James Franklin is entering his eighth season as head coach at Penn State, and he will do so with a team fully capable of a bounceback season after a challenging 2020 campaign. While the schedule throws Penn State no favors with a challenging pair of crossover division games on the road and sees Penn State in the same division as national championship contender Ohio State and an Indiana team looking to prove 2020 was no fluke, Penn State has plenty fo reasons to feel optimistic about what they can do this fall.
But will Penn State get off on the right foot for the 2021 season? Penn State stumbled in their season opener with an upset loss in Bloomington at the start of the delayed big Ten season last October against Michael Penix and the Indiana Hoosiers. Penn State’s 2021 season will also begin with a challenging road trip in conference play when they begin the new season in Madison, Wisconsin to take on the Wisconsin Badgers, a perennial Big Ten West Division contender.
James Franklin has seen some tense season openers in his time as a head coach, first with Vanderbilt and currently with Penn State. In season openers against power-conference opponents, all of which have been conference games when applicable, Franklin’s teams have come up on the wrong end of a one-possession game. Twice, Franklin has coached a season opener in an overtime situation, including last season’s opener at Indiana (the other coming against Appalachian State in 2018). So should Penn State fans be expecting a tight contest when Penn State takes on the Badgers in FOX’s first Big Noon Kickoff of the 2021 season? History may suggest so.
Here is a look back at every season opener coached by James Franklin, beginning with his head coaching debut with the Vanderbilt Commodores in 2011.