No. 2 Penn State is 3-0 after a 52-6 win over Villanova at Beaver Stadium in Week 3. The Nittany Lions have an average margin of victory of 38.3 points, and yet the offense has been far from perfect to start the 2025 season.
After Saturday’s victory, Franklin pointed out the unit’s main area of improvement that he and his coaching staff will target during next week’s bye in preparation for a Week 5 matchup with Oregon.
“Offensively, we’ve just been inconsistent,” Franklin said in his postgame press conference. “We’ve got to improve on third down. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.”
Penn State’s third-down struggles a concern heading into the bye week
The Nittany Lions, facing an FCS opponent, converted on third down at a meager 5-for-11 clip and had one fourth-down conversion on their lone attempt. For the season, Penn State has a late-down success rate of 40.6 percent, which is 29th percentile in the country.
Franklin has been lucky to have one of the weakest non-conference schedules in the country to start the year because that long runway has allowed Andy Kotelnicki’s unit to work out a few kinks. However, the issue is that an offense that returns nearly its entire offensive line, brings back a senior quarterback in his third year as the starter and second with the same offensive coordinator, and both of its 1,000-yard rushers from a year ago, should be hitting the ground running.
Instead, Penn State slogged to a 21-0 lead at halftime and punted twice in the first half against Villanova. Last week against FIU, the Nittany Lions led just 10-0 at the break, having turned the ball over on downs three times in the first half.
Drew Allar has looked anything but sharp with his new receiving corps, comprised of three transfers: Kyron Hudson, Devonte Ross, and Trebor Pena, and that includes third downs. Fortunately for Penn State, Jim Knowles’s defense has bought Allar and Kotelnicki time to develop a rhythm and eventually pull away. Still, no matter how good Knowles is, Penn State’s offense can’t afford a slow start in Week 5 against Oregon.
The hope for Nittany Lions fans is that Kotelnicki is keeping his cards close to the vest before the Big Ten opener. Like the NFL, Penn State essentially had three preseason games to get up to game speed, without putting the new wrinkles of the offense on tape.
Kotelnicki, from his time with Lance Leipold at Kansas and last season, has proven to be one of the most creative play-callers in the country, but the offense has looked rather vanilla through three games. Week 5, he’ll have to break out every flavor he’s got, because Oregon looks like a buzz saw so far, effortlessly slicing its way to 3-0 with a 59-13 win over Montana State, a 69-3 victory over Oklahoma State, and a 34-14 Big Ten win over Northwestern on Saturday.