James Franklin Fired by Penn State amid $49M Contract Buyout, Terry Smith Interim HC

Penn State entered the 2025 season with realistic national championship expectations behind a veteran-laden roster and the No. 2 spot in the preseason Associated Press Top 25, but those hopes quickly vanished.

And now James Franklin is no longer the head coach and Terry Smith has been named interim head coach. Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Patrick Kraft released a statement on the decision:

"Penn State owes an enormous amount of gratitude to Coach Franklin who rebuilt our football program into a national power. He won a Big Ten Championship, led us to seven New Year's Six bowl games and a College Football Playoff appearance last year. However, we hold our athletics programs to the highest of standards, and we believe this is the right moment for new leadership at the helm of our football program to advance us toward Big Ten and national championships.

Penn State Football is an integral part of our University and is an important part of the lives of our millions of fans, community members and alumni around the world. We have the best college football fans in America, a rich tradition of excellence, significant investments in our program, compete in the best conference in college sports and have a state-of-the-art renovated stadium on the horizon. I am confident in our future and in our ability to attract elite candidates to lead our program."

Penn State fired its long-time head coach Sunday following a 3-3 start to the 2025 season. ESPN's Pete Thamel first reported the news.

The Nittany Lions hired Franklin ahead of the 2014 season after he found success at Vanderbilt, and he helped return them to the upper echelon of the Big Ten. However, they never fully got over the hump and won the national championship as he famously struggled in marquee games against high-quality opponents.

Even amid those struggles against the best competition, Penn State fans could consistently count on Franklin to rack up double-digit victories by taking care of business against overmatched foes. Yet that also changed in 2025, as Penn State lost to 0-4 UCLA on Oct. 4 and followed that up with a home loss to 3-2 Northwestern the following week.

Northwestern Wildcats - Penn State Nittany Lions Highlights

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Quarterback Drew Allar, who was a major reason expectations were so high going into the 2025 campaign, suffered a season-ending leg injury during that loss to the Wildcats, which further hampered the team's overall outlook.

The loss to Northwestern was a third straight defeat for the Nittany Lions, which led to plenty of speculation about Franklin's job status. Fans also didn't hesitate to express their displeasure with the state of the program:

He was directly asked after the loss if "you still think it's best for your career to be the head coach at Penn State" and told reporters, "Again, I take full responsibility for what happened tonight. I take full responsibility for what's happened this season, and I'm committed to the guys in that locker room."

It was rather jarring to see Penn State struggle against UCLA and Northwestern in back-to-back weeks considering so much of Franklin's tenure has been defined by his issues in headline contests.

It seemed like the 2025 season would be more of the same when the Nittany Lions lost their first contest of the campaign to Oregon, which dropped his record against top-10 foes to 4-21. Those losses to programs such as Ohio State, Oregon and Notre Dame when so much was on the line will remain a key part of his legacy.

Still, Franklin found plenty of success with Penn State and finished with a 104-45 overall record. He finished with six double-digit wins seasons, including in 2016 when he led the program to a Big Ten title, 2017 when he won the Fiesta Bowl, 2022 when he won the Rose Bowl and 2024 when he reached the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.

Yet even that run to the CFP semifinals felt all too familiar for Penn State fans, as the team lost to Ohio State in the regular season, Oregon in the Big Ten title game and Notre Dame with a chance to reach the national championship game. Even the playoff wins were dismissed by some, as they came against non-power conference teams in SMU and Boise State.

Franklin never accomplished the ultimate goal with the Nittany Lions, struggled against the best competition he faced and failed to live up to sky-high expectations in 2025. It cost him his job, and Penn State is now left searching for its next head coach amid the disappointment.