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Penn State's James Franklin Faces Uncertain Coaching Future After Loss to UCLA

Franklin raised championship hopes for the Nittany Lions this season. They might have crashed against the Bruins.
Mark Wogenrich|
Penn State football head coach James Franklin arrives with the Nittany Lions before the start of a game at Beaver Stadium.
Penn State football head coach James Franklin arrives with the Nittany Lions before the start of a game at Beaver Stadium. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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PASADENA, California | James Franklin is coaching for his future now. Maybe at Penn State, maybe for a fresh start somewhere else. But the Penn State coach walked out of the Rose Bowl on Saturday and into a newly uncertain future.

Franklin barely looked up during his less than 10 minutes at the microphone after the Nittany Lions' 42-37 loss to UCLA. He looked dazed, defeated and dreading his return to State College for homecoming. Which could be his last — by choice.

Penn State's loss to the Bruins felt like an inflection point. It was either the moment Franklin realized he had to make a hard set of changes to lift the program into the ether it has struggled so hard to reach. Or it was the moment Franklin realized he had reached terminal velocity at Penn State and needed to try again elsewhere.

We won't know which fork Penn State and Franklin chose for perhaps a few years, since the university and athletic department are unlikely to make an active change regarding Franklin. This will be his decision if a change comes to pass. And if it does, Oct. 4 at the Rose Bowl will be remembered as shovels-in-the-dirt day.

Penn State is 3-2 on the season, and 0-2 against Power 4 teams, following the worst loss of Franklin's tenure and probably the program's most consequential loss since 1999. That year, Penn State was 9-0 and ranked second when Minnesota converted a fluky fourth-and-long and a freshman kicker, who practiced kicking over ladders that week, made a game-winning field goal for the Gophers' 24-23 win.

Ultimately, this loss to UCLA was worse. The Bruins were 0-4, had an interim head coach who was a special assistant two weeks ago and an offensive coordinator who learned he would be calling plays at 5 p.m. last Tuesday. He didn't even know how to use the coordinator's headset.

But then interim coach Tim Skipper and offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel took a team that had not led all season, had not scored a first-quarter point and had ranked last in the Big Ten in nine major statistical categories straight into Penn State's heart. They roundly beat a team that Franklin repeatedly has called the best combination of talent, both staff and personnel-wise, in his 12 seasons at Penn State.

The blue-and-gold confetti that rained upon the field at the Rose Bowl beckoned a group of Bruins back out there to watch the UCLA band. As they passed a room of Penn State personnel, the players laughed at the fact that they outrushed the Nittany Lions by 112 yards (269-157) despite fielding the nation's 105th-ranked rushing offense and 131st rushing defense.

"It's all of us," Penn State defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton said afterward. "Players, coaches, staff, everybody. They’re a great team, but we lost the game. That’s embarrassing, that’s bad, and we all got to look in the mirror. It's not one person, it's not one coach, not one player. It's literally everybody."

And it begins with Franklin.

James Franklin's words come back to haunt him

Despite having to fly to Las Vegas for Big Ten Media Days, Franklin was in a good mood at the media event. He squared up against the heavy expectations placed on his team, saying this iteration of Penn State had the chops and the determination to bat away every negative narrative that blanketed them for several years.

"We're in we're in total control of it, right?" Franklin said in Las Vegas. "If we want the narrative to change, we've got an opportunity to change it. We want people to shut up, we can shut them up real easy."

Famous last words. Franklin built and positioned this roster for Sept. 27 against Oregon, the game that was supposed to be Penn State's declaration of independence from those past narratives. The Nittany Lions had an equal or better roster, the veteran quarterback, the defensive coordinator who horse-collared Oregon in last year's playoff and the White Out they craved for six years.

Then they lost in double overtime, and the shell cracked. The "Big Game James" memes resurfaced, but Franklin still had a counter in his back pocket. The Nittany Lions hadn't lost consecutive games since 2021 and had a 34-game win streak vs. unranked teams. They were bound to course-correct from the loss to Oregon against UCLA.

And then the Bruins (again, with three interims at the helm and in front of a half-empty Rose Bowl) punched Penn State for 27 first-half points. Thanks to an onside kick that led to a field goal, the Bruins ran 16 plays before Penn State ran one. Quarterback Nico Iamaleava set personal records in rushing yards (128) and rushing touchdowns (three). The team that never led in its first four games never trailed against the seventh-ranked Nittany Lions.

"Obviously we did not handle last week’s loss well," Franklin said. "We also lost some players in
that game and during the week. And everything else, the travel, everything else. We did not come out with the right energy to start the game. Before you know it, they get a touchdown drive and an onside kick. Now you’re fighting. They gain confidence, and we’re fighting for the next three quarters. That’s my responsibility. I didn’t get it done."

James Franklin's next move

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule worked for Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft while both were at Temple. They celebrated together in 2015, when Temple beat up Penn State 27-10, another contender for worst-loss consideration in Franklin's tenure.

Rhule this summer offered a unique perspective into Kraft's approach, which becomes more insightful in the context of these two Penn State losses.

"What Pat does is, he comes in, he raises the level of expectation, he removes the excuses," Rhule said. "You're here to play for championships. And if you want to do that, there has to be a certain investment from the university. I know he makes that investment, and then he expects you to perform."

Kraft gave Franklin a huge line of credit this offseason, enough to pay for a host of returning talent, four transfer portal starters and the nation's most expensive assistant coach in defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. Kraft now wants to collect on that debt, which includes a huge vig — namely, win a College Football Playoff title. That looks beyond possible at this point.

Which leaves Franklin staring down another crossroad. He negotiated his most recent 10-year contract in 2021 with Penn State's previous athletic director, president and trustees chair. They're all gone now, and Kraft holds the keys to Franklin's contract future.

Franklin's buyout, negotiated in 2021, is at least $48 million this year, so firing him without cause is unlikely — particularly with a $700 million stadium renovation a year in, revenue-sharing online and another $100 million in capital projects to be paid off. So change likely would have to come in another form.

Which is Franklin leaving for another job or leaving just because. If he feels the wall is too high to climb at Penn State, Franklin could just look for another. He's loyal and proud and desperately wants to win a national championship, but Franklin also possesses a pragmatic side for decision-making. He has looked around before. He most certainly could do it again.

At the end of his postgame press conference, Franklin was reminded of what he said in July about his roster and asked whether he still believes it.

"How am I supposed to answer that when we lose the last two games?" he said. "That’s all that matters. We didn’t win the last two games. I obviously felt that way or I wouldn’t have said it. After two losses, it’s hard for me to answer that question and say that’s the case."

If he doesn't make that case this year at Penn State, Franklin might take a swing at it next year somewhere else.

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Mark Wogenrich
MARK WOGENRICH

Mark Wogenrich is the editor and publisher of Penn State on SI, the site for Nittany Lions sports on the Sports Illustrated network. He has covered Penn State sports for more than two decades across three coaching staffs, three Rose Bowls and one College Football Playoff appearance.

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