Penn State football has been notoriously known for beating up on bad teams it should defeat.
By the same token, the program is 4-22 against top 10 teams over the last 12 years and can never reach the finish line against college football’s best.
The recipe is simple: Penn State wins against poor competition and loses heartbreaking games to programs on its level or above.
Everything changed Saturday, Oct. 5, in Pasadena.
In one of the most stunning upsets in college football history this century, No. 7 Penn State lost 42-37 to a winless UCLA team at The Rose Bowl.
I can’t believe I even typed that sentence. I thought I’d wake up on Sunday morning, and it was all a nightmare we forgot about. Moving on with our lives and looking ahead to Northwestern following a blowout win.
I’m sure you felt the same way. So surprised, the words are seemingly jumbled in your mouth, and you have no idea what to say.
In a matchup I thought would be a 42-12 ass-whooping, Penn State was the one being kicked from behind.
The Bruins totaled 435 yards and converted an astonishing 10-of-16 on third down against the Penn State defense.
James Franklin should be disgusted by his team’s performance, and it starts with him. For a program that invested significant financial resources in NIL to build a championship roster, the Oregon hangover lasted for over a week and may continue until December. Franklin’s team wasn’t ready to play from the start.
UCLA hadn’t led for ANY PORTION of its four games this season, in which it played Utah, UNLV, New Mexico, and Northwestern.
UCLA fired head coach DeShaun Foster after less than two seasons following a disastrous 35-10 non-conference loss to New Mexico. The Bruins PAID a team called the Lobos to knock them around for four quarters.
UCLA did the exact same thing to Penn State, and the Nittany Lions never held the lead.
To rub more salt in a gushing wound, UCLA fired its defensive coordinator two weeks ago and offensive coordinator earlier this week.
Penn State was outcoached by a team with no coaches. A UCLA program picking up the pieces with more interim titles than trick plays in Andy Kotelnicki’s playbook. On that topic, a 4th and 2 read option for Drew Allar? What an astonishingly bad play call for a decorated offensive coordinator. Or not chasing after the punter and burning more clock late in the 4th quarter? Penn State looked unprepared to play and completely flabbergasted by UCLA kicking and recovering an onside kick. UCLA added three free points before PSU could blink. Poor coaching all around.
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles was given $3 million to scheme a defense that allowed Nico Iamaleava to run for 128 yards and three touchdowns. Oh, and he threw for 166 and two scores. Talk about ROI. Knowles’ return on investment is worth as much as a house needing a new roof, entire floor plan, and the ceiling is collapsing in half the rooms.
Saturday’s loss to UCLA was the most embarrassing loss in the 138-year history of Penn State football. It’s not hyperbole. Move over, Toledo loss in 2000. Step aside, 6-4 loss to Iowa in 2004.
This is the type of game that Franklin always wins. Franklin is 104-44 at Penn State with 17 losses to teams outside the Top 25. This is rock bottom for Penn State in the Franklin era.
Franklin is 1-15 against top five teams. In his 12th year at Penn State, Franklin is 4-22 against top 10 teams. For this type of loss to happen against a program in chaos? It’s baffling and flat-out unacceptable.
Franklin had no answers for how Iamaleava gashed his defense, citing they spied him, but Nico avoided it, and linebacker Tony Rojas would have had a big role in the game plan. You could have fooled me. What a way to cry over spilled milk.
Franklin blamed travel, injuries, and “everything else.” Whatever the hell that means. What he should be doing is blaming himself.
Saturday’s loss to UCLA inside a half-empty Rose Bowl, where Penn State raised The Rose Bowl trophy just three seasons ago bard witness to a crime.
A crime so poor it’s punishable by the college football gods.
Penn State’s season ended against the worst team in all of Power Four football. A team that was bullied by UNLV and New Mexico on its home field.
Penn State is the first top 10 team to lose to an 0-4 or worse opponent in 40 years when No. 7 BYU lost to UTEP in 1985. You can’t make this up. A team with national championship aspirations is one of the biggest disappointments of the entire season.
Franklin should be embarrassed. The players should be embarrassed. The country watched on. Some laughed. Some cried. Some stunned. Some in complete anger and disgust, having no words to describe it.
A fan base saving up for a trip to the national championship has watched its program deteriorate in the matter of two weeks. Franklin has lost the fan base. At what point does he lose the locker room?
Drew Allar came back for this?! Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen came back for this?! Dani Dennis-Sutton came back for this?!
After starting the season as the No. 2 team in the country, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see Penn State fall out of the AP Top 25.
Kotelnicki’s “creative offense” full of jet sweeps and easily dissected short pass plays might work in the Big 12, but you’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
Penn State trailed 27-7 at halftime and allowed UCLA to kick a long field goal following an inexcusable drive.
Penn State ran the ball three times out of the two-minute timeout inside the UCLA 45-yard line and bled the clock down inside a minute. Allar was sacked for an 11-yard loss on 4th down with 28 seconds left, and UCLA set up for a 54-yard, gut-punch field goal. It all falls on Franklin.
Franklin’s clock management could have been handled better by a 12-year-old playing NCAA College Football.
Penn State needs to win at No. 1 Ohio State and against No. 8 Indiana to have a shot at the College Football Playoff.
This is the day the music died. So bye-bye, College Football Playoff pie.
Franklin’s buyout is at $50 million, and he is signed through the 2031 season. Penn State will never take the next step with Franklin, and a very favorable route to the CFP semifinals is the highest Penn State will ever go unless it makes a coaching change soon.
James Franklin deserves to be fired. He’s a great recruiter and a good person, who has landed stars like Micah Parsons and Abdul Carter, but has never proven capable of being a good enough in-game coach, which is the main reason why Penn State doesn’t win win top 20 games.
Who are we kidding? He was outcoached by UCLA interim head coach Tim Skipper and offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel, who had TWO DAYS to install a game plan. That’s on Franklin.
Allar said, “yes” Penn State can still make the playoffs. Barring the most surprising comeback this side of the century, Penn State’s season is over.
Its coach’s career at the university should be over, too.
This is an Andy Reid situation in Philadelphia, or Mike Tomlin’s growingly stale Steelers career. Nothing will change unless there are changes at head coach. Leadership and critical in-game adjustments and decision-making changes everything in a program. Penn State needs to either find the money to buy out Franklin or come to an agreement to mutually part ways.
The program has plateaued and is never going to win a national championship with “big game James.”
It’s time Penn State admits what everyone knows is true. Franklin can’t win the big game, but losing the smallest game of them all to an 0-4 dumpster fire is the icing on the cake. The Franklin era is over and Penn State must move on from Franklin to turn the page and make this State College nightmare all come to an end.
