Sixteen days ago, everything was going well for James Franklin, with his Penn State football team at 3-0, No. 2 in the country and with a seemingly clear path back to the College Football Playoff, where a shot at a long-awaited national championship loomed.
Now, he’s out of a job.
With his team riding a three-game losing streak, Franklin was fired by the Nittany Lions on Sunday, Oct. 12, with the university confirming the stunning news.
The move came one day after Penn State lost at home 22-21 to Northwestern, dropping it to 3-3 and with no wins against Power Four conference opponents.
The two most recent defeats in that run were particularly damning for a talented and experienced team that was No. 3 in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll. After a double-overtime loss to Oregon on Sept. 27, Penn State came up short against two of the worst teams in the Big Ten, UCLA and Northwestern, in back-to-back weeks.
According to a financial term sheet he signed in 2022, which was obtained by the USA TODAY Network, Franklin is owed $49.7 million for being fired without cause.
Franklin was in his 12th season at the school. Over that time, he went 104-45, which included appearances in the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl. Last season, the Nittany Lions advanced to the semifinals of the playoff, where it fell 27-24 to eventual national runner-up Notre Dame.
Associate head coach Terry Smith will serve as Penn State’s interim head coach.
How did it to a point few people, if any, could have realistically envisioned as recently as last month?
Here’s a closer look at why Penn State fired Franklin:
Why did Penn State fire James Franklin?
By almost any measurement, Franklin is one of the greatest coaches in the history of Penn State, the kind of program where such a designation really means something.
His 104 wins are tied with Rip Engle for the second-most in Nittany Lions history, behind only Joe Paterno, the FBS career victories leader. Under Franklin, a program that was still reeling from the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal was rebuilt into a national power. Franklin helped guide Penn State to a Big Ten championship in 2016, five New Year’s Six Bowl appearances and, perhaps most notably, a run to the playoff semifinals last season. He recruited extremely well, stocking the Nittany Lions with talented rosters that featured future NFL standouts like Saquon Barkley and Micah Parsons, among others.
For all Franklin accomplished, he had shortcomings that were eventually too glaring for university leadership to ignore.
Franklin’s teams regularly struggled to beat the best opponents on their schedule in the kinds of games that define seasons and coaching tenures. With a 30-24 loss to Oregon on Sept. 27, Franklin fell to 4-21 against top-10 teams at Penn State.
Those woes were most pronounced against Ohio State, a team that frequently stood as the Nittany Lions’ biggest obstacle in its quest to make the playoff and win a national championship under Franklin. Franklin ended his tenure at Penn State with just a 1-10 record against the Buckeyes, which included eight consecutive losses. The Nittany Lions’ last win against Ohio State came in Oct. 2016, in the final months of the Obama administration.
While Franklin’s teams perpetually came up short in their biggest games, they usually made up for it by consistently winning the overwhelming majority of the rest of its games, a tendency that allowed Penn State to win at least 10 games in six of its final eight full seasons under Franklin. With losses to UCLA and Northwestern, though, even that small bit of comfort was shattered.
“Penn State owes an enormous amount of gratitude to Coach Franklin who rebuilt our football program into a national power,” Penn State athletic director Patrick Kraft said in a statement following Franklin’s firing. “He won a Big Ten championship, led us to seven New Year’s Six bowl games and a College Football Playoff appearance last year. However, we hold our athletics programs to the highest of standards, and we believe this is the right moment for new leadership at the helm of our football program to advance us toward Big Ten and national championships.”
This season, the Nittany Lions were one of a small handful of favorites to win a national title. They, at last, had playoff experience to fall back on, having nearly made the championship game earlier this year. They brought back many of their key players, from quarterback Drew Allar to the dynamic running back tandem of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen. They were aggressive in the transfer portal to address what had been an inadequate wide receivers room, bringing in Devonte Ross (Troy), Trebor Pena (Syracuse) and Kyron Hudson (USC). After defensive coordinator Tom Allen left for the same position at Clemson, they snagged Jim Knowles, arguably the best defensive mind in the sport, away from Ohio State days after he helped lead the Buckeyes to a national title.
With the losses to UCLA and Northwestern, though, what was set up to be a dream season quickly turned into a nightmare.
James Franklin buyout
Franklin’s exit won’t come cheaply for his former employer.
According to a financial term sheet he signed in 2022, which was obtained by the USA TODAY Network, Franklin is owed $49.7 million for being fired without cause.
The buyout is the second-largest in college football history, behind only the record-$76 million Texas A&M owed Jimbo Fisher when the school fired him in 2023. The sum that Franklin is owed is more than double the previous second-highest buyout at the FBS level (the $21.45 million Auburn had to pay Gus Malzahn after it fired him in 2020).
James Franklin record
Franklin went 104-45 in his time at Penn State, including a 65-37 mark in Big Ten play.
Prior to his arrival in State College, Franklin was the head coach for three seasons at Vanderbilt, where he guided a previously woeful Commodores program to a 24-15 record and three bowl appearances. His time at Vanderbilt brings his total record as a head coach to 128-60.