James Franklin never fixing his glaring Penn State stains led to stunning fall

This was the James Franklin era at Penn State in a nutshell:

The year the Nittany Lions were projected as legitimate national championship contenders, led by 20 returning players with starting experience and a Heisman Trophy candidate (Drew Allar) under center, they couldn’t make it to Halloween as a threat.

They were ranked second in the preseason and found themselves out of the national rankings by the first week in October. Three straight losses cost Franklin his job, six games into his 12th season in Happy Valley, a stunning fall for a coach who had this program ranked third in the country just three weeks ago.

The first domino was the home loss to Oregon in double overtime Sept. 27. Then, the bottom fell out in losses to UCLA and Northwestern, games in which Penn State was favored by at least 20 points. In doing so, the school became the first FBS team in 30 years to lose back-to-back games as a 20-point favorite, according to CBS Sports.