Can “Big Game James” Win Tonight?

Let’s play word association.

James Franklin.

Tractor.

Why tractor? Because of the famous sports quote: (someone) is so tight, you’d need a tractor to pull a pin out of his butt.

Fortunately for Penn State coach Franklin, bucolic Centre County has no shortage of tractors.

The reason Franklin might be as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full or rocking chairs is because this very night Penn State officially opens its 2025 season. Previous games with overmatched teams such as Nevada, Florida International and Villanova were mere glorified scrimmages; home games to ring the cash register without risk of loss.

Tonight, Penn State, No. 3 in the AP rankings, faces No. 6 Oregon. Both teams share the distinction of being unbeaten, untied and untested this season.

If we look at history, Oregon knocked off Penn State in last year’s Big Ten title game.

If we look at Franklin’s history, there is much more of the same. Detractors call him “Big Game James,” a sarcastic nod to Franklin’s ability to roll up wins vs. the dregs of college football, but fail with great frequency against legitimate opposition.

Just last season, even as Penn State ran rather deep into the playoffs, Franklin’s record vs. Top 10 opposition was 1-3, with the annual loss to Ohio State, not to mention defeats at the hands of Notre Dame and Oregon.

Franklin’s lone Top 10 win was vs. Boise State, which you might recall doubters thought was a bit over-rated.

During his career at Penn State, Franklin’s teams have gone 4-20 vs. Top 10 opposition.

But, from the category of even blind squirrels finding the occasional nut, or stopped clocks being right twice a day, this is a great opportunity for Franklin to get a signature Top 10 win.

It all has been crafted to tip the scales in Franklin’s favor.

Consider, not only did Penn State have three non-testing warmup games, all at home, the Nittany Lions also got a bye ahead of this game, the better to rest and gameplan.

Meanwhile, Oregon played last week vs. in-state rival Oregon State (think of Pitt-Penn State back in the day) . Oregon already has been on the road once this season.

Oregon also faced a flight across three time zones for this game, which adds to the challenge.

To recap, Penn State gets to play one of its biggest games of the season at home, having had a bye week ahead of it, against a team that played an emotional rivalry game last week and has to travel across the nation for the contest.

This helps explain Penn State being a 3.5-point favorite, even with Franklin’s track record of Top 10 failure factored into the computation.

This is a game Penn State could, and should, win. If Franklin manages to blow this one, despite all the built-in edges, warm up the tractors.