James Franklin fired as Penn State football coach after 3-3 start

Penn State football head coach James Franklin has been fired, Blue-White Illustrated has learned. The news completes a stunning fall from College Football Playoff semifinal participant last year, to preseason No. 2, into a 3-3 start to the 2025 season capped by the Nittany Lions’ 22-21 loss to Northwestern on Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium.

Midway through his 12th season as the program’s head coach, Franklin compiled a 104-45 overall record with the Nittany Lions, finishing with a mark of 64-36 against Big Ten competition. Inheriting a program saddled with NCAA sanctions, its rise under his watch included 10 postseason appearances – including seven New Year’s Six games – and a three-game run to the 2024 CFP semifinal.

Vowing to fix the issues that have plagued his team this season in the wake of its most recent setback, the third in three games, Franklin will not get that opportunity.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported the news.

“We got to tune out all the noise, and we got to get to work. That’s the only answer, is get to work,” said Franklin. “We’ve had some adversity in the past, not like this, and we’re going to get to work.”

Instead, Penn State football will move forward without Franklin at the helm.

The separation cuts short a 10-year contract between Franklin and Penn State that began in 2022 and was to run through the 2031 calendar year. It paid him a total guaranteed annual compensation of $7 million, with annual retention bonuses of $500,000, plus an annual loan for life insurance with a cash value of $1 million. Annual incentives also included a maximum of $1 million tied to Big Ten, bowl and coach of the year honors.

Terms of the contract for termination by the university call for $8 million for every year remaining on the deal, which would be $48 million for the life of the contract, plus roughly $1.5 million remaining on the 2025 cycle. The publicly available term sheet does not specify the university’s obligation to pay as a lump sum or annually, nor an offset clause for other income earned, nor the possibility of a negotiated reduction in responsibility in case of a lump-sum payment.

Asked whether he still wanted to be the head coach at Penn State, and if he had confidence in his team’s ability to turn around the 2025 season, Franklin stressed his priority being on the players in the locker room just steps from the Beaver Stadium media room.

“For me, it’s always been about our players, and those guys are hurting right now. And the fans are frustrated, and I totally get it,” said Franklin. “We have great fans here. We get unbelievable support. I understand their frustration. Trust me, we’re as frustrated as anybody, the guys in the locker room.

“But to me, ultimately, it’s about the guys. It’s about the guys in the locker room, and they’re hurting in there, and I’d do anything I could to take that hurt away from them. But like I told them, we got to stick together.”

The remaining Penn State program will need to do so through the dire straits of on-field performance that has not matched its preseason expectations.

After winning its first three nonconference games, the Nittany Lions have since dropped a highly anticipated White Out matchup with Oregon, a trip to previously winless UCLA at the Rose Bowl, and the game against a 3-2 Northwestern team on Saturday.

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