The first-ever College Football Playoff game in Beaver Stadium on Saturday resulted in a convincing 38-10 Penn State victory over SMU and a host of milestones for Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin, Beaver Stadium (and me) and lots more…
FRANKLIN’S WIN NO. 100 — The win over SMU was Franklin’s 100th as the head coach at Penn State, after being hired on Jan. 11, 2014. In his 11 seasons — and counting — at Penn State, he is 100-41 (.709). Counting his three years at Vanderbilt, he is 124-56 (.689) as a head coach.
Only Rip Engle (104-48-4, 1950-65) and Joe Paterno (409-136-3, 1966-2011) have more wins among Penn State’s 16 head coaches. This will be Franklin’s sixth season leading Penn State to a top 10 end-of-season ranking.
When asked on Saturday about achieving that century milestone, Franklin said, “The 100 wins and all that kind of stuff…to me, I’m at a point in my career, it’s all about the players, the staff. It’s cool: [assistant coach] Terry Smith has been there for every single one of them. [Strength coach] Chuck Losey, every single one of them.” Franklin later added to that list chief of staff Kevin Threlkel and recruiting general manager Andy Frank
BEAVER STADIUM — Official attendance for the first-ever CFP game in Beaver Stadium — and the second at a campus stadium in college football history — was 106,013.
When will the next White Out be in Beaver Stadium? Very likely on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025 vs. Oregon. It will be game No. 409 in stadium history. Beaver Stadium opened (and was moved, in part, in pieces from New Beaver Field, on the west end of campus) in 1960.
The 2025 Blue-White Game is slated for Saturday, April 26, 2025, later than usual, Penn State announced on Saturday. By the annual spring intrasquad scrimmage, renovations will have started on the west side of the stadium, and will impact the number of seats available for the spring game — as well as the 2025 season.
Penn State is 323-82 in games played in Beaver Stadium (.7975 winning percentage).
The Beaver Stadium press box will be demolished in the offseason, and eventually a new one will be constructed, no later than in time for the 2027 season. Media will be covering Penn State football in 2025 from the east side of the stadium…somewhere.
I covered my first Nittany Lion football game in the Beaver Stadium press box for The Daily Collegian as a Penn State freshman on Oct. 13, 1979. That was 16,506 days ago. In the ensuing years, in addition to the Collegian, I wrote about Penn State football for the Centre Daily Times, Blue-White Illustrated (first editor), the Penn State Football Annual (founding editor of the versions published both by Happy Valley Promotions and Town&Gown), Beaver County Times, Clearfield Progress, Washington Post, Lebanon Daily News, the Associated Press, United Press International and, since 2009, for StateCollege.com (thank you, Dan Myers).
DEEP IN DECEMBER — The CFP win over SMU was the latest game in the calendar year played in Beaver Stadium. Saturday’s contest was the fifth time Penn State played in Beaver Stadium in the month of December, and the Nittany Lions are 4-1 in those games. The five (I covered all but the ’68 game; this was the coldest):
+ Dec. 7, 1968 — W, Syracuse, 30-12
+ Dec. 1, 1979 — L, Pitt, 29-14
+ Dec 12, 2020 (Covid) — W, Michigan State, 39-24
+ Dec. 19, 2020 (Covid) — W, Illinois, 56-21
+ Dec. 21, 2024 (CFP) — W, SMU, 38-10
12 WINS — The Nittany Lions have won 12 games for only the fourth time in their 135 seasons of playing college football. Penn State was 12-0 in 1973, capping the season with a 16-9 victory over LSU in the Orange Bowl to finish No. 5 in the final AP and UPI polls. Penn State was 12-0 in 1986, when it won the Fiesta Bowl, 14-10, beating Miami (Fla.) to win the national championship. PSU was also 12-0 in 1994, when it won the Big Ten and then defeated Pac-10 champ Oregon, 38-20, in the Rose Bowl and finished ranked No. 2 in the nation.
14 GAMES — Penn State, now 12-2, has played 14 games in one season — tying a PSU record, thanks to its appearance in the recent Big Ten championship game (a 45-37 loss to Oregon) and the CFP. The Nittany Lions also played 14 games in 2016, when they won the Big Ten title game over Wisconsin and then lost to USC in the Rose Bowl. Penn State played 13 games in 17 different seasons.
Penn State’s quarterfinal game vs. No. 3 Boise State at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 31 in the Fiesta Bowl, in Glendale, Ariz., will be the program’s 15th game in a single season, a school record.
2 X PICK-6’S — Penn State ran back two interceptions of SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings for touchdowns, by linebackers Dom DeLuca (23 yards) and Tony Rojas (59 yards). DeLuca later added a second interception, which ended a key SMU red-zone drive.
The last time Penn State returned two interceptions for a TD in one game was Nov. 28, 1998, in Beaver Stadium. They defeated Michigan State, 55-28, as David Macklin returned an interception 55 yards for a TD on the final play of the first quarter. And on the first possession of the third quarter, Anthony King returned an interception 25 yards for another touchdown for the PSU defense.
