College Football

'What A Great Turnaround': Clemson Faces Penn State In Pinstripe Bowl

Updated Dec. 26, 2025 3:52 p.m. ET

Clemson and Penn State were projected in the preseason to be among the top four seeds in the 12-team College Football Playoff and in favorable position for a national championship.

Very little went as expected and instead of a prominent playoff matchup, Clemson and Penn State end their seasons in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, a day after a snowstorm is forecast for the New York area.

In the preseason AP Top 25 released on Aug. 11, Penn State was ranked second while Clemson was No. 4. By the end of October, both teams were unranked and faced the possibility of not even being bowl eligible.

Clemson (7-5) started 1-3 and dropped out of the rankings after a 24-21 loss to Georgia Tech on Sept. 13, when it was upset on a 55-yard field goal as time expired. The Tigers were 3-5 following their 46-45 loss to Duke on Nov. 1 before winning four straight, including a 20-19 victory at then-No. 19 Louisville on Nov. 14.

"It’s been fun to see them have some just have some fun, and they’ve been able to finish the season with a four-game win streak and from where we were at the time at 3-5," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said Friday. "What a great turnaround for this group."

Penn State (6-6) won its first three games over Nevada, Florida International and Villanova by a combined 132-17 margin to keep its No. 2 ranking. Once the Nittany Lions began Big Ten play, they started stumbling, and it cost coach James Franklin his job.

The Nittany Lions were still a top-10 team when they kicked off against Northwestern, but their 22-21 loss on Oct. 11 dropped them from the rankings and led to Franklin’s firing less than 24 hours later.

Franklin’s final game was part of a five-game losing streak that culminated with defeats to Ohio State and Indiana. Penn State ended the regular season under interim coach Terry Smith by winning three straight and hired Matt Campbell away from Iowa State.

"Finish writing the script for the 2025 season," Smith said Friday. "Six games ago we set a vision to write the chapter the way we want to write it, and we still have that opportunity, and we want to write this final script to it."

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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