Penn State’s 2025 season was supposed to begin with championship expectations and a loaded roster. Instead, it has spiraled into the kind of collapse that traces back to one night in January and never really let go.
On January 9, 2025, James Franklin’s Nittany Lions were in the College Football Playoff semifinal against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. Penn State grabbed control early behind a big first half from Nick Singleton and built a 10-0 lead in the second quarter.
But Notre Dame clawed back, and the defining image of the game became Jeremiyah Love’s “greatest two-yard run of all time” for a fourth-quarter touchdown. Even then, the game was tied with a minute left before Drew Allar threw an ill-advised interception to Christian Grey, setting up a Notre Dame game-winning field goal.
That loss was crushing on its own. What followed for Penn State has been worse.
The Nittany Lions entered 2025 with plenty back from that 2024 team, including Allar and the backfield duo of Singleton and Kaytron Allen. After a run that had many people picking Penn State to win the national title, the season opened cleanly with three non-conference wins. Then came Oregon.
Penn State pushed the Ducks to the edge and lost 30-24 in double overtime when Allar threw a walk-off interception. From there, everything unraveled.
The Nittany Lions dropped six straight after their 3-0 start and fell to 3-6 overall. Some of those defeats made more sense than others - Oregon, Ohio State and Indiana were all understandable losses - but falling to UCLA and Northwestern was not.
Those defeats led to the firing of James Franklin.
Penn State’s problem after that was time, or more specifically, the lack of it. Firing a coach in the middle of the season is supposed to give a program a jump on the next hire.
Penn State did not get that edge. By the time the Nittany Lions made their move, Lane Kiffin, Jon Sumrall, Bob Chesney and Collin Klein had already been hired elsewhere.
Franklin himself was even hired at Virginia Tech before Penn State had settled on its next coach.
Eventually, 58 days after Franklin was fired, Penn State introduced Iowa State’s Matt Campbell as the replacement.
That delay mattered because the modern college football calendar runs through the transfer portal, and Penn State was late to the table. Campbell arrived behind other schools in the player market, and the splashiest additions never came. His biggest haul was bringing over a large chunk of his own Iowa State roster, including 24 Cyclones and quarterback Rocco Becht.
That group had gone 8-4 in the Big 12. It has not looked built for the Big Ten.
Penn State still opened the season 3-0 and carried preseason top-25 expectations, but the league has exposed the mismatch. Wisconsin came into Happy Valley and left with a win after a second-half comeback. Northwestern followed with a 34-13 rout, leaning on Chip Kelly’s Wing T and leaving Penn State staring at an 0-2 start in conference play.
Now USC comes to town, and another 0-3 start in Big Ten play is very much in play. The picture is ugly either way: a 2025 season that started with national championship dreams ended in the Pinstripe Bowl, and a 2026 season that was supposed to mark a fresh beginning is already sitting at the bottom of the Big Ten standings.
For Penn State, the slide keeps pointing back to Notre Dame.
In Other News...
Notre Dames BYU Matchup Just Took A Huge Turn For The Irish
BYUs offense just lost one of its most important pieces ahead of its October 17 trip to South Bend. Running back LJ Martin, who has been a key part of the Cougars rushing attack, will be out for at least one month after sustaining a lower-body injury in the game against TCU. For Notre Dame, that changes the feel of a matchup that already carried plenty of weight.
Martins absence matters because BYU now has to reshape how it wants to move the ball, especially if it needs to lean more heavily on the passing game to make up for the lost production on the ground. The Irish will still have to prepare for a physical, capable opponent, but the loss of a primary rushing threat gives Notre Dame a little more clarity on what this game may look like when the Cougars arrive. [Read more 🡒]
Mike Denbrock Sees One Thing Holding Back Notre Dame's Offense
Notre Dames offense has put together a strong start in the 2026 season, piling up 41.2 points per game while showing up near the top of the national statistical rankings in a number of key areas. The Irish have protected the football well, kept the quarterback relatively clean and produced efficient play overall, which is a big reason the unit has looked more complete than it did at times a year ago.
Still, offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock sees room for growth in the parts of the game that tend to decide tighter matchups. Third-down conversions and red zone finishing remain the biggest emphasis, and the Irish also want to build more depth at receiver so their top targets are not carrying the load every week. For a team that has already shown it can score, the next step is making sure those drives keep ending with points when the field shrinks and the pressure rises. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Looks Ready To Make A Statement Against Stanford
Notre Dame heads into Week 6 carrying the kind of profile that tends to get attention beyond just the win-loss column. The Irish have been one of the countrys most efficient teams by the advanced numbers, with their offense and defense pairing up to create a strong case that they belong among the nations best as they prepare for Stanford.
Stanford, meanwhile, has not shown the same level of consistency in the metrics that matter most for this matchup. The Cardinal have struggled badly in net success rate, which is part of why this game has drawn interest from bettors looking at whether Notre Dame can not only win, but do so in convincing fashion. The question now is whether that statistical edge shows up on the field in a way that matches the expectations around this one. [Read more 🡒]