Penn State is College Football’s biggest disappointment & it’s Notre Dame’s fault
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Think back to January 9, 2025. James Franklin’s Penn State Nittany Lions are in the Semifinals of the College Football Playoff and face Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.
It gets even better from there – Penn State uses a big first half from Nick Singleton to jump out to a 10-0 lead in the second quarter. But it’s all downhill from there. Notre Dame came back, with the iconic moment being Jeremiyah Love’s “greatest two-yard run of all time” for a 4th-quarter touchdown.
Even then, the game was tied with a minute left, and Drew Allar threw an ill-advised interception to Christian Grey, allowing Notre Dame to kick a game-winning field goal. That one loss was devastating, but things only got worse afterward for Penn State, and they have never been the same since.
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Penn State’s collapse begins after the Notre Dame loss
Heading into the 2025 season, Penn State was returning a lot of production from that 2024 squad. QB Drew Allar was returning, as was the one-two punch at running back of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen. They were a team that was picked by many pundits to win the National Championship, thanks to their run in 2024 and how much of that team was returning.
Things started off smoothly, with a 3-0 start in non-conference play. But then, Penn State had to play Oregon. They fought admirably, losing 30-24 in double overtime, as Drew Allar threw a walk-off interception. Things would only unravel from here.
Penn State proceeded to lose 6 straight games after their 3-0 start, bottoming out at 3-6 overall. There were a few losses that were understandable, like Oregon, Ohio State, and Indiana. But losses to fledgling UCLA and Northwestern teams were inexcusable and resulted in the firing of James Franklin.
Now, the perk of firing your coach midseason is that you get a head start in the search for your next head coach. Penn State did not take advantage. There were a plethora of trendy names that moved schools in the 2025 coaching cycle, such as Lane Kiffin, Jon Sumrall, Bob Chesney, and Collin Klein. All of those coaches were hired before Penn State hired its next head coach.
Amazingly, James Franklin himself was hired at Virginia Tech before Penn State had their next head coach. Exactly 58 days after Franklin was fired, Penn State introduced Iowa State’s Matt Campbell as their next head coach.
Matt Campbell inherits a Penn State team not built for the Big Ten
Why does the timing matter? In modern college football, so much of the upcoming season is determined by the transfer portal. By waiting so long to hire Campbell, Penn State was behind other schools in recruiting players out of the portal.
They weren’t able to get a lot of splashy names. The best that Matt Campbell could do was to poach his old program and convince his players to follow him to Happy Valley, as 24 Iowa State Cyclones, including QB Rocco Becht, came with him.
The bottom line is this: the 2025 Iowa State team that went 8-4 in the Big 12 is not equipped to win in the Big Ten. Penn State caught a ton of praise in the preseason and was ranked in the preseason top-25. They started out non-conference play 3-0.
But they’re not built for the Big Ten. A second-half comeback allowed Wisconsin to leave Happy Valley with a W. Chip Kelly brought out the Wing T as Northwestern’s new (but also very old) offense, and the Nittany Lions had no answer in a 34-13 rout, forcing the Nittany Lions to start 0-2 in Big Ten play.
This week, Penn State has potentially its most difficult game on the schedule, as USC comes to town. A second straight 0-3 start in Big Ten play is absolutely on the table. Back-to-back seasons, back-to-back disappointments.
A 2025 season that had National Championship aspirations ended in the Pinstripe Bowl. A 2026 season that was supposed to usher in a new era is starting at the bottom of the Big Ten standings. Ever since that loss to Notre Dame, this program has not been the same.
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