STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State ’s first-ever 16-game season is in the books and the Nittany Lions are the preseason No. 1 in Stewart Mandel’s way-too-early 2025 projections. Of course, there are still gaping holes on this team, notably at wide receiver and with a defensive coordinator who still needs to be hired to replace Tom Allen.

Penn State coach James Franklin is one of the 53 program leaders who make up the voting block for the weekly USA Today Coaches Poll. As we’ll detail below, he doesn’t do the leg work himself, as you could have probably assumed.

James Franklin and Penn State capped off their season close to a Natty dream. The post Big Crisis Awaits James Franklin & Penn State As Insider Drops Bombshell After Lincoln Riley’s USC Masterstroke appeared first on EssentiallySports.

Penn State finished the regular season 11-1, but the “one” was another loss to Ohio State. Franklin is 4-17 against Ohio State and Michigan, his team’s biggest rivals in the Big 10. Penn State had a favorable path to the semifinals, beating SMU and Boise State.

James Franklin, Pat Narduzzi, Mike Locksley and other coaches had different rankings for Penn State in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

We have officially turned the page to the 2025 football season after Ohio State took down Notre Dame in the national title to capture the Big Ten's second-strai

Notre Dame is playing for a national title for the first time in 12 seasons, and Penn State has come up short yet again in a big-time matchup.

This season, the Nittany Lions lost single-possession games to three such teams — Ohio State, Oregon and Notre Dame. Franklin's 34-8 over the last four seasons and has six double-digit win seasons at Penn State since taking over, but being one of the Big Ten's most reliable quality teams is rarely mentioned.

Penn State's historic 2024-25 season comes to an official close with the final US LBM Coaches Poll. See how James Franklin voted.

The Athletic's Stewart Mandel is a preseason Penn State believer, placing the Nittany Lions atop his too-early top 25 for 2025. "I'm skeptical they can actually pull it off," Mandel writes, "but on paper, James Franklin's team deserves that status given how many players are returning."

Penn State is coming off one of its best seasons in ages. The Nittany Lions not only qualified for the College Football Playoff for the first time in program hi

Penn State, which hasn’t held the No. 1 spot in any poll this century, is already in the white-hot spotlight this offseason.