UPDATE: Penn State fires James Franklin as head football coach
The dejected look on James Franklin’s face was telling Saturday night, as were the looks on the faces of his family and friends.
Penn State’s 22-21 loss to Northwestern was devastating, coming on the heels of a 42-37 defeat at UCLA.
The Nittany Lions’ fall from leading in the first overtime against Oregon to now has been stunning.
Those wondering Saturday night how much longer Penn State would keep Franklin as the head coach received their answer Sunday.
Director of athletics Pat Kraft announced that the 53-year-old Franklin had been fired in the middle of his 12th season after the back-to-back losses to the heavy underdogs.
“Penn State owes an enormous amount of gratitude to Coach Franklin, who rebuilt our football program into a national power,” Kraft said in a statement released by Penn State. “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,” he said.
The fans at Beaver Stadium expressed their opinions when Northwestern ran out the clock, booing loudly and chanting, “Fire Franklin!”
Their frustration and disappointment about this suddenly lost season is understandable, but they don’t make coaching decisions.
Kraft does, in this case in consultation with other Penn State administrators and probably the department’s wealthiest donors. He had much to weigh.
Franklin had a $48 million contract buyout, which isn’t chicken feed even for a major university. The total cost of firing Franklin, buying out his staff and hiring a new coach and staff will probably be more than $100 million.
Now Kraft has to decide who succeeds Franklin. There are few, if any, candidates who are slam-dunk choices.
Longtime assistant and former Penn State wide receiver Terry Smith will serve as interim coach for the rest of the season, but it’s not likely that he would be considered to be the permanent head coach.
According to some researchers, it’s the first time that a college football team has lost consecutive games when favored by at least 21 points.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the first time or 10th time; it would have been very, very difficult for Franklin to overcome those two losses and win back Penn State fans. It would have taken nothing less than winning a national championship, and that wasn’t going to happen in the foreseeable future.
Franklin was a very good coach for the Lions with six 10-win seasons in the last nine years. He finished his career tied with Rip Engle for the second most wins in school history.
The black mark on his record was his 5-21 record against top 10 opponents, including eight straight losses to Ohio State. Penn State mostly beat underdogs like UCLA and Northwestern during his tenure, which is why the last two weeks have been so shocking.
Franklin built his program upon his relationships with the players.
“I love those kids,” he said softly Saturday night. “I am committed to those players in that locker room, and I’ve been that way for 12 years [at Penn State]. I’ve been that way for 15 years of my head coaching career. I’ve been that way for 30 years [since he began coaching as a graduate assistant at Kutztown in 1995]. That won’t change.”
That’s genuine, based on what the players and parents have said about him over the years.
“I love Coach Franklin,” offensive lineman T.J. Shanahan, who transferred this year from Texas A&M, said Saturday. “I think he’s an amazing coach and I’m here for him every step of the way. Today wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but I’m still right behind Coach Franklin like I know the rest of our team in that locker room is.
“My relationship with Coach Franklin has been great. He’s been nothing but positive with me. I love him as a person, as a guy and as a coach,” he said.
Perhaps him being too nice to the players was Franklin’s greatest flaw. Maybe he wasn’t demanding enough. Maybe he didn’t hold them accountable enough for their mistakes.
Dani Dennis-Sutton and several others from the highly rated 2022 recruiting class returned this year to win a championship. He was asked Saturday if something has been missing or amiss internally.
“Nothing glaring to me,” he said. “I would point it out if I was aware of what’s exactly going on. We just have to take responsibility and accountability. I don’t know. I don’t know how we ended up in this position, man.”
It’s difficult to predict Franklin’s future. He could go into broadcasting, where he would be terrific. Or he could coach somewhere else where he could pursue his goal of winning a national title.
All coaches have a certain shelf life. Look at Andy Reid with the Philadelphia Eagles or Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots. They’re Hall of Famers whose time ran out with those franchises. It doesn’t make them bad coaches.
James Franklin is a good coach and a good person who represented Penn State well, but his shelf life there reached its expiration date.
Source: Berkshire mont