'The culture had gotten really tight': How Penn State unraveled under James Franklin
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Two nights before James Franklin's final game at Penn State, an unranked Clarkson University men's hockey team scored on the fourth-ranked Nittany Lions a minute after puck drop. Behind the net, students erupted into chants of "Fire Franklin" -- and resumed the chant after every goal in a 6-4 Clarkson win.
On Saturday, during Penn State's stunning 22-21 loss to Northwestern, the "Fire Franklin" chants echoed through Beaver Stadium -- and never let up.
After a third straight loss, Franklin looked defeated. As if saying goodbye, he stood on the 10-yard line and hugged every remaining player on the field before heading through the south tunnel for the last time as head coach.
There, his wife and daughter waited. He sent them ahead -- perhaps so they wouldn't hear the vitriol that awaited him -- as he passed fans lined up on either side of the underpass to the locker room.
"How it all turned so bad so fast," one Penn State athletic department source said, "I don't know."
The Nittany Lions began the season ranked No. 2 in the AP Top 25. They poured millions into building a loaded roster and a seasoned coaching staff that Franklin called his best yet. While the other Big Ten powers were set to debut new quarterbacks, Penn State boasted a three-year starter in Drew Allar, who opened as one of the Heisman Trophy betting favorites.
Coming off a CFP semifinal appearance, Penn State seemed poised to chase its first national title in 39 years. Yet with those expectations came unprecedented pressure on the Nittany Lions, who under Franklin had repeatedly wilted in big games.
As one former Penn State staff member put it, "They were either gonna win it all -- or they were gonna implode."
Six games into Franklin's 12th season, the Nittany Lions imploded.
They lost in double overtime at home to Oregon, which dropped Franklin to 4-21 at Penn State against AP top-10 opponents, including 1-18 in Big Ten games.
They fell at winless UCLA -- a team that had already fired its coach and hadn't led once all season. Then, they lost to an unranked Northwestern, making Penn State the first team since the 1978 FBS-FCS split to lose consecutive games as 20-point or more favorites.
"It's 100 percent on me," Franklin said afterward. "We got to get it fixed -- and I will get it fixed."
By then, Penn State was too broken.
On Sunday, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft fired Franklin. It was a difficult, emotional parting, as Kraft had a strong relationship with Franklin and respect for how he had built the program. Sources inside the program indicated culture wasn't the problem -- as evidenced by the decision of 10 star players to turn down the NFL draft and return for another season.
"This is not a three-game thing," Kraft said Monday. "This is really diving into where we are as a program -- what is the trajectory of this program?"
That drove Kraft to make the call despite Franklin's $49 million buyout -- the second largest in college football history behind Jimbo Fisher's $76 million Texas A&M payout.
Franklin, who didn't immediately respond to texts or calls from ESPN, won 149 games and reached double-digit wins six times in 11 seasons at Penn State, including the previous three.
Yet no matter what he or the program tried, the Nittany Lions couldn't win in the games that mattered most. And after Penn State failed to beat Oregon, the bottom finally fell out -- the school's fan base and power brokers gave up on its coach ever getting the Nittany Lions over the top.
"I'm here to win a national championship," Kraft said. "And I believe our fans deserve that."
Interviews with program insiders detail how a season that began with such promise in Happy Valley spiraled out of control -- and what comes next for Penn State.
THE NITTANY LIONS reeled off seven wins to begin last season, setting up a November top-five clash in State College against Ohio State.
Penn State jumped to an early 10-0 lead, but the Nittany Lions failed to score another touchdown. Twice, the Ohio State defense stoned Penn State inside the 5-yard line on the way to a 20-13 victory.
The Buckeyes went on to win the national championship.
Penn State's brass had seen how Ohio State's massive financial investment the previous offseason paid off in big moments, from the victory in State College to a dominant run through the playoff.
The Buckeyes sank $20 million into their roster. They kept key players from bolting early for the NFL and landed several star players in the transfer portal. They even hired away UCLA coach Chip Kelly to be offensive coordinator.
This offseason, the Nittany Lions emulated that blueprint.
They found the money to keep Allar and standout running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen on campus. They also hired away Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who had transformed the Buckeyes' defense into the best in college football.
After a one-point loss to Ohio State in 2018, Franklin noted that Penn State had gone from a "good football team to a great football team." But the Nittany Lions still weren't on an elite level -- like Ohio State was.
"Right now, we're comfortable being great," he said then. "I'm going to make sure that everybody in our program, including myself, is very uncomfortable. ... We are going to break through."
This year, that breakthrough seemed possible.
As one Penn State source said, Kraft and the administration ensured that Franklin had "everything he needed to win a national championship and get rid of that stigma. ... You want to keep those running backs? Let's do it. We need a wide receiver? Let's f---ing do it. Jim Knowles is out there? How much is it gonna cost? What do you need? Let's go do it."
Penn State sources noted that the program's funding began matching that of Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia. Underscoring that, the Nittany Lions are in the middle of a $700 million renovation to Beaver Stadium, which is set to be completed by the 2027 season.
"There was a lot of momentum trending our way," one university source said. "But the echo chamber of how good we were started to echo against itself. Like, we're not just going to make the playoff, we're going to win the national championship. It just got bigger and bigger, where the expectations were just massive."
Instead of overwhelming the opposition, though, the Nittany Lions played tense. They struggled under the weight of those expectations, even during the first three wins over Nevada, Florida International and Villanova.
The vaunted running game sputtered, and the defense wasn't suffocating the opposition as the players adjusted to Knowles' system. Even then, alarm bells were going off inside the Lasch Football Building.
"The culture had gotten really tight," one athletic department source said. "People around here were like, 'We're going to get f---ing crushed by Oregon.'"
One NFL personnel executive who had scouted those first three games wondered the same.
"They stunk," he said. "It was like, what's happening with them?"
Still, coming off a bye, the Nittany Lions had a prime opportunity to prove they were over their big-game flops of the past with the Ducks traveling in for a Sept. 27 prime-time showdown in front of a White Out Beaver Stadium crowd.
"This is going to be a statement game for our season," Allen told ESPN the week before.
Instead, it was more of the same.
They didn't get crushed, but struggled for long stretches. The offense under second-year coordinator Andy Kotelnicki never established the running game. Allar couldn't find a rhythm. And while Oregon coach Dan Lanning aggressively went for it on fourth down five times in the first half alone, Franklin managed the game conservatively.
Facing fourth-and-9 from the Oregon 36-yard line, Franklin sent in the punt team. The ball landed in the end zone, resulting in a touchback. The Ducks capitalized, scoring their first touchdown, then another on their ensuing drive to take a 17-3 lead in the fourth quarter.
That's when the first "Fire Franklin" chants began to reverberate around Beaver Stadium.
"When you're more talented than the other team, that doesn't hurt you," said an NFL personnel executive, who has scouted the Nittany Lions this season. "But in these close games where the talent [gap] gets a little bit smaller, it comes down to a few of those decisions that you make in terms of what position you put your team in ... you could see Lanning stacking decisions and setting up different things they wanted to do throughout the game. The strategy was clear. ... For all of James' strengths, recruiting and leadership, his major weakness -- in-game decision-making -- showed up in every close game."
Allar finally came alive in the fourth quarter and led the Nittany Lions on back-to-back touchdown drives to send the game to overtime. But then on Penn State's first snap of the second overtime, he threw an interception, handing the Nittany Lions yet another loss in a top-10 matchup.
As fans emptied out of Beaver Stadium, many could be heard chanting "F--- Drew Allar."
In the 12-team playoff era, Penn State's season technically wasn't over with one loss. Under Franklin, the Nittany Lions had usually responded well after crushing big-game defeats. After the setback to Ohio State last year, Penn State responded by hammering Washington and Purdue by a combined score of 84-16. After losing to Michigan late in the 2023 season, the Nittany Lions finished off the regular season by dispatching Rutgers 27-6 and Michigan State 42-0.
But with so much riding on this season, the Oregon defeat was an emotional blow that sent the Nittany Lions to the mat.
They never got back up.
"It's so hard mentally when you expect something big to happen," a Power 4 assistant said of Penn State. "When that gets devastated so early, some dudes just don't handle it very well."
Stephen A. Smith explains why Penn State made the right decision by firing James Franklin.
THE NITTANY LIONS traveled to Pasadena, California, hoping to get their season back on track against winless UCLA. The Bruins had recently fired coach DeShaun Foster and both coordinators after getting thumped by New Mexico 35-10.
But one source close to Penn State described the Nittany Lions as "emotionless" after Oregon.
"The team needed inspiration and confidence," the source said. "But it was all hesitation."
The Bruins were 24-point underdogs. They had scored just 57 points in their previous four games combined. But UCLA scored on its first five possessions to take a 27-7 lead into halftime.
"Wide receivers weren't finishing routes, guys weren't finishing blocks, the defensive line not being where they're supposed to be -- things that were always done at Penn State weren't happening," a program source said.
The Nittany Lions tried to fight back in the second half, but a curious fourth-and-2 call from the UCLA 9-yard line ended the rally. Kotelnicki dialed up an end-around zone-read, and the Bruins buried Allar behind the line of scrimmage.
That play call proved emblematic of Penn State's offensive struggles under Kotelnicki, who had thrived with gimmicks at Kansas, but failed to fully embrace Penn State's hard-nosed tradition or get the best out of Allar's skill set.
"He tries to do a lot of stuff with movement and motions, but it just didn't play well," a coach who faced Penn State said. "With the running backs they have and the skill guys they brought in at receiver, you'd have thought they would have been able to get more production out of that group. ... [In turn], Drew regressed."
Afterward in the Rose Bowl tunnels, UCLA's defensive linemen taunted Allar, saying "first round [quarterback], what?"
Franklin, partially blaming the cross-country travel for the way his team played, was asked if he still believed this was the best combination of coaching and talent he'd had at Penn State.
"How am I supposed to answer that," he replied, shaking his head. "Obviously I felt that way or I wouldn't have said it. But after two losses, it's hard for me to answer that question and say that that's the case."
Allar was asked if the Nittany Lions still had a chance of making the playoff.
"What do you think?" he fired back. "Yes."
One Penn State source called the lackluster performance "mind-blowing." Another said the Lasch facility "felt like a morgue" leading into Northwestern.
Over the summer at Big Ten media days, Allar said it was time for Penn State "to get over that hump" in big games. Suddenly, the Nittany Lions couldn't win the smaller ones, either.
The pressure had gotten to them.
"It wasn't fair to the kids," a source close to the program said. "It's just not, because you're not at your best when you're worried about making a mistake, and you've got to be perfect. Then you lose the love of what you do, and you lose your confidence and you're just a shell of yourself."
That applied to Allar, whose production dipped.
Allar had strongly considered leaving for the NFL after last season. Multiple scouts said they believe Allar would've been a first-round pick last year and noted several teams had him in the second tier, behind No. 1 pick Cam Ward, with Jaxson Dart, who went 25th overall to the New York Giants.
"People were very excited about him," one NFL personnel executive said of Allar.
But after throwing a costly interception in the CFP semifinal, setting up Notre Dame's game-winning field goal, Allar opted to come back.
This season, fair or not, Allar came to symbolize Penn State's tentative, uncertain approach.
At 6-foot-5, 235 pounds, boasting a powerful arm, Allar often played -- or had been instructed to play -- like a quarterback with far fewer natural gifts, said one source close to the program.
"You could just tell he had a self-monologue of, 'Don't screw it up, don't throw a pick,' just not playing very confidently," a coach who faced Penn State said. "They just feel like a team that doesn't know who they are."
When Allar arrived at Penn State, he showed promise of becoming the player who had eluded the Nittany Lions. From Sean Clifford to Christian Hackenberg, Penn State had signed prototypical quarterback prospects before. But none under Franklin had developed into a passer capable of leading the Nittany Lions to a national championship or turning into a first-round pick.
As a sophomore in 2023, Allar threw 25 touchdowns with just two interceptions. The following offseason, Franklin hired Kotelnicki to unlock Penn State's downfield passing attack.
Last season, Allar ranked 16th nationally with a QBR of 77.5. He also averaged 8.44 yards per attempt.
But this year, Allar's play declined. He ranks just 91st with 6.9 yards per passing attempt, only a notch above the 6.8 he averaged two years ago. Allar also has an off-target passing rate of 13.3% this season, 12th worst among Power 4 quarterbacks.
"His accuracy was off all year," a defensive coordinator who faced Penn State said.
NFL sources added that they felt the Nittany Lions operated like they didn't fully trust him.
"And they have more information than we do," one NFL personnel executive said. "When they needed him to put it on his back, you just never saw that. ... But the other side of the argument is, his career so eerily mirrored Hackenberg, you do wonder if there's a quarterback development issue."
As if it couldn't get any worse for Allar, late in the fourth quarter against Northwestern, while trying to run for a first down, he suffered a season-ending left leg injury. Having played more than four games in each of the past four seasons, Allar has exhausted his eligibility.
On Monday, tears welled in Kraft's eyes as he spoke of Allar.
"Anyone who ever doubts that young man's commitment to Penn State and Penn State football, you don't know what the hell you're talking about," Kraft said. "He's one hell of a young man and he puts up with a lot of crap. ... He wants to win in the worst way. To see it end that way, you never want that."
DESPITE PENN STATE'S nightmare season, Kraft projected optimism about the program's future.
"We have invested at the highest level," he said. "Ultimately, I believe a new leader can help us win a national championship."
Sources close to the program expect Kraft to swing for the fences in hiring a new coach. Possible candidates could include Indiana's Curt Cignetti, Iowa State's Matt Campbell, Texas A&M's Mike Elko and Georgia Tech's Brent Key.
But all eyes will be on Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, who worked under Kraft at Temple. The two remain close.
Rhule won 10 games in 2015 and 2016 at Temple before taking the head job at Baylor.
In 2024, he led Nebraska to its first winning season in seven years; this fall, the Huskers are 5-1. Yet, those who have worked with Rhule in the past call Penn State "his dream job."
This week, Rhule, a walk-on linebacker for the Nittany Lions under Joe Paterno in the 1990s, didn't rule out a return to his alma mater.
"I love that place," Rhule said. "I love Pat. I love James Franklin and am sad that came to an end. I wish him the absolute best. But I'm really happy here."
Said a former Penn State staffer of Rhule: "They're probably a perfect marriage. If you're Pat, you hope Matt finishes really strong, and you can parade him in front of your donors. ... [They have] to hire somebody who infuses confidence into the fan base."
While Rhule enjoyed success at Temple and Baylor, taking the Bears to the Big 12 championship game in 2019, he too has struggled to win big games.
Over his stints at Temple, Baylor and Nebraska, Rhule is 0-11 against AP top-10 opponents and 2-23 against the Top 25. He had 18 upset wins and 13 upset losses during that time.
Only 53 years old, Franklin's coaching career is likely far from finished.
On Sunday, he addressed the players in what sources characterized as an emotional meeting.
"The players really did love him," one source said.
Penn State center and captain Nick Dawkins praised Franklin's "contagious energy, fighter's spirit, toughness and grit" on Tuesday.
"All the flak and criticism and boos and chants in the face of adversity, he remained a strong shoulder, remained stone cold for his players, for the university," he said. "Standing tall for those that are standing with you."
ESPN college football writers Paolo Uggetti and Max Olson contributed to this report.
espn
