{"id":308620,"date":"2025-10-16T17:44:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/308620\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T17:44:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:44:19","slug":"at-penn-state-james-franklin-was-standing-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff-for-years-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/308620\/","title":{"rendered":"At Penn State, James Franklin was standing on the edge of a cliff for years. Here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

The burden of chasing a breakthrough<\/a> became too much for Penn State to bear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a three-game thing,\u201d Penn State athletic director Patrick Kraft emphasized Monday, one day after firing head coach<\/a> James Franklin amid a stunning three-game losing streak<\/a>. \u201cThis is really diving into where we are as a program, the trajectory of the program<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penn State football was finally all in, ready and willing to spend at the top of the market for players, facilities and coaches. But tired of coming up short against the best of the best, Kraft and Penn State leadership decided the program had gone as far as it could<\/a> with Franklin and could not tolerate even the slightest step back.<\/p>\n

Still, the timing of it all \u2014 and the time in the calendar \u2014 was stunning.<\/p>\n

On an electric and eagerly anticipated Saturday night last month in Happy Valley \u2014 with most of a raucous White Out crowd of 111,015 desperately urging them on \u2014 quarterback Drew Allar and the Nittany Lions offense trotted onto the field with a chance to finally deliver Franklin and Penn State fans a cathartic signature victory. Instead, Allar threw a game-ending interception in overtime, and then-No. 6 Oregon won 30-24<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That reversal of fortune triggered a spiral. Penn State lost as a three-touchdown favorite both at UCLA<\/a> and vs. Northwestern. The loss to Northwestern ended Allar\u2019s season by injury <\/a>and Franklin\u2019s 11 1\/2-season tenure.<\/p>\n

There were no glaring signs that Franklin had lost the locker room. The players wanted to win for him. Maybe a little too much. Thin-skinned and rabbit-eared at times when dealing with fans and media, Franklin seemed to be well-respected by the people that matter most at Penn State, even until the end.<\/p>\n

But his team, seemingly built to make a serious run at the school\u2019s first national championship since 1986, turned out to be the most fragile title contender in the country, unable to withstand a crisis.<\/p>\n

With 20-20 hindsight, it\u2019s easy to spot why Penn State, which opened the season ranked No. 2<\/a>, was overhyped. The Nittany Lions were replacing two All-Americans, counting on their quarterback to become the first under Franklin to ascend to stardom and assuming the head coach\u2019s new high-priced defensive coordinator would make a seamless transition \u2014 even though history suggested that was not usually the case.<\/p>\n

The loss to Oregon felt all too familiar, leading to more of the same questions that have dogged Franklin in recent years: Why does this team, and especially this offense, always seem to play tight when the lights are shining brightest?<\/p>\n

The Athletic spoke with eight people who have worked with Franklin in recent years and others close to Penn State. They were granted anonymity to provide candid insight about Franklin and Penn State. Multiple calls and messages to Franklin were not returned.<\/p>\n

A former Penn State assistant coach said the consistency in approach that helped make Franklin\u2019s teams successful overall might have been keeping the Nittany Lions from leveling up to the elite programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably need to change something to get over the top. And what if we change this, and that\u2019s the thing that takes away the fact that we were winning 10 games a year?\u201d that former assistant said. \u201cThose are the things coaches obsess over. And I think that was part of the issue there. How do we change when we\u2019re having such success?\u201d<\/p>\n

What was less obvious was how close to the cliff Franklin was at Penn State, even after three consecutive double-digit-win seasons and an appearance in the College Football Playoff semifinals in January.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Penn State had high hopes returning the core of a roster that lost a close game to Notre Dame in the CFP semifinals. But it was a fragile beast. (Joe Robbins \/ Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Within a few days of losing 27-24 to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals, many of Penn State\u2019s top players announced they would join Allar in returning to Happy Valley to make another run at a title.<\/p>\n

It felt similar to the \u201cunfinished business\u201d moves that had taken place in the previous two years at Michigan and then Ohio State, where upperclassmen held off on the NFL for one final championship run. Penn State\u2019s name, image and likeness collective was finally operating at a level<\/a> to help make that possible for Franklin, who was unrelenting in his efforts to push the school to keep up with its competition.<\/p>\n

If he was expected to beat the Buckeyes and Wolverines, he demanded Penn State invest like them.<\/p>\n

The way-too-early top 25s jumped on Penn State as a top two or three team heading into 2025 while Big Ten rivals Ohio State and Oregon retooled their loaded rosters. Franklin further enhanced the good vibes with another headline-grabbing coordinator hire while hoping that another year of experience for Allar and a new set of receivers from the transfer portal would fix issues that have plagued Penn State for several years.<\/p>\n

Franklin swiped defensive coordinator Jim Knowles from the champion Buckeyes, making him the first $3 million assistant coach in college football. Franklin spoke glowingly before the season about how, in his early years at Penn State, the school would not have stepped up financially as it did to get Knowles and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who was lured away from Kansas after the 2023 season with a four-year deal worth more than $7 million.<\/p>\n

A former staffer at Penn State said Franklin got too caught up in hiring hot-commodity coordinators.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went for glorified hires. Things that look good (in the media),\u201d the former staffer said.<\/p>\n

Kotelnicki helped Lance Leipold turn around a moribund Kansas program with a creative offense, built around a mobile quarterback. Whether that offense was best suited to get the most out of Allar is debatable. His scheme, heavy on shifts, motions and messing with defenders\u2019 discipline, worked well in 2024 with versatile tight end Tyler Warren as the centerpiece and backup quarterback Beau Pribula (who\u2019s now starting at Missouri) used as a weapon in the ground game off the bench.<\/p>\n

After averaging 6.54 yards per play last year (14th in the nation), the Nittany Lions are down to 5.97 (tied for 52nd). Even against early cupcakes Nevada, FIU and Villanova, Penn State\u2019s offense looked glitchy, and Allar\u2019s development stalled.<\/p>\n

Allar was the first five-star quarterback recruited to Penn State by Franklin. At 6 feet 5 and 230 pounds, Allar has all the traits of an NFL quarterback. He was good as a sophomore starter in 2023 and better in 2024, even with some lackluster performances against the toughest opponents. Another step forward could have put him in contention to be one of the first players drafted in 2026.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t happening. Then, as if things weren\u2019t bad enough, Allar was carted off the field Saturday night after suffering a season-ending leg injury.<\/p>\n

Allar\u2019s development was crucial to Penn State\u2019s present and its future. Penn State needed to establish that it was a program<\/a> where blue-chip quarterbacks could become first-round draft picks. Instead, Allar has drawn comparisons to Christian Hackenberg, the highly touted quarterback Franklin inherited from Bill O\u2019Brien when he first got to Penn State in 2014. Hackenberg regressed under Franklin after a promising freshman year, was drafted in the second round by the Jets, but never played a down in a regular-season NFL game.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuarterback play has been a problem most of the time James has been there,\u201d a second former staffer said.<\/p>\n

Unlike many offensive coordinators, Kotelnicki does not coach quarterbacks. He is a former offensive line coach. Former Maryland quarterback Danny O\u2019Brien has worked his way from analyst to graduate assistant to QB coach over five years at Penn State and is close with Allar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he were at Ohio State, he\u2019d probably win the Heisman Trophy,\u201d a second former Penn State assistant said. \u201cHe has it all. Nobody works harder than that kid. My heart breaks for that kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some believe the quarterback issue was a failure in evaluation rather than development with Allar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Drew was the wrong horse. I think he misses reads and gets nervous,\u201d a third former Franklin staffer said.<\/p>\n

Going hand in hand with quarterback development questions under Franklin is Penn State\u2019s failure to recruit and develop a top-end wide receiver since Jahan Dotson left the program after the 2021 season. Dotson is the last Penn State wide receiver to have a 1,000-yard receiving season.<\/p>\n

After a wide receiver failed to catch a single pass in the CFP loss to Notre Dame, Franklin rebuilt the corps through the portal, bringing in Devonte Ross from Troy, Trebor Pena from Syracuse and Kyron Hudson from USC. Pena\u2019s team-leading 20 receptions rank 28th in the Big Ten. Ross\u2019 team-best 240 yards receiving are 35th.<\/p>\n

It was notable when Kraft said the next Penn State coach needed to \u201cattack the transfer portal\u201d and \u201cdevelop at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the defensive side, Knowles is respected among coaches, with an overall good track record that goes back to stints at Duke and Oklahoma State. But his multiple schemes tend to start clicking in Year 2, when players get acclimated to them and he better understands the talent he has to work with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a distinct difference in what they did schematically in year two (at Ohio State) than in year one,\u201d the first former Penn State assistant coach said of Knowles.<\/p>\n

The defense failed to get critical stops late in the losses to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern. Penn State is also significantly worse on third down and in the red zone this year than last when Tom Allen, who left for Clemson, was defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s Penn State team was without a doubt one of the best six or seven in the country. The Nittany Lions were also not all that far away from missing out on the first 12-team College Football Playoff. They won an overtime game against USC and escaped a road game at Minnesota with a one-point victory.<\/p>\n

The Playoff bracket provided Penn State a fortuitous draw with SMU and Boise State in the first two rounds, but the Nittany Lions were also just a play or two away from beating Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

It made sense that the core of that team would again contend for a CFP spot in 2025, but the assessment underestimated who wasn\u2019t coming back for Penn State. All-America pass rusher Abdul Carter skipped his senior season and went No. 3 in the NFL Draft to the New York Giants. Warren, coming off a record-breaking season at Penn State, was selected 14th by Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou lost dudes. You lost leadership,\u201d the second former assistant coach said.<\/p>\n

The assumption that the remaining players \u2014 especially Allar \u2014 would improve to fill the superstar void was wrong.<\/p>\n

Penn State rolled into the season with championship aspirations, but even when it was supposed to be easy, it wasn\u2019t. The Nittany Lions got booed at halftime against FIU, leading 10-0, and had their fans uneasy while methodically pulling away from Villanova.<\/p>\n

None of that would have mattered if Franklin and the Nittany Lions had beaten Oregon.<\/p>\n

When Penn State yet again failed to break through in the big game \u2014 dropping Franklin\u2019s record to 4-21 against top-10 teams \u2014\u00a0 another round of being asked to explain what went wrong and hearing the student section chant \u201cFi-re Frank-lin,\u201d seemed to be an increasing burden on the players. Still, people who know Franklin and Penn State don\u2019t believe he lost the team after dropping to Oregon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019ve been through this before, and we just got to look at the film and grow,\u201d defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton said that night. \u201cBut it\u2019s tough for me and everybody else in this program. We put so much into it year-round so that when you don\u2019t win, it\u2019s like, what did you do that for?\u201d<\/p>\n

When one loss turned into two a week later in a less-than-half-empty Rose Bowl against UCLA, new questions emerged: Where did the disruptive defense Penn State had the past three years go? Why is the two-headed monster at tailback suddenly a one-man show with Kaytron Allen outplaying the struggling Nick Singleton \u2014 and why haven\u2019t the coaches adjusted the playing time accordingly?<\/p>\n

The first former assistant said that he did not see a lack of effort when he watched Penn State play UCLA and Northwestern. But even if a No. 2 preseason ranking was aggressive for the Nittany Lions, they never should have lost consecutive games as a 20-plus-point favorite.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to get our grittiness back, our toughness, our swag, and most importantly, we have to go have fun, enjoy playing the game of football,\u201d interim coach Terry Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all failed coach Franklin,\u201d center Nick Dawkins told reporters Wednesday. \u201cThat\u2019s why he\u2019s not here. We failed him. So we have to take ownership of that and, as we move forward, we have to correct it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the players like James,\u201d a former staffer said. \u201cMost of them do, but he had been there so long, and he had pissed some people off there.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Franklin took over in 2014, the school was still reeling from the tumultuous end of the Joe Paterno era and the Jerry Sandusky child-sex abuse scandal. And despite his good relationships with players and many within the school, other people \u2014 like some donors and others affiliated with the school \u2014 never took to Franklin, even after a 2016 Big Ten championship, which still stands as the high point of his time in Happy Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny success James had was seen as a slight to the Paterno legacy,\u201d a former Penn State administrator said of a portion of Franklin\u2019s detractors.<\/p>\n

And so Penn State played like a team weighed down by lofty expectations and the pressure on Franklin to validate a Hall-of-Fame-worthy career. Fans had grown weary of the same old thing, too. Usually very good, but always behind the best.<\/p>\n

Kraft believed in Franklin and constantly defended him, but many were ready to bail if the coach couldn\u2019t fulfill the promise of this year\u2019s team. Kraft fought to give Franklin everything he wanted, no matter the cost.<\/p>\n

Those who doubted Franklin and were tired of his complaints about the lack of investment by the school could now say, \u201cWhat more do you need?\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday at home, after losing to Northwestern, all hope was lost. It became apparent that it really was never going to get better under Franklin, and not even a $45 million contract buyout<\/a> could save him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything this significant just doesn\u2019t come on a whim,\u201d Kraft said. \u201cYou have to have scenarios, and we do. How is this going to go? What if this happened? But looking at where the program was and where it is and where we want to be as a program, I just felt there was no other course.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The burden of chasing a breakthrough became too much for Penn State to bear. \u201cThis is not a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":308621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1428,51,50,1381,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-308620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","12":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115385090973041233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}