No. 7 PSU Upset by Nico Iamaleava, Winless UCLA as Fans Put James Franklin on Hot Seat

No. 7 Penn State earned the dubious distinction on Saturday of becoming the first team this season to lose to UCLA.

UCLA is now the first 0-4 team since 1985 to beat a top 10 opponent thanks to a 42-37 upset of the visiting Nittany Lions.

Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava scored five total touchdowns in the first victory of the season for UCLA (1-4).

The loss led fans of Penn State (3-2) to call for the dismissal of head coach James Franklin less than 10 months after he led his team to the College Football Playoff semifinal.

Franklin is currently signed with Penn State through the 2031 season with an estimated buyout of $56 million, per 247Sports.

The loss comes one week after Penn State, then ranked No. 3 in the AP poll, suffered a 30-24 defeat to No. 6 Oregon.

The Oregon game dropped Franklin’s overall record against top-10 opponents to 4-21 at Penn State, including 1-18 against Big Ten teams in the top 10, per ESPN’s Jake Trotter.

This time it was an unranked program under an interim coaching staff challenging the Nittany Lions’ defense, which struggled to limit Iamaleava and the Bruins early in Saturday’s road game.

UCLA spent most of the first half with the ball and didn’t punt once, ending three drives with touchdowns and another two with field goals to climb out to a 24-7 lead.

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar started out the third quarter by losing a fumble, although the Bruins missed a field goal on the ensuing drive.

That miss wasn’t enough to get Penn State back in the game as the defense allowed another three consecutive touchdown drives from the home team.

Penn State’s offense couldn’t find answers either. UCLA, which went into Saturday’s game with one of the lowest-ranked run defenses in the FBS, held the visitors to 157 rushing yards in the loss.

This marked the first time since 2017 that Franklin and Penn State have allowed an unranked opponent to score 42 points or more, per NFL researcher Tom Zwiller.

Franklin and the Nittany Lions will need to regroup quickly in order to right the ship. Penn State is set to play two more games against unranked opponents in Northwestern and Iowa before a Nov. 1 matchup with No. 1 Ohio State.

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