Is it time for Penn State to regret firing James Franklin? Because it sure feels like it.
Since the program made that shocking decision in October, following a three-game losing streak to open Big Ten play and less than a year removed from a trip to the College Football Playoff Semifinal, seemingly every potential candidate has signed an extension, Franklin has settled in at Virginia Tech and immediately begun raiding Penn State’s 2026 recruiting class, and even off-the-wall candidates like Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein and Ohio State OC Brian Hartline have come off the board.
Whether your last straw was Penn State getting embarrassed by BYU after zeroing in on Kalani Sitake on Monday or whiffing on Hartline, who chose USF on Tuesday, the entire fanbase is seemingly fed up with athletic director Pat Kraft.
From the very start, Kraft took ownership of the decision to fire Franklin and of the coaching search. It’s been a tight-lipped operation that has spiraled into a complete disaster. From dreams of Curt Cignetti or even Matt Rhule, who worked for Kraft when he was the athletic director at Temple, to the possibility of keeping Terry Smith for another season and trying again next year.
It’s impossible not to point the finger at Pat Kraft
So where did the miscalculation start? It seems that Kraft overestimated the pull that Penn State would have in the transfer portal, NIL, and revenue-sharing era, where Indiana can be a powerhouse. 10 years ago, Cignetti may have left Bloomington midseason for a chance to lead Penn State. Now, he can lead the Hoosiers to the College Football Playoff in back-to-back seasons and build a sustainable winner at a former Big Ten bottom-feeder.
The same goes for Rhule at Nebraska, Eli Drinkwitz at Missouri, Clark Lea at Vanderbilt, and obviously Mike Elko at Texas A&M. The fanbases' hopes and programs' rumored interest in Kalen DeBoer and Josh Heupel were always far-fetched, and Kraft’s short-sighted refusal to hire a coordinator as a first-time head coach has left Penn State in no man’s land.
As for the Sitake decision, Kraft was right not to engage in a bidding war over a head coach who, through his religious affiliations, is uniquely valuable to BYU. That’s good process. Not considering coordinators like Stein or Hartline, presumably because they can’t bring a roster with them through the transfer portal, isn’t.
There was no glaring misstep that Kraft made along this path. Firing Franklin was an emotional decision, but the program had seemingly reached its ceiling and was heading in the wrong direction. Yet, even that hard ceiling is better than where Penn State is right now.
Not every step was even off course, but it takes a series of mistakes and bad luck to end up where Penn State is in a coaching carousel when it was considered to be a top job. Sure, many of the circumstances were out of his control, but Kraft has to wear this mistake, and it will likely cost him his job.
For all the great things Kraft has done with the rest of Penn State’s athletic department, if firing Franklin is going to cost him his job, Penn State should make that decision first before it lets him make a hire that could set the program back even further.
Who could’ve thought things would have gotten so bleak when Penn State entered Week 1 as the No. 2 team in the country? Certainly not Pat Kraft.