Penn State football’s team captain and one of the longest tenured Nittany Lions is starting center Nick Dawkins. The former three-star offensive lineman out of Allentown, Pennsylvania, arrived at Happy Valley for the 2020 season and has been there since.

Dawkins did not have a normal path to the starting lineup. The center did not start until the season opener in 2024 against West Virginia. Instead, he spent the better part of five years absorbing James Franklin’s advice, hoping for an opportunity.

Despite the lack of playing time, Dawkins believed in Franklin. He easily could have transferred and found playing time elsewhere in the transfer portal era, but chose to stick with Penn State, to stick with Franklin.

“Definitely an elephant in the room. Everyone of us is on the team because Coach Franklin brought us here,” Dawkins said. “He’s been in our homes, taken care of us, believed in us. He’s absolutely on our mind, probably all season.”

Through his time with Penn State, Dawkins grew close to the former Nittany Lion head coach and feels as if his firing is partially on himself.

“Ultimately, as players, it’s an overwhelming sense of guilt. Like we got our coach fired, we didn’t play well enough, we didn’t do our job good enough,” Dawkins said. “And now he doesn’t have a job anymore. … Just a new sense of ownership, responsibility.”

The sense of guilt and negative emotions towards the firing were echoed by other players on Tuesday as well. Both Dom Deluca, another long-tenured Nittany Lion, and Devonte Ross noted they were upset and surprised by the news.

For the most part, players are appreciative of the role James Franklin played in their lives as a football and life coach.

“Everything is very different. You know, something’s missing in Lasch [Building], something huge is missing in our building,” Dawkins said. “And it’s definitely felt, you know, it’s definitely tough. It’s a tough situation.”

At the end of the day, though, Penn State still has a season to get through. In fact, the hardest part of the 2025 season is still to come. In the following weeks, the Nittany Lions will have to take on No. 1 Ohio State, No. 3 Indiana, Iowa in Kinnick Stadium, and a 5-1 Nebraska team.

Leading the way will be interim head coach and former cornerbacks coach Terry Smith.

“He’s [Franklin] absolutely on our mind, and probably will be for the whole season,” Dawkins said. “But, yeah, at the end of the day, the task at hand is to go 1-0 versus Iowa. We came here to play football, just like Coach Smith said, that’s what we have to do, go play football.”