I’m sure everyone’s heard about Penn States decision on firing James Franklin. Coach Franklin was on his 11th season as a head coach and started the season 3-3, which ultimately led to his release.
In my opinion, firing Franklin gets Penn State on the right track for the future; However, I think they did it too soon and should’ve waited longer.
Looking at the big picture, he was fired because of his inability to win games. He started the season 3-0, then lost an OT thriller to #6 ranked Oregon. After that, Penn State lost 42-37 to the 1-4 UCLA Bruins. After the second loss they were matched up against a 3-2 Northwestern team and lost 22-21. Note that they were favored by 20+ points in both of these games.
One of the biggest downsides of this situation is that Penn State has lost several key recruits, including 5-star Kemon Spell, 4-star Gabe Jenkins, 4-star Layton Van Brandt, 4-star Khalil Taylor, and many more. Not only did Penn State lose a very well-known coach they’re also having to pay his 59-million-dollar buyout.
Although he wasn’t too much of a winner, he was a very stable leader. He led Penn State to a very respectable record of 104-45. However, the program never won a national championship with him. Franklin was also never really able to win any big-time games with his record against AP Top 10 teams being 4-21. He produced many NFL players like Saquon Barkley, Micah Parsons, and Chris Godwin.
Now see even if the team or even coaches didn’t want to see franklin fired all of Penn state did. At football games, and even Ice Hockey games fans were chanting, “fire Franklin.”
After Franklin was fired the Nittany Lions faced off against the Iowa Hawkeyes for their week 8 matchup and lost 25-24. This was Penn States first game without Coach Franklin, and also their first game with Terry Smith (Interim head coach). This was also the first game without Drew Allar which led Penn State to start Freshman Ethan Grunkemeyer.
To be completely honest I don’t know how much of this is actually Coach Franklins fault. The football team as a whole has fallen off drastically, and I don’t know how well they’re going to finish the season. Not only is this affecting this season, but it might also affect the next couple of years.
Moving forward, Penn state will play #1 ranked Ohio State for their week 10 matchup. Ohio State are heavy favorites with their chances at winning at 88%.
