play2:01Stephen A.: Penn State was justified to fire James FranklinStephen A. Smith explains why Penn State made the right decision by firing James Franklin.
Finebaum: Never seen a fall from grace like James Franklin’s (2:47)Paul Finebaum and Heather Dinich discuss why Penn State fired James Franklin and what is next for the school. (2:47)
Stephen A.: Penn State was justified to fire James FranklinStephen A. Smith explains why Penn State made the right decision by firing James Franklin.
Jake Trotter, Adam Rittenberg, Heather DinichOct 16, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Two nights before James Franklin’s final game at Penn State, an unranked Clarkson University men’s hockey team scored on the fourth-ranked Nittany Lions a minute after puck drop. Behind the net, students erupted into chants of “Fire Franklin” — and resumed the chant after every goal in a 6-4 Clarkson win.
On Saturday, during Penn State’s stunning 22-21 loss to Northwestern, the “Fire Franklin” chants echoed through Beaver Stadium — and never let up.
After a third straight loss, Franklin looked defeated. As if saying goodbye, he stood on the 10-yard line and hugged every remaining player on the field before heading through the south tunnel for the last time as head coach.
There, his wife and daughter waited. He sent them ahead — perhaps so they wouldn’t hear the vitriol that awaited him — as he passed fans lined up on either side of the underpass to the locker room.
The Nittany Lions began the season ranked No. 2 in the AP Top 25. They poured millions into building a loaded roster and a seasoned coaching staff that Franklin called his best yet. While the other Big Ten powers were set to debut new quarterbacks, Penn State boasted a three-year starter in Drew Allar, who opened as one of the Heisman Trophy betting favorites.
Coming off a CFP semifinal appearance, Penn State seemed poised to chase its first national title in 39 years. Yet with those expectations came unprecedented pressure on the Nittany Lions, who under Franklin had repeatedly wilted in big games.
As one former Penn State staff member put it, “They were either gonna win it all — or they were gonna implode.”
They fell at winless UCLA — a team that had already fired its coach and hadn’t led once all season. Then, they lost to an unranked Northwestern, making Penn State the first team since the 1978 FBS-FCS split to lose consecutive games as 20-point or more favorites.
“It’s 100 percent on me,” Franklin said afterward. “We got to get it fixed — and I will get it fixed.”
On Sunday, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft fired Franklin. It was a difficult, emotional parting, as Kraft had a strong relationship with Franklin and respect for how he had built the program. Sources inside the program indicated culture wasn’t the problem — as evidenced by the decision of 10 star players to turn down the NFL draft and return for another season.
“This is not a three-game thing,” Kraft said Monday. “This is really diving into where we are as a program — what is the trajectory of this program?”
That drove Kraft to make the call despite Franklin’s $49 million buyout — the second largest in college football history behind Jimbo Fisher’s $76 million Texas A&M payout.
Franklin, who didn’t immediately respond to texts or calls from ESPN, won 104 games and reached double-digit wins six times in 11 seasons at Penn State, including the previous three.
Yet no matter what he or the program tried, the Nittany Lions couldn’t win in the games that mattered most. And after Penn State failed to beat Oregon, the bottom finally fell out — the school’s fan base and power brokers gave up on its coach ever getting the Nittany Lions over the top.
Interviews with program insiders detail how a season that began with such promise in Happy Valley spiraled out of control — and what comes next for Penn State.
THE NITTANY LIONS reeled off seven wins to begin last season, setting up a November top-five clash in State College against Ohio State.
Penn State jumped to an early 10-0 lead, but the Nittany Lions failed to score another touchdown. Twice, the Ohio State defense stoned Penn State inside the 5-yard line on the way to a 20-13 victory.
Penn State’s brass had seen how Ohio State’s massive financial investment the previous offseason paid off in big moments, from the victory in State College to a dominant run through the playoff.
The Buckeyes sank $20 million into their roster. They kept key players from bolting early for the NFL and landed several star players in the transfer portal. They even hired away UCLA coach Chip Kelly to be offensive coordinator.
They found the money to keep Allar and standout running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen on campus. They also hired away Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who had transformed the Buckeyes’ defense into the best in college football.
After a one-point loss to Ohio State in 2018, Franklin noted that Penn State had gone from a “good football team to a great football team.” But the Nittany Lions still weren’t on an elite level — like Ohio State was.
“Right now, we’re comfortable being great,” he said then. “I’m going to make sure that everybody in our program, including myself, is very uncomfortable. … We are going to break through.”
As one Penn State source said, Kraft and the administration ensured that Franklin had “everything he needed to win a national championship and get rid of that stigma. … You want to keep those running backs? Let’s do it. We need a wide receiver? Let’s f—ing do it. Jim Knowles is out there? How much is it gonna cost? What do you need? Let’s go do it.”
Penn State sources noted that the program’s funding began matching that of Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia. Underscoring that, the Nittany Lions are in the middle of a $700 million renovation to Beaver Stadium, which is set to be completed by the 2027 season.
“There was a lot of momentum trending our way,” one university source said. “But the echo chamber of how good we were started to echo against itself. Like, we’re not just going to make the playoff, we’re going to win the national championship. It just got bigger and bigger, where the expectations were just massive.”
Instead of overwhelming the opposition, though, the Nittany Lions played tense. They struggled under the weight of those expectations, even during the first three wins over Nevada, Florida International and Villanova.
The vaunted running game sputtered, and the defense wasn’t suffocating the opposition as the players adjusted to Knowles’ system. Even then, alarm bells were going off inside the Lasch Football Building.
“The culture had gotten really tight,” one athletic department source said. “People around here were like, ‘We’re going to get f—ing crushed by Oregon.'”
Still, coming off a bye, the Nittany Lions had a prime opportunity to prove they were over their big-game flops of the past with the Ducks traveling in for a Sept. 27 prime-time showdown in front of a White Out Beaver Stadium crowd.
They didn’t get crushed, but struggled for long stretches. The offense under second-year coordinator Andy Kotelnicki never established the running game. Allar couldn’t find a rhythm. And while Oregon coach Dan Lanning aggressively went for it on fourth down five times in the first half alone, Franklin managed the game conservatively.
Facing fourth-and-9 from the Oregon 36-yard line, Franklin sent in the punt team. The ball landed in the end zone, resulting in a touchback. The Ducks capitalized, scoring their first touchdown, then another on their ensuing drive to take a 17-3 lead in the fourth quarter.
Allar finally came alive in the fourth quarter and led the Nittany Lions on back-to-back touchdown drives to send the game to overtime. But then on Penn State’s first snap of the second overtime, he threw an interception, handing the Nittany Lions yet another loss in a top-10 matchup.
In the 12-team playoff era, Penn State’s season technically wasn’t over with one loss. Under Franklin, the Nittany Lions had usually responded well after crushing big-game defeats. After the setback to Ohio State last year, Penn State responded by hammering Washington and Purdue by a combined score of 84-16. After losing to Michigan late in the 2023 season, the Nittany Lions finished off the regular season by dispatching Rutgers 27-6 and Michigan State 42-0.
But with so much riding on this season, the Oregon defeat was an emotional blow that sent the Nittany Lions to the mat.
“It’s so hard mentally when you expect something big to happen,” a Power 4 assistant said of Penn State. “When that gets devastated so early, some dudes just don’t handle it very well.”
Stephen A.: Penn State was justified to fire James Franklin
Stephen A. Smith explains why Penn State made the right decision by firing James Franklin.
THE NITTANY LIONS traveled to Pasadena, California, hoping to get their season back on track against winless UCLA. The Bruins had recently fired coach DeShaun Foster and both coordinators after getting thumped by New Mexico 35-10.
The Bruins were 24-point underdogs. They had scored just 57 points in their previous four games combined. But UCLA scored on its first five possessions to take a 27-7 lead into halftime.
“Wide receivers weren’t finishing routes, guys weren’t finishing blocks, the defensive line not being where they’re supposed to be — things that were always done at Penn State weren’t happening,” a program source said.
The Nittany Lions tried to fight back in the second half, but a curious fourth-and-2 call from the UCLA 9-yard line ended the rally. Kotelnicki dialed up an end-around zone-read, and the Bruins buried Allar behind the line of scrimmage.
That play call proved emblematic of Penn State’s offensive struggles under Kotelnicki, who had thrived with gimmicks at Kansas, but failed to fully embrace Penn State’s hard-nosed tradition or get the best out of Allar’s skill set.
“He tries to do a lot of stuff with movement and motions, but it just didn’t play well,” a coach who faced Penn State said. “With the running backs they have and the skill guys they brought in at receiver, you’d have thought they would have been able to get more production out of that group. … [In turn], Drew regressed.”