Why Is Penn State Playing Kent State This Week? It's a Long Story

Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said the Golden Flashes "have our attention" despite their early struggles.

Penn State coach James Franklin takes a question during a press conference at the team's 2024 football media day in Beaver Stadium. / Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK

When Penn State scheduled a non-conference football game against Kent State in 2019, it could not have forseen playing a team coming off a 71-0 loss in which it was offered a second-half running clock. Yet here the Nittany Lions are, hosting Kent State in a game that features the most lopsided line of college football's Week 4 schedule.

No. 10 Penn State is a 49-point favorite over Kent State, according to DraftKings, which marks the Nittany Lions' largest betting line since at least 1995. According to the ESPN College Football Power Index, Kent State (0-3) ranks last among the nation's 134 college football teams after losing by 71 points at Tennessee last weekend. Penn State (2-0) enters the game at No. 9 in the FPI following a bye.

"When you schedule these opponents, typically five and seven years out, you don’t know what you’re going to get," Penn State coach James Franklin said Monday at his weekly press conference. "You schedule a MAC team, and some of [those] teams ... have caused people fits, and then you can get to a year where someone is struggling. So that is unpredictable and challenging."

Even more unpredictable was what led to the Penn State-Kent State game happening now. Basically, it's a reschedule of a schedule change, impacted by the SEC and COVID, that looks much different five years after the contracts were signed.

The road to this point began in 2019, when Penn State had to address a newly vacant opening date on its planned 2020 football schedule after Kent State made a change. Kent State originally was scheduled to begin the 2020 season at Arkansas, part of a three-game non-conference tour of the SEC that also included games at Kentucky and Alabama. But according to a 2019 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette story, Kent State was "leery of playing three SEC games in the first month next season."

So in 2019, Arkansas and Penn State evidently made a trade. Arkansas would host Nevada, Penn State's originally scheduled 2020 season-opening opponent, and Kent State would visit Penn State instead. The issue seemed solved. And then the COVID-19 pandemic altered college football schedules nationwide.

Penn State canceled its non-conference games, Kent State among them, and played a nine-game Big Ten football schedule in 2020. Penn State and Kent State then rescheduled their game for this season. Which leads to Saturday.

Kent State wasn't a MAC power when this game initially was contracted in 2019 but had shown positive signs. The Golden Flashes went 2-10 during the 2018 season and improved to 7-6 the following year, winning the 2019 Frisco Bowl. Kent State went 3-1 during the shortened 2020 season and won 12 games during the 2021-22 campaigns under head coach Sean Lewis, who left to become Colorado's offensive coordinator in 2023 (he's now the head coach at San Diego State).

Since then, Kent State is 1-14 under head coach Kenni Burns and has lost five games by at least 30 points. That includes the 71-0 loss last week at Tennessee, which scored 65 first-half points and offered Kent State a running clock in the second half. The Golden Flashes declined.

No team in college football this season is allowing more points (49.7), total yards (570.7), or rushing yards (288) per game than Kent State. Still, Franklin on Monday called the game a "tremendous opportunity for both programs."

"Obviously they've had some challenges early in this year, but we've seen some good things on tape that we need to be prepared for and we need to be ready for," Franklin said. ".. They have our attention, there's no doubt about it."

Ultimately, Franklin added, Penn State is turning inward to motivate itself for this game. He even sprinkled in a mention of "rat poison," the term former Alabama coach Nick Saban often used.

"This is the challenge, I think, in college football," Franklin said. "You hear people talk about it all the time, but the challenge is really ultimately about us and our focus on Penn State and us getting better and developing and playing up to our standard week in and week out, which is easier said than done.
We see it every Saturday. That's why I always say winning is hard. There's a lot of teams across the country that are sad Saturday night, and you want to do everything you possibly can to make sure you're not one of them.

"It doesn't always come from an opponent that the fans and the media and the locker room think it's going to come from. So having a mature football team and approaching it that way on a consistent basis is hard to do. You've heard people talk about it, describe it as 'rat poison,' all types of different things. Ultimately we're trying to get our staff and our players to approach every week with the same mentality, with the same preparation, with the same approach. When you do that, you give yourself the best chance to be consistent, and you give yourself the best chance to get better. That's really what our focus is."

Penn State hosts Kent State on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network.

More Penn State Football

Penn State schedules first night game of 2024 season

First look: Penn State vs. Kent State

The most interesting stats of Penn State's 2-0 start

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.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.