James Franklin’s Penn State tenure marked by big-game failures, offensive shortcomings

Penn State fired James Franklin on Sunday following the program’s third straight loss this season, a humiliating setback to Northwestern. It was the Nittany Lions’ second defeat in as many weeks as a heavy favorite, sending the team to rock bottom.

The wheels came off for Franklin during his 12th season amid grand expectations as a preseason College Football Playoff frontrunner after reaching the national semifinals last fall. Franklin acknowledged over the summer the Nittany Lions had a championship-or-bust mentality given the program’s expansive offseason investment in talent retention and some of the additions Penn State managed in the transfer portal to bolster its chances.

Instead, the double-overtime loss to Oregon last month magnified Penn State’s struggles in the national spotlight after the program’s 15th straight defeat to a team inside the AP poll’s top 6. Moreover, Franklin’s 2-21 mark against the top 6 is the second-worst by any FBS head coach all time in such games (minimum 20). 

What followed the Oregon letdown was simply unacceptable for the Nittany Lions, a loss at previously winless UCLA and Saturday’s total derailing against Northwestern. Franklin hadn’t suffered multiple losses to unranked teams in a single season since 2020 and Penn State became the first FBS team since 1978 to drop consecutive games as a 20-plus point favorite.

Raw numbers from Franklin’s reign

Franklin came into the season 17-26 in his coaching career against ranked opponents, which put him in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten. Franklin posted a career-best 13 victories in 2024, which included three wins over ranked teams, giving way to substantial expectations as the AP poll’s preseason No. 2 this year.

Before the momentum-altering setback to the Ducks, Franklin had won 37 of his previous 45 games, one of the greatest multi-year runs in program history. However, consecutive setbacks as a heavy favorite to teams with non-comparable rosters — the caliber of opponents the Nittany Lions have routinely trampled under Franklin — were enough for Penn State’s power brass to pull the plug and eat the buyout.

The good …

• 104-45 overall, 64-36 vs. Big Ten
• Eight double-digit win seasons
• Five top-10 finishes 
• Five bowl wins
• Big Ten championship

The bad …

The ugly …

• 2-21 against AP top 6
• 4-21 against AP top 10

Franklin leaves the program with the second-most coaching wins all time in Happy Valley with 104 victories, tied with Rip Engle and behind the legendary Joe Paterno.

Offensive struggles

Over his previous 11 seasons with the Nittany Lions, Franklin’s offense only once finished outside of the top half of the Big Ten in total yards per game, but production’s been a struggle this fall. Prior to his season-ending injury in Saturday’s loss to Northwestern, former five-star quarterback Drew Allar was having the worst start of his career through six games with 1,100 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions.

In his previous 29 starts, Allar managed 49 touchdown passes with 10 interceptions and had a passer rating higher than his 135.7 number as a senior.

The lone Power Four offense returning two 1,000-yard rushers from last season, the Nittany Lions have equally split carries between Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton, but the lack of a serious passing attack has enabled opposing defenses to put more defenders near the line of scrimmage.

Allen’s averaging 6.7 yards per carry and is on his way toward another banner campaign, but Singleton has just 259 yards on 70 attempts, a career-low mark by a large margin.

Only Michigan State and Iowa have produced fewer plays of 30 or more yards as Andy Kotelnicki’s offense has struggled to find its stride through six games. Kotelnicki was handpicked by Franklin in November 2023 to assess and fix Penn State’s offensive scheme, but the Nittany Lions never hit the next level in the passing game under his watch.

Franklin’s big swing at Ohio State’s Jim Knowles in the offseason was supposed to guarantee a return trip to the playoff with the nation’s highest-paid defensive coordinator, but it didn’t pan out given the team’s rash of issues on the other side of the football.

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