Different year, same story for the Penn State Nittany Lions and head coach James Franklin, and we can't say we didn't see it coming.
Or maybe we can, to some extent, because a loss by any team ranked inside the top 10 to a team with a record of 0-4 worse hadn't happened since 1985.
Yet that's exactly what Penn State managed to dazzle its fanbase with on Saturday afternoon in a sparsely populated Rose Bowl setting against a UCLA Bruins team that literally just fired their head coach and both coordinators after getting dog-walked on their home field by the New Mexico Lobos.
While Drew Allar has certainly been justifiably criticized for his inexplicable regression as Penn State's signal caller in year number three as the starter, Penn State was down 10-0 before he ever saw the ball on Saturday, the offensive play calling from Andy Kotelnicki was at an all-time worst, and Jim Knowles' supposedly elite defensive scheme never even really gave the offense a chance to take the lead.
The only noteworthy "accomplishment" from the defense on Saturday is the fact that it finally made quarterback Nico Iamaleava look like the five-star quarterback he was supposed to be at Tennessee.
Following their first bye week, a home "White Out" game loss against the Oregon Ducks, and whatever the heck Saturday's effort was in Pasadena, Penn State has dropped from No. 2 to No. 3 to No. 7 to unranked (No. 28 based on the votes, but who's counting?) in the AP Poll.
While a 10-2 record with a road win over the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes may at least bring them back into the College Football Playoff discussion, Penn State fans would be smarter to start doing their homework on ReliaQuest Bowl tickets – if this team even ends up bowl eligible at all.
Going "1-0" against literally any team with a pulse has been a major challenge for Penn State, and it's something they've yet to do heading into the eighth week of college football action (if you include Week 0, which we will here just for the sole purpose of adding a dramatic effect to this team's abundance of shortcomings).
Nevada is No. 123 of 136 in the FPI. FIU is No. 129. Villanova isn't even classified because they're not an FBS program; they're ranked No. 17 in the FCS Coaches Poll.
Penn State's best win so far is against an in-state FCS school.
With that in mind, you simply can't take anything for granted with this team, and this week's formidable opponent, the Northwestern Wildcats (FPI No. 67), actually managed to beat the same winless UCLA team that Penn State led for exactly zero seconds.
Both Penn State and Northwestern lost to Oregon at home as well, so common opponents-wise, the Wildcats might even have an edge. Who knows, at this point?
About the only positive Penn State has going for them is the fact that they were a two-loss team when they earned their most recent win over Ohio State in 2016, and they were a two-loss team when they earned their most recent win in Columbus back in 2011.
Yes, it's been since the week after Joe Paterno was fired that Penn State actually won a road game against the Buckeyes. Tom Bradley was the interim head coach, and based on how things are going, a large percentage of the Penn State fanbase is hoping they will have an interim head coach by the time next month's Ohio State game comes around.
But I digress, and at this rate, who knows if they will even still be a two-loss team when they head to Columbus?
Even if you assume they beat Northwestern (which we won't do, because they aren't a bottom-feeder Mountain West or Conference USA opponent), then there's the upcoming trip to the always challenging Kinnick Stadium to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Penn State's most recent trip to Iowa City in 2021 was a high-stakes affair between two teams ranked inside the top four, so you can probably guess which head coach entered the fourth quarter with a 20-13 lead and blew it. We'll give you a hint: it wasn't Kirk Ferentz.
Jokes aside, let's be real. If Penn State does actually start winning the games they're supposed to win, the major challenge on their schedule that they should actually be focused on is not Ohio State, because the CFP is simply not a realistic goal at the moment, and neither is the Big Ten Championship Game.
The opponent they should really circle? The Indiana Hoosiers.
There are a lot of fans who don't want Franklin to keep his job, but given what his contract buyout is and the fact that he's under contract through 2031, it's hard to see Penn State moving in a different direction anytime soon.
A win against Indiana at Beaver Stadium could be what everybody, even the loudest doubters, need to see to at least regain some confidence in this program moving forward from what already feels like a lost season.
Indiana and Penn State had very similar 2024 seasons in that they beat the teams they were supposed to beat but lost their toughest games. Indiana was not competitive in their two losses, which came against the two teams that played for the national championship (two teams that also beat Penn State, of course), and they did not have a single ranked win.
But unlike Penn State, which has still yet to beat a top-120 FPI team in what was supposed to be "their year" in 2025, Indiana not only beat the No. 9 Illinois Fighting Illini, they demolished them by a score a 63-10.
It would have been easy to write off Illinois after that game, but following their bounce-back win over a then-undefeated USC Trojans team, it's safe to say that Indiana's beatdown was befitting of a true top-tier Big Ten team.
The only reason the Fighting Illini are not generally viewed as being as good as they really are is pretty much because of how badly they were manhandled by Fernando Mendoza and Curt Cignetti's Hoosiers.
Indiana is now ranked No. 7 in the country and is set to play No. 3 Oregon in Eugene this weekend, so that should be a good benchmark to help decipher where, exactly, this team stands in the national conversation.
And should they maintain even a remote sliver of national relevance after the Oregon game through their next three games against unranked teams before their trip to (Un)Happy Valley, the Hoosiers are the team that Penn State will absolutely need to beat to preserve some semblance of dignity from what was once supposed to be their best season since 1986.
It's hard to see anybody else on Penn State's schedule ending up being ranked inside the top 15 or top 20, so if they can't win this one, it might well be safe to say that all hope is indeed lost.