James Franklin Has a History of Harrowing Road Openers at Penn State

The Nittany Lions begin 2024 at West Virginia. If history repeats, the game could get wild.

Penn State head coach James Franklin leads the Nittany Lions onto the field for the Blue-White Game. / Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK

James Franklin begins his 11th season as Penn State's head coach the same way he started Year 1: on the road. And as history demonstrates, Penn State's visit to West Virginia on Aug. 31 should fray more of Franklin's nerves. The road opener has been nightmare fuel for the Nittany Lions and their coach.

Penn State's visit to West Virginia marks Franklin's sixth season-opening road game, and the previous five have reached various stages of haywire. From a walk-off field goal in Dublin to 10 sacks in Philadelphia to mad Big Ten scrambles in Bloomington, Madison and West Lafayette, the Nittany Lions have played some manic road openers under Franklin.

Penn State is 3-2 in season-opening games away from Beaver Stadium, and those two losses have something in common. In 2015, the Nittany Lions lost to Temple, whose athletic director at the time was Patrick Kraft. He's now Penn State's athletic director and Franklin's boss.

And then in 2020, Indiana launched a memorable season with an overtime win over Penn State. Indiana's Tom Allen was named the Big Ten and AFCA Coach of the Year. Where will Allen be Aug. 31? On Penn State's sideline as Franklin's defensive coordinator.

What does all of that mean? Who knows? But they're wild grace notes to Penn State's quirky road-opener history. Ready to relive some thrilling, and painful, memories?

2014: Penn State 26, Central Florida 24

This game irked Franklin. The Croke Park Classic, played in Dublin, Ireland, had been agreed to two years prior by former Penn State coach Bill O'Brien, who watched from Houston as the Texans' head coach. Meanwhile, Franklin had to start his Penn State coaching career in another country.

"I'm a big fan of the country, and a big fan that our fans are excited about it, but from a coaching perspective, no," Franklin said in 2014, before taking his team to Ireland. "Everything we do is about eliminating distractions and having consistency in your routine. I wouldn't necessarily say that flying to another country fits that."

The game was predictably wild for a first-year coach and his new team. Christian Hackenberg threw for 454 yards (still a school record) but needed some late witchcraft to get Penn State into field position for a game-winning field goal. Hackenberg highlighted his 7-play, 70-yard drive with a fourth-down conversion run, and Sam Ficken sent the Nittany Lions back to the U.S. with a 36-yard field goal as time expired.

2015: Temple 27, Penn State 10

As satisfying an opener as 2014 was for Franklin, this game meant even more to Temple and its then-head coach Matt Rhule. The Owls defeated Penn State for the first time since 1941. They did so with a defense that held Penn State to 57 total yards after the first quarter and sacked Hackenberg 10 times.

Kraft was Temple's athletic director at the time, and Rhule ultimately helped him prepare for the interview at Penn State in 2022. But at the time, Kraft said that he and Temple lived "in the shadow of Penn State."

"You want to beat Penn State," Kraft said in 2022. "You want to."

2020: Indiana 36, Penn State 35

This might be the most bitter, challenging loss of Franklin's tenure at Penn State. And evidently he doesn't mind being reminded of it daily while working with Allen. Franklin went through more than coaches in preparing for the reconfigured 2020 season, since his family lived away from State College as a precautionary measure. So Franklin returned to an empty house after COVID-testing his players and staff daily for practice.

But all seemed restored when Penn State, ranked eighth nationally, took a 10-point lead at Indiana to begin the season in late October. Then it unraveled in about 2 minutes. Running back Devyn Ford gave Penn State an 8-point lead with 1:42 left on a touchdown he shouldn't have scored. Indiana tied the game on the first of two Michael Penix Jr. 2-point conversions. Penn State kicker Jordan Stout missed a potential game-winning 57-yard field goal by about 2 feet, forcing overtime.

Then this happened.

Did Michael Penix score this game-winning 2-point conversion? pic.twitter.com/oGR1f7QQhO

— Yahoo Sports College Football (@YahooSportsCFB) October 24, 2020

"Obviously it was very contested on both sides and reviewed and talked about ad nauseam," Allen said upon bring introduced as Penn State's defensive coordinator last year. "I've got a big, ol' picture in my office that shows he scored. It was a touchdown back then, probably still considered a touchdown today and will be considered a touchdown 20 years from now. Bottom line is, it was a great game, and that was a great win for the Indiana Hoosiers."

2021: Penn State 16, Wisconsin 10

The first of Penn State's back-to-back, season-opening Big Ten wins ended with a pair of interceptions. First, Jaquan Brisker picked off Wisconsin's Graham Mertz on 4th-and-goal from the 8-yard line. And then fellow safety Ji'Ayir Brown intercepted Mertz at the 10-yard line as time expired.

The turnovers underscored Penn State's ability to keep Wisconsin out of the end zone despite giving up 29 first downs and more than 42 minutes in time of possession. Quarterback Sean Clifford got back to State College in time to play "Jump Around" at a local bar.

2022: Penn State 35, Purdue 31

Clifford, who left the game twice and missed a third-quarter series, delivered his redemptive moment in this opener, leading one of his great career drives after one of his biggest mistakes. Clifford let one get away in the fourth quarter, overthrowing Mitchell Tinsley and hitting Purdue's Chris Jefferson, who took the interception 72 yards for the go-ahead score. Then Clifford took the Nittany Lions 80 yards on eight plays, hitting running back Keyvone Lee for the winning touchdown with 57 seconds left.

Sean Clifford ➡️ Keyvone Lee

PENN STATE TAKES THE LEAD ON PURDUEpic.twitter.com/lR5aWRF9Ya

— 247Sports (@247Sports) September 2, 2022

Ready for more? Penn State opens the 2024 season Aug. 31 at West Virginia. Kickoff is scheduled for noon ET on FOX.

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Penn State on SI is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on X (or Twitter) @MarkWogenrich.