Does James Franklin Owe Penn State a Proper Goodbye?

Penn State has moved on, as has Franklin to Virginia Tech. But Franklin and Nittany Lions fans never got closure after nearly 12 years together.

Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin speaks to fans on the sideline before a Hokies game at Lane Stadium. | Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

About a month after James Franklin was fired from Penn State, I finally decided to shoot him a text. I don’t pretend the players and coaches I’ve covered are my friends, but after more than a decade of conversations, questions, and a front-row seat to some of their most emotional moments, you build relationships.

They’re not built on much, but they still exist.

To Franklin’s credit, when I lost my job, he called. I was fishing at the time — clearly taking the unemployment hard — but when I got back to my phone, it read, “Just checking in.”

So I figured I’d do the same. Twenty minutes later, he responded.

The text felt like something he’d probably copy-pasted to a lot of people, sprinkled with just enough personal touches that I knew he’d taken a moment to actually text me. I liked the message, and that was that.

Periods of transition have never been my favorite thing. As a kid, I hated the last day of school because it meant not seeing some of my friends for a few months. I’m not saying third-grade friendships and a professional relationship with James Franklin are the same, but there’s something emotionally odd about spending more than ten years tracking and digesting everything that one person says and does — following them around the country, prodding them about success and failure — and then having it all just … end.

So the text exchange was a chance to say a brief goodbye and good luck. My wife won the odd life lottery of being a product of both Penn State and Virginia Tech, so Franklin won’t be out of my life just yet. But that exchange did offer some personal and professional closure.

And it made me think about everyone else.

Should James Franklin say goodbye to Penn State?

Matt Campbell buys an entire page in the Des Moines Register to say thank you and goodbye to Iowa State. pic.twitter.com/kjLutpjKBP

— Cyclone Fanatic (@cyclonefanatic) December 10, 2025

There is, without question, a difference between getting fired and leaving a job on your own terms. Franklin and Matt Campbell are living different sides of the same coin, but those sides come with very different emotions.

But it’s not hard to look around the college football landscape and find coaches who were fired saying thanks. Mark Stoops, Hugh Freeze, DeShaun Foster, and even the famously unlikable Brian Kelly offered extended thank-you letters to their former employers. Campbell himself took out a full-page ad to thank Iowa State, albeit for a very different kind of departure.

Of course, there’s no reason Franklin has to do the same. No reason that he should feel obligated to send well wishes to a fan base that spent a lot of time giving him a hard time. There’s no reason anyone has to be thrilled about getting fired and then follow up with a semi-performative thanks.

My long-held thesis about Franklin is that he wanted to be loved and appreciated — and, deserved or not, it never came. In a sense, he felt scorned. He took staffers, recruits, offered up a token thanks in his opening press conference and moved on.

Whatever the case, it has always been a blind spot of his not to embrace this part of the job. The part where you look past pride, ego, and whatever the public doesn’t know, and simply take it on the chin.

That approach has never done him any favors among fans, most of all those who have been eager to offer up revisionist histories of Franklin’s successes and failings as he transitions to Virginia Tech and Campbell to Penn State. Simply put, everyone’s had their feelings hurt, just in different ways. Franklin for a lack of appreciation, fans who find his silence to be confirmation of their less complimentary interpretations of his personality and character.

The result is a world where Penn State has almost no active relationship with any of its former head coaches. Joe Paterno has passed. Bill O’Brien has long been complimentary of Penn State but has no real reason to return to the sidelines. And Franklin is unlikely to make his own return anytime soon.

'Hey, we tried'

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin stands on the field following the game against the Northwestern Wildcats at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Perhaps Franklin isn’t interested in repairing that legacy. A time when he could someday return to State College and be welcomed back for more than ten years of trying — and winning, more often than not. 

Franklin is effectively the architect of Penn State’s modern revival, and whatever Penn State could or should have done in 2025 is secondary in the broad view of history of even being in the position to try. There is a very real world where Penn State football never recovered from NCAA sanctions and where 10-win seasons were never the norm.

Because of this, history will likely view the Franklin era more fondly than the present does. But as days turn into months, Franklin is running out of time to kiss and make up. Maybe he doesn’t care — and maybe he shouldn’t. But if he did, the appreciation he always chased might find him one day.

And all it would take is a simple, “Hey, we tried.”

What happens next for Penn State? Stay on top of all the Nittany Lions news by subscribing to the Penn State on SI Daily Digest. The newsletter is your free daily window into Penn State sports.