Penn State AD: James Franklin’s Firing Went Far Beyond Recent Struggles

On Monday afternoon, fewer than 24 hours after rocking the college football world with his decision to fire head coach James Franklin following a stunning loss to Northwestern, athletic director Pat Kraft addressed the media in State College to explain his decision. 

Kraft read from a lengthy set of prepared remarks, answered a slew of pointed questions from reporters and then stepped aside so that Terry Smith, the interim face of Penn State football, could begin leading the program forward. The news conference lasted approximately 45 minutes. 

In terms of what both men said, let’s begin with the basics: Kraft told reporters he reached the conclusion to dismiss Franklin, who is now owed a massive buyout of approximately $50 million, early Sunday morning after reflecting on the Nittany Lions’ latest defeat and the overall standing of Penn State’s program. He contemplated sleeping on it for one more night, which would have dragged the process into Monday, but ultimately trusted his gut and made the move. Kraft said he informed Franklin at the Lasch Building on Sunday and then elevated Smith, who had been Franklin’s associate head coach and cornerbacks coach, to the interim role that afternoon.  

Smith, meanwhile, said the Nittany Lions had a team meeting scheduled for 1:45 p.m. on Sunday. He learned of Franklin’s dismissal about 25 minutes earlier and described his reaction as “stunned.” Franklin was afforded the opportunity to address his team one last time, informing them of Kraft’s choice, and then departed, his future uncertain. Smith and Franklin connected for a heartfelt conversation on Sunday evening. 

“I just wanted to express my gratitude and thankfulness for him and all that he’s done for me, my family and this program,” said Smith, a Penn State alum and mainstay on Franklin’s staff since 2014. “He took us out of a dark era and got us to be a relevant program again. And we don’t take that for granted.”

Together, Kraft and Smith laid out their vision of what comes next for Penn State and how the next few months might unfold. Smith wants to be considered for the full-time role — something Kraft said he’s happy to do — but understands that a national search will begin much sooner than later. And in the meantime, the Nittany Lions are preparing for a difficult road game at Iowa on Saturday night. 

Here’s some analysis of what was said:  

Kraft on what led to this decision and the timing of it: “Looking at where the program was and where it is and where we want to be, I just felt there was no other course. And I felt it was time. Now, remember, we’re in a different era of football. And there’s a lot of things that come with this new era and transfers and everything. So that probably was down the road in the thought process, but I did feel like for our student-athletes and the staff and the program and our fans, there wasn’t a choice, there wasn’t more [to be gained by keeping Franklin any longer].

He added: “I weigh everything when I make a decision. The PhD nerd in me is like I do data, I do analytics, I look at everything. And when you start to look at where we’re going — and, yes, how this year had been playing out — all those things we have to take into consideration. … So to say, ‘Oh, he lost to Oregon and he lost to UCLA’ — no. It’s about where are we as a program, where are we going, how do I give my student-athletes the best chance to win, how do I continue to build this to a place that we are the best program in the country? That’s the motivation. And so as you start to put all those things together, you gotta make the call. And that’s where we were.”

Analysis: Among the primary themes Kraft repeatedly drove home during his 20-minute session with reporters on Monday was the idea that his decision to fire Franklin went far beyond Penn State’s current three-game losing streak, a dizzying 16-day stretch in which the previously undefeated Nittany Lions came within a 2-point conversion of beating then-No. 6 Oregon in late September — a game that might have vaulted them to No. 1 in the AP Poll — and then dismissed their head coach on Oct. 12, the day after falling to Northwestern.

Time and again, Kraft, who spoke passionately and forcefully, insisted the choice was anything but a knee-jerk reaction, that boiling Franklin’s departure down to those three gut-wrenching defeats was a disservice to both a coach who had accomplished so much across 11-plus seasons in charge and the evaluation process of Penn State’s athletic director himself. Kraft really wanted those in attendance and those watching from afar to believe this move had been coming for some time, though he never specified how long. 

The problem with Kraft taking this stance, however, is that the timeline for such thoughts to develop doesn’t quite make sense, especially as the athletic department and university continued to invest in Franklin’s regime during the offseason. Nine months ago, on Jan. 9, the Nittany Lions were battling Notre Dame in a College Football Playoff semifinal. The game was tied, 24-24, in the waning moments when quarterback Drew Allar tossed an interception that effectively cost Penn State the game. Had Allar made a different decision or had the ball fallen incomplete, it’s entirely possible that Franklin’s team reaches the national championship game. And who’s to say what might have happened then.

Consider the moves Kraft subsequently approved in the weeks and months that followed: He allowed Franklin to hire former Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and pay him an annual salary of $3.1 million, more than any other coordinator in the country; he allowed Franklin to spend huge sums of money in both player retention and player acquisition as the Nittany Lions brought back a slew of highly paid starters from their 2024 squad and added several premium players in the transfer portal; he was fine with Franklin dishing out even more cash in late April when former Syracuse wideout Trebor Pena, a second-team All-ACC performer last fall, made a late decision to enter the transfer portal. Never in Franklin’s tenure did he seem to have more momentum, more financial backing and more talent — both on his roster and staff alike — than he did entering the 2025 season. 

So when, exactly, did Kraft begin to suspect that Franklin wasn’t capable of bringing a national championship to Penn State, which the athletic director reiterated on Monday is the program’s unflinching goal, even though it hasn’t happened since 1986? He already knew that Franklin, who entered the year 4-20 against top-10 opponents, struggled to win games against highly ranked teams long before the Nittany Lions lost to Oregon last month. He already knew that Franklin, who signed a 10-year contract extension in 2021, the year before Kraft arrived from Boston College, would leave Penn State on the hook for a buyout of approximately $50 million when he allowed Franklin to keep spending money on coaches, personnel staffers and roster construction. The only thing Kraft didn’t know was that his coach could be embarrassed by lowly Big Ten opponents because that was something Franklin always avoided. 

Which is why Kraft’s version of events — at least as he explained them on Monday — was a bit difficult to reconcile. 

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Kraft on what he’s looking for in Penn State’s next coach: “We’re going to conduct a national search. Our next coach will be someone who embodies everything Penn State stands for: integrity, accountability, toughness, humility and an elite motivator. We’ll find a coach who can achieve excellence at the highest level, doing it with confidence and conviction. Recruiting will always be a pillar here. We want someone who will attract elite talent, retain players in the NIL era and make Penn State a destination. This is also about the modern era of college football. Our next coach needs to be able to maximize elite-level resources, attack the transfer portal and develop at the highest level.”

Analysis: Though not impossible, it’s difficult to quibble with Franklin’s high school recruiting profile since taking over as Penn State’s head coach ahead of the 2014 season. His 12 subsequent recruiting classes finished with an average national rank of 14.8, according to the 247Sports Composite, including top-10 hauls in 2018 (sixth overall) and 2022 (sixth overall). His average rank among Big Ten programs during that same span was 3.1, headlined by five classes that finished second in the conference behind Ohio State (four times) and Michigan (once). It would have been difficult for any coach, Franklin or otherwise, to perform much better or with as much consistency across more than a decade. 

Where Kraft and Penn State’s donors might have had legitimate frustrations, however, was with Franklin’s cautious use of the transfer portal relative to other elite programs. Not only did Franklin steer away from bringing in large portal classes — he averaged just six incoming transfers per year from 2022-25, with no single group larger than eight — but he also largely failed to attract legitimate difference makers. His last four portal classes were ranked 82nd nationally, 53rd nationally, 58th nationally and 41st nationally, with none of those groups finishing among the top 10 in the conference, either. It can be argued that former Maryland edge rusher Chop Robinson (2022) and former Georgia cornerback A.J. Harris (2024) were the only transfers who made significant on-field contributions prior to his overhaul of the wide receiver corps last winter. 

Franklin’s approach stood in stark contrast to what was happening at rivals Michigan and Ohio State, both of whom relied on a handful of elite transfers to bring home national championships in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The Wolverines’ title was aided by the likes of cornerback Josh Wallace (UMass), edge rusher Josaiah Stewart (Coastal Carolina), tight end AJ Barner (Indiana), center Drake Nugent (Stanford), offensive tackle Myles Hinton (Stanford), inside linebacker Ernest Hausmann (Nebraska) and kicker James Turner (Louisville). The Buckeyes’ path was forged by players like safety Caleb Downs (Alabama), quarterback Will Howard (Kansas State), tailback Quinshon Judkins (Ole Miss) and center Seth McLaughlin (Alabama). 

Perhaps Kraft’s reference to the “modern era of college football” was a nod toward Franklin’s replacement being more active in the portal.  

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Smith on how Penn State lost its way in 2025: “There’s a number of reasons. We’re in a new era of football. And like Pat [Kraft] said, you have to navigate everything about it: NIL, there’s money [involved], the locker room of bringing 125 guys together as a team, bringing individuals [together] like a hand and making them collective. That’s my job now. And I’ve got to bring everyone together to see the benefits of how we can all succeed as one. It’s not going to be easy because these guys loved Coach Franklin and some of them were torn up. We’ve got to rally the troops and become one. 

He added: “Success is the team pulling a rope the same direction. It’s when you watch us play, you guys will come in here and your questions won’t be [about] effort. Your questions won’t be, ‘They look lethargic.’ If we lose, it’s gonna be because that team beat us and they were just better. We won’t answer questions about how we lost the last three games. There’s not one of those teams that we could arguably say was better than us, including Oregon. So I promise we’re going to put a better product on the field that every Penn Stater is going to be super proud of.”

Analysis: Taken together, these quotes from Smith seem to suggest at least some discontent and disharmony within Penn State’s locker room this season, perhaps because of the significant dollar amounts players are now earning. 

Efforts to assemble the 2025 roster began with raising enough money to retain numerous core contributors from last year’s squad, many of whom turned down the chance to enter the NFL Draft. Quarterback Drew Allar, tailback Nicholas Singleton, edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton, tailback Kaytron Allen and defensive tackle Zane Durant — all members of Franklin’s highly rated 2022 recruiting class — chose to return for their senior seasons. But as the Nittany Lions prepare to cross the midway point of this disaster-filled campaign, Dennis-Sutton and Allen are the only ones who haven’t underachieved relative to expectations and past performance.

This was also the year that Franklin swung biggest in the transfer portal by adding an eight-man group, his largest-ever class. The most noteworthy additions were at wide receiver, a position that has seemed to befuddle Penn State on an annual basis. Two years ago, Franklin swung and missed on transfer wideouts Malik McClain (Florida State) and Dante Cephas (Kent State), who combined for 28 catches, 317 yards and three touchdowns in 2023 before both players re-entered the portal. Last year, Franklin whiffed on former Ohio State receiver Julian Fleming, who caught 14 passes for 176 yards and one score before exhausting his eligibility. 

Franklin’s most recent attempt at revamping that position group saw him bring in Devonte Ross (Troy), Kyron Hudson (USC) and Trebor Pena (Syracuse) for the 2025 season — none of whom came cheaply — with those three players now leading the Nittany Lions in receiving, though only Ross has topped 100 yards in a single game for a passing attack that ranks tied for 96th nationally. 

Understandably, and somewhat predictably, Smith refrained from mentioning anyone by name when he floated the idea that NIL, player compensation and unity had become potential roadblocks for the Nittany Lions this season. Choosing how to handle those pitfalls — all of which harken back to Kraft’s repeated mentions of the modern college landscape — now fall squarely on Smith’s shoulders from now through late November. But he made his feelings quite clear on Monday when asked what would make the remainder of Penn State’s season successful. He invoked the rope analogy and said everyone must pull in the same direction, with the implication being that not all the Nittany Lions are doing so right now. 

Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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