In 2011, Penn State was the talk of the college football world — just for all the wrong reasons.
Toward the end of his 46th season as the Penn State football coach, Joe Paterno was fired for allegedly knowing about and covering up child sexual abuse by his longtime defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky.
While it has long been debated whether or to what extent Paterno knew of Sandusky's crimes, for which he was convicted to 30 to 60 years in prison in June 2012, the shadow of ‘Joe Pa' looms large over Happy Valley.
So large, in fact, that it reportedly led to feelings of resentment toward James Franklin, who was hired as Penn State's coach after Paterno's successor, Bill O'Brien, left for the NFL.
“When Franklin took over in 2014, the school was still reeling from the tumultuous end of the Joe Paterno era and the Jerry Sandusky child-sex abuse scandal. And despite his good relationships with players and many within the school, other people — like some donors and others affiliated with the school — never took to Franklin, even after a 2016 Big Ten championship, which still stands as the high point of his time in Happy Valley,” The Athletic's Bruce Feldman and Ralph D. Russo said.
“‘Any success James had was seen as a slight to the Paterno legacy,' a former Penn State administrator said of a portion of Franklin’s detractors.”
Franklin, who had turned around moribund Vanderbilt within three years before being hired at PSU, inherited a program that, while stabilized by O'Brien in the wake of the child sex scandal, was still vulnerable and far from competing for Big Ten titles, for which they were ineligible during O'Brien's two years.
After back-to-back 7-6 seasons, though, Franklin led the Nittany Lions to an 11-3 record, a thrilling win vs. Ohio State, and their first Big Ten championship since 2008.
😲😲😲😲🏈 #PennState stuns No. 2 #OhioState with a 24-21 win – #OSUvsPSU pic.twitter.com/FLEtPPnb4D
— Fanatics View (@fanaticsview) October 23, 2016
Despite numerous successful seasons, including five more 10-plus-win campaigns, a Rose Bowl victory, and a trip to the College Football Playoff last year, the 2016 Big Ten title would prove to be the only one during Franklin's nearly 12-year tenure.
After three straight defeats, and in particular, historic back-to-back losses to three-touchdown underdogs UCLA and Northwestern, Franklin was fired by Penn State on Oct. 12.
At 104 wins, Franklin tied Rip Engle for the second-most wins in program history, only behind Paterno.
