It’s time for a change if Happy Valley ever wants to become happy again. James Franklin has done his job that he was hired to do, help rebuild Penn State and get it out of the cloud of darkness it was under when Franklin arrived. Franklin has done that and built Penn State back into a national brand that is consistently ranked in the Top 25. If Penn State wants to reach that next level and get that elusive third national title, it needs new blood at head coach.
Big Game James
Penn State has consistently been ranked in the Top 25 of all polls under Franklin once he got a handle on the program. However in their biggest games Penn State has consistently fallen short and when that goes on for so long it isn’t an issue with the players, it’s a leadership issue with the coach. Penn State is a premier program in college football, now you can’t win all your top ten games, that’s just an unreasonable expectation. The issue with Franklin, however, is despite being a premier team and having the talent, besides a miracle blocked field goal victory over No. 2 Ohio State in 2016, there has been no program defining victory. That win was crucial to get Penn State back after their scandal and bowl ban but Franklin hasn’t gotten that next big win that changes Penn State from a ranked team to a bonafide national title contender. There have been chances vs. the Buckeyes in 2017, 2018 and 2024, at home vs. Michigan without Jim Harbaugh at coach in 2023 and the Whiteout this year vs. Oregon. Penn State has been in all those games and have come up short in every single one of them. Why? It’s simple: James Franklin doesn’t know how to seal the deal and win those close games vs. highly ranked opponents. Franklin shrinks when the moments are brightest.
Inexplicable Losses
James Franklin just doesn’t have a talent for losing big games, he also has a talent for losing games he should win and in the most inexplicable ways. A chronicle of those losses: vs. Michigan State 2018, at Minnesota 2019, at Indiana 2020 and vs. Illinois 2021. Those are just losses in games Penn State should have won, not even against elite competition, but Franklin and his coaching decisions found a way for Penn State to lose those games. Not to mention inexplicable coaching decisions by “Big Game James” in those big games that cost Penn State. I don’t think any Penn State fans will argue that Franklin has given them more head scratching moments than they can count. Now you may look and see “Well, the last inexplicable loss was in 2021, so Franklin fixed that issue.” You and all Penn State fans may have thought that, before Saturday represented a new low.
The New Low
It is unacceptable, unacceptable under any circumstances given the talent and money poured into this Penn State team that the Nittany Lions lost to a putrid, lifeless and winless UCLA team last Saturday. I don’t care that it’s on the road or across the country. We just saw Oregon go on the road at Penn State and win in the toughest atmosphere in college football, a Penn State “White Out.” Yet James Franklin can’t find a way to win against a UCLA team lacking talent and with a crowd mostly favoring Penn State, despite being on the road. The difference is coaching. Dan Lanning had his team ready to go and James Franklin didn’t. Sure there is a difference in quality of opponent, but look at Ohio State and Ryan Day. They had a tricky trap game against Washington, yet the Buckeyes had no issue getting ready despite having to go across the country and playing in the same time slot as Penn State did in their loss at UCLA. Penn State losing at UCLA represents the lowest point for Penn State Football purely on the gridiron since the early 2000s. During that time Penn State was questioning whether or not to fire the late great Joe Paterno. If Penn State was considering firing a program legend who put Penn State on the map, morphing them into not just a national power on the football field but a brand as well, then there is absolutely no excuse, no matter the buyout amount, that Penn State shouldn’t just consider but pull the trigger and fire James Franklin now.
2025 Was Their Year
Penn State saw the blueprint of what Michigan and Ohio State did in their national title runs recently. Build your core up through recruiting, spend money to keep them together and to get guys in the portal and go out to get a new coordinator to help out and win it all. It worked for Michigan and Ohio State, why not Penn State? James Franklin. It doesn’t matter how good Penn State recruited, getting blue chip prospects like Drew Allar, or building a core with players like Kaytron Allen on offense to supplement Allar and a strong defense led by a flashy new defensive coordinator fresh off a national championship as a DC in Jim Knowles. Yet none of it matters as long as James Franklin is still the head honcho in Happy Valley. It was foolish for Penn State fans to expect 2025 to be their year with James Franklin as head coach, no matter how good their team looked.
James Franklin Reflection
I want to end this by reflecting on Franklin’s time in State College. Franklin did a good job raising the program out of the ashes it was under when he arrived, building Penn State back into a national brand and he did raise the floor of the program. However the same mistakes that have plagued Nittany Lion teams since he arrived have reared their head: Losing in big games and playing down to opponents despite a wide talent gap. What those two have in common isn’t the player or schematics, it’s that Franklin, to put it frankly, just doesn’t know what to do. Franklin should be remembered as the coach who helped get Penn State back to being a good program and setting up the Nittany Lions to make their next coaching hire to get them to a championship level. That coach isn’t James Franklin. He’s had ten fair years now to build his team and it’s the same sad story every year of disappointment and failing to get over the hump.