If James Franklin’s goal was to win a national championship at Penn State, he failed. Although he went 104-45 as the head coach after taking over the program in 2014, he was never able to get the Nittany Lions over the hump. Now, with a new era in Happy Valley led by Matt Campbell, his team has made it clear that winning games immediately is a top priority.
What Penn State Players Are Saying About Matt Campbell’s First Season
Speaking exclusively with PFSN, Penn State quarterback Jack Lambert said, “Even in year one, the goal is the national championship – otherwise, what are you doing? At the same time, it’s about setting a foundation: building the right culture so future teams can look at this year and keep it growing.”
Lambert makes an excellent point. For a premier, storied program like Penn State, winning on the biggest stage is always going to be the ultimate goal, but he remained realistic about expectations for Campbell’s initial season at the school.
The Nittany Lions had one of the most underwhelming seasons of any college football team in the nation last year, starting with national championship hopes and a No. 2 ranking in the 2025 preseason AP Top 25 Poll, and ending with a 7-6 overall record and 12th-place finish in the Big Ten.
Penn State started off strong, beating easy opponents on the way to a 3-0 record; however, everything changed when conference play began. After losing a white-out matchup to visiting Oregon 30-24 in double overtime, the wheels began to fall off.
The Oregon loss was followed by a 42-37 loss at UCLA, a 22-21 loss to Northwestern, and a 25-24 loss to Iowa. In just a month, they’d dropped from being a top-three team nationally to below .500.
During the skid, Franklin would be dismissed, with Terry Smith taking the lead as the interim head coach. Over the stretch, the offense struggled despite a strong season from running back Kaytron Allen. The unit would end the season with an 84.5 offensive impact grade according to PFSN, ranking seventh in the conference, below schools like Washington and Illinois.
Campbell hopes to turn the offense around with the help of his former Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht, who played injured in 2025 and had his best season in 2024, throwing for 3,505 yards and 25 touchdowns to just nine interceptions.
With Allen departing for the NFL, Becht will have a chance to make an immediate impact in the Big Ten, but national championship hopes have yet to be validated by fans and media.
