The Penn State Nittany Lions entered the 2025 college football season with as high of expectations as we have seen in a very long time. Head coach James Franklin has led the program for 12 seasons, but realistic national championship aspirations are something very new for him and the Nittany Lions. The roster is talented, the depth is impressive, and all that was left was proving doubters wrong. 

Those doubters, however, continue to have a strong argument against Coach Franklin after the team’s 30 to 24 loss to the Oregon Ducks. Following the contest, Penn State fans have come out of the shadows and attempted to get their moral victories. We are hearing about resilience, and a team fighting back despite a tough loss. Since when did playing hard become a unique team value that deserves some deep admiration? 

At the end of the day, coaches and players are judged by the final result, whether they won or lost. That latest defeat for James Franklin pushed his career record against Top-10 teams to 4-21 as the head coach at Penn State. Oregon came into the contest ranked at No. 6, so they narrowly missed being added to his 1-15 record against Top-5 opponents. 

You can try for every moral victory you like, but at the end of the day, Coach Franklin and Penn State need to start winning some of these games to validate their being placed so high in these conversations. If they aren’t able to get over the jump, there are a series of questions that this fan base needs to start asking, and soon. 

Is this going to get any better? And if not, are you okay with being a good but not great program? 

The James Franklin reality

You are the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, one of the proudest programs in all of college football. The talent is tremendous, and the acquisition of talent has long been a non-issue. You have a very strong argument to have the best roster in the entire country this year, as well as a three-year starting quarterback in Drew Allar, two great coordinators, and future NFL players everywhere. 

Yet, the results continue to stay the same. The nickname “Big Game James” has been given to the head man in jest, but Franklin has done nothing to disprove the truthful jab. The truth is, the Nittany Lions deserve better. They deserve a coach and a team that can truly compete for championships. Continuing to hope for a different result while utilizing the same process isn’t how growth works. 

Luckily for Penn State, they are getting a three-week stretch that should get them back on track. They are scheduled to take on UCLA this week, followed by Northwestern and then the Iowa Hawkeyes. The latter may provide a bit of a challenge, but from a talent perspective, the Nittany Lions should leave that stretch with three more victories on their resume. 

That will set up back-to-back matchups on the road against Ohio State and then hosting the Indiana Hoosiers at home. Those are two more Top-10 teams, and ultimately, Franklin will get a chance to prove that he can win the big game. Depending on how those two matchups go, the narrative could begin to shift a bit. Based on the track record and resume, however, there isn’t much to make Nittany Lion fans confident that it will. 

The rest of the 2025 season will be huge for Franklin and this program in general. There’s no question that he’s a good coach, but is he the right one to get this program over the top? That’s the real question that has to be answered before purgatory fully sets in.

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