"We finished 5th and people are pissed" - James Franklin makes feelings known on reality of coaching Penn State

James Franklin's Penn State is the perennial "almost there but not quite there yet" program. The Nittany Lions always seem on the verge of becoming the dominating program in the Big Ten and one of the best in the nation. Yet, this has never happened.

Well, according to Franklin himself, this would be an unfair assessment. After all, last year Penn State managed to get itself invited to the College Football Playoff (CFP) and advanced to the semifinals, where they fell to Notre Dame. In the end, they were ranked as the No. 5 team in the country by the AP Poll.

This is exactly the argument made by the coach during Wednesday's episode of the "Triple Option" podcast.

"I think first thing is, you got to embrace that, right? I mean, that's the nature of major college football," Franklin said. "That's part of being at a place like Penn State. I mean, we finished fifth in the country last year, and people are pissed. Right? That's what the Penn State job is about." (49:30)

"You gotta embrace that. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished. We've been as consistent as any program in the country. We've been as consistent at Penn State and. Penn State's ever been since joining the Big 10."

However, regardless of how much improvement the program has shown, at some point, James Franklin will be judged by his ability to bring championships to Happy Valley.

---

Penn State's odds of winning the 2025 national championship

In the interview, James Franklin also shared his opinion that 2025 could be a big year for the Nittany Lions. It could be the year they finally make it big. The bookies seem to think there's a fair chance of this happening.

According to ESPN Bet, Penn State has odds of +750 of winning the 2025 college football national championship. Those are the fourth-best odds at the moment, with the top three favorites being Ohio State (+500), Texas (+500) and Georgia (+600).