The Penn State Nittany Lions have already received an intriguing bowl prediction for next season.
The 2025 college football season certainly did not go according to plan for the Penn State Nittany Lions, who entered the year with national championship hopes but instead had to settle for a Pinstripe Bowl win over Clemson.
Penn State got off to a 3-0 start but then lost six in a row, seeing James Franklin get fired once the team reached 3-3.
The Nittany Lions did close the campaign with four consecutive wins, but that was a hollow victory for a squad that went into 2025 with so much promise. Or so it seemed.
Now, Penn State has entered a new era, with former Iowa State coach Matt Campbell taking the reins in Happy Valley.
The Nittany Lions have a long way to go. Yes, they added 38 players via the transfer portal, but they also lost 45, and On 3 handed them a paltry minus-6 index score for their work throughout the portal.
Campbell should be trusted for the work he did at Iowa State, however, and Brett McMurphy of On 3 seems to believe that Penn State will be improved in 2026.
Penn State Nittany Lions coach Matt Campbell. Credit: Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images.In a set of predictions for next season, McMurphy projected the Nittany Lions to reach the Citrus Bowl, where he has them playing Lane Kiffin and the LSU Tigers.
Penn State has qualified for a bowl game in 10 of the last 11 years and last appeared in the Citrus Bowl during the 2018-19 campaign, when it lost to Kentucky. The Nittany Lions went 9-4 that season.
Campbell actually began his head-coaching career at Toledo in 2011 and spent five season with the Rockets, going 35-15 and leading the program to three bowl appearances. Toledo went 2-1 in those affairs.
The 46-year-old then took the Iowa State head-coaching job in 2016 and led the Cyclones to a 72-55 mark overall, guiding them to seven bowl appearances.
Campbell's best campaign at Ames came in 2024-25, when Iowa State went 11-3 and defeated the Miami Hurricanes in the Pop Tars Bowl.
Penn State is certainly a more prestigious program than Iowa State, so the stakes are unquestionably higher. However, Campbell still proved he could win in a power-four conference, so perhaps his success could translate well to the Big Ten.
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