The 2021 Penn State Nittany Lions football team represented Pennsylvania State University in the 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team competed as a member of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

and played their home games at

Beaver Stadium Beaver Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium on the campus of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. It has been home to the Penn State Nittany Lions of the Big Ten Conference since 1960, though some parts of ...

University Park, Pennsylvania University Park (also referred to as Penn State University Park) is the name given to the Pennsylvania State University's main campus located in both State College and College Township, Pennsylvania, United States. The campus post office was ...

. The team was led by eighth-year head coach James Franklin. The Nittany Lions had a promising start to the season, going 5–0 and beating a ranked

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and Auburn, to reach number 4 in the AP poll. However during their game against #3 Iowa, quarterback

Sean Clifford Sean Burke Clifford (born July 14, 1998) is an American football quarterback for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Penn State. He was the starting quarterback and team captain for the Ni ...

was injured, stalling all momentum they had, allowing Iowa to come back and beat them 23–20. The next week they played an unranked

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

to hopefully regain momentum ahead of playing rival

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

on the road, however they lost in a record breaking 9OT. The Nittany Lions would then lose the next four of their last six games, finishing their season at 7–6 after losing to

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

in the

Outback Bowl The ReliaQuest Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, usually on New Year's Day. The event has been formerly called the Hall of Fame Bowl from 1986 to 1995 and the Outback Bowl from 1996 to ...

Previous season

The Big Ten initially withdrew from the 2020 season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, but later reinstated the season, playing an eight game schedule beginning on October 24. The Nittany Lions finished the season 4–5, starting out the season 0–5, the worst start in the program's history. They rebounded in the second half of the season, winning the last four of their games. They announced on December 19 that they would remove themselves from bowl game consideration.

Offseason

Players drafted into the NFL

Preseason

Preseason Big Ten poll

Cleveland.com ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of Ma ...

has polled sports journalists representing all member schools as a ''de facto'' preseason media poll since 2011, making this the first preseason Big Ten poll since 2010. For the 2021 poll, Penn State was projected to finish second in the East Division.

Personnel

Coaching staff

Roster

Source:

Schedule

Spring game

Due to the ongoing

, Penn State did not host their annual Blue vs. White scrimmage. In lieu of the Blue vs. White game, the university invited the freshmen class to Beaver Stadium for what was meant to be the final spring practice on April 17. More than 7,500 Penn State freshmen attended. Following backlash from students and the public, an extra practice was scheduled for April 23, initially limited to Penn State seniors with an in-person class, but soon opened tickets to all seniors, then to the general public.

Regular season

The Nittany Lions hosted three non-conference games: the

Ball State Cardinals The Ball State Cardinals are the athletic teams that represent Ball State University, located in Muncie, Indiana. The Cardinals are part of the NCAA Division I Mid-American Conference. Charlie Cardinal is the team mascot. The Ball State Uni ...

from the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

(MAC), the

Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year coeducational university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associat ...

(first ever regular season meeting) from the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

(SEC), and the

Villanova Wildcats The Villanova Wildcats are the athletic teams of Villanova University. They compete in the Big East (NCAA Division I) for every sport; except football and rowing where they compete in the Colonial Athletic Association ( Football Championship ...

an FCS school from the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). PSU played Big Ten opponents

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and w ...

, and

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

. The schedule consisted of seven home games and five road games. : Schedule Source

Game summaries

at No. 12 Wisconsin

Ball State

No. 22 Auburn

No. 11 (FCS) Villanova

Indiana

at No. 3 Iowa

Illinois

at No. 5 Ohio State

at Maryland

No. 9^AP/6^CFP Michigan

Rutgers

at No. 12^AP/CFP Michigan State

vs. No. 22^AP/21^CFP Arkansas (Outback Bowl)

Rankings

Awards and honors

References

{{Penn State Nittany Lions football navbox Penn State Penn State Nittany Lions football seasons

Penn State Nittany Lions football The Penn State Nittany Lions team represents the Pennsylvania State University in college football. The Nittany Lions compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Big Ten Conference, which they joined in 1993 af ...