{"id":886054,"date":"2026-05-08T22:03:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/886054\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T22:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:03:17","slug":"james-franklin-felt-blindsided-by-penn-state-firing-thought-he-earned-a-little-bit-of-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/886054\/","title":{"rendered":"James Franklin felt ‘blindsided’ by Penn State firing, thought he ‘earned a little bit of grace’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid a three-game losing streak to start Big Ten play, Penn State<\/a> announced its plans to move on from James Franklin<\/a> after 12 seasons. Now at Virginia Tech<\/a>, Franklin recalled a \u201cblindsided\u201d feeling when he learned of the decision.<\/p>\n

Franklin\u2019s went 104-45 during his time in Happy Valley and took the Nittany Lions to the national semifinal in 2024. That was part of a run of three straight 10-win seasons, including a Rose Bowl win in 2022. But after entering the year as the No. 2-ranked team in the preseason AP poll, Penn State fell to 0-3 to start Big Ten play and officials told Franklin of their decision to make a change.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Adam Breneman this week, Franklin recalled the moments leading up to his departure and said there weren\u2019t any discussions before he learned of the news. Given his long run with the program, he said he expected \u201ca little bit of grace\u201d with the way things unfolded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, again, when you give yourself to a place for 12 years and you turn down a bunch of jobs and you build it back to pretty much a consistent Top-10 program competing for championships, that\u2019s where you felt blindsided,\u201d Franklin said on Next Up<\/a>. \u201cYou felt like you had earned at least that, a conversation. But again, I\u2019m appreciative of my time. I wanted to make sure that I wasn\u2019t going to turn into this bitter, old ball coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, very, very appreciative. Loved those families, loved those kids, loved the staff that I got to work with. But yeah, I felt like I had earned a little bit of grace in how it was handled at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Franklin: There was \u2018no hinting\u2019 at Penn State firing<\/p>\n

James Franklin\u2019s departure came after a 22-21 loss to Northwestern<\/a>, which came a week after Penn State fell to UCLA<\/a> 42-37 \u2013 the Bruins\u2019 first win of the season. In the aftermath of the Northwestern game, he said he didn\u2019t have any discussions with Penn State brass about his future as the focus shifted to the upcoming game against Iowa<\/a> before the bye.<\/p>\n

About 20 minutes before a scheduled team meeting, Franklin recalled learning of the school\u2019s decision to move on from him as head coach. After making calls to his family, he then addressed the team while also thinking through the fallout of the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe toughest conversation is when there\u2019s no conversation at all,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cWe lose a tough game and then, obviously, follow it up with another tough loss and there\u2019s no conversation at all. There\u2019s no hinting, there\u2019s no nothing 20 minutes before a team meeting. People walk into your office and say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m sorry. It\u2019s over.\u2019 And in 20 minutes, I\u2019ve got to call my wife, I\u2019ve got to call my two daughters so they don\u2019t hear it on social media, because they will. Then, I\u2019ve got to walk up in front of the team \u2013 kids and young men that I love, that I was totally committed to \u2013 and say goodbye. Super emotional. The staff, the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I just think about, for me, how many people it affects. \u2026 It affected hundreds of people. You\u2019re trying to kind of get all of that and make sense of it. How do I deliver this message the last time you\u2019re going to talk to them? Because it\u2019s not like they allow you to come back and visit with guys. You\u2019re walking out of that building. That was probably the hardest conversation: my wife, my kids and then my extended family, getting up in front of the team and saying goodbye to them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid a three-game losing streak to start Big Ten play, Penn State announced its plans to move on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,18605,49,48],"class_list":["post-886054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-james-franklin-91-neshaminy","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116541220800658378","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}