STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Former Penn State football coach James Franklin appeared Saturday on ESPN’s College GameDay for an exclusive interview, which marked his first public statement since the university fired him last Sunday.
Franklin, who spent 12 seasons in charge in Happy Valley, said he was shocked when Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft informed him of the school’s decision to fire him on Sunday afternoon.
“At about 1:30, the athletic director walked in and said, ‘We’re going to make a change. I’m sorry,’” Franklin recalled. “I was in shock … And then I walked down and had a super emotional meeting with the team to tell them I was leaving.”
Franklin’s 104 wins rank second in program history, trailing only Joe Paterno’s 409. He led Penn State to the 2016 Big Ten Championship and to its first College Football Playoff appearance last season.
Franklin said he wants to focus on the “unbelievable moments” and relationships he built in State College.
“I had a great run there. Twelve years. Penn State was good to me and my family,” Franklin said. “I’m a players’ coach, so walking away from all those young men in that locker room, the recruits that were committed to us, that’s the challenging part. It’s [about] the people at the end of the day.”
The Nittany Lions entered this season with national championship expectations after returning Heisman Trophy candidate Drew Allar, hiring defensive coach Jim Knowles to the richest coordinator contract in the nation, and earning the No. 2 ranking in the Associated Press preseason poll. But after losses to winless UCLA and unranked Northwestern dropped Penn State to 3-3, the school’s patience ran out.
Franklin said he didn’t have an answer as to why the team fell apart so quickly before his firing.
“I’m still working through it myself. It feels surreal,” Franklin said. “To think, essentially, six games ago, we were fighting for a chance to be in the national championship, a two-minute drive away … I thought we were going to win a national championship there. I guess we’re just going to go to win a national championship somewhere else now.”
Penn State went 4-21 against AP top 10 opponents during Franklin’s tenure. The constant blip on his resume was his inability to win the big game, which happened again on Sept. 27 when the Nittany Lions lost 30-24 in overtime against Oregon.
While Franklin said it is not his place to say whether Kraft’s decision was fair, Nick Saban, who won seven national championships during his coaching career, didn’t hold back his disdain for Penn State’s decision.
“It’s unfair as hell for you to go to the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, get into the final four, come out being ranked No. 1 this year — an expectation that you created by what you accomplished at Penn State,” Saban said. “And for those people not to show enough appreciation for that and gratitude for all the hard work that you did, I’m saying it’s unfair.”
Franklin is owed more than $49 million in his contract buyout, which will be spread across multiple payments, according to On3.
But if he accepts another coaching gig, which he has to make a “good faith effort to obtain,” according to documents related to Franklin’s 2021 contract extension that were obtained by Front Office Sports, Penn State only has to pay the difference between the annual salary it owes him and his new yearly compensation.
The longtime coach sounded ready to get back in the saddle.
“I don’t know anything else [other than coaching]. I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I don’t have hobbies,” Franklin said. “This has been such a big part of my identity, such a big part of my family. We love it. So I think it was take a deep breath, and then we got to get back to doing what we do, which is helping young people achieve their dreams … I can’t wait for that next challenge.”
