Michigan State Spartans, 2025 Recap: Somehow, Fitzgerald Returned
This might as well be Pat Fitzgerald's supervillain origin story
Poor James Franklin. The fans could almost accept never winning the big one, but when he started losing the little ones? That absurd UCLA game was a harbinger, but the Northwestern game was the writing on the wall. Let's get to the schedule and take a trip through one of the more bizarre seasons in recent memory.
What were the expectations?
Transient Buckeye: Penn State entered 2025 on the heels of a soul-crushing loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinal, which denied them a berth in the national title game. But most of PSU's roster returned, and there was hope that the Lions had been able to address their relatively few roster holes (notably, a badly subpar wide receiving corps) through the transfer portal. Penn State entered the season ranked #2 in the country, and were being cited by many national commentators as legitimate Big Ten and national title contenders. There may have been a year during the James Franklin era where preseason expectations were higher, but if there was, I'm struggling to remember it.
Kind of...: Expectations were through the roof. Lotta talent back of the semifinal run in 2024, and many, many hot take artists were happy to conveniently forget that said semifinal run featured wins over SMU and Boise State (the latter of which was set to be a one-score game in the fourth quarter until a missed chip shot FG). But, yeah, expectations were very high.
So, how'd it go?
Transient Buckeye: Um.....
Let's say that Penn State came up juuuussst a bit short of expectations. The Nittany Lions weren't challenged during the non-conference season, but even against three horribly overmatched opponents, it looked like something wasn't quite clicking. The overtime loss to Oregon was heartbreaking, as the manner in which it occurred probably gave Penn State fans flashbacks to the end of the previous season. But that loss by itself wouldn't necessarily have lit the season on fire, since Oregon was a virtual lock to make the CFP field, and PSU would have plenty of chances to redeem themselves later in the year. Then the next five games happened (see "lowlights" below).
Kind of...: Yeah, a heartbreaking loss to Oregon. No biggie. Just laying on the mat and refusing to get up for a full month afterward. Problems.
What were the highlights?
Transient Buckeye: The much-maligned Drew Allar looked very good at times, leading a fourth-quarter comeback from two scores down to get the Oregon game to overtime. Penn State gave Indiana a harder time than anyone else the Hoosiers played during the regular season, forcing Fernando Mendoza to lead a literal last-minute comeback drive. They managed to pull out of the mid-season death spiral to claw their way to bowl eligibility. And they beat Clemson and Dabo Swinney's desiccated corpse in the Pinstripe Bowl. Beating Clemson always rates a highlight mention from me. And yes, I just wrote a recap that argued that half of Penn State's "highlights" came during games they lost. That should tell you a lot about how their season went.
Kind of...: Can't argue with our impermanent tree nut friend, especially his insight that PSU's highlights were in close losses to good teams. Which is to say that PSU's highlights were...basically in being pretty much any PSU team from 2017-present. The guttiness against Indiana was borderline heroic given that they had gotten hammered by Ohio State the week before. But, I mean, it ended the way it always does when PSU plays a top 10 team. (Also, yes, digging out of a 3-6 hole to get bowl eligible, and then making Dabo sad, merits mention.)
And the lowlights?
Transient Buckeye: Remember how I observed that a lot of Penn State's highlights came in losses? Yeah. The Nittany Lions went out to the West Coast the weekend after the Oregon game and lost to a UCLA team who, prior to kickoff, looked to be solidly on the road to 0-12. Yet for four quarters, Penn State made Nico Iamaleava look like Lamar Jackson. They lost to Northwestern the following week, also losing Drew Allar to a broken leg. The next day, James Franklin was fired. It didn't help much. PSU went to Iowa City and lost the Battle of the G-Men, though they did at least fight hard in that game. The Nittany Lions then took their annual pantsing at the hands of Ohio State. The Indiana game felt like a moral victory, given that PSU was able to hang in that game for four quarters. But a program of Penn State's stature shouldn't be taking moral victories away from losses to Indiana.
Kind of...: They didn't have their head clear when they went to LA. Then, AT HOME against Northwestern, they just seemed resigned and were lifeless on offense. Incidentally, the Jerry Neuhesial boomlet they created with their insipid defensive performance against UCLA culminated in him taking the QB coach job with Northwestern.
Any memorable and or absurd moments?
Transient Buckeye: The entire UCLA game. If you missed it the first time, do yourself a favor, and watch the highlights.
Kind of...: Transient Buckeye again nails it. The UCLA game was absurd for PSU and memorable for the Bruins. Also, pretty sure that in a season full of highlight's Indiana's game-winning drive in State College is on the short list for Hoosier fans. PSU led in the 4th or OT of four of their losses, so, if nothing else, they provided a lot of positive memories to several opponents.
