In Week 5, James Franklin did what he always does. He lost the big game. It took two overtimes, but No. 6 Oregon eventually prevailed in front of a White Out crowd at Beaver Stadium. The loss dropped Franklin’s record against AP Top 10 opponents to 4-21 across his 12 seasons at Penn State, and for some Nittany Lion fans, it felt like the final straw.
For the first time last season, Franklin led the program to the College Football Playoff and even reached the CFP semifinals. However, the former accomplishment was aided by the CFP expansion to 12 teams and the latter by a CFP scheduling quirk that had matched Penn State up against SMU and Boise State for its first two games of the playoff.
Penn State finished 2024 13-3, with those three losses coming at the hands of the eventual national champions, Ohio State, the Buckeyes’ opponent in the national title game, Notre Dame, and the undefeated Big Ten Champions and top seed in the CFP, Oregon.
In some ways, those losses were excusable, as is the Week 5 loss to the Ducks, even though it came in Happy Valley. Especially when three of those losses came on back-breaking late interceptions from quarterback Drew Allar. What’s unacceptable is how Penn State followed up the Week 5 loss: By falling behind UCLA 27-7 in the first half.
Franklin has always hung his hat on the fact that his teams always win the games they’re supposed to win, and that’s true. Penn State has won at least 10 games in six of the last nine seasons, with nearly all of the losses coming at the hands of Ohio State and Michigan, the two dominant programs in the Big Ten.
If he starts to lose games to teams like UCLA, which has already fired its head coach, DeShaun Foster, and handed the offensive coordinator responsibilities to first-time play-caller Jerry Neuheisel, son of former UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel, ahead of Week 6, after moving on from Tino Sunseri.
Nothing is definitive, but it’s possible that the big-game losses have finally broken Penn State before Penn State was able to break through. That could force the program to move on from its head coach, but that won’t be cheap.
James Franklin’s buyout if he’s fired in 2025
James Franklin is the 13th highest-paid head coach in the country on a per-year basis, bringing in a base salary of $8.5 million on a contract that runs through 2031. He signed that 10-year $75 million extension in 2021.
Heading into the 2025 season, Franklin’s buyout figure was estimated at $56 million. That number is likely closer to $50 million, now midway through the season.