(File Photo: Source for Photo: Penn State head coach James Franklin reacts after losing to Oregon in the second overtime of their NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — From the day he was hired more than a decade ago, James Franklin stressed the importance of creating a family atmosphere at Penn State.
Over the course of 11-plus seasons in Happy Valley, that approach helped the Nittany Lions churn out pros and double-digit victory seasons with regularity.
Yet it also never translated into Penn State beating the programs it considers its peers with regularity, either. And while the stakes kept getting higher, the results took on a certain sameness.
Until the last three weeks, anyway, when one tough loss turned into another improbable loss turned into one unforgivable loss that ended up costing Franklin his job.
Penn State fired Franklin on Sunday, less than 24 hours after a 22-21 home upset at the hands of Northwestern all but ended whatever remote chance the preseason No. 2 team had of reaching the College Football Playoff.
Terry Smith will serve as the interim head coach for the rest of the season for the Nittany Lions (3-3, 0-3 Big Ten), who began the year with hopes of winning the national title only to have those hopes evaporate by early October with three consecutive losses, each one more stinging than the last.
Penn State, which reached the CFP semifinals 10 months ago, fell at home to Oregon in overtime in late September. A road setback at previously winless UCLA followed. The final straw came Saturday at Beaver Stadium, where the Nittany Lions let Northwestern escape with a victory and lost quarterback Drew Allar to injury for the rest of the season.
Franklin deflected questions about his job security afterward, as always turning his attention toward the players. It didn’t stop the administration from making the very expensive decision that it couldn’t wait any longer to act. Penn State swallowed a nearly $50 million buyout to part ways with the coach who put the program back on the national map.
Franklin went 104-45 during his 11-plus seasons at Penn State. Yet the Nittany Lions often stumbled against top-tier opponents, going 4-21 against teams ranked in the top 10 during his tenure.
Hired in 2014 in the wake of Bill O’Brien’s departure for the NFL, Franklin inherited a team still feeling the effects of unprecedented NCAA sanctions in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
Armed with relentless optimism and an ability to recruit, Franklin’s program regularly churned out NFL-level talent, from Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley to Green Bay Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons. Franklin guided the Nittany Lions to the 2016 Big Ten title and a seemingly permanent spot in the rankings.
There was hope this fall might be the one when Penn State would finally break through and win its third national championship and first since 1986. Yet after three easy wins during a light nonconference schedule, the Nittany Lions crumbled.
Athletic director Pat Kraft said the school owes Franklin an “enormous amount of gratitude” for leading the Nittany Lions back to relevance. Yet Franklin’s inability to finish the job led to his ouster.
“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,” Kraft said.
Smith now will be tasked with trying to stop the bleeding on what has become a disastrous season. He will have his work cut out for him: Penn State’s next three games are at Iowa on Saturday, at No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 1 and home against No. 3 Indiana on Nov. 8.
The matchups with the Buckeyes and Hoosiers were expected to be a chance for the Nittany Lions to bolster their CFP credentials. In the span of a handful of weeks, Penn State will instead find itself in the role of spoiler.
The move will cost Penn State at a time the athletic department has committed to a $700 million renovation to Beaver Stadium. The project is expected to be completed by 2027.
Former athletic director Sandy Barbour signed Franklin to a 10-year contract extension worth up to $85 million in 2021. According to terms of the deal, Penn State will have to pay Franklin’s base salary of $500,000, supplemental pay of $6.5 million and insurance loan of $1 million until 2031.
It’s a steep price, but one the university appears willing to pay to find a coach who can complete the climb to a national title.
“We have the best college football fans in America, a rich tradition of excellence, significant investments in our program, compete in the best conference in college sports and have a state-of-the-art renovated stadium on the horizon,” Kraft said. “I am confident in our future and in our ability to attract elite candidates to lead our program.”
There will be no shortage of interested coaches. Kraft has ties to at least one. He was the athletic director at Temple when he hired current Nebraska coach Matt Rhule back in 2013.
Rhule and the Cornhuskers will visit Beaver Stadium in Penn State’s home finale on Nov. 22. What back in August looked like one of the final hurdles for the Nittany Lions to clear on their way to a CFP berth might instead be both an audition for Rhule and a chance for the Nittany Lions to potentially salvage a shot at a bowl game of any variety, let alone a premier one.
