Penn State Football: Is 2025 College Football Season “Natty or Bust?” for James Franklin’s Nittany Lions?
Heading into the 2025 college football season, the Penn State Football team has some lofty expectations bestowed upon it.
And rightfully so.
Head coach James Franklin led the Nittany Lions to a 13-3 record in 2024. Including a trip to the 2024 B1G Championship game, and two wins in the 2024 College Football Playoff before ultimately losing to Notre Dame in the semifinals.
Now let’s throw the following into the mix:
-Added Jim Knowles as the Defensive Coordinator in the off-season.
-Between Andy Kotelnicki and Knowles, Penn State arguably has the best coordinator duo in all of college football.
–Drew Allar, Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen, Dani Dennis-Sutton, and Nick Dawkins are all running it back.
-Penn State landed the 15th-best recruiting class in the 2025 cycle (247 Sports).
So that got us here at NittanyCentral thinking, is this Penn State’s best shot at a national title in 39 years?
And more importantly, is this coming year “National Title or Bust” for the Nittany Lions?
I’ll start with the latter question.
Is the 2025 Season “National Title or Bust” for Penn State Football?
Before we answer this question, let’s examine a couple of things first.
First and foremost, this coming season will be Franklin’s 12th year as Penn State Football’s head coach. During his 11 year span in Happy Valley, the Nittany Lions have gone 101-42 and 64-33 in B1G conference games.
Additionally, Penn State has played in a total of nine bowls and three College Football Playoff games. And James from State College holds a split record of 6-6 in these 12 games.
Furthermore, the Nittany Lions under Franklin have won double-digit games in six of the 11 years. And this includes in each of the past three seasons.
So back to the aforementioned question …
Is this year national title or bust?
The simple answer is “Yes”.
As for the explanation, that’s even simpler.
If James Franklin doesn’t win a national title at Penn State this year, then when in the heck is it ever going to happen?
Seriously, when?
I noted that Penn State brought in the 15th-best recruiting class in 2025. They also brought in the 15th-best class in 2024. And as for 2026? They currently sit at No. 4.
However, the Lions will most likely slide quite a bit when it gets closer to the signing period, as they don’t have any five-star commits. And most likely, they won’t land one.
So it’s not like the Nittany Lions are out-recruiting everyone in the country.
And while they have shown a propensity for bringing in talent from the transfer portal, the Nittany Lions can’t contend, money-wise, with the big guns for prize transfers.
Here’s what I’m getting at, after this year the Nittany Lions are going to lose a ton of guys on both sides of the ball. And based on what you’ve seen from James Franklin and based on the level of talent coming into Happy Valley, do you really think they have a shot at a title next year? Or the year after?
Certainly things could change. However at this point, things are pretty much what they are.
And that’s the fact that James Franklin is a pretty good coach. It’s also a fact that Penn State Football is going to be a perennial top 10 team year in and year out.
But it’s also a fact that when the Nittany Lions can’t out-athlete a team, they will most likely lose. Which is not great when you’re trying to beat the top teams in the country for a national title.
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Is this Penn State Football’s best shot since their last title in 1986?
I could make a pretty good case that this year’s team gives Penn State a good chance to win the natty.
However, the answer to the above question is a resounding “No”.
When college football poll voters completely screwed over the 1994 Nittany Lions, it was a giant kick in the groin. Especially when you factor in several B1G voters spite-voted for Nebraska and not Penn State.
The 1994 Penn State Football team is perhaps one of the best offenses in the history of D1 college football. And for sure, they represented the best chance for the Nittany Lions to win a national title to date.
But does this year’s squad come in at No. 2?
Nope.
I fully believe the 2017 team gave James Franklin a better chance to win a title.
That squad had prime Trace McSorley and Saquon Barkley in the backfield. It had DaeSean Hamilton, Juwan Johnson, Mike Gesicki, DeAndre Thompkins, and Saeed Blacknall hauling in passes. Not to mention Shareef Miller and Shaka Toney wreaking havoc in the opponent’s backfield and Amani Oruwariye, Grant Haley, and Marcus Allen locking down the backend of the defense.
Well, we all know how that turned out … fourth quarter collapse in Columbus followed by a complete mind numbing loss to Michigan State.
Ballgame.
However if there is any consolation, I truly believe this year’s Penn State Football team gives them the third best shot at winning the third national title in program history.
Which brings us to the final question …
Will Penn State Football win the National Title this year?
As I’ve stated already, this year’s Nittany Lions have a lot going for them.
They’re coming off their first-ever College Football Playoff appearance, which included a march to the semifinals. And that’s a huge step in the right direction in terms of the “James Franklin can’t win the big games” moniker.
I mean, sure, you can make an argument that SMU and Boise State shouldn’t have even made the Playoff. But, you can’t make an argument that those two wins weren’t in “big games”. Because they for sure were.
Keeping with the theme of “things going for them,” Drew Allar will now be in his second year under the watchful eye of Andy Kotelnicki. And based on the track record of good quarterbacks going into the second year with a good offensive coordinator, generally, there is a large uptick in performance and efficiency.
I also believe Penn State fans will see Kotelnicki’s offensive playbook open up even more. Which is great news for them and bad news for defensive coordinators. Especially when adding in guys like Singleton, Allen, and Dawkins.
However, next year’s team won’t be all sunshine and puppies.
For starters, who’s going to be the go-to wide receiver for Penn State?
The Not So Great
Last year’s leading receiver, Tyler Warren (104 catches, 1233 yards, 8 TDs) is now playing for the Colts. And to make matters worse, the Nittany Lions’ second-leading receiver, Harrison Wallace III, transferred to Ole Miss.
Which means that Penn State’s leading pass-catcher returning to the team is RB Nick Singleton (41 catches, 375 yards, 5 td’s).
And yes, the coaching staff did bring in both Kyron Hudson (USC) and Devonte Ross (Troy). However, it’s difficult to project exactly what kind of impact they can make with this team. Furthermore, what kind of impact they can make against B1G defenses.
Can Luke Reynolds, the former five-star recruit, jump into the lineup and help fuel the passing attack?
Again, that’s another huge question mark.
Then, when we turn our attention to the other side of the ball, there are clearly cracks in the foundation as well.
Between Abdul Carter, Jaylen Reed, and Kobe King, the Nittany Lions are losing 263 tackles, 40 TFL, and 17.5 sacks just from last season alone.
Now, I do believe the defensive line and the secondary should be a net-positive next year. However, the d-line has a lot of question marks on it after the starting four. Additionally, I don’t think Penn State will have a guy who can single-handedly disrupt the opposition’s backfield like Carter, Adisa Isaac, and Arnold Ebiketie have in the past.
Yes, Dennis-Sutton did have 8.5 sacks last year. But that’s because the o-line’s main focus was not to let Carter destroy their QB. So Dani faced a lot of one-on-one matches. Can he get 8.5 sacks while being double-teamed? My guess is no.
The linebacking corps is similar to the d-line. Between Tony Rojas and Dom DeLuca, they have talent and a decent amount of experience. But after that? Oh boy. Who knows?
Another thing to note is how well the defense will adjust to Jim Knowles’ 4-2-5 defense. I’m sure there is going to be a learning curve there.
But look, overall, I feel like the defense will be okay.
And by “okay” I mean they will probably still be a top 30 defense.
It’s the offense that scares me the most.
And so here is the final question …
Will Penn State Football win the National Title this year?
*Sigh*
No. I don’t think they will.
If James Franklin couldn’t win a title with an offense with seven future players in the NFL, then I don’t think he’s going to do it this season.
And that’s not a knock on the guy. It’s just reality.
Penn State Football is still going to have a very successful season this coming year. It’s just that they will eventually lose to Ohio State, and they will eventually lose to whichever opponent has just as much or more talent than they do in the College Football Playoff.
There’s no shame in that whatsoever.
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Saquon Barkley to John Cappelletti: Penn State Football’s 4 All-Time Best Offensive Stars
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Education: Penn State University
Location: State College, PA
Even though he had no prior journalism experience, Chris has now covered Penn State Wrestling and Penn State Football for the past three years, including as the Penn State Wrestling Beat Writer for VictoryBellRings.com, part of the FanSided network.
And it's clear he also likes constant torture as he's been a PSU Basketball fan for way too long.
Several years back, Chris made the seamless transition from PGA Professional to computer programmer and thoroughly enjoys following and writing about all things related to Penn State sports during his spare time.
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