The Penn State football program has a rich history in bowl games, and here’s a look at the complete postseason history of the team.
The Penn State Nittany Lions and James Franklin might benefit from the expanded College Football Playoff more than any other program in the country. Franklin hasn’t gotten the Nittany Lions into the College Football Playoff, but he does take his team to big-time bowl games every year.
Franklin has only missed a bowl game once in his first nine years at Penn State (the 2020 pandemic shortened season). He’s continuing the storied history in Happy Valley. Penn State has participated in 52 bowl games and has won national championships in 1911, 1912, 1982, and 1986.
The Nittany Lions are 31-19-2 in their 52 bowl appearances and their longest streak of consecutive seasons ending in bowl game appearance is 13 years, from 1971-1983. Let’s go back through the history of Penn State’s bowl games.
A look at the Penn State football bowl game history, sorted by bowl games
Liberty Bowl (3-0)
1959: Penn State 7 Alabama 0
1960: Penn State 41 Oregon 12
1979: Penn State 9 Tulane 6
Penn State took a step back in 1979 after an 11-0 regular season in 1978 ended with a loss in the Sugar Bowl. Joe Paterno led the Nittany Lions to 7-4 the next year but managed to win the Liberty Bowl for the third time. It was the first of five consecutive bowl game wins over the next five seasons.
Herb Menhardt of Penn State hit his third field goal of the game, and the game-winner with 18 seconds left in the fourth to break a 6-6 tie.
Gator Bowl (1-2-1)
1961: Penn State 30 Georgia Tech 15
1962: Florida 17 Penn State 7
1967: Penn State 17 Florida State 17
After a 5-5 record in his first season as head coach, Joe Paterno leads the Nittany Lions to an 8-2 regular season record. In his first bowl game as head coach he ties Florida State and Penn State finishes 10th in the final AP Poll.
1976: Notre Dame 20 Penn State 9
Blockbuster Bowl (0-2)
1990: Florida State 24 Penn State 17
1993: Stanford 24 Penn State 3
After finishing third in the AP Poll in the 1991 season, the Nittany Lions finished 7-5 with a Blockbuster Bowl loss to Stanford and outside of the AP Poll.
Capital One Bowl (1-1)
2003: Auburn 13 Penn State 9
2010: Penn State 19 LSU 17
Joe Paterno’s last double-digit win season ended with his final bowl game win. On a sloppy field in Orlando, Penn State opened the scoring with a first-quarter touchdown and then proceeded to kick four field goals to beat LSU. Evan Royster ran for 65 yards on 17 carries.
Alamo Bowl (2-0)
1999: Penn State 24 Texas A&M 0
The Penn State program fell on some tough times following the 199 Alamo Bowl win over Texas A&M. The Nittany Lions would not win another bowl game until 2005. That stretch included four losing seasons.
This victory was later vacated in 2012.
2007: Penn State 24 Texas A&M 17
Citrus Bowl (1-3)
1988: Clemson 35 Penn State 10
Penn State followed up the 1986 national championship with an 8-4 season that ended with a Citrus Bowl loss to Clemson. Penn State would miss out on a bowl entirely in 1988.
1994: Penn State 31 Tennessee 13
Penn State’s only Citrus Bowl victory came courtesy of Kerry Collins and Bobby Engram who was named the MVP of the game. Collins and Engram combined for the final touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter.
1998: Florida 21 Penn State 6
2019: Kentucky 27 Penn State 24
The 2019 Citrus Bowl was Trace McSorley’s final game at Penn State. He finished 17 of 33 for 246 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He was also the team’s leading rusher on the day with 75 yards and another score on 19 carries.
Outback Bowl (3-2)
1996: Penn State 43 Auburn 14
Wally Richardson threw four touchdowns for Penn State, two of them to Bobby Engram. Penn State finished 9-3 one year removed from their 12-0 1994 season.
1999: Penn State 26 Kentucky 14
2007: Penn State 20 Tennessee 10
Penn State scored twice in the fourth quarter to break a 10-10 tie. Tony Davis scored the game-winning touchdown for the Nittany Lions on an 88-yard fumble return for a touchdown.
2011: Florida 37 Penn State 24
2022: Arkansas 24 Penn State 10
Miscellaneous Bowls (3-1)
Aloha Bowl
1983: Penn State 13 Washington 10
Holiday Bowl
1989: Penn State 50 BYU 39
Ticket City Bowl
2012: Houston 30 Penn State 14
The end of Joe Paterno’s final season was coached by Tom Bradley who went 1-3 in the last four games. The Nittany Lions finished the year 9-4 after an 8-1 start.
Pinstripe Bowl
2014: Penn State 31 Boston College 30
After two seasons of Bill O’Brien, James Franklin won the first bowl game for Penn State by a coach other than Joe Paterno since the 1961 Gator Bowl coached by Rip Engle.
TaxSlayer Bowl
2016: Georgia 24 Penn State 17
Cotton Bowl (3-0-1)
1948: Penn State 13 SMU 13
The Nittany Lions tied in their second-ever bowl game and would have to wait 11 more years to get their first bowl victory in program history.
1972: Penn State 30 Texas 6
1975: Penn State 41 Baylor 20
Penn State ran for 265 yards in a blowout victory. The Nittany Lions finished seventh in the AP Poll.
2019: Penn State 53 Memphis 39
Penn State’s 50th bowl appearance.
Orange Bowl (4-1)
1969: Penn State 15 Kansas 14
With No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 USC matched up in the Rose Bowl, 10-0 Penn State had almost no shot at the national championship, but the Nittany Lions were going for their first undefeated season since 1921.
In just his third season as head coach, Joe Paterno led the Nittany Lions to 11-0 and no. 2 in the country.
1970: Penn State 10 Missouri 3
It was the same story a year later. Penn State entered the game on a 21-game win streak at 10-0 and No. 2 in the country but opted to play No. 6 Missouri in the Orange Bowl instead of accepting an invitation to play No. 1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
Again Penn State finished undefeated, but again the Nittany Lions missed out on the national title.
1974: Penn State 16 LSU 9
Penn State completed its third undefeated season since 1968 but still did not have a national championship to show for it.
1986: Oklahoma 25 Penn State 10
The Nittany Lions were the only team to finish the regular season without a loss. At 11-0 they were ranked No. 1 and faced No. 3 Oklahoma.
Barry Switzer’s Sooners got out to a 16-10 halftime lead and Brian Bosworth led the Oklahoma defense with 12 tackles to shut out Penn State in the second half.
2006: Penn State 26 Florida State 23
No. 3 Penn State needed three overtimes to beat No. 22 Florida State. The Nittany Lions just missed out on the national championship game because of a midseason loss to unranked Michigan.
It was the eighth and final meeting between Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden.
Rose Bowl (3-3)
1922: USC 14 Penn State 3
Penn State’s first-ever bowl game resulted in a loss to USC. The Nittany Lions have lost three Rose Bowls, all to USC.
1995: Penn State 38 Oregon 20
Just two years after joining the Big 10 conference, Penn State was already regretting the decision. The Nittany Lions went undefeated in the 1994 regular season, as did Tom Osborne’s Nebraska Cornhuskers. The Bowl coalition had been founded a few years early to avoid a split national championship, but the Rose Bowl was not a part of it.
Therefore, No. 2 Penn State was obligated to play Pac-10 champ No. 12 Oregon in Pasadena instead of meeting No. 1 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Nebraska defeated No. 3 Miami and was crowned the national champions.
Penn State won the Rose Bowl behind 156 yards and three touchdowns from Ki-Jana Carter but at 12-0 finished second to Nebraska. If Penn State was still independent they would have been able to play Nebraska for a shot at the title.
2009: USC 38 Penn State 24
2017: USC 52 Penn State 49
With Trace McSorley, Chris Godwin, and Saquon Barkley, Penn State had a magical 11-2 regular season. An upset over Ohio State got the Nittany Lions into the Big 10 Championship game where they won their fourth Big 10 Championship in program history.
A loss to Pitt in Week 2 and a 2-2 start cost Penn State a spot in the College Football Playoff. No two-loss team has ever made the four-team playoff.
McSorley was outdueled by Sam Darnold, who would eventually be drafted one spot behind Barkley in the 2018 NFL Draft.
2022: Penn State 35 Utah 21
Sean Clifford’s four-year career as Penn State’s starting quarterback ended on a high note against Utah in the Rose Bowl. Clifford never got Penn State over the hump, but he won 32 games as a starting quarterback, the most of any Nittany Lion quarterback.
Fiesta Bowl (6-0)
1980: Penn State 31 Ohio State 19
1982: Penn State 26 USC 10
The Nittany Lions won back-to-back Fiesta Bowls and finished third in the AP Poll following the 1981 season.
1987: Penn State 14 Miami 10
Joe Paterno’s fourth undefeated season finally paid off with a national championship. It was Paterno’s second after winning with an 11-1 record in 1982. Penn State came in ranked No. 2 behind No. 1 Miami.
Though still not considered a major bowl game, the Fiesta Bowl nabbed the top two teams in the country in the 1986 season and played on January 2, 1987, to serve as the national championship game.
Miami outgained Penn State with 445 yards to 162, but the Hurricanes turned the ball over seven times and Penn State capitalized. The game was tied 7-7 at halftime. Miami hit a field goal to take a 10-7 lead in the second half. Then Shane Conlan hauled in his second interception of the game and returned it to the Miami five-yard line.
Penn State scored two plays later and the Nittany Lions defense held the rest of the way for the win. Vinny Testaverde was intercepted in the end zone on fourth-and-goal with 18 seconds remaining.
1992: Penn State 42 Tennessee 17
1997: Penn State 38 Texas 15
2017: Penn State 35 Washington 28
Saquon Barkley ran for 137 yards and two touchdowns and Trace McSorley threw for 342 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions in a high-scoring Fiesta Bowl win.
The Nittany Lions finished the season 11-2 and ninth in the final CFP rankings.
Sugar Bowl (1-3)
1972: Oklahoma 14 Penn State 0
1975: Alabama 13 Penn State 6
1979: Alabama 14 Penn State 7
1983: Penn State 27 Georgia 23
Penn State has only ever won the Sugar Bowl once, but they beat No. 1 Georgia to claim the 1982 National Championship.
The Nittany Lions jumped out to a 7-0 lead on a Curt Warner two-yard touchdown run. The Nittany Lions added 13 more points in the second quarter with two field goals and another Warner touchdown to take a commanding lead. However, with five seconds remaining before the half, Georgia quarterback John Lastinger made a game of it, throwing a 10-yard touchdown.
Herschel Walker cut the lead to 20-17 with a third-quarter touchdown, but Todd Blacklege responded in the fourth, throwing a 47-yard touchdown to Gregg Garrity to extend the lead. Penn State allowed another touchdown but held on for the win and the national championship, Joe Paterno’s first.