Penn State football lost its third straight game of the season in Week 6 against Northwestern, and there's no doubt that there needed to be a shakeup in the program. That has led Penn State to fire head coach James Franklin, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel.
Last week, Penn State lost to UCLA 42-37, and the week before that, they lost to Oregon, 30-24. To start the season, it looked like Penn State was on the road to having a good season, but things have changed.
Franklin has been the head coach of Penn State since 2014, and now they'll have to find another leader for the foreseeable future. It was a big decision to fire Franklin, because now they owe him more than $49 million, according to Thamel. Franklin signed a 10-year contract extension in November 2021 that ran through the 2031 season.
As for who will be the coach for the remainder of the season, Penn State put a longtime assistant in place.
“Terry Smith will be the interim at Penn State, per the school. He's longtime assistant coach and has been there all 12 years with Franklin,” Thamel wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Franklin leaves Penn State with a 104-45 record since he took the job in 2014, and he is also 128-60 overall as a head coach, which includes his time at Vanderbilt. After a 2-1 record in the playoffs last season, beating SMU and Boise State, then losing to Notre Dame in the semifinals, the bar was set high for Penn State this season.
The one problem with Franklin was his record against AP Poll Top 10 teams, which was 4-21. With the three-game losing streak, it seems like the writing was on the wall, especially with the chants to fire him ringing across the stadium during their loss against Northwestern.
Athletic director Pat Kraft made a statement after Franklin was fired.
“We hold our athletics programs to the highest of standards & we believe this is the right moment for new leadership at the helm of our football program to advance us toward Big Ten & national championships,” Kraft said.
It will be interesting to see what direction the program goes in from now on.
