James Franklin out as Penn State football coach after rapid fall from grace

October 15, 2025
The college football coaching carousel kicked into high gear on Sunday when Penn State fired head coach James Franklin following three straight losses: a double-overtime heartbreaker against No. 8 Oregon, then back-to-back upsets at the hands of Big Ten bottom-feeders UCLA and Northwestern. Everyone’s buzzing about his ouster, and not just because of the $50M buyout.
James Franklin out as Penn State football coach after rapid fall from graceJames Franklin out as Penn State football coach after rapid fall from grace
Source: Andscape

The GIST: The college football coaching carousel kicked into high gear on Sunday when Penn State fired head coach James Franklin following three straight losses: a double-overtime heartbreaker against No. 8 Oregon, then back-to-back upsets at the hands of Big Ten bottom-feeders UCLA and Northwestern. Everyone’s buzzing about his ouster, and not just because of the $50M buyout.

  • After coming within one play of last year’s College Football Playoff (CFP) national title game, the Nittany Lions landed the preseason No. 2 spot — making their 3-3 start, subsequent fall from the AP Top 25, and Franklin’s axing all the more shocking. Let’s discuss.

‼️ Franklin’s big-game reputation: He’s tied for Penn State’s second-winningest coach, going 104-45 across his over 11-year tenure in Happy Valley and becoming a perennial contender in the cutthroat Big Ten. But Franklin’s notorious for losing on the sport’s biggest stages: He posted just a 4-21 record against top-10 teams and has now lost 15 straight against top-six opponents. Woof.

  • Last year’s goal line stumbles in the Big Ten Championship and the CFP semifinals solidified his reputation for failing to get over the hump — so when the aforementioned three-game catastrophe hit, frustrated fans were more than ready to call for his job.

👀 Did he deserve to be fired?: That’s up for debate. Franklin turned this program from a dumpster fire to a CFP semifinalist, reaching double-digit wins (the mark of a great year in college football) in six of 11 seasons, so his unceremonious midseason canning feels harsh. Plenty of players and alum have voiced their support for him.