{"id":313816,"date":"2025-10-18T16:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T16:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/313816\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T16:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T16:20:15","slug":"james-franklin-breaks-silence-on-penn-state-firing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/313816\/","title":{"rendered":"James Franklin breaks silence on Penn State firing"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Franklin\u2019s goal of winning a national championship hasn\u2019t changed \u2014 even if he wasn\u2019t able to accomplish it at Penn State before getting fired Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll just need to happen with another program, a defiant Franklin said during a \u201cCollege GameDay\u201d interview Saturday in his first public comments since getting canned after three consecutive losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we were gonna win a national championship there,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cWe were close. That goal hasn\u2019t changed. We\u2019re just gonna go win a national championship somewhere else now.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Franklin addresses his Penn State firing during a \u201cCollege GameDay\u201d interview Oct. 18. Screengrab via X\/@CollegeGameDay<\/p>\n

Franklin was in shock after finding out about Penn State\u2019s decision, which followed a loss to Northwestern on Oct. 11 and the two other defeats \u2014 against Oregon and previously winless UCLA \u2014 leading into that game.<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions always practice on Sunday, so Franklin was getting ready for their team meeting at 1:45 when Penn State\u2019s athletic director walked in and said, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna make a change, sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReally took the next 15 minutes to let my kids know so they wouldn\u2019t find out on the Internet,\u201d Franklin said, \u201cand then walked down and had a super emotional meeting with the team to tell them I was leaving. Really, that was it. It was that quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franklin opted to take the high road during his interview, saying that it\u2019s not up to him to determine if Penn State treated him fairly even as former Alabama head coach and current ESPN analyst Nick Saban called it \u201cunfair as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was in his 12th season with the Nittany Lions, had $49 million remaining on his contract and watched his team open the season as the No. 2-ranked team in the country.<\/p>\n

James Franklin reacts on the sidelines during Penn State\u2019s loss to Northwestern on Oct. 11. Getty Images<\/p>\n

James Franklin reacts after Penn State\u2019s loss to Northwestern on Oct. 11. Matthew O’Haren-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions were close to a national championship last season, too, after defeating SMU and Boise State in the College Football Playoff before falling to Notre Dame, 27-24, in the semifinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t answer that,\u201d Franklin said when asked how everything got to this point. \u201cTo be honest, I\u2019m still working through it myself. It feels surreal. \u2026 To think essentially six games ago we were fighting for a chance to be in the national championship \u2014 a two-minute drive away. So that\u2019s the thing, I really can\u2019t answer that. Twelve years, a ton of good moments, a bunch of big wins, but decisions were made. And I\u2019m not involved in those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Penn State promoted associate head coach Terry Smith to head coach for the rest of Penn State\u2019s season, which continues with a road matchup against Iowa on Saturday as the Nittany Lions adjust to life without Franklin and without quarterback Drew Allar \u2014 who underwent surgery for a season-ending ankle injury this week, according to ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And for Franklin, that meant a trip to Athens, Ga., for \u201cCollege GameDay\u201d \u2014 where he made it clear his coaching days aren\u2019t done yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait for that next challenge,\u201d Franklin said, \u201cand we\u2019re gonna go win a national championship at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Franklin\u2019s goal of winning a national championship hasn\u2019t changed \u2014 even if he wasn\u2019t able to accomplish…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":313817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1428,5723,1318,11136,1317,1315,1316,1381,62,3581,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-313816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-espn","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-james-franklin","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-ncaafootball","15":"tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-sports-media","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115396086040816934","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313816","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=313816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}