It's a movie Penn State fans have seen multiple times before and it just doesn't get easier each time it happens. They enter a season with national championship expectations and then they stumble in embarrassing fashion to see their hopes dashed.
Head coach James Franklin owns a 4-21 record against Top 10 ranked teams (1-18 against Top 10 Big Ten teams) and the last two weeks only contributed to that abysmal stat.
In Week 5, the Nittany Lions were ranked No. 3 and got knocked off by No. 6 Oregon 30-24 at home (during a white out no less). Then they were shockingly beat by the winless UCLA Bruins 42-37, which saw them dropped from the AP Top 25 rankings and likely their College Football Playoff dreams ended altogether.
Franklin's inability to beat good teams when it matters most was already evident and frustrating for Penn State fans but now losing to a bad team instead of rebounding has the program a new low. Enter Connor Stalions with a diss from the top rope to make matters worse.
Connor Stalions wrecks Penn State with savage offer
Stalions, as many may know, was an assistant at Michigan at the center of the school's sign-stealing scandal in 2023. He and then-head coach Jim Harbaugh were handed stiff show-cause penalties by the NCAA for their roles in the violations but that didn't stop Stalions from trying to throw his hat back in the college football ring.
Maybe we can work out a deal @PennStateFball. If you want to hire me now to get my 1-year suspension out of the way, I’ll do the following year for free.
— Connor Stalions (@cpstalions) October 4, 2025
"Maybe we can work out a deal @PennStateFball. If you want to hire me now to get my 1-year suspension out of the way, I'll do the following year for free," he wrote on X in reply to gif of a frustrated Franklin he also posted.
Stalions (likely half joking) taunted Penn State for its fanbase being tired of Franklin's shortcomings and offered his own services at a discount. That's a pretty sick burn.
It won't ever happen but if Penn State were to consider Stalions as an option, the school would, indeed, have to incur a one-year suspension for him and he wouldn't get to coach until the following season. Now, Stalions scheme would involve the school firing Franklin now and immediately hire him so that the suspension is done by the 2026 season.
But having a head coach under contract for free? I mean, just imagine what the school could do on NIL and revenue sharing with that kind of savings.