“Not having all 100 people locked in and focused on one thing at one time, it’s hard to be successful.”
That reality, voiced bluntly by Penn State safety King Mack, defined a 2025 season that was supposed to be a dream. Instead of contending for a national championship, the Nittany Lions unraveled under the weight of fractured leadership, eroding trust, and a culture that lost its foundation that ultimately cost head coach James Franklin his job.
The 2025 season was supposed to be the culmination of a long-term vision. Mack returned to Penn State from Alabama with hopes of being part of a national championship run, eager to help elevate a program he once viewed as unified and purpose-driven.
Instead, Mack walked into a fractured locker room, one riddled with cultural issues that ultimately caused the season to spiral and led to the dismissal of head coach James Franklin in October.
Mack left a Penn State team after the 2023 season that was aligned and focused. In 2024, he experienced a championship-driven environment at Alabama, gaining firsthand exposure to the expectations and accountability instilled under Nick Saban’s program and later reinforced by Kalen DeBoer, who had just guided Washington to a national championship game appearance.
That contrast was impossible to ignore.
“When people on your ship aren’t all on one mission,” Mack said. “The fact that [Matt Campbell] has seen that, he said it’s his job to fix that.”
Culture is the foundation of championship teams. Talent can win games, but culture sustains excellence. When culture is deeply rooted and everyone is bought in, teams are able to withstand adversity, pressure, and setbacks without losing their identity. The best teams remain aligned to their standards, regardless of circumstance.
For much of his tenure, Franklin fostered a culture that attracted top talent and emphasized belief in a shared vision. But somewhere along the way, that vision eroded.
The warning signs surfaced early. Penn State appeared tight and tense through the first three weeks of the season, playing not to lose rather than playing with confidence. When quarterback Drew Allar threw a game-ending interception against Oregon, the sideline reaction told a troubling story. Life seemed to drain from the team in an instant.
That hangover carried into Pasadena, where winless UCLA stunned the seventh-ranked Nittany Lions in the Rose Bowl. Veterans like linebacker Dom DeLuca tried to rally the group, but the shock lingered.
“I feel like today there was a lack of focus,” linebacker Amare Campbell said afterward. “It’s tough. We played our heart out. It was some of the worst ball we’ve played, and we still almost won. It has to be better.”
Others echoed the sentiment with even greater urgency.
“It’s embarrassing. It’s bad,” defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton said. “We all got to look in the mirror. There’s not one person. It’s not one coach, not one player. It’s literally everybody.”
The season reached its lowest point with a one-point loss to Northwestern. Following that defeat, Dennis-Sutton was asked about Franklin’s message to the team. His response was cryptic.
“Just that he loves us,” Dennis-Sutton said. “He’ll do anything for us. And now it’s going to be a whole another level of problems.”
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Those problems, left unchecked, continued to fester. Ultimately, athletic director Pat Kraft was forced to make the difficult decision to part ways with Franklin rather than attempt to salvage a culture that had lost its foundation.
When Terry Smith was introduced as interim head coach, even his modest definition of success hinted at the underlying issues.
“Success is the team pulling a rope in the same direction,” Smith said.
When a team’s culture is broken and its future uncertain, dysfunction doesn’t just appear in the standings, it reveals itself in behavior.
Uncertainty removes accountability, and weak culture fills the vacuum in unhealthy ways.
One of the clearest examples came when audio from a private meeting between Kraft and player leadership was leaked publicly. The incident underscored how fractured trust had become within the program.
“That shows the lack of leadership and accountability [on the team],” Mack said. “Anything could have been said in that meeting that could have jeopardized anyone’s future or career. I feel like that’s part of the selfishness and the lack of leadership around the team that we have to fix.”
Before new head coach Matt Campbell can even begin to fulfill Kraft’s championship vision, he must repair the culture from within.
“He’s very honest, he’s straightforward,” Mack said of Campbell. “He sees where we went wrong this year, and his job is to get it fixed as soon as possible and to use all the seniors as one big group to help us fix all those issues as well. Coach Matt Campbell plans on changing the culture.”
Fixing a broken team culture after coming from a championship culture is uniquely difficult and uniquely powerful if done correctly. The challenge lies in the gap between memory and behavior. Players remember what winning felt like, but no longer operate in ways that produce it.
Campbell has made it clear he is not interested in slogans or surface-level messaging. Instead, he is intent on redefining what culture means at Penn State.
“I know this,” Campbell said at his introductory press conference. “Culture and excellence are always built on leadership. We talk so much in our program that everything rises and falls with great leadership.”
The Franklin era ultimately collapsed under weakened culture and fractured leadership. For the Campbell era to succeed, Penn State must rebuild its foundation that is rooted in accountability, unity, and leaders willing to enforce standards daily.
Only then can a dream season become reality again.
