Stanford Should Pounce on James Franklin After Penn State Firing

Stanford football is in the midst of a grueling season, but at the end of the campaign, the elephant in the room will need to be addressed. They're on the lookout for a new head coach for 2026 and beyond, and Penn State's firing of James Franklin may have just added another name to the list.

Despite hiring interim head coach, Frank Reich, right before the start of spring practice, general manager Andrew Luck and Reich made it clear that this arrangement was for one season only, meaning that a full-scale national coaching search would still take place after the season.

Many names have been linked to the Stanford job, most notably former Stanford quarterback and current Washington Commanders assistant Tavita Pritchard. But as the college football season has progressed and programs have fired their coaches in season, more candidates have become available. One of those names now available on the market?

Longtime Penn State head coach, James Franklin, was fired this past weekend after the Nittany Lions endured their third straight loss of the season following a 3-0 start. A national title contender to start the year, Penn State now is on the outside looking in, with their CFP chances left for dead.

But overall as a coach, Franklin is highly successful and is the type of coach that Stanford football should try and get. After all, Franklin took arguably the hardest job in all of college football when he took over Penn State in 2014. This was a program that was still picking up the pieces from a major scandal during the Joe Paterno era, and turned them into perennial contenders.

Coming from a top Big Ten program, Franklin will surely attract attention of other prestigious programs for their head coach vacancies, but the Cardinal are in a good position to at least be competitive with any offers that they send his way, should they show any interest.

Receiving a $50 million donation from former player, Bradford M. Freeman, the Cardinal are starting to get the resources they need to build the program how they want, and if they want a coach like Franklin, they have everything they need to compensate him in a way where he would have to at least consider the job.

Bringing in a proven winner like Franklin will instantly change the culture at Stanford. While once one of college football's premier programs, the last six or so seasons have seen the Cardinal not only struggle to adapt to the NIL era and transfer portal era, but they have also struggled in bringing in prominent recruits that are considered difference makers.

With a guy like Franklin, who is also an elite recruiter, Stanford could start seeing some big name guys look to play out the rest of their careers on The Farm. Having a beloved former NFL QB like Andrew Luck as part of the recruiting process surely wouldn't hurt, either.

Luck most likely already has a criteria for what he is looking for in a permanent head coach, but with more and more candidates becoming available, it never hurts to inquire about some of those big name coaches.