Last year, the Nittany Lions narrowly missed a national championship shot, losing in the waning seconds of the College Football Playoff semifinal game. That almost-achieved glory has the fan base and program abuzz with excitement and, honestly, a bit of impatient hunger. This season, James Franklin’s team brings back a staggering 14 starters—nine on offense, five on defense—which is as loaded as you can be in the Big Ten. The stakes? Nothing less than a national title bid. Penn State’s win total stands at 10.5, placing them alongside Ohio State and Oregon, and the Nittany Lions head into the season with their highest preseason ranking since 1999.
But how did Franklin build this powerhouse? When he arrived, the program was still staggering under the weight of NCAA sanctions and limbo. He steadied the boat, rebuilt the roster, and returned Penn State to national prominence. Under his tenure, the Nittany Lions have accumulated double-digit win seasons, appeared in Big Ten title games, and ranked routinely in the top ten. Franklin’s tireless recruiting and his skill to adapt to the constantly shifting waters, NIL, and transfer portal have allowed Penn State to not only stay relevant but to flourish. And Josh Pate not only jibes with that, but says Franklin deserves more credit for his contribution to the program.
In Josh Pate’s College Football show, Pate talks about NCAA coaches’ approval ratings. “I got him [James Franklin ] at 85, that’s extremely high, and I would say the only people who are Penn State fans who do not approve of James Franklin would be the fringe wing cult. That’s the group that, until you win a national championship, does not approve,” Pate says. To Franklin, it’s a double-edged sword—high enough to display the trust that the fan base places in him, but low enough to expose the undercurrent of tension and enormous expectations swirling about Happy Valley, where anything short of a playoff berth feels incomplete. That 85% isn’t 100%—and never will be, because, come on, college football partisans are never happy.
The last 15%. That’s the “ring cult,” as Josh Pate says—the people who won’t consider progress until Franklin’s holding up a national championship trophy. That’s no easy accomplishment in the Big Ten, particularly with Ohio State and Michigan casting shadows. Penn State has lost eight consecutive games to Ohio State since 2017, with most of those battles being nail-biters—four decided by a single score. The most recent sting was in 2024, when #4 Ohio State beat #3 Penn State 20-13 in Happy Valley, crushing playoff aspirations and bringing Franklin’s record against the Buckeyes to 1-10. And it isn’t just Ohio State—since 2022, Penn State is 0-5 against Michigan and Ohio State combined, even though they dominated everyone else in the league.
Josh Pate confesses, “How lost in the wilderness Penn State football could be because a decade and a half within the last decade and a half, you had sanctions hit you that should have put you out in the wilderness for a long time, and it didn’t because of that guy.” Penn State football was facing the abyss. The Jerry Sandusky scandal shook the university to its foundations, and the NCAA pounced—$60 million fine, four-year postseason ban, five years of probation, and the loss of 40 scholarships over four years. All victories from 1998 through 2011 were erased from the record books, obliterating more than a decade of football history and taking away the program’s identity in an instant. The Big Ten even added on an extra $13 million fine and banned Penn State from championship contention for four years.
But through James Franklin, Penn State rebounded. He kept the team competitive when most anticipated irrelevance. The amusing part is, if you pull back and consider where Penn State was ten years ago, Franklin should be safe. That’s the irony of success: the better you perform, the greater the expectations are. Nowadays, every year that finishes without a playoff or a Big Ten championship feels like a failure.
James Franklin set to break the November curse
If you’re a Nittany Lion devotee for years, you know the routine: each fall, the build-up comes, the team appears legit, and then November arrives. Just like that, it’s heartbreak town, with Penn State losing those pesky top-10 games that block all those championship aspirations. But this season? James Franklin is turning the script on its head. In the background, he has been implementing changes, introducing new strategies and tactics designed to make Penn State more responsive and resilient at a time when the stakes are highest.
So you must be wondering what’s new this season? First, Franklin doubled down on player development and tactical adaptability. He’s not afraid of making changes to the offense or defense during the season, and he’s giving his staff and players the autonomy to make adjustments in real-time. That type of evolution is massive, particularly in those close, high-pressure November games where one call can win or lose a season. And you can sense the change in the air at Happy Valley.
The fans are still a bit wary—in fact, they’ve been around long enough to have seen this move before—but there is a renewed sense of hope. If Franklin’s new strategy is successful, this could be the year Penn State achieves the breakthrough it has long sought, winning big games in September and October while finishing strong when it counts most.
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