27:45 into the 2025 Orange Bowl between Notre Dame and Penn State, everything appeared to be going the way of the Nittany Lions. Just hours after Penn State head coach James Franklin tried to “little brother” third-year Notre Dame head man Marcus Freeman, his team also held a 10-0 lead and was about to force Notre Dame starting quarterback Riley Leonard to the sideline.
And since that exact moment, you could argue that practically nothing has gone Franklin’s way since going head’s up against Freeman and the Fighting Irish.We all know the Orange Bowl legend of Steve Angeli by now, how the backup quarterback led a last-second drive to get Notre Dame on the scoreboard before halftime. The Irish then outscored Penn State 24-14 the rest of the way, not allowing a single pass to be completed to a Nittany Lions wide receiver for the entire contest.
But Notre Dame’s win back on January 9 has hardly been its only victory over Penn State and James Franklin this calendar year. In fact, in terms of off-season football, what happened Friday was a big-time feather in the cap of the Notre Dame head coach. It was so impressive that Franklin might actually be impressed by Freeman due to something other than his hairline
