The Penn State Nittany Lions have officially hit the post-James Franklin era of their football program, and it came with even more question marks than expected.
Beyond the unknown expectations of interim head coach Terry Smith, the unknown future of the program, and more, the team wore shirts that simply said "IF" in all caps, above the Nittany Lions logo.
Fans wracked their brains, wondering what in the world "if" could mean or whether or not the I.F. was an acronym instead of just the word. Not to mention, fans couldn't even tell whether or not it was a question or a statement.
Penn State arrives at Kinnick Stadium wearing “IF” T-shirts. pic.twitter.com/kwRQNfCNWG
— Mark Wogenrich (@MarkWogenrich) October 18, 2025
The Nittany Lions hadn't provided any previous context for the clearly planned message ahead of the first game without former head coach James Franklin on the sidelines, and it just led to more confusion around the once-top-three program.
Penn State… IF Men pic.twitter.com/OxsDxsX1EI
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) October 18, 2025
In the first game without Franklin, the Nittany Lions were facing the unranked Iowa Hawkeyes, who were 2-1 against Big Ten opponents compared to Penn State's abysmal 0-3 record in conference play.
One guess as to what the "IF" shirts mean actually came from a moment in Smith's playing career for Penn State, when former head coach Joe Paterno made Tom Bradley read a poem titled "IF" by Rudyard Kipling.
During his time at Penn State, Franklin went 0-1 against Iowa, losing his only matchup against the program in 2022.
The Hawkeyes (4-2 overall) and the Nittany Lions (3-3 overall) were scheduled to kick off at 7:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 18, and the game was streamed on Peacock.