James Franklin coaching timeline: Looking back at every stop in the Penn State coach’s career

James Franklin is heading into his 11th year as the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, a program that he rebuilt from the ashes of the Sandusky scandal and the optimism of the Bill O’Brien era. Franklin turned the Nittany Lions back into Big Ten champs, and only needed three seasons to do it, but since 2016, he’s repeatedly banged his head on the ceiling of either his capabilities or the program’s. 

There is a vocal section of the Penn State fanbase that is ready to move on from Franklin, who has won at least 10 games five times in 10 years and who has finished in the top 12 of the College Football Playoff rankings six times since 2014, a distinction that will be much more valuable going forward with the expansion of the CFP. 

If the Nittany Lions underachieve this season, with two new handpicked coordinators and a five-star quarterback who was brought to Happy Valley to get Penn State over the hump known more commonly throughout the Big Ten as Ohio State and Michigan, then Franklin’s career could be at a crossroads. So, before we look ahead at the numerous possibilities for a Penn State football program that with the recent growth of the conference that it has inhabited since 1993, could soon be playing fourth chair behind the Oregon Ducks and their bounty of Nike NIL riches in Eugene, let’s look back at Franklin’s career and how the Langhorne Pennsylvania native ended up in State College.

Playing days:

Franklin played quarterback at Division II East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania from 1991-94. He finished his career with 36 passing touchdowns and 10 on the ground and is still 10th all-time in school for total touchdowns responsible for. 

Early Coaching career: 

Almost immediately after his playing days, Franklin got into coaching, taking a job with Kutztown University of Pennsylvania as the wide receivers coach in 1995. The next year, he returned to coach the defensive backs at East Stroudsburg, his alma mater. Also in 1996, Franklin traveled to Denmark to become the quarterback and offensive coordinator for the Roskilde Kings of the Danish American Football Federation and won the 1996 Mermaid Bowl, the Danish equivalent, if there could be such a thing, of the Super Bowl. 

Franklin then returned to the States and became the wide receivers coach at James Madison in 1997, followed by a year as the tight ends coach at Washington State, and another as the wide receivers coach at Idaho State. 

After six years of bouncing between different jobs, and another country, Franklin was hired as the wide receivers coach at Maryland, where he would stay through 2004. Eventually, in 2003, Franklin also became the program’s recruiting coordinator. 

In November 2000, following Franklin’s first season in College Park, head coach Ron Vanderlinden was fired and replaced by Ralph Friedgen. Friedgen kept just two assistants on staff, Franklin and running backs coach Mike Locksley, now the head coach of the Terrapins. 

Following his four seasons at Maryland, Franklin left to become the wide receivers coach of the Green Bay Packers, where he stayed for one season. Afterward, Franklin returned to the college game, becoming the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Ron Prince at Kansas State where he coached future NFL quarterback Josh Freeman and wide receiver Jordy Nelson. 

After two seasons in Manhattan Kansas, Franklin returned to Maryland, this time as the offensive coordinator, assistant head coach, and the obvious heir to Friedgen. However, before Friedgen was dismissed in 2010, Franklin left to become the head coach at Vanderbilt. 

Head coaching career: 

Franklin’s only head coaching stop before Penn State was Vanderbilt where he had unprecedented success over a three-year period. In Year 1, the Commodores finished 6-7 with a Liberty Bowl appearance. The program had gone to just one bowl game since 1982, and Franklin went in his first year. 

Then, Franklin took a program that had won nine games only twice, in 1904 and 1915, to a 9-4 record with a bowl victory in back-to-back seasons. Franklin was also the first Black head coach of a major sport at Vanderbilt and just the third Black head football coach in SEC history. 

Then, once Bill O’Brien left Penn State to become the head coach of the Houston Texans in the NFL, Penn State hired Franklin and paid the $1.5 million buyout to Vanderbilt to get him out of his contract. Franklin signed a six-year contract with Penn State and is now heading into his 11th season in 2024.