No he didn’t. Kraft gave him 3 and a half years after he was hired. Franklin was 34-8 in Kraft’s first three years and got within a bad play call/throw of playing for the National Championship last year. A game he could have conceivably won knowing how hard it is to beat a good team twice in the same year.
Even if you throw in this year’s 3-3 record, Franklin still ended up with a 77% winning percentage In his time at Penn State.
Franklin had ONE losing season in his 11 1/2 years and that was the COVID year. He would have made the Playoffs in 7 of his first 11 years under its current configuration, and once you’re in the Playoffs, anything could have happened.
Think about that for a second. Franklin would have had us IN the Playoffs NO LESS than SEVEN TIMES since he was hired in 2014. The ONLY years we would have missed them would have been his first two years when he was rebuilding the Program, and the two years we were dealing with the Covid pandemic and its aftermath. We would have already been IN the Playoffs in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
In short, Kraft was bat **** brain dead to fire Franklin so quick. His post firing presser didn’t help matters. If you don’t think other coaches look at Kraft and think he’s a raving, illogical maniac, especially since he will be following them around on the sideline in every game micromanaging their every move, you’re crazy.
Pay me a LOT MORE of your hard earned money than anyone else is offering with a gargantuan enough buyout, fine. But I’m certainly not going to make any long range plans wrt Penn State and its irrational fan base and AD.
Penn State has finally joined the great game - now it might win something, it might not. But this shows PSU isn’t content with racking up wins over nobodies. I’d also add this season has unraveled in historic, unprecedented fashion (of the worst ever variety). It was time.