The Franklin Firing - Parallels up in Penn State

Penn State fired James Franklin last weekend in a move that has garnered incredible attention all week (and rightfully so).  The situation in Happy Valley is interesting to Hokie Nation, obviously because Virginia Tech needs a head coach.  And let me go on record by saying that I would welcome him and his ten-win seasons to Blacksburg with open arms.

However, this is not going to be a "who’s who of coaching candidates" article - there are plenty of those out there already, and quite honestly, no one knows who will be named as Virginia Tech’s next coach.  And we won’t know for another month.

The entire situation in State College, however, is very similar to what we experienced in Blacksburg just last year and into this season, and we can certainly relate to the struggles and emotions of the Nittany Lion faithful (minus the winning seasons, of course).

Both teams used the momentum of strong finishes to retain key players who could’ve gone elsewhere.  Penn State made it to the national semifinals last year, while Virginia Tech won five of their last seven including their bowl game after the 2023 season.

Both teams invested heavily in those returning starters and built their rosters at the skill positions.  Penn State brought back former five-star quarterback Drew Allar and both stud tailbacks Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen.  The Hokies retained Kyron Drones at quarterback, Bhayshul Tuten at running back, and all of their wide receivers.

They both received preseason media hype that drove expectations to their highest levels in years.  Penn State was predicted by many to win the Big Ten and make it to the national championship game.  Virginia Tech was a dark horse candidate for both the ACC title game and a playoff bid.

Unfortunately for both teams, they fell flat on their faces, and their bids to compete for championships evaporated in .500 records.  And unfortunately for both teams, the fan bases let people know how upset they were with these colossal underachievements.

Subsequently, both teams fired their coaches early in the season.

Franklin and Brent Pry both struggled to beat better teams.  Both lost games they "should" not have lost (only recently for Franklin, however).  And that cost them their jobs.

While it might appear that losses to UCLA and Northwestern are what led PSU to make an abrupt change, this year’s flop was not the sole reason that James Franklin was fired.  It has been building.

Yes, Penn State pumped Brinks Truck money into their roster, and yes, they were essentially eliminated from the playoffs with their third loss of the season by week six.  But it was the colossal let down from yet another big time disappointment - the home White Out loss to Oregon - that let the air out of the Franklin balloon.

James Franklin has won a lot of games at Penn State.  But very few of those came against top ten teams, and overall, his winning percentage against ranked opponents while at PSU was .333.

He and his Nittany Lions had Oregon delivered to them on a silver platter.  A night game at Beaver Stadium.  An electric White Out crowd.  A chance to finally get over the hump and take down a top ten opponent.

And for three quarters, the PSU offense sputtered.  The late comeback didn’t hold throughout the OT periods, and Franklin and company dropped yet another game to a highly ranked team.

This was Franklin’s opportunity to get the albatross off his neck.  And he failed.  Again.  The following two losses just made the school's decision easier.

Penn State became tired of always being the bridesmaid and never being the bride.  So they cut ties with James Franklin.

Hokie Nation understands that frustration. The Nittany Lions have been so close but yet so far for so many years.  They are a top 10-15 program year after year, but they are never a top five team.

This is awfully similar to Virginia Tech’s situation in the golden years under Frank Beamer, where they never could make that jump into the top tier nationally (1999 team notwithstanding).

There are significant differences though. While personally I remember being frustrated by the Hokies always finding ways to drop games that they should win or habitually losing games on the big stage, I do also remember being damned proud that our Hokies won several conference titles under Beamer and were nationally relevant and ranked every year.  I reveled in those eight straight ten-win seasons, an accomplishment shared mainly by the blue bloods.

Penn State fans do not share those sentiments.  They want to win the Big Ten, they want to win the National Championship.  Ten win seasons and playoff bids are not enough for that fan base.  While James Franklin brought that to Happy Valley, the school wants more, so he was let go.

We might say that he was a victim of his own success.

We might also say that he is the victim of Curt Cignetti’s success.  In only his second year at the helm in Indiana, Cignetti is turning heads.  He brought a perennial Big Ten doormat to the College Football Playoff last year, and this year he is undefeated with a win at #2 Oregon - the same team that Penn State could not beat at home behind a White Out crowd.

Cignetti’s instant success is tremendous - but it is not the norm.  Look around the league, most coaches do not have that kind of success at all, let alone in his first two years at a school.  Unfortunately, this is now the expectation.  

Win now. And if you do not, you will be fired.  We will pay a huge buyout, then spend even more money of your replacement.

That is the way of college football today.  We have been hearing about the changing landscape - well, we are not just talking about the players.  The coaches, the administrators, even the fans - we have all changed in that we want results now and we are willing to pay for it.

Coaches are fired all the time.  But this time it felt different.

Franklin has become the poster coach for this new age of college football.  Despite winning 97 games over 10 seasons (I didn’t include the crazy Covid year) prior to this one, despite making it to the national semifinals last year, despite a history of success as a head coach and a history of putting players into the NFL, he couldn’t do the one thing that has become most important - win the big one.  And after only six games, he was kicked to the curb.

Penn State reportedly paid Franklin around $50 million to stop working.  This is coming from a public school who charges out of staters over $50 grand in tuition, by the way.  But I’ll digress - that is another article for another day.

Can the sport continue down this path of excessive spending, this path of winning as the only goal?  I know, collegiate sports are different today, but is this where we want the game to go?  Is this sustainable for colleges?  For fans?

Penn State - and Virginia Tech, and UCLA, and a host of other schools - are currently looking for their next football coach.  They are likely to offer them tens of millions of dollars each.  But that won’t guarantee success, and if they are not winning within three years, these coaches may very well collect tens of millions of dollars to sit at home.

It is a dangerous cycle.  And a scary one, especially for Hokie Nation, because of its implications should NCAA football formally divide into the haves and have-nots.

Penn State is part of that group of “haves,” but their plight is very similar to that of Virginia Tech.  Both teams have to get their next coaching hire right.  If not, the consequences could be dire.

That is not hyperbole.  That is, to be cliche, the changing landscape of college football.