Nick Saban Tells James Franklin That Penn State Firing Was 'Unfair as Hell'

Legendary former University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban voiced his support Saturday for former Penn State head coach James Franklin.

After getting fired from his position at Penn State this past Sunday, Franklin appeared Saturday on ESPN College GameDay. Per Tyler Donohue of 247Sports, Saban said of Franklin's firing, "It's unfair as hell for you to go to the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, get to the Final 4, come out being ranked [high] this year—an expectation that you created by what you accomplished. For those people not to show enough appreciation and gratitude, it's unfair."

According to Daniel Gallen of 247Sports, Saban also offered Franklin some encouragement, saying, "History is the best indicator of what the future is going to bring, so you're going to do well wherever you go."

After going 24-15 in three seasons as the head coach at Vanderbilt and leading the Commodores back to relevancy, Franklin was hired to be the head coach at Penn State in 2014.

Over his 12 years at PSU, Franklin went 104-45 with six double-digit-win seasons, including three in a row from 2022 to 2024.

The Nittany Lions' only Big Ten title under Franklin came in 2016, though, and they only qualified for the College Football Playoff on one occasion.

That was last season when they made it all the way to the semifinals of the first-ever, 12-team CFP before falling 27-24 to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.

Despite the disappointment of falling one win short of the National Championship Game, there was a ton of optimism surrounding Penn State ahead of the 2025 season due to the fact that several key players decided to return, including quarterback Drew Allar.

Penn State started 3-0 this season with an average margin of victory of over 38 points, but things fell apart when the competition got tougher.

The Nittany Lions suffered a heartbreaking overtime loss to Oregon in their fourth game before shockingly falling to UCLA and Northwestern in their next two outings.

Given that the expectation entering the season was for Penn State to reach the CFP and vie for a national title, the school's decision-makers apparently came to the conclusion that losing games to non-contenders such as UCLA and Northwestern was unacceptable.

It is up for debate whether a bad stretch should have overshadowed all the good Franklin did at Penn State, but since one more loss all but guarantees that PSU won't make the CFP, drastic measures were taken.

While there is no guarantee a coaching change will be good for Penn State in the long run, it was clearly a move meant to energize the team and potentially save the season.