We can look at many things from Penn State's performance throughout the 2025 college football season and question what's going on. 

After being in a game with Oregon that looked like Penn State was going to come away with it before Drew Allar threw an interception, or needing just one defensive stop after scoring in the first overtime, everything has gone downhill from there. 

Penn State was a top-5 team in the nation heading into the year and played like it throughout the first few games of the season. Fast forward to the next month: James Franklin was fired, and Penn State suffered some of the worst losses in the country. 

Losing to UCLA is one thing because of the status of the program, at least, but dropping games to Northwestern simply wasn't going to keep Franklin's job.

But it poses the question of what happened? If Penn State was as good as everybody expected it to be entering the year, how does it go from losing to the Ducks in double overtime to dropping in games against UCLA and Northwestern before firing Franklin? 

It sounds like Kirk Herbstreit might have the answer, suggesting that Franklin might’ve lost the locker room.

“The only thing I can think of... is maybe he lost the team,” Herbstreit said, per A to Z Sports. “Maybe the ship was sinking as far as the buy-in behind the scenes, and maybe the decision-makers thought, ‘Let’s get out of this now. Let’s try to salvage this year, and let’s try to find our next guy.’”

It remains uncertain what really happened behind the scenes at Penn State, but there isn't much time to discuss that. 

The Nittany Lions have to go out and do whatever it takes to ensure that their future is as promising as it once was. According to Herbstreit, they shouldn't have much of a problem doing so because of the money they spend.

“They spend money... they’re spending money,” he said. “Isn’t that sad? That’s how you have to look at it, not tradition and history... are they spending money? And they are...”

“A great campus, great university, great tradition, great stadium,” and said “anybody would go to Penn State if they got the opportunity.”