James Franklin reveals what's next for him after being fired by Penn State

James Franklin opened up about what’s next for him after his tenure at Penn State ended with his firing last weekend. The longtime football coach doesn’t want to slow down anytime soon.

As long as he wants to coach, it’s a matter of when, not if, Franklin gets another head coaching gig. Where that might be is anyone’s guess but there are a plethora of openings around the country and likely more to come as the cycle evolves.

Franklin knew he had to take a moment though. He didn’t want to jump straight into what was next before taking a breath and making sure his family was good first.

“Yeah, I think that’s a great question to be honest with you,” Franklin said on College GameDay. “The first thing was like, I need to take a deep breath. I need to make sure that people that are around me are in a good place. But after that, I don’t know anything else. I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I don’t have hobbies, I don’t golf, I don’t  fish. This has been such a big part of my identity, such a big part of my family. We love it. 

James Franklin ready for what’s next immediately

“So I think it was: take a deep breath, kind of in shock, surreal for a moment, and then it’s a ‘we got to get back to doing what we do,’ which is help young people achieve their dreams, get a great education, still balance what college football has become, the student athlete experience and big time business. But there’s a way to do that, and I can’t wait for that next challenge, and we’re going to go win a national championship at the highest level.”

Franklin leaves State College with a 104-45 record since 2014 when he took the job. He is 128-60 overall as a head coach, which includes his three-year stint at Vanderbilt (24-15). Terry Smith will serve as interim head coach for the rest of the season.

“There’s things that I know we did as well as anybody in the country, but every off season, you got to take time, and after what just happened, we’re going to do that even more,” Franklin said. “So I’m going to do that even more. So how can we take advantage of these situations? How can we maximize opportunities? How can we make the fan base, the alumni, the lettermen super proud of what we’re doing, but also, the other thing I want to make sure I hit on that we did it with integrity and class the entire time. And that’s not something that’s happening universally around the country.”