Booger McFarland rips James Franklin over Penn State's upset loss to UCLA

No. 7 Penn State was on the wrong side of history Saturday afternoon as it fell to winless UCLA 42-37 in Los Angeles. The Nittany Lions became the first team since 1984 to lose to an 0-4 team while ranked inside of the Top-10 of the AP Poll Rankings.

Saturday’s loss put even more heat on James Franklin, who fell to 15-29 against ranked opponents last weekend as Penn State‘s head coach in the Nittany Lions’ 30-24 2OT loss to No. 6 Oregon. Following the game, ESPN‘s Booger McFarland put all the blame on Franklin.

“You’re either catching it or you’re allowing it,” McFarland said. “That’s on James Franklin for not having his team ready to play.”

Penn State entered the matchup as three-touchdown favorites in a game that was supposed to be a walk in the park to earn its first Big Ten victory of the season. It however got punched right in the mouth by a Nico Iamaleava 11-yard passing touchdown to wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer and a UCLA field goal. A Kaytron Allen 13-yard rushing score cut into the Bruins lead, but this didn’t stop them from scoring.

Now ahead just 10-7, Iamaleava found wide receiver Titus Mokiao-Atimalala in stride for a six-yard passing score and then found pay dirt with a 3-yard rushing score on the following possession to make it 24-7. They led 27-7 at the half and looked to be on their way to the monstrous upset.

Penn State doubled up UCLA in second half but it wasn’t enough

Franklin‘s Nittany Lions were able to outscore the Bruins 30-15 in the second half, but the first half deficit was just too much to overcome. Trailing by five, they got to the UCLA nine-yard line with 40 seconds remaining in regulation but quarterback Drew Allar was bottled up for a loss of three yards on a 4th & 2 QB keeper.

“First of all, got to give UCLA and their coaching staff a ton of credit,” Franklin said postgame. “Got to give their quarterback a ton of credit. We obviously had a hard time stopping him all day long, but I think the opening sequence of the game was significant with the touchdown and then the surprise onside [kick] that we talked about all week long, that they were going to take significant risk in this game.”

“And that was obviously two really significant drive and play in the game. So from that point on, we were battling, obviously went in at halftime in a challenging situation, came out and then battled in the second half, but not enough to win the game.”

Penn State now sits at 3-2 with its lone wins against non Power-Four opponents.