James Franklin Felt He Deserved More 'Grace' During Final Season at Penn State

Franklin recalls feeling "blindsided" by his firing in interview with former Nittany Lion Adam Breneman.

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

James Franklin felt that he had earned some "grace" after more than 11 years as the Penn State football coach, a tenure which abruptly ended 20 minutes before a Sunday team meeting last October. Speaking with former Penn State football player Adam Breneman, Franklin said that felt "blindsided" by Penn State's decision to fire him after the Nittany Lions had lost three straight Big Ten games, the last at home to Northwestern.

"When you give yourself to a place for 12 years and you turn down a bunch of jobs and you build it back to pretty much a consistent top-10 program competing for championships, that's where you felt blindsided and you felt like you'd earned at least that, right? A conversation," Franklin told Breneman in an interview.

"But again, I'm appreciative of my time, and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to turn into this bitter old ball coach, right? Again, very, very appreciative. Love those families, love those kids, love the staff that I got to work with. But yeah, I felt like I had earned a little bit of grace in how it was handled at the end."

Franklin covers a lot of ground during his nearly 45-minute appearance on the "Next Up With Adam Breneman" show. That includes the process of taking the head coaching position at Virginia Tech and how he's energized to lead the Hokies.

However, since it's a former Penn State football player speaking with the former Penn State coach, the 2025 Nittany Lions' season resonates across the conversation. The interview also represents the latest stop of Franklin's recent media tour to tell his side of the story about what happened at Penn State last season.

Interestingly, Franklin tells Breneman several times that he did not, and does not, want to become a "bitter" coach following the end of his Penn State career. A sense of therapy permeates the interview, as though Franklin feels more comfortable sharing these thoughts with a player he coached in his first season at Penn State.

As he has in other recent interviews, Franklin assessed the ways in which he was a different coach at Penn State in Year 12 than he was during the 11 prior seasons. That included allowing himself and his players to discuss championship goals. Franklin also made a reference to "coaching hires" that seemed right at the time but ultimately did not fit.

Franklin did not mention anyone by name, though former offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki and former defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who Franklin hired in early 2025, might fit the framing.

"We made great hires on a resume, but I don't know if they were the right fit at the right time," Franklin told Breneman. "We had a system of how we played on offense and how we played on defense and how we played on special teams. And although we hired different people [through the years], they still were part of the same system and same family, if that makes sense. And we got away from that. And we did not play early on [in 2025] the way I I think we were capable of playing."

I sat down with new Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin & this one did not disappoint.

I played for Coach Franklin, so I know him well… and watching him build a program from the ground up again has been awesome.

This was NOT a surface level interview…

We talked about why… pic.twitter.com/tgCSRSDJNH

— Adam Breneman (@AdamBreneman81) May 7, 2026

Also intriguing was Franklin's recollection of his final day at Penn State on Oct. 12. The day after his team's 22-21 loss to Northwestern, Franklin said he received a visit from "people" just before a team meeting. After being fired, Franklin said he walked into that meeting "in shock," suggesting again that he deserved more consideration for past successes.

"Well, the toughest conversation is when there's no conversation at all," Franklin said. "We lose a tough game, and then obviously we follow up with another tough loss, and there's no conversation at all. There's no hinting, there's no nothing. Twenty minutes before a team meeting, people walk into your office and say, 'Hey, I'm sorry. It's over.'"

In October, Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft explained his decision to fire Franklin.

"This is not just a three-game thing," Kraft said. "This is really diving into where we were as a program, what is the trajectory of this program. And you all know, and I'm not shy to admit it, I'm here to win national championships. I believe our fans deserve that, and I wake up every day trying to achieve that goal."

Here's the full interview between Breneman and Franklin, which has more nuance than social media can provide.

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