For James Franklin’s entire 11-year tenure at Penn State, and in particular, every season since the Nittany Lions broke through to national prominence again in 2016, the goal has been to get to the College Football Playoff semifinal. On Thursday night in the Orange Bowl, Franklin’s team was finally two wins away from the national championship, and yet after a 27-24 loss to Notre Dame, much of the fanbase is calling for his job.
Franklin has earned the sarcastic nickname “Big Game James” for his lack of success against the best teams in college football, falling to 1-15 against AP Top 5 teams after Thursday night’s loss to the Irish. Despite winning the most games in program history with 13 and the first two CFP games in program history this season beating SMU in the first round at Beaver Stadium and Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl quarterfinal, Franklin’s accomplishments this year will be distilled down to a late-game decision to allow junior quarterback Drew Allar to throw the ball with under a minute left.
Allar’s late-game interception set up Notre Dame’s game-winning field goal drive and set social media on fire, reigniting the flames from Penn State’s midseason loss to Ohio State. Most are dismissing the victories over SMU and Boise State outright because of the Nittany Lion’s favorable draw in the flawed 12-team CFP format.
While much of the fanbase and frankly some of the college football media is ready to end Franklin’s remarkably successful tenure in Happy Valley, there are plenty of level-headed observers rightfully placing the blame at the feet of the former five-star quarterback who threw the costly interception.
Despite the outrageous and seemingly never-ending cries, Penn State won’t be moving on from Franklin this offseason and the Nittany Lions will be Big Ten and national championship contenders again next season.