After winning its first three games comfortably, only giving up an average of under six points per game, the Penn State football team showed a promising start to the season. However, the team has dropped three straight games to a currently 3rd-ranked Oregon team, a previously 0-4 UCLA team, and a Northwestern team that has not cracked the top 25 since 2020, sparking a mass of negative chatter from fans and media.
The team entered the season ranked second in all of college football as a favorite to win the College Football Playoff, but has quickly fallen out of the top 25. As the hometown team for all State High students, many are dismayed at the squad’s quick falloff and have raised questions regarding both coaching and play.
Sophomore football player Cohen Johnson was especially disappointed with the Nittany Lion program.
“[In the past three games], I think we were just out-prepared and out-coached, and it definitely showed,” Johnson said.
The notorious White Out game at Beaver Stadium came against Oregon on Sept. 27, one of the most anticipated Penn State football games this year. Penn State’s defense backed up its reputation as one of the best in the country, holding an explosive Oregon offense to just ten points going into the fourth quarter.
However, the offense stalled, producing just four first downs during this period of time, and went into the fourth trailing 10-3.
“To be honest, our offense needed to turn it on a lot earlier, because when you want to win a big game like that, you have to be able to score more than three points in three quarters,” Johnson said.
Despite a booing home crowd of over 110,000 people, the offense heated up in the fourth quarter and forced the game into two overtimes. Throughout overtime, the game was still tied, but Oregon punched in a touchdown, and Penn State quarterback Drew Allar followed it up by throwing an interception, ending the game.
Johnson argued that, notwithstanding the late interception, subpar accuracy, and the lack of living up to expectations on the national level, the fault of these losses should not all be on Allar.
“Drew Allar has nothing going for him besides a good defense…the offensive line is underperforming…he has very little pocket time, and also, his wide receivers do not get open,” Johnson said.
When Penn State traveled to California to face UCLA, fans were expecting a nice, easy, bounce-back win. However, it was quite the opposite, and ended in a 42-37 loss. Johnson and fellow sophomores Ethan Prenatt and Daeshon Hardison agreed that it was no longer just the Penn State offense that needed work. The defense had given up 42 points to a team that, coming into the game, had not led in a game all season.
The Nittany Lions signed former Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles this past offseason, making him the highest-paid coordinator in college football history. However, Knowles’ side of the ball has been quite inconsistent.
“I think that Jim Knowles was the problem against UCLA,” Prenatt said. “He had a great game against Oregon, but he just cannot give up 42 points to UCLA.”
The general consensus of the public is that changes must be made to the coaching staff, particularly the head coach position, but Johnson, Prenatt and Hardison all disagreed.
“I think [Franklin] is a good recruiter, a good moneymaker for the team and the program, and it’s important to have one of those guys, but it stinks for the team that he just isn’t a good playcaller,” Johnson said.
“If we just fire our whole staff, then I think our program would have a downfall,” Prenatt said.
Hardison provided a different viewpoint, noting that the Nittany Lions will have a much different roster and that he wants to see what the coaching staff can do in what could be a “reset” year for the program.
“Give [the staff] the next two years. I want to see what they can do with [current backup quarterback Ethan] Grunkemeyer and this team that we’re gonna have next year, because we are losing everybody,” Hardison said.
It turns out that fans are going to see Grunkemeyer at the helm of the Penn State offense sooner than they expected, as Drew Allar went down with a season-ending ankle injury late in the 22-21 loss to Northwestern.
Grunkemeyer will take over an offense that has underperformed all season, and it will be hard for him to raise the spirits of dejected Nittany Lion fans. This team came into the season with the highest expectations for a Penn State squad in decades, but a 3-3 record in mid-October has proved all of the naysayers right.
Nonetheless, it seems more than likely that there will be changes made to the program in the near future. Questions will be answered, but fans will likely have to wait until 2026 for a chance at a successful Nittany Lion season.
