And just like that, after 4,293 days and $80 million, James Franklin is gone. He was the Nittany Lions’ head coach in the national title hunt until — poof, in a matter of a mere handful of painstaking, gut-wrenching days — he wasn’t.
Franklin came to an unsteady Happy Valley on Jan. 11, 2014 wanting to blow up balloons and pull the rope in one direction. And he left on Oct. 12, 2025 after 15 days of pure mayhem that left Nittany Nation — and his many bosses — at the end of their ropes.
So now, The Coaching Search begins.
The last hiring cycle eschewed at the last minute a perplexed Al Golden and instead PSU hired that Pennsylvania boy with a Penn State heart, James Geoffrey Franklin. (Why James and not Jim? I asked him one time at an on-the-road Coaches Caravan presser at the Baltimore-Washington airport attended by only two writers, Nate Bauer and I. It was all so different back in 2015; as soon as the interview was over, James texted me the photo for the story.)
Our last weekly presser, six days ago, was a bit different. I must say, although we had our differences and once met at The Waffle Shop on College Avenue to iron them out off the record, he always treated me with respect and always answered the question. I didn’t hide. I’m a front row guy.
Beginning in Dublin and ending in Homecoming hell, Franklin coached 149 games at Penn State. He was 104-45 and departs tied with Rip Engle for the second-most wins by a head coach at Penn State, three times denied sole possession of that mark. CJF rebuilt and built and built Nittany Lions football back into a good, then great, but never truly elite football team. (Beating SMU and Boise State in the CFP is not elite).
And I still say Bill O’Brien’s contributions in it all are underappreciated. Which reminds me:
Ralph Russo of The Athletic wrote a story about Franklin in the preseason, asking if Franklin was overrated or underappreciated. I’ve written about Penn State football since 1979 and have taught mostly sports-related courses at Penn State for 26 years, so I was happy to talk with Ralph — who I’ve known for a long time, dating back to his Associated Press days — at length for that story. My one rule: It was off the record…
…Except for one item. I told Ralph he could use this quote for the story, and he did. The last sentence is Russo’s, not mine.
Michael Poorman, director of alumni relations for Penn State’s highly regarded college of communications, called Franklin the school’s Chief Marketing Officer.
“Penn State’s a $10 billion corporation,” Poorman said. “The best marketing tool Penn State has is football. So, if you’re paying James $9 million a year as CMO, you’re bringing in donations, you’re bringing in alumni engagement, you’re bringing in tuition dollars, customers who as undergraduate students are paying $100,000 to $150,000. As CMO, James is earning every penny.”
But what about as a coach?
In its essence, that explains why — as much as anything else — vice president for intercollegiate athletics Pat Kraft had to can Franklin now. Despite three losses by a grand total of 12 points with one of the defeats in double overtime. In almost all cases, hardly a fireable offense (even if the offense is inconsistent at best). I mean, this was a coach who went 0-5 to start the 2020 COVID season, and a year later was on a 2-4 bender of a skid, including 23-20 Iowa and 9OT Illinois. And he still got a massive raise and a 10-year deal that gave him $49.5 mil in walk-off money. Sign me up.
And now? CJF, a master of messaging and so very cognizant of image, was bad for the brand. He was hurting Penn State’s image and he was hurting sales…of tickets, of suites, of sponsorships, of top recruits. (See also Nos. 2 and 7.) No longer.
THIS WEAK’S TOP 10
With that, let’s get to this week’s Top 10. And remember, you can follow me on X at @PSUPoorman and on IG @PSU Poorman.
1. More on Monday. Kraft and interim head coach Terry Smith, co-captain of the 11-2, third-ranked Nittany Lions in 1991 and the current program’s OG, will meet the press on Monday, in the Beaver Stadium media room — per the usual in-season PSU football schedule. Smith is the right pick for interim HC. Only 15 minutes are allotted for Kraft; I put the over/under at 23.
2. Why now? I get it. It wasn’t going to get any better and the boos were only going to get louder, With Drew Allar gone, so was any hope of an eight- or nine-win season. And, likely a bowl. It was getting more awkward by the minute. By pulling the plug now, Kraft & Co. can move forward quickly. It cost less than $1.5 million by doing it now vs. waiting until after the Rutgers game on Nov. 29. Small change at this point.
2a. And when Franklin doubled down on his players, and not the fans or the school or anyone else post-game on Saturday night, you could tell it was over. Obviously.
3. Alignment. For quite awhile, Franklin has been touting The Alignment of Kraft, the Board of Trustees and PSU President Neeli Bendapudi. Kraft did not fire Franklin in a vacuum. He had to have had their support and/or direction — likely a lot of the latter. That’s the thing about alignment: If you don’t take care of your car regularly, the wheels may come off.
3a. Speaking of which, it was the top of the alignment — Matt Schuyler, when he was president of the Board of Trustees — who was the key agent in giving Franklin his 10-year contract, pushing it through over the heads of AD Sandy Barbour and President Eric Barron at the time. (This is from a non-BOT member then or now, who was there for the deal.)
3b. These days, Schuyler is the chief people officer for Creative Artists Agency (CAA) — the same firm that represents both Franklin and Allar. Huh.
4. Big bucks. If Kraft and Jimmy Sexton, Franklin’s super-agent agent at CAA, did not agree on a settlement, then PSU is on the hook for Franklin’s buyout of $49.5 million. That would keep WPSU on-air for about a half-decade.
4a. Then, there’s what is still owed to offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki ($1.8 million + $2.0 million) and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles ($2 x $3.1 million) for 2026 and 2027. That’s $10 million. Throw in some other guaranteed contracts for some of the top assistants and maybe some of the football execs, and the whole regime change could cost another $20 million, to start.
5. The human element. But, please remember, these are real people with families. Firings and staff changes impact dozens of people. Folks that Penn State fans know and care about, staffers without guaranteed deals or big severance packages. Like recently-hired Trace McSorley, a new dad. Or former PSU star and current cornerback assistant Jordan Lucas, whose wife and two young kids make this community their home. The departure of Franklin will have a ripple effect for many of them. If/when Franklin lands elsewhere, at least some of them will follow, as happened when he arrived from Vandy.
6. The Timeline. By firing Franklin now, Kraft has a lot of runway to find his successor. Coaches with teams in the College Football Playoff (i.e., Curt Cignetti at Indiana) make the hunt that much tougher. Coaches with teams that will simply make a bowl game (i.e., Manny Diaz of Duke) could conceivably start on the job in University Park in December. The sooner a new head coach is on board, the sooner he will be able to meet and evaluate current players and recruits, recruit some to stay and start to determine who to go after outside the program.
6a. There is a real chip in Diaz’s favor: He spent two seasons at Penn State (2022-23), and has good relationships with many of the current players and staff. And, he was wildly popular among the PSU players at the time — a great combo of excellent communicator (post-grad he worked at ESPN), a hands-on teacher and an authentic, caring person.
6b. Key Dates: National Signing Day for senior high school football players is Dec. 3-5. 6c. Selection day for the CFP and bowl games is Sunday, Dec. 7. 6d. The transfer portal for FBS and FCS programs will be open Jan. 2-16, 2026, according to new NCAA guidelines.
7. So many stakeholders. In addition to The Alignment, the new coach must be able to authentically and persistently interact and “sell” more constituencies than ever, as well as their mere presence on campus being a great sales tool. Penn State’s big-ticket partners like Playfly, Elevate, Oak View, Adidas and the Roar+ initiative all have a huge financial stake in football’s success at Penn State. Add in the stadium renovations, lots of other ICA construction and the need for the PSU NIL pipeline to actually expand beyond a small core group — during a house-cleaning — and the new head coach must be a home run off the field, too.
7a. Then there’s ICA staff — In the past six weeks, Kraft has hired a new deputy AD for strategic engagement and brand advancement (from Oklahoma State) and a new ICA CFO (from Toledo). Their new jobs just got easier and tougher when their new boss fired the football coach who was on board for nearly a dozen years.
7b. And last, and occasionally, least: The Letterman. TBH, while Franklin had upwards to 20 lettermen on his staff, there was not a broad connect with the former Nittany Lions who did not play for Franklin.
8. Pat’s pitch. What Kraft said in the official PSU ICA press release on Sunday, announcing the firing of Franklin: “Penn State Football is an integral part of our University and is an important part of the lives of our millions of fans, community members and alumni around the world. We have the best college football fans in America, a rich tradition of excellence, significant investments in our program, compete in the best conference in college sports and have a state-of-the-art renovated stadium on the horizon. I am confident in our future and in our ability to attract elite candidates to lead our program.”
8a. My initial list of names to consider begins with Diaz, who is 51. You may know that when Kraft was AD at Temple, he hired Diaz to be the Owls’ head coach back in 2018. Diaz lasted 18 days before he left to be the head coach at Miami (Fla.). Diaz was 21-15 with the ’Canes, but was fired and landed at Penn State. After two years as DC at PSU, Diaz was hired as the head coach by Duke, where he has guided the Blue Devils to a 13-6 record, including 3-0 in the ACC in 2025. Here is Manny on his relationship with Kraft, from a column I wrote back in August 2022:
“You learn one thing in this profession,” Diaz said at last Saturday’s media day, as he and I talked on the Beaver Stadium turf, “and it’s to always expect the unexpected, you know. To be honest, if there are jobs that one day you hope to get a chance to work at, coaching defense at Penn State would be one of them.”
Then, he said the silent part out loud. “The fact that I’m here,” Diaz admitted, “is pretty wild.” Talk about wild. Imagine Diaz’s surprise when four months into his new job at Penn State, that Kraft — who had since moved on to become AD at Boston College — was named Penn State’s new AD. (Irony of ironies: BC hired James as AD after Kraft left for PSU.)
“Yeah, small world, right? Yeah,” Diaz chuckled. “I’m such a big Pat Kraft fan. That’s such a giant win for Penn State. We’ve talked some. I’d love to have the chance to sit down with him and have dinner. We’ve kept in touch.”
That included when Kraft left Temple for Boston College in July 2020. “Pat’s been awesome every step of the way,” Diaz said. “When he got to BC, I reached out to him. When the rumors first started popping that he could be in the mix here, I thought that would be something else. I’m really excited to have him lead the athletic department.”
8b. Other names I like to be possibly Penn State’s next head coach: Matt Campbell (head coach, Iowa State); Pat Fitzgerald (former head coach, Northwestern); Clark Lea (head coach, Vanderbilt); D’Anton Lynn (DC, USC); and Matt Rhule (head coach, Nebraska). The Cornhuskers play Penn State in Beaver Stadium on Nov. 22, a homecoming for Rhule, who played football for State High and was a walk-on linebacker at PSU.
8c. Yes, BUT… I know Campbell is on every list for every P4 job that is open. l know Fitzgerald had that hazing scandal at Northwestern for which he was cleared. But he was 4-20 overall and 2-16 in the Big Ten in his last two years at NU. And yep, Lea is currently coaching at Franklin’s previous institution. I’m well aware that Lynn has never been a head coach, but he is young and smart like Lanning and Freeman, and a darling of Penn State lettermen and his dad was an NFL coach. And who doesn’t know that Rhule is Kraft’s buddy? But he is also a very Franklinesque 2-23 vs. Top 25 teams and 0-11 vs. Top 10 teams.
9. Names I am intrigued by: Bob Chesney, who is killing it as Cignetti’s successor at James Madison. Dan Mullen, head coach, UNLV, who played college ball at Ursinus. Bill O’Brien, an mf-er who loves Penn State but is 8-11 at BC. And Urban Meyer of FOX Sports, a three-time national champ, but one the worst head coaches in NFL history; he was The Guy who was going to succeed Joe Paterno until the scandal hit (true).
10. So, why no Cignetti of Indiana, 64 and a Pittsburgh native, who just knocked off the no-longer mighty Ducks? Be real. He ain’t coming. He’s the Hoosier King, has the backing of Mark Cuban, and is on one heckuva roll (17-2/11-1 Big Ten). But he does have a brother.
