Well, the 2024 kickoff is full of surprises. While programs like Colorado Buffaloes land in hot water, Penn State Nittany Lions rose to No. 3 with a 33-30 overtime win at Southern California. That’s enough reason to celebrate since this marks James Franklin’s army’s highest rank in a span of seven years. Hold on, as something even bigger awaits!

Going by Penn State’s journey so far, insider thinks highly of the program in light of the national championship. Franklin definitely deserves the credit for being at the helm. But it’s TE Tyler Warren who has been the showstopper. Meanwhile, we must not forget Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki’s most effective trick play of trusting QB Drew Allar.   

How James Franklin’s Lions overcame the critic’s doubt with a statement win 

High above the sun-splashed turf at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Franklin’s crew aced an overtime victory over Lincoln Riley’s squad. An absolute cathartic moment indeed! After all, Penn State improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the Big Ten. They had put in their everything as Nittany Lions traveled about 2,500 miles across the continent on its first road trip. But they kicked away all the exhaustion as Franklin and Co. rallied from a 14-point deficit in the second half for a 33-30 victory over USC. This was enough to woo CFB analyst Adam Breneman who dropped a bold claim, “That’s Penn State’s a legitimate national title contender…Championship team finds ways to win games like this. Every championship team has a game like Penn State had against USC.”

Franklin is one lucky man! Thanks to his signal caller Drew Allar and TE Warren, the Penn State HC is finally free of the burden as the insider points out, “He’s [Franklin] been criticized for not winning big games.” Besides the HC, Warren and Allar are enjoying the limelight after the USC showdown became the turning point in their career.  

The Nittany Lions’ offensive mastery against USC

Franklin’s TE is now hailed as the best in college football coming off with 17 catches in this game, and 224 receiving yards. This is the first time someone touched this catch record since Northwestern’s Joe Harvey had the same number for 208 yards against Michigan in 1982. The same goes for the receiving yards as well as Warren became the first FBS tight end to cross the 200 mark since Utah’s Dalton Kincaid had 234 against USC in 2022. He even went to a great extent when he took a risk by snapping the ball with no lineman to guard him. 

Now let’s focus on another coach who deserves the credit other than Franklin. It’s Nittany Lions’ OC Kotelnicki. And what worked in his favor? Diving deep into his bag of tricks, we could find how he made certain changes to the positions. Against the Trojans, he has put tight ends at center, quarterbacks at wide receiver, and offensive linemen in motion.

But the turning point came with trusting in his starting QB Allar. James Franklin’s signal caller saved the drowning ship as he was relentless on his way and threw 391 yards and two touchdowns. INSANE! Now will Penn State Nittany Lions roar to victory or just paw their way through the season? Let your opinion pour in!    

Besides the post-game scoops, if you would like to explore more about NIL and the NFL, you can check on the latest episode of the Think Tank podcast.