Penn State Football’s top 10 wins of the James Franklin era

No. 5 – 2021 vs Auburn

James Franklin’s most recent win (as I type this) cracks the top five of his biggest and best wins as the Penn State Football head coach.

This was Franklin’s first win over an SEC opponent during his time at the helm for the Nittany Lions.

It was also Penn State Football’s first win as a program over an SEC team since beating LSU in the 2010 Capital One Bowl (2009 season).

It was also a huge game from a recruiting standpoint, as the Nittany Lions hosted a lot of highly rated recruits to the White Out, and had an entire nation watching from home as Penn State played a great all around game to beat one of the best teams in the SEC.

It will be interesting to see what kind of impact this has on the future of the program, as many highly rated underclassman in attendance have yet to commit to a school.

Also noteworthy, is the fact that offensive coordinator/quarterback coach Mike Yurcich called a great game, and Sean Clifford had a career night as well. This shows that Franklin was able to bring in an elite coordinator and position coach, which is something that all of the top programs and coaches have the ability to do consistently.

Finally, one thing that James Franklin’s teams have struggled to do in the past is to finish big games strong and come out with a win, rather than losing a lead late in the fourth quarter. This was not the case against Auburn, as the Nittany Lions defense had two great stops late in the fourth quarter to seal a win.