Penn State has fired coach James Franklin after 12 seasons, the school announced Sunday.
Franklin is owed more than $49 million, according to his contract. It’s the second-biggest buyout in college football history behind only Jimbo Fisher’s $76 million buyout from Texas A&M.
Associate head coach Terry Smith will serve as the Nittany Lions’ interim head coach for the remainder of the season, the school said.
Less than a year removed from an appearance in the College Football Playoff semifinals, Franklin’s program appeared to hit a new low when the Nittany Lions traveled out to Los Angeles two weeks ago only to lose to UCLA, a team that not only was winless but hadn’t previously held a lead all season.
The woes flew back home with the team to Penn State, and with them came “Fire Franklin!” chants at Beaver Stadium on Saturday. The Nittany Lions dropped their second straight home game, and third overall, when they fell to Northwestern 22-21 in front of a stunned crowd at Happy Valley.
With the two losses, Penn State became the first team since the FBS and FCS split in 1978 to lose consecutive games while favored by 20 or more points in each game, according to ESPN Research.
In Saturday’s defeat to the Wildcats, the Nittany Lions committed six penalties for 71 yards in the first half alone. They simply could never get out of their own way, and that was before quarterback Drew Allar suffered a season-ending injury in the fourth quarter.
Earlier in the season, when the losing streak began against Oregon at Happy Valley, Franklin fell to 4-21 at Penn State against AP top-10 opponents, including 1-18 against top-10 Big Ten teams.
Franklin’s .160 winning percentage against AP top-10 teams is tied for the third-worst record by a coach (minimum 25 games) at a single school since the poll era began in 1936, according to ESPN Research.
Hired in 2014 in the wake of Bill O’Brien’s departure for the NFL, Franklin inherited a team still feeling the effects of unprecedented NCAA sanctions in the wake of Jerry Sandusky’s sexual-abuse crimes.
Armed with relentless optimism and an ability to recruit, Franklin’s program regularly churned out NFL-level talent, from Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley to Green Bay Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons. Franklin guided the Nittany Lions to the 2016 Big Ten title and a seemingly permanent spot in the rankings.
There was hope this fall might be the season when Penn State would finally break through and win its third national championship and first since 1986. Yet after three easy wins during a light nonconference schedule, the Nittany Lions crumbled.
Athletic director Pat Kraft said the school owes Franklin an “enormous amount of gratitude” for leading the Nittany Lions back to relevance but felt it was time to make a change.
“We hold our athletics programs to the highest of standards, and we believe this is the right moment for new leadership at the helm of our football program to advance us toward Big Ten and national championships,” Kraft said.
The move will cost Penn State at a time the athletic department has committed to a $700 million renovation to Beaver Stadium. The project is expected to be completed by 2027.
Former athletic director Sandy Barbour signed Franklin to a 10-year contract extension worth up to $85 million in 2021. According to terms of the deal, Penn State will have to pay Franklin’s base salary of $500,000, supplemental pay of $6.5 million and an insurance loan of $1 million until 2031.
It’s a steep price, but one the university appears willing to pay to find a coach who can complete the climb to a national title.
“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,” Kraft said. “I am confident in our future and in our ability to attract elite candidates to lead our program.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Eli Lederman
Penn State suffered an immediate hit on the recruiting trail Sunday, will a slew of recruits decommitting in the aftermath of the school’s decision to fire head coach James Franklin following 12 seasons with the program.
Less than an hour after Franklin was fired, four-star 2027 recruit Kemon Spell, the No. 1 running back in the 2027 cycle and the No. 15 player overall in the ESPN Junior 300, decommitted from the Nittany Lions, sources told ESPN.
Two other ESPN Junior 300 recruits — offensive tackle Layton Von Brandt (No. 35 overall) and cornerback Gabriel Jenkins (No. 242) — also announced Sunday that they’d be decommitting from Penn State’s 2027 recruiting class upon news of the coaching change.
With four-star wide receiver Khalil Taylor (No. 66 overall) decommitting on Friday, a once-promising Nittany Lions class in the 2027 cycle no longer holds a single pledge.
As for the 2026 class, which entered Sunday ranked 17th nationally, three-star wide receiver Lavar Keys is the lone prospect to decommit in the immediate wake of Franklin’s exit. However, it is suddenly vulnerable less than two months out from the December early signing period.
High-profile commits from the SC Next ESPN 300 include wide receiver Davion Brown (No. 71 overall), offensive tackle Kevin Brown (No. 80) and running Messiah Mickens (No. 135), as well as quarterback pledge Troy Huhn (No. 186), and they could attract significant flip interest from across the country over the remainder of the cycle as Penn State navigates its post-Franklin future.
“We believe this is the right moment for new leadership at the helm of our football program to advance us toward Big Ten and national championships,” Penn State athletic director Patrick Kraft said in a statement.
The Nittany Lions consistently recruited among the top programs in the Big Ten across Franklin’s tenure, topping out with the nation’s No. 4 class in the 2018 cycle, when Penn State signed five-stars Micah Parsons and Justin Shorter.
The program finished in the top 15 of ESPN’s recruiting rankings in each of the past four cycles with quarterback Drew Allar and running backs Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton — all members of the program’s 2025 roster — among the top additions over that span.
The school announced Sunday that associate head coach Terry Smith will serve as Penn State’s interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Riding a three-game losing streak, the Nittany Lions (3-3) travel to face Iowa in Week 8.
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