Stephen A. Smith: James Franklin blew ‘rare and privileged position’ at Penn State

On Monday's episode of First Take, Stephen A. Smith simply had to address the biggest headline of the sports weekend... that Penn State fired head coach James Franklin following a third straight loss — this time at home to Northwestern on the heels of a road loss vs. UCLA and the overtime loss to Oregon.

The Nittany Lions entered the year as the No. 2 team in the AP Poll and garnered Big Ten title and national championship predictions from pundits ahead of the season. In a decade-plus at PSU, Franklin had built all the way to a year like 2025, and by the second weekend in October, he found himself ousted from the program — but also, roughly $50 million richer.

Monday morning, Stephen A. Smith explained why he's disappointed to see Franklin fall so far.

"When we look and we address the issue, at least in years past, of African American coaches, particularly at the collegiate level, what was the saying?" he asked his First Take co-hosts. "You know what, you either don't get the opportunity, or when you get the opportunity, it's not a fair and equitable opportunity."

But Smith argues that Franklin enjoyed plenty of opportunity.

"You know, he's an African American coach, he's in the house, you gave him a boatload of money, you gave him all the resources," Smith added of Penn State. "Then they turned around and he said, 'That ain't enough.' They said, 'You right. Go ahead and get that defensive coordinator, we're going to make him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football. Go out there and get the transfer portal — how much money you need?'"

Whether it was signing Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles to a crazy lucrative contract for an assistant, or gorging on elite transfer portal targets, Penn State pushed their poker chips in the middle for 2025 under James Franklin, and there's no looming scapegoat.

"It's rare in the day that you are a Black coach in any sport on any level and somebody comes along and gives you all the resources that you not only need, but ask for," Smith continued. "That is a very rare and privileged position for a Black coach to be in where you're able to say: 'I got what I asked for, I got what I needed. They gave me all that I needed and that I asked for.'"

To have that level of commitment, as a minority coach, as Smith notes, and then to blow it, is just a tough pill to swallow.

"When you look at it from that standpoint, it hurts me, it really does, because I like him," Smith said. "But it was the right decision if you're Penn State. You got to give them props for making this decision."

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