Penn State entered the 2025 college football season as a national championship favorite, but those hopes have taken a significant hit following its Week 6 loss to UCLA. At the heart of their struggles is head coach James Franklin, who has since fallen completely out of favor with the Nittany Lions' fan base.
Many coaches suffer the occasional bad loss, but this has been an unfortunate trend for Franklin. Penn State entered Week 6 off yet another loss to a top-ranked team, losing to Oregon in overtime in Week 5.
Franklin had been in bad standing with the fan base for a while, due to his notoriously poor record in big games. Despite posting a winning record in 10 of his 11 seasons in State College, Penn State's Week 5 loss to Oregon dropped Franklin's record against top-10 ranked teams to 4-21.
Franklin's struggles have been particularly notable against marquee Big Ten opponents. He is just 1-9 against Ohio State and 3-7 against Michigan.
After finishing the 2024 season as the Big Ten runner-up, Penn State was supposed to be different in the 2025 college football season. With several key players returning, they entered Week 1 as one of the most popular preseason picks to finally get over the hump and win a national title.
Through all his successes, fans only see the significant losses. Longtime Nittany Lions supporters have grown tired of finishing at the one-yard line, and the UCLA loss pushed everything over the edge.
Firing Franklin would be expensive, costing Penn State roughly $50 million in 2025, according to USA Today. It is unlikely, but if the school decides to pull the plug, it has no shortage of potential replacement options.
Clark Lea, Vanderbilt head coach
Clark Lea is everything Penn State should want in its next football coach. He is the type of leader players love playing for and would instill the kind of culture that the Nittany Lions need. The only issue is his current employment at Vanderbilt, which is where James Franklin worked before Penn State poached him in 2014.
As a Vanderbilt alum, Lea is exactly where he wants to be. He has built his alma mater program to a level it has not seen in years, accomplishing even more than Franklin did in Nashville. The Commodores are legitimate SEC title contenders, and it is all due to the work Lea has done in the last five years.
Lea is not Franklin's direct successor, but there are many parallels between the two. Lea took over a team that was 0-9 in its previous season, but has more than gained the respect of his SEC rivals midway through year five.
It might take a lot to lure Lea away from Vanderbilt, but Penn State has the means to send a lucrative offer he cannot refuse. The issue would be getting the fan base on board with the decision. The Nittany Lions have no issues with Lea, but their disdain for Franklin has given the community too much trauma to hire a coach coming from the same school.
Alex Golesh, USF head coach
With the success he has achieved in 2025, Alex Golesh is bound to receive Power Four attention in the offseason. USF is currently the favorite to receive the Group of Five College Football Playoff bid, which typically results in an ensuing coach promotion. Should that happen, there is no reason that Penn State should not be in the Golesh sweepstakes.
Golesh has spent the last five years in the south, but he is rooted in the Midwest. After graduating from Ohio State, the Russian spent the early part of his career with Northern Illinois, Toledo and Illinois.
After years of growing stale under Franklin, Golesh would bring the excitement that Penn State desperately needs. Franklin is often criticized for his vanilla offense, which fails to maximize the talent on his roster, an issue that Golesh would never be accused of.
After years of honing his skills on Matt Campbell and Josh Heupel's respective coaching staffs, Golesh has quickly become one of the best young offensive minds in college football. He has inspired complete offensive shifts wherever he has gone, from his first year as an offensive coordinator at UCF to his current tenure at USF.
In many respects, Golesh is the complete opposite of Franklin. That seems to be what Penn State needs at this point.
Ryan Silverfield, Memphis head coach
If it is not USF, Memphis has a strong case to be the 2025 Group of Five College Football Playoff bid winner. The Tigers have gotten off to a 6-0 start to the year, earning them a No. 23 ranking in the Week 7 AP poll.
Silverfield's success has been much more than just the 2025 season. Since taking over in 2020, he has never had a losing campaign and is working on his third consecutive double-digit win season.
Barring a completely unexpected fall-off, Silverfield has improved each year of his six-year tenure at Memphis. No Group of Five coach deserves a promotion more than he does, and the only reason it has not come yet has been the Tigers' lack of nationwide attention. With them now in the rankings with six games remaining, they have finally broken through in 2025.
If Penn State fires Franklin, Nittany Lions football fans might want the school to make a big-name hire. Silverfield is not that, but he might be the best man for the job and would pay dividends in the long run.
Jon Sumrall, Tulane head coach
Few coaches have done more with a program over the last two years than Jon Sumrall has with Tulane. After Willie Fritz turned the Green Wave into a perennial AAC contender, Sumrall has not only kept the ball rolling, but he has also continued to elevate the team.
Maintaining high levels of success at a Group of Five program is much easier said than done, particularly in the transfer portal era. Yet, in just two short years, Sumrall has demonstrated the ability to succeed in all situations.
Many expected 2024 to be a rebuilding year for Tulane after Fritz left, particularly with true freshman Darian Mensah starting at quarterback. Instead, Tulane was a revelation, with Mensah emerging as one of the best young quarterbacks in the country under Sumrall. Mensah has since left for Duke, but Sumrall is having an even better year in 2025 with former BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff.
Before signing with Tulane, Sumrall went 23-4 in two years at Troy. He took over a team that was 5-7 the year before he arrived and went 4-8 after he left.
Sumrall is an elite coach on the rise who establishes winning cultures wherever he goes. Nobody needs that more right now than a Penn State football team that has routinely underachieved under James Franklin.
Matt Rhule, Nebraska head coach
If Penn State fires James Franklin, the fan base will want a big name to take his place. Alumnus Matt Rhule is realistically the most notable name the Nittany Lions could hire.
Rhule has had his ups and downs, but he has seemed to settle in at Nebraska. Fans still judge him for his failed tenure with the Carolina Panthers, but Rhule is a proven winner at the college football level. He has yet to reach the level of success with Nebraska that he had with Baylor, but he is on track to do so in his third season.
Rhule is content with his role with the Cornhuskers, but his connection to Penn State is too much to ignore. Coaches typically love nothing more than returning to their alma mater, and Rhule has seemed open to the idea before.
He would cost a pretty penny, but Rhule's hypothetical hiring could potentially be a two-for-one deal. Drew Allar will be on his way out at the end of the 2025 college football season, leaving Penn State forced to seek his replacement in the offseason. By signing Rhule, the Nittany Lions could potentially get Dylan Raiola to follow him in the transfer portal.
It is all speculation at this point, but Penn State fans are already calling for Rhule to replace Franklin. Even if the Nittany Lions win out the remainder of the year, Franklin already seems to be on his way out, and Rhule could be waiting in the wings.
