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COLUMBUS, Ohio — James Franklin’s firing didn’t happen in a vacuum. The stunning mid-season dismissal came after a collapse so dramatic it left the college football world searching for answers. On this week’s Buckeye Talk podcast, the crew dissected Penn State’s shocking fall from grace – from a preseason No. 2 ranking with playoff aspirations to a 3-4 team struggling to remain relevant. What they found wasn’t just X’s and O’s failures, but a full-blown mental breakdown. “I think the mental side is where you point to and say this is where it all went wrong,” co-host Stefan Krajisnik said. “We talked about them teetering on this line of — at a certain point you can only keep losing those big games and continue moving forward and going 10-2, 11-1 and thinking everything is fine. At some point, something’s going to bottom out.” Latest Ohio State Buckeyes news Why Ryan Day Has Extra Motivation Against Penn State Which recruits are visiting for Ohio State vs. Penn State? Ohio State vs. Penn State score predictions: Can the Buckeyes beat the Nittany Lions, again? Ohio State vs. Penn State recruiting: How big is the Buckeyes’ talent gap in the starting 22? That bottom fell out spectacularly after the Nittany Lions lost to Oregon in September. It wasn’t just that they lost – it was how they responded to that loss. Stephen Means delivered perhaps the most scathing assessment of Penn State’s culture: “You lost a football game in September in an era of college football where one loss does not kill you... And if you’re telling me that is what caused James Franklin to lose his locker room, that’s soft. That’s a soft culture. That means he never had the locker room to begin with.” The offensive issues were glaring. As Andrew Gillis pointed out: “Football-wise, how we got here for Penn State is, I think, No. 1 the quarterback, who we shouldn’t spend a ton of time on because he’s not going to play on Saturday, was not all that good. I don’t think Drew Allar took the step that you wanted... The receivers that they went and brought in, they’re just not what you want.” The statistics paint a troubling picture. Penn State’s offense has sputtered, with Allar completing just 64.8% of his passes with a mediocre 6.9 yards per attempt before his injury. Meanwhile, the defense has slipped from its typically elite status to middle-of-the-pack in the Big Ten. What makes this collapse truly remarkable is the talent on this roster. Penn State still has approximately nine players projected to be taken in the upcoming NFL draft. The issue wasn’t a lack of ability – it was a fundamental breakdown in mentality. The podcast highlighted how the Nittany Lions seemed to abandon their season after that Oregon loss, losing to UCLA, Northwestern, and even surrendering 25 points to an Iowa team not known for offensive firepower. As Buckeye Talk made clear, this isn’t just about scheme adjustments or personnel decisions – it’s about rebuilding a winning mentality that appears to have evaporated in Happy Valley. Whether Penn State can recover from this psychological blow remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the program’s soft response to adversity has exposed fundamental weaknesses that go far beyond the scoreboard. Here’s the podcast for this week:
