Solving the Jet Pack Mystery

"Yeah, but what about the Jet Pack quote?"

“Yeah, but what about the Jet Pack quote?”

Groundhog Day was on Monday, but it has been the last four days for me.

Wednesday wake up, turn on Comcast Sports Net, watch Neil Hartman report live from the Penn State signing day. Thursday, wake up, turn on CSN Philly and watch Neil Hartman report a recap of Penn State signing day. Friday, wake up and watch Neil Hartman interview the Penn State fax guy from Penn State signing day. Saturday, wake up and watch Neil Hartman report about James Franklin recruiting 2016 guys.

decommit

Tomorrow, I fully expect another Neil Hartman report on how Penn State fans reacted to the recruiting day. Overkill, thy name is covering Penn State football  in a town 250 miles away that already has a FBS college football team. Temple really needs to take them down.

Meanwhile, there is no coverage at all of the burning mystery of the day: What the heck was Matt Rhule referring to in his “jet pack” tweet? If it was about a recruit—as was widely rumored—it could not have been about T.J. Simmons because the time lines do not match up. Here was the original tweet, followed by Adam DiMichele’s “game-changer” tweet:

It could not have been about Simmons because three days later he was still committed to UCLA:

Also in the same day:

https://twitter.com/tjsimmons4/status/558095179308351488

Simmons did not change his mind until the NEXT day:

Unless Speedy told Rhule something on Jan. 18 he didn’t tell UCLA fans until four days later, the Jetpack tweet makes no sense. If it was supposed to be about a recruit, other than Speedy, no jetpack-worthy recruits were signed between Jan. 18 and now.

So, until Neil Hartman has a four-day story on the anatomy of Matt Rhule’s jetpack tweet, we can only assume Rhule knows something about a stadium none of us do.