Penn State immediately loses elite LB commit after firing James Franklin

Welp, that didn't take long. The breaking news came in that Penn State football has made the tough call to fire James Franklin. Now, however, more disappointing updates are expected to be on the way for the Nittany Lions out on the recruiting trail.

Penn State fires James Franklin in stunning move that needed to happen

Less than 20 minutes after the Franklin news broke, a four-star playmaker has already decided that he's no longer going to be Penn State-bound. Moments ago, On3's Hayes Fawcett reported that linebacker Gabe Jenkins has backed off his pledge. He's surely not going to be the only decommit for Penn State in the coming days.

4-star LB Gabe Jenkins has decommitted from Penn State after James Franklin got fired

A 6-0, 187-pounder for the class of 2027, Jenkins committed to Penn State in August, choosing to play for Franklin over double-digit additional offers. The fanbase was excited about his future on campus, but Franklin being let go has changed everything.

According to the 247Sports Composite, Jenkins is ranked four stars and the No. 241 prospect nationally for '27. His long list of offers includes Penn State, USC, Florida State, North Carolina, Nebraska, West Virginia and many others.

Now that he's opening up his recruitment, you better believe that several schools aren't going to waste any time in trying to land him this time around. As we mentioned above, more decommits are expected - don't be surprised if 5-star running back Kemon Spell opens things up too.

As for Franklin, he won more than 100 games with the Nittany Lions, but his struggles against Top 10 teams haunted him over the years. Losing to Oregon earlier this season was beyond disappointing, while the losses to UCLA and Northwestern that followed were quite embarrassing. It cost him his job and now it's going to likely cost Penn State plenty of their top commits. Things unfortunately are a bit of a mess right now for the program.