James Franklin leaves for the University of Pennsylvania. The school fired its longtime head coach Sunday, less than 24 hours after a 22-21 home loss to Northwestern that all but denied the preseason No. 2 team a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Terry Smith will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season for the Nittany Lions (3-3, 0-3 Big Ten), who entered the year with national title hopes only to have those hopes evaporate by early October amid a string of losses, each more disappointing than the last.
Penn State, which reached the CFP semifinals 10 months ago, lost at home to Oregon in overtime in late September. Then came a road loss to previously winless UCLA. The final straw came Saturday at Beaver Stadium, where the Nittany Lions allowed Northwestern to come away with a victory and lost quarterback Drew Allar to injury for the rest of the season.
Franklin went 104-45 in his 11-plus seasons at Penn State. However, the Nittany Lions often faced top-tier competition, going 4–21 against teams ranked in the top 10 during his tenure.
There was hope that this fall might be the fall that Penn State finally broke through. However, after three easy wins during an easy non-conference schedule, the Nittany Lions collapsed.
Athletic Director Pat Craft said the school owes Franklin a debt of gratitude: which must redeem almost 50 million dollars of his contract, which runs through 2031, is “hugely grateful” for bringing the Nittany Lions back to relevance, but felt it was time for a change.
“We maintain our athletic programs at the highest level and believe now is the right time for new leadership at the helm of our football program to propel us toward the Big Ten and national championships,” Kraft said.
The move will come at a cost to Penn State at a time when the athletic department has committed to a $700 million renovation of 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. Under the terms of the deal, Penn State will have to pay Franklin a base salary of $500,000, an additional salary of $6.5 million and a $1 million safety credit through 2031.
It's a steep price to pay, but one the university appears willing to pay to find a coach who can complete the path to a national title.
“We have the best college football fans in America, a rich tradition of excellence, significant investment in our program, we compete in the best conferences 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.”
