Blue White Illustrated

November 2025

Penn State Sports Magazine

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N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 5 5 9 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M E D I T O R I A L MATT HERB MATT.HERB@ON3.COM VARSITY VIEWS A lot of people were confused when Penn State's offense showed no sense of urgency late in the first half against UCLA. With precious seconds slipping away in a game that they trailed by 17 points, the Nittany Lions refused to use their three available timeouts even as the clock dipped below 30 seconds. CBS analyst Gary Danielson could scarcely believe what he was seeing, and to judge by the social media reaction, the veteran broadcaster was not alone. And yet, given the way Bruins quar- terback Nico Iamaleava had carved up Penn State's defense over the previ- ous 29 and a half minutes, it wasn't all that hard to discern what the Lions' coaching braintrust was thinking: The staff didn't want to risk falling short on fourth down and forcing its own de- fense to retake the field before halftime. James Franklin confirmed as much in his halftime interview with CBS's side- line reporter. In some key ways, that sequence was a microcosm not just of the first half of Penn State's stunning 42-37 loss to the Bruins, but the first half of its entire season. The Nittany Lions often seemed tentative in compiling a 3-3 record, as if preoccupied with the possibility that something could go wrong rather than being tantalized by the chance of some- thing going right. That feeling was never more acute than in Penn State's game against Or- egon a week before the visit to UCLA. The Nittany Lions didn't let it rip on offense until they fell behind by a couple of touchdowns in the fourth quarter. They ended up scoring twice to send the game to overtime, but it was hard to es- cape the feeling after their 30-24 defeat that a more aggressive approach earlier in the evening might have put the Ducks on their heels and delivered a win. "Many of Penn State's recent losses to awesome teams have followed a very familiar script full of droughts, a lack of offensive ambition and a complete lack of faith in the quarterback," ESPN's Bill Connelly observed a few days later, calling to mind a string of near misses against Ohio State and Michigan in recent years. Connelly added that the late surge versus the Ducks "came after two straight quarters of ineffective nib- bling." Penn State went into the 2025 season bearing the burden of unusually high expectations. With so much talent re- turning, no one expected the Nittany Lions to nibble; surely they'd be de- vouring yardage gluttonously. PSU placed second behind Texas in the preseason Associated Press poll, its highest ranking since going into the 1997 season at No. 1. With its lofty spot in the poll came the kind of national championship hype that the program hadn't experienced in decades. That sort of attention can be a dou- ble-edged sword. It's better to be talked about than not talked about, but the ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone is in the right frame of mind to perform at their best. When players and coaches know that anything less than a cham- pionship is going to be perceived as a disappointment, is that helping focus the mind? Or is it just adding even more pressure to an already difficult job? This much is certain: The Nittany Lions' recent struggles fit into an estab- lished pattern. During the Franklin era, which came to a close on Oct. 12 when athletics di- rector Patrick Kraft fired the 12th-year head coach, Penn State was ranked in the top 10 of the preseason Associated Press poll five times. In three of those seasons, it finished below its preseason ranking in the final poll. This season will be the fourth. While there are still plenty of games to go, the team's dreary 22-21 loss to Northwestern on Oct. 11 put the national championship, the College Football Playoff and maybe even the Pinstripe Bowl out of reach. Penn State fared better in the four seasons under Franklin in which it started out unranked, twice finishing in the top 10 — first in 2016 when it made a stunning Big Ten championship run and again in 2022 when it won the Rose Bowl. As for those other two seasons — 2014 and '15 — Franklin gets a mulligan, since the Nittany Lions were still being hindered by the lingering effects of the NCAA sanctions. There's something liberating about being an underdog. It's a license to take risks, as UCLA showed against Penn State when it rolled the dice on a first- quarter onside kick. But teams don't often come out of nowhere to win championships, espe- cially in college football, the most strat- ified of all the major spectator sports. If Penn State is going to break through under Franklin's successor in the years ahead, it'll have to find a way to manage the burden of sky-high expectations. The pressure maybe be oppressive, but it's also unavoidable. ■ High Expectations Impose A Heavy Burden In James Franklin's 12 seasons at Penn State, his team was ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press pre- season poll five times. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL

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