3 Things That Went Wrong For Penn State in 2025, Where do the Nittany Lions Go From Here?
Penn State Football entered the 2025 season with sky-high national expectations and a No. 2 ranking in the nation.
Halfway through the season, however, the wheels have entirely come off for the Nittany Lions as they drop their third game in a row.
With starting quarterback Drew Allar now out for the rest of the season with a lower-body injury and the Nittany Lions’ playoff chances officially over, we will take a look at what went wrong for Penn State this season and where the Nittany Lions may go from here.
What Went Wrong for Penn State Football
Offensive line play regression
All offseason, Penn State head coach James Franklin beat the drum that the 2025 Nittany Lions offensive line could be the best offensive line in the nation.
Through six games, it is clear that the Nittany Lions’ offensive line massively underperformed those expectations.
To steal a phrase from Franklin, the offensive line has been “inconsistent” for the Nittany Lions, sometimes looking like they could reach the vaulted potential of the veteran unit, and other times looking far below average.
In the passing game, this has lead Allar to force the ball out early and stall the Penn State offense on plenty of occasions. In the running game, it has been most apparent when Nick Singleton has run the football, with the senior averaging only 3.8 yards per rush on 63 rushes this season.
In hindsight, having multiple starting offensive linemen miss all of spring practice and summer workouts could have limited the growth of this offensive line this offseason.
Both starting right guard Anthony Donkoh and starting right tackle Nolan Rucci missed most of the offseason with various injuries, stunting the growth of the offensive line as a whole.
Even with time to develop against inferior opponents, however, the offensive line has not shown enough consistency or growth to live up to the expectations before the season.
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Inconsistency in the passing game
As already stated above, the Penn State passing game has been extremely inconsistent this season, partially due to the offensive line play.
Third-year starter Drew Allar’s play regressed a bit from his 2024 numbers without Tyler Warren as a target in the passing game.
Allar’s accuracy has been inconsistent this season, dipping from a 66.5 percent completion percentage in 2024 to 64.7 percent in 2025. Allar also had trouble consistently finding Penn State’s new three transfer receivers this season.
Despite going into the transfer portal for three starters at the position, for whatever reason, Penn State’s three receivers have not always found the ability to get open or make plays for Allar this season.
Penn State’s top three pass catchers have 18 receptions each through six games this season. Allar’s season high in passing yards was only 217 passing yards in the Nittany Lions season opener against Nevada. Allar passed for 200 yards or less in four of six games this season.
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Jim Knowles’ complex defense taking too long to fully implement
James Franklin swung for the fences this offseason, going out and hiring national championship-winning defensive coordinator Jim Knowles from Ohio State in January.
Through non-conference play, the hire seemed great for Penn State, with the Nittany Lions allowing only 17 total points, and six points outside of the final minute of regulation with backups in the game.
After three Big Ten games, however, the Nittany Lions’ defense has struggled a bit more with Knowles’ system.
After holding Oregon to only 17 points in regulation, the Nittany Lions’ defense allowed touchdowns in both of Oregon’s overtime possessions, allowed 42 points to UCLA’s interim offensive coordinator, and allowed Northwestern to drive 75 yards over 12 plays to score the winning touchdown against the Nittany Lions Saturday.
After the UCLA loss, Franklin sounded frustrated with the implementation of Knowles system.
“We’re not playing as fast,” Frankln told reporters. “As aggressive as we have in the past on the defensive side of the ball.
“There’s been some adjustments to what we’re doing on defense and getting our guys to play confident within the system.”
The loss of starting linebacker Tony Rojas furthered the issues with Penn State running Knowles’ system, as it forced a less athletic Dom Deluca into a more prominent role.
“If you’re making mistakes at linebacker and can’t run the defense, then it’s hard to execute,” Franklin noted.
After Penn State had one of the top defenses in college football last year, it is safe to say this year’s defense has been a bit of a disappointment after Knowles hiring.
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Where does Penn State go from here?
There seems to be only one solution to move forward for Penn State. James Franklin has now lost two straight games as a three touchdown plus favorite, the first time that has happened in 30 years.
Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft must make the difficult decision to fire James Franklin. Franklin boasts a horrendous career record of 4-21 versus top 10 opponents in his career.
Nittany Lion fans have always tolerated this failure in the biggest games because “Franklin wins the games he’s supposed to win.”
However, now the past two losses show that this isn’t the case anymore either. Franklin’s message is stale to the guys in the locker room and he has lost control of the team.
Penn State must make the decision to move on and bring in a coach that can hopefully break through Franklin’s ceiling to bring Penn State back to the mountaintop.
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