As college football programs geared up for the 2025 season, many eyes were on developing stories across the nation. From Bill Belichick’s coaching stint at North Carolina to the rebuilding of the Florida State Seminoles, from Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes to Ryan Day’s national champion Ohio State Buckeyes. However, not many people were too focused or concerned about the Penn State Nittany Lions, one of college football’s most well-respected programs. Even fewer fans could have predicted the chaos that would unfold in State College throughout 2025.

Entering the 2025 season, Penn State was a team equipped with the talent to win a national championship. In the previous season, they made both the Big Ten Championship, losing to #1 Oregon, and the College Football Playoff Semifinals, losing in the Orange Bowl to #7 Notre Dame. The Nittany Lions had high expectations, but many issues to tackle internally, primarily regarding head coach James Franklin. These mainly boiled down to his lack of success facing ranked teams; prior to the 2025 season his record against AP Top 10 teams was 4-20, with his most recent wins coming in the 2024-25 College Football Playoffs, when Penn State topped #10 SMU in the first round, and #9 Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. There still was a lot of hope that Penn State could make it into the playoffs in 2025, and maybe a national championship. Indeed, the beginning of the season seemed promising enough.

Ranked #2 in the preseason AP Poll, Penn State opened up the season against a Mountain West bottom feeder in Nevada, who they would easily blow out 46-11. They would also blow out Florida International and lower division Villanova throughout the next two weeks. Their first true test of the season would come in Week 5, where, following a bye week, the third-ranked Nittany Lions would begin Big Ten conference play by facing the #6 Oregon Ducks on College Gameday. Though a hard fought battle that went into double overtime, Penn State would fall 30-24 to Oregon in Happy Valley, who would end the season making it into the College Football Playoffs. It was here when trouble began to brew.

Following the loss to Oregon, Penn State fell to #7 in the AP Poll, but had a seemingly easy away game the following week against a UCLA Bruins squad without a head coach nor a win the entire season. Despite the odds being stacked against UCLA, the Bruins pulled off a stunning upset over Penn State, winning 42-37, and completely knocking Penn State out of the polls. The following week against Northwestern, Penn State’s starting quarterback Drew Allar, originally projected as a first round pick in the NFL draft, suffered a season-ending injury in the 22-21 loss. Panic ensued in State College, and fearful over their future as a football program, someone needed to go.

James Franklin would be fired the day after the loss to Northwestern, after 11 years of leading Penn State football through thick and thin, through playoff spots and ranked losses. It wouldn’t be too long before Franklin found himself at the helm at another struggling program, this time the Virginia Tech Hokies, where he would later convince multiple Penn State commits to flip their commitments. The program that had once sent stars such as Saquon Barkley to the NFL was now on a downward spiral, one that would continue throughout the next few weeks. 

The following week, the Nittany Lions, under interim head coach Terry Smith, traveled to Iowa City to play the Iowa Hawkeyes in a close match that they would ultimately end up losing 24-25. After another bye week, they would travel once again to face the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus, where they would get blown out 14-38. The week after, they would face another ranked team in the #2 Indiana Hoosiers, this time at home. Another close match followed, one in which Penn State held the lead over Indiana late in the 4th quarter, however Indiana would pull away with a 27-24 victory. Penn State was now at 3-6, and staring down bowl ineligibility. They needed to win out. 

Following their loss to Indiana, Penn State traveled to face Michigan State in East Lansing, and won out over the Spartans 28-10. The next week, they would meet Nebraska at home, and dismantle the Cornhuskers 37-10. Their final test to determine bowl eligibility was at Rutgers in Week 14, with the Scarlet Knights also fighting for a spot in a bowl game. Miraculously, Penn State would come out on top 40-36, and become bowl eligible with a regular season record of 6-6.

Following their late season turnaround, Penn State would be scheduled to face the Clemson Tigers in the Pinstripe Bowl. Clemson themselves had suffered through a similar season as Penn State, going 7-5 after starting the season ranked in the top 10 before losing to teams such as LSU, Georgia Tech, and Duke. Ironically enough, both Penn State and Clemson had national championship hopes before the season began. Now, they were playing each other in an arguably insignificant bowl game, one that Penn State would slip away with 22-10 to finish out the year 7-6. Penn State had survived.

The future of Penn State football, while seemingly a bit tumultuous, does have a few highlights worth mentioning. Following James Franklin’s bringing of recruits and players to Virginia Tech, Penn State began searching around for a head coach, focusing on figures such as former New York Giants head coach Brian DaBoll, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea, and BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, though all would refuse the open coaching spot. 

After a lengthy search, the program finally landed on Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell to become the next head coach at Penn State; Campbell would end up bringing many of his players from Iowa State to Penn State, including quarterback Rocco Becht and linebacker Caleb Bacon. With incoming transfers helping to bolster Penn State’s roster for 2026, the future seems stable enough in State College, but only time will tell what becomes of this venture.

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