Penn State and James Franklin make history in absolute worst way possible in embarrassing loss to UCLA Bruins and Nico Iamaleava
Drew Allar and the Nittany Lions defense fell short in history-making fashion against UCLA
There’s really not much to say about Penn State and James Franklin at this point. It’s one thing to lose to the best teams in the country, failing in big games time and time again as Franklin has done throughout his career. It’s another entirely to lose to an 0-4 team that got blown out at home by New Mexico just a few short weeks ago.
This is a new low. Penn State isn’t just suffering from the same problems as before. It’s much, much worse. It’s so bad, in fact, that the Nittany Lions loss made some extremely rare history on Saturday. No top ten team had lost to a team with an 0-4 record (or worse) in 40 years, but Penn State snapped that streak with their 42-37 loss to the UCLA Bruins.
Key stats that led to Penn State’s loss to UCLA
- Penn State’s second, third, and fourth drives combined for a total of 28 yards from scrimmage and a fumble in Penn State territory.
- Penn State’s defense allowed five straight scoring drives to open the game against UCLA: touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown, field goal.
- The Nittany Lions allowed 10 third down conversions on 16 attempts, three of them on UCLA’s final full offensive drive to go ahead 42-28.
Penn State and James Franklin set a new low making terribly history against UCLA
The first person to notice this special historic feat that Penn State put on display Saturday was apparently Field Yates of ESPN as he posted on X about the brutal loss to UCLA (as you can see in his post below).
When was the last time this happened? We have to all the way back to 1985 when the number seven ranked (and defending national champions) BYU Cougars lost 23-16 to UTEP.
BYU’s 23-16 loss to UTEP was bad, but many teams who are outmatched physically can ugly up a game with pace and a slightly competent rush attack. That’s not what happened with Penn State in their loss to UCLA. They were simply manhandled early in the game, looking completely unprepared on defense, and got so far behind they couldn’t recover.
Yes, there’s somewhat of a built-in excuse for Penn State’s defensive confusion early since they didn’t even really know who the offensive play caller was going to be (inevitably Jerry Neuheisel) until just days before the game. However, that doesn’t make up the for the fact that the Nittany Lions should have had the talent edge up and down the entire roster.
This is just yet another indefensible failure for head coach James Franklin and his staff, but there’s plenty of blame to go around. Drew Allar didn’t do enough consistently throughout the game as a passer and forced too many quarterback runs. The run game started off extremely slow with Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen failing to find big rushing lanes early. The defense looked completely lost, missing gaps and tackles, busting coverages, and atypically failing to bring sufficient pass rush pressure.
Everything was broken. Penn State made (the worst) history. James Franklin now has to get his team to beat both Indiana and Ohio State if they want to make the College Football Playoff. Penn State fans may need to brace for the worst.
We’ll be back with more Penn State Football coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!
