Former Penn State coach James Franklin spoke publicly Saturday for the first time since his firing on ESPN’s “College GameDay” set in Athens, Ga.
Franklin said that he was “in shock” after athletic director Pat Kraft informed him of his dismissal 15 minutes before a scheduled team meeting last Sunday.
“The AD walked in and said, ‘We’re going to make a change, I’m sorry,'” Franklin said. “I was in shock, obviously. Really took the next 15 minutes to let my kids know, so they wouldn’t find out on the internet, and then walked down and had a super emotional meeting with the team to tell them I was leaving. It really, that was it, it was that quick.”
Penn State made the abrupt change after the Nittany Lions, ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll, lost three consecutive games to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern.
Franklin, 53, who guided Penn State to the College Football Playoff semifinals last season, was asked if he thought the decision to let him go was fair.
“Fair is not for me to decide, right?” he said. “That’s for other people to decide. The decision that was made, that was hard for me to comprehend at the time, but what I want to do, I want to focus on all the unbelievable moments. I had a great run there, 12 years. Penn State was good to me and my family.
“Most importantly, it’s about the players. I’m a players’ coach. I always have been. So that’s the hardest part, walking away from all those young men in that locker room, the commits that were recruited to us. Lot of tough conversations. So that’s the challenge. It’s the people at the end of the day: the coaches, the staff, the families, the kids. What I don’t think people realize is how many people this affects. A ton of people. That’s where my heart breaks.”
Franklin went 104-45 in 11-plus seasons at Penn State and is tied for second-most victories in school history with Rip Engle (1950-65).
He said he is still “working through” what happened.
“To think that essentially six games ago, we were fighting for a chance to be in the national championship, a two-minute drive away,” Franklin said. “So that’s the thing. I really can’t answer that. Twelve years, a ton of good moments, a bunch of big wins. Decisions were made, and I’m not involved in those decisions.”
Penn State owes Franklin a reported buyout of more than $48 million, but he said he isn’t thinking about retirement.
“I’m very, very grateful for the time I had and, most importantly, for the relationships I was able to build,” he said. “I thought we were going to win a national championship. We were close. That goal hasn’t changed. We’re just going to go win a national championship somewhere else now.”
