Urban Meyer suggests Penn State already knows who is replacing James Franklin

Following a 3-3 start to the season and back-to-back losses to UCLA and Northwestern, Penn State parted ways with James Franklin after 12 seasons on Sunday.

Over his 12 seasons in Happy Valley, Franklin led the Nittany Lions to a 104-45 (64-36) record with six 10-plus win seasons and an appearance in the 2024 College Football Playoff. Last season, Franklin led Penn State to a top-five finish inside the season-ending polls for the first time since 2005. Just six games later however, he is searching for a new job and the program is searching for a new head coach.

On the latest edition of ‘The Triple Option‘ podcast, College Football Hall of Famer Urban Meyer suggested that Penn State already knew who they would be hiring upon making the decision to part ways with James Franklin. Meyer, who coached at Ohio State from 2012-2018, enjoyed a 4-1 record against Franklin’s Nittany Lions.

“When this happens, I’ve been through it on the other end,” Meyer said. “When you fire a guy at Virginia Tech, Arkansas, UCLA to a degree, they hire a search firm and they go out behind the scenes and talk to some candidates. They then put together a list and give it back to the Athletic Director/president of the search committee. The reason they do that is because with those type of schools, you have to go out and search who’s interested. Because those aren’t top-five or top-ten jobs.”

Meyer suggests Penn State already knows who they’re going to hire

“Penn State is a whole different animal”, Meyer continued. “In that way, the head coach at the other school can say he hasn’t really spoken to anyone and the AD can say ‘I’ve never talked to that coach.’ Because he hasn’t. It’s all through third-party stuff. They get the list together and go start recruiting or whatever when that’s done. At Penn State, I think it’s a whole different animal.”

“When you fire a coach, when his record was 104-45 and was in the Rose Bowl, Peach Bowl and a score away from playing for a National Championship. And 16 days ago, he could have had the possible No. 1 team in the country. I don’t think you make that move, with a $75 million dollar expense coming, unless you know who you’re gonna hire.”

The Nittany Lions opened the season ranked No. 2 in the country and won their first three games of the season. This set up a top-six ‘White Out’ matchup between No. 3 Penn State and No. 6 Oregon in Happy Valley three weeks ago, which the Nittany Lions dropped in overtime. This spiraled into losses to previously 0-4 UCLA and Northwestern, which turned into Franklin’s firing.

Nebraska‘s Matt Rhule, Indiana‘s Curt Cignetti, Notre Dame‘s Marcus Freeman, Iowa State‘s Matt Campbell, Vanderbilt‘s Clark Lea, Missouri‘s Eli Drinkwitz and Duke‘s Manny Diaz have all been floated as potential candidates for the Penn State opening.