10 years of James Franklin: Ranking the top 10 Nittany Lion wins of the last decade

Penn State head coach James Franklin has been tasked with leading the Nittany Lions for a decade’s worth of seasons. In that time, he’s racked up 88 wins, including 56 in the Big Ten.

Let’s take a look at our top 10 wins of the head coach’s tenure.

1. Penn State 24, Ohio State 21, Oct. 22, 2016

Could it be any other game? Franklin and the Nittany Lions have only taken down the Buckeyes once, but that one victory helped earn he and his team the only conference title of his time at PSU. It was only his third year on the job and he was able to lead his team over a Buckeye program that had already established itself as the class of the Big Ten.

And while the overarching meaning of the win carries a lot of weight, so does how it unfolded. The Nittany Lions were down 21-7 heading into the fourth quarter before scoring 17 unanswered points that included a blocked Buckeye field goal attempt and a scoop and score by Grant Haley that served as the game-winning touchdown.

2. Penn State 38, Wisconsin 31, Dec. 3, 2016

The Ohio State win put the team in position to win the conference, so naturally the team making good on that chance has to come in right behind it. The lone Big Ten title came in a thrilling high-scoring game in Indianapolis that saw the Joe Moorhead offense connecting on big play after big play to light up the Wisconsin defense. There was a Saquon Barkley wheel route touchdown and a pair of scores to Saeed Blacknall, but at the end of the game it was the defense that stood tall.

With the Badgers driving to tie the game late, the unit held firm on a fourth-and-one, stuffing Corey Clement to seal the win and give the program its best shot at making the playoff EM DASH even if the committee ultimately kept them out a day later.

3. Penn State 29, Minnesota 26, Oct. 1, 2016

There’s a clear theme here. That 2016 season was as wild as it was successful. The Nittany Lions were 2-2 after losing a tight game to Pittsburgh and getting blown out by Michigan, with a narrow win over Temple sandwiched in between. Tensions were high in Beaver Stadium with chants for Franklin to be fired ringing into the night.

They only grew louder as the team looked listless heading into the half down 13-3 to the Gophers. But things turned in the third quarter when Trace McSorley connected with Irvin Charles over the middle of the field, with the receiver doing the rest to make it a 13-10 game and breathe new life into the offense. The game remained relatively close, with PSU eventually winning in overtime, but that throw to Charles changed the shape of the season and was the beginning of the team’s run to the Big Ten title.

4. Penn State 35, Utah 21, Jan. 2, 2023

Arguably the biggest win outside of the 2016 season came just under 18 months ago when the Nittany Lions won their first Rose Bowl under Franklin. The stage of the game is the biggest factor here, although the defense was playing well even before Utah QB Cam Rising was injured and left the game.

The result served as a finale for Sean Clifford’s long Penn State career, ending with arguably his best performance as a Nittany Lion. He and the offense lit up the Utes, with running back Nick Singleton ending his freshman year by running for 120 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries.

“I think the Utah game in the Rose Bowl was a big one,” Franklin told the Centre Daily Times. “I think Utah and their head coach (Kyle Whittingham) is viewed as one of the more consistent, elite programs, and that kind of had everybody take notice, especially when you’re on the opposite coast doing it.”

5. Penn State 35, Washington 28, Dec. 30, 2017

Another bowl victory slots in at No. 5, this one serving as an end of Saquon Barkley’s career and an end to the best two-year stretch of Franklin’s tenure. Yes, the program has since returned to New Year’s Six bowls and won at least 10 games multiple times, but those two years featured the most dynamic offenses of the last 10 years. Barkley capped his career with 137 yards and two touchdowns, helping the team score its 35 points against a good Washington defense in the Fiesta Bowl.

“I think about the Fiesta Bowl, my wife is a Washington State grad,” Franklin said with a smile. “If we would have lost to Washington, not only professionally would I have gotten crushed, but personally I would have gotten crushed.”

6. Penn State 53, Memphis 39, Dec. 29, 2019

The last of Franklin’s three New Year’s Six bowl wins comes in at No. 6, with one of the best offensive performances of the last 10 years — and the final game before the pandemic altered the trajectory of the program. Two dominant performances, one on each side of the ball, looked like they established the core of the 2020 team. Micah Parsons finished the Cotton Bowl win with 14 tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles and two passes defended, while Journey Brown ran for 202 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries.

However, neither would play another snap for the team after Parsons opted out of the COVID-altered 2020 season and Brown medically retired after being diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

7. Penn State 41, Auburn 12, Sept. 17, 2022

The Nittany Lions have not taken on many difficult non-conference opponents in Franklin’s tenure, which makes their two victories over Auburn in back-to-back Septembers stand out. The second one, which took place on the road in Jordan-Hare Stadium, gets the nod because it was a statement game for the team at the time. Penn State dominated the Tigers with their running game and stopped their offense with relative ease, showing off what would end up being one of the best defenses in the country.

The timing of the win helped establish that the program was back as one of the top 15 in the country after going 14-12 over the previous two seasons.

8. Penn State 21, Iowa 19, Sept. 23, 2017

One of the more underrated wins of the last 10 years, this was arguably the team’s best game of the 2017 regular season. The Nittany Lions went into a hostile Kinnick Stadium against an elite Iowa defense and won in a slugfest in spectacular fashion. They went into the fourth quarter with an eight-point lead, blew that to go down by four and then marched down the field in less than two minutes to have first and goal with four shots to win it. Of course, the McSorley to Juwan Johnson fadeaway touchdown with no time on the clock will go down as one of the best plays of this era, as will Barkley’s hurdle over a Hawkeye defender.

The season may not have ended the way fans wanted, but this was an enormous win for a team that had championship aspirations at the time.

9. Penn State 17, Iowa 12, Oct. 12, 2019

Another game in Kinnick makes the list. For a stadium that has been a house of horrors for many Big Ten teams, Penn State has been relatively successful there when it’s been at its best under Franklin. This one was the first signature win of Clifford’s career in the most hostile environment he’d been in during his first year as a starter.

Clifford was able to find No. 1 receiver K.J. Hamler seven times for 61 yards and a touchdown in the game, but it was running back Noah Cain who led the offense in the game. Cain ran for 102 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries to help grind down a staunch Iowa defense and ultimately secure the win for the Nittany Lions.

10. Penn State 26, UCF 24, Aug. 30, 2014

Big picture, this one may not have been a part of a great season or against an elite opponent, but the first win is still an important one, and this was Franklin’s at Penn State. He led the Nittany Lions across the pond to Dublin to take on UCF in a game that saw Christian Hackenberg throw for 454 yards, with Geno Lewis and DaeSean Hamilton combining to catch 19 passes for 338 yards and a touchdown.

The win also featured small performances by players like Chris Godwin and Mike Gesicki, who would go on to be two of the best offensive players to play for Franklin over the last decade.