Two days after Penn State’s first loss of the season at the hands of Oregon, head coach James Franklin met with the media to discuss his final thoughts on the game and preview the team’s next matchup at UCLA.
Franklin covered the team’s offensive struggles, an area for improvement and gave insight into his program’s historic struggles out of bye weeks.
Here’s what he had to say on Monday afternoon.
Inconsistency
Having watched film from the game, one consistent issue stuck out to Franklin from the 30-24 double-overtime loss to the Ducks: inconsistency.
Penn State’s offense scraped together just three points through three quarters before a late surge made the game interesting, but the overall performance was lackluster. It starts with quarterback Drew Allar, who finished just 14-for-25 for 137 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
“I think you see flashes of brilliance and then you see inconsistency,” Franklin said. “So I think we continue to do a good job in terms of Drew when it comes to decision making. Obviously, that last throw, that’s a challenging route that people have a difficult time covering, but that was covered. We should have moved on or thrown the ball away to give us a chance to play another down and have a chance to win the game.”
Those struggles extend to the players up front, where Franklin once again used the word “inconsistent” to describe their performances through four games. All five of Penn State’s starters graded poorly, per PFF, as Allar was pressured on 18 of 25 dropbacks.
“There’s times where we look really good, and there’s times where we don’t, and that’s pretty much across the board on offense right now, inconsistent,” Franklin said.
History rhymes
Many comparisons have been drawn between Ohio State’s run to the national championship last season and Penn State’s 2025 campaign. It began in the offseason, when the Nittany Lions successfully retained several key veterans on both offense and defense.
With similar returning production grades to the Buckeyes, Penn State started the season ranked No. 2 — the same as Ohio State last season. The addition of defensive coordinator Jim Knowles only added fuel to the comparisons.
Another similarity came on Saturday, when the Nittany Lions dropped an early season, one-score, top-10 matchup against Oregon. In 2024, the Buckeyes lost to the Ducks 32-31 in the regular season before earning revenge in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.
Franklin said Knowles spoke with both the coaching staff and defense about his experience last season, when Ohio State was able to make the playoffs and avenge their loss, which Penn State may have a chance to do.
“I think that’s been valuable,” Franklin said. “Obviously, he’s got a good perspective on these things, and a ton of information from that situation. So, definitely talked to Jim about it on Sunday, and we obviously had conversations before Sunday about it as well. I think that’s that’s an important message for our entire team to hear.”
Balancing act
Bye weeks are generally considered an advantage, providing teams an extra week of rest and preparation which the opponent usually doesn’t have. Ironically, Penn State has struggled out of bye weeks under James Franklin, with losses to Ohio State in 2014, Michigan in 2014, 2015 and 2022, Michigan State in 2018, Minnesota in 2019, Illinois in 2021 and now, Oregon in 2025.
Franklin explained that he and his staff take an unconventional approach, using the week off to hit the recruiting trail and visit high schools around the area to check in on commits and targets.
He clarified that the staff still dedicates time to game planning throughout the idle week, but recruiting is a major priority as well. Franklin justified the decision, saying extra preparation may help the team win out of the bye week, but it may set back the recruiting classes of the future.
“I think we took the right approach. We spent a ton of time on Oregon this summer. I think they did as well,” Franklin said. “And then we balanced our week between recruiting and between preparing during the bye week for our next opponent.”
