Penn State entered the season ranked No. 2. They were ranked by CBS Sports as the No. 1 underachiever for 2025.
Penn State had high expectations for 2025, entering the season with a No. 2 ranking months after making it to the College Football Playoff semifinal.
Following a 22-21 loss to Northwestern on Oct. 11, PSU punted on the season by firing head coach James Franklin a day after losing quarterback Drew Allar for the season.
Interim head coach Terry Smith lost his first three games, but he got PSU to put up a fight against Indiana, nearly beating the Hoosiers before a late comeback in the fourth quarter allowed Curt Cignetti's team to leave State College with a 27-24 win on Nov. 8.
Penn State would then go on a four-game winning streak to end the season, including earning a 22-10 win over Clemson in the Pinstripe Bowl.
Still, the 7-6 campaign was an utter disappointment for a program that had aspirations of competing for the national title.
Brad Crawford of CBS Sports ranked Penn State as the No. 1 underachiever for 2025.
"Imagine telling yourself in August that James Franklin would be Virginia Tech's head coach by season's end? You wouldn't have believed it," Crawford wrote.
"After retaining a number of key players who led the Nittany Lions one win shy of a national championship game appearance last season, Franklin and Penn State fell quickly as a preseason top-3 team."
Crawford called Penn State's fall from grace "a shocking faceplant" and thinks the 2025 season will be what Franklin is remembered for by Nittany Lions fans.
"Franklin leaves the program with the second-most coaching wins all time in Happy Valley with 104 victories, tied with Rip Engle and behind the legendary Joe Paterno," Crawford wrote. "However, his tenure will primarily be remembered for how it ended. Not the good times."
On top of the season being unremarkable, the long national coaching search hurt new head coach Matt Campbell, who took over when PSU was seriously behind in recruiting high school athletes for the class of 2026, many of whom went to join Franklin in Blacksburg.
Per 247Sports, Penn State has the No. 85 recruiting class for 2026, including adding just two four-star athletes.
However, Campbell has been aggressive in adding players via the transfer portal, where the Nittany Lions are ranked No. 3.