play. But, I do celebrate them for making it.

Those three bargain basement teams have weaknessess that show up in a playoff series. Cincinnati and Cleveland, for example, have an abundance of pitching and severe deficits in terms of offense.

In the end, a big-money franchise will win the World Series, another dependable outcome.

Let’s play word association.

James Franklin.

Tractor.

Why tractor? Because of the famous sports quote: (someone) is so tight, you’d need a tractor to pull a pin out of his butt.

Fortunately for Penn State coach Franklin, bucolic Centre County has no shortage of tractors.

The reason Franklin might be as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full or rocking chairs is because this very night Penn State officially opens its 2025 season. Previous games with overmatched teams such as Nevada, Florida International and Villanova were mere glorified scrimmages; home games to ring the cash register without risk of loss.

Tonight, Penn State, No. 3 in the AP rankings, faces No. 6 Oregon. Both teams share the distinction of being unbeaten, untied and untested this season.

If we look at history, Oregon knocked off Penn State in last year’s Big Ten title game.

If we look at Franklin’s history, there is much more of the same. Detractors call him “Big Game James,” a sarcastic nod to Franklin’s ability to roll up wins vs. the dregs of college football, but fail with great frequency against legitimate opposition.

Just last season, even as Penn State ran rather deep into the playoffs, Franklin’s record vs. Top 10 opposition was 1-3, with the annual loss to Ohio State, not to mention defeats at the hands of Notre Dame and Oregon.

Franklin’s lone Top 10 win was vs. Boise State, which you might recall doubters thought was a bit over-rated.

During his career at Penn State, Franklin’s teams have gone 4-20 vs. Top 10 opposition.

But, from the category of even blind squirrels finding the occasional nut, or stopped clocks being right twice a day, this is a great opportunity for Franklin to get a signature Top 10 win.

It all has been crafted to tip the scales in Franklin’s favor.

Consider, not only did Penn State have three non-testing warmup games, all at home, the Nittany Lions also got a bye ahead of this game, the better to rest and gameplan.

Meanwhile, Oregon played last week vs. in-state rival Oregon State (think of Pitt-Penn State back in the day) . Oregon already has been on the road once this season.

Oregon also faced a flight across three time zones for this game, which adds to the challenge.

To recap, Penn State gets to play one of its biggest games of the season at home, having had a bye week ahead of it, against a team that played an emotional rivalry game last week and has to travel across the nation for the contest.

This helps explain Penn State being a 3.5-point favorite, even with Franklin’s track record of Top 10 failure factored into the computation.

This is a game Penn State could, and should, win. If Franklin manages to blow this one, despite all the built-in edges, warm up the tractors.