Penn State Can't Afford a James Franklin 2.0
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The Nittany Lions will be led by interim head coach Terry Smith and first-time starting quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer against the Hawkeyes.
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Three takeaways from Penn State football’s heartbreaking 25-24 road loss vs. Iowa
A week after firing James Franklin, Penn State still couldn’t get over the hump under interim coach Terry Smith.
Former Penn State coach James Franklin told ESPN's "College GameDay" that he "can't wait" to coach again and plans to "go win a national championship somewhere else now."
However, the interim coach led a Penn State group that fell to the Hawkeyes, 25-24. And the most shocking part was that the Nittany Lion defense somehow performed worse against a running quarterback than Nico Iamaleava’s 128 yards in the UCLA loss two weeks ago.
The Nittany Lions meet the Hawkeyes for a 7 p.m. ET kickoff at Beaver Stadium that no one could have predicted. James Franklin no longer is the Penn State coach, having been fired following a 22-21 loss to Northwestern that dropped the team to 0-3 in the Big Ten.
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Is Nick Saban considering Penn State coaching job? What Miss Terry said on 'College GameDay'
On ESPN's "College GameDay," former Alabama football coach Nick Saban was asked indirectly about the open Penn State coaching job, one recently vacated by James Franklin.
Kickoff from the Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa, is at 7 p.m. ET. The Hawkeyes are 3-point favorites in the latest Penn State vs. Iowa odds, while the over/under for total points scored is 40.5 via SportsLine consensus. Before making any Iowa vs. Penn State picks, check out the college football predictions from the SportsLine Projection Model .
Penn State and Iowa meet on Saturday for the 33rd time and first since the Nittany Lions’ 31-0 shutout victory in the 2023 White Out game at Beaver Stadium. It’s also Penn State’s first game without head coach James Franklin since 2014, so it’s difficult to know what to expect.