Outback Bowl: Here is Penn State Football’s James Franklin’s record in Bowl games
By Andrew Adair
James Franklin has Penn State Football playing on New Year’s Day, even if the Nittany Lions failed to live up to expectations in 2021, an Outback Bowl bid awaits
The holiday season is upon us, which means bowl season is here. Including for Penn State Football.
While Penn State Football had hopes of playing after the first of the new year, this isn’t exactly what we were thinking. The Outback Bowl will provide the Nittany Lions with a national audience against an SEC opponent in Arkansas.
If you’re not in the Playoff, it’s the best of a bad situation.
James Franklin has been a head coach for 11 seasons now. Franklin has made a bowl game in 10 of those, including this year.
The lone miss was last season, in which Covid played a part in a disappointing season. His record for bowl games sits at 5-4. Three of the nine bowl appearances have been in New Year Six bowls, the last of which is the Cotton Bowl in 2019.
Recapping James Franklin’s bowl history at Penn State Football
In the three New Year Six bowls, James Franklins’ teams are 2-1. Penn State Football was the higher-ranked team in all three games.
Franklin’s wins came against the University of Washington in the Fiesta Bowl and against Memphis University in the Cotton Bowl. The loss was one of the most exciting Rose Bowls’ against USC.
All three of these games were high-scoring affairs that have become the standard for James Franklin in Bowl games.
In the other six bowl games, James Franklin’s teams are only 3-3. James Franklins’ Vanderbilt teams went 2-1, while the Penn State teams have gone 1-2. The 3-3 record is partly due to Franklins’ goals for the bowl games. The biggest goal in the Bowl games under James Franklin seems to be to play as many players as possible. They are still trying to win while spreading out the playing time.
The Outback Bowl won’t change any narratives with the Penn State Football program. Even though it is a mid-tier bowl, it is against an SEC team on national TV.
A victory would be Penn States’ second over an SEC team and give the program momentum heading into the offseason. After signing a new 10-year contract, these are the games that you would like to see Penn State win.