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Penn State Nittany Lions athletic director Pat Kraft made the decision to hire head football coach James Franklin, and he told reporters on Monday that it wasn’t just the three-game losing streak that led to the decision.
Franklin’s departure is a shock to college football, as the leader in the locker room since 2014 parts ways with the Nittany Lions, who will have a whopping $50 million buyout to pay him.
Kraft said he was “looking at everything” after Penn State’s loss to Northwestern, 22-21, on Saturday.
“I felt after sitting down Saturday and looking at everything, at where we were in terms of the best interest of the athletes and where the program was going that we had to make the hard decision,” Kraft told reporters, via Sports Illustrated. “Looking at where the program was, where it is, and where we want to be, I felt that there was no other course. I felt it was time.”
This is a Penn State program that was ranked No. 2 in the country before the season started. They went 3-0 to begin, but have been in a free fall since. It came to a head against an unranked Northwestern team, as fans’ chants to fire Franklin roared even louder than they were when Oregon went into Beaver Stadium and handed them their first loss.
Kraft and Franklin have had a longstanding friendship as well as a professional relationship, making his firing hard on many levels.
“James Franklin is a good friend who has always carried himself with dignity, and represented Penn State with absolute class,” Kraft explained. “We are all fortunate to have had James Franklin to lead this program for more than a decade and we wish nothing but the best for him and his family.”
The Nittany Lions will be led by Terry Smith, Franklin’s assistant coach, who has been named the interim head coach.
Franklin took over as Penn State’s head coach before the 2014 season after leading Vanderbilt for three seasons in the same role. He was in his 12th season at Penn State, having brought the team to the College Football Playoff semifinals last season.
As the team’s head coach, Franklin was 104-45.
Looking ahead, Penn State will be without quarterback Drew Allar for the remainder of the season due to a leg injury suffered in the loss to Northwestern. They will head into a matchup with Iowa next week, but the schedule gets much harder from there.
Penn State will see No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 1, No. 7 Indiana on Nov. 8, and four or more losses would keep them out of the College Football Playoff for this season.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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