'Blindsided', 'Caught off Guard' James Franklin Breaks Silence on His Final Days at Penn State

Breneman opened the interview discussing James Franklin’s “complicated relationship” with Penn State after 12 years as the head coach.

Franklin noted he was “very, very proud, very appreciative” of his time and the relationships he built with the players and coaches at Penn State. He explained that under his leadership, the Nittany Lions “won a bunch of games, played in a bunch of New Year’s 6 Bowl games, won two playoff games, did a ton of really good stuff.”

Despite the success, Franklin recognized that “ultimately it’s about winning national championships and weren’t able to take that last step.”

So what went wrong at the end of his 12-year tenure?

“I Felt Blindsided”: The Breakdown in Communication

In response to Breneman’s question asking exactly that, Franklin recognized that he took on too much risk heading into 2025 to “take the next step” for the Penn State program.

“I felt like we needed to be bold and aggressive and do some things different from our normal model,” Franklin said. “I think we took on too much risk in too many different areas…I know that last year, that we were very aggressive and bold and took on some risk that I would not normally take on.”

The 2025 Gamble: Why Penn State’s “Bold and Aggressive” Model Failed

Franklin admitted that some of this risk came in the form of aggressive hires.

“We made great hires on a resume, but I don’t know if they were the right fit at the right time.” Franklin noted that Penn State had been running a system on offense, defense, and special teams that stayed the same throughout his tenure, despite numerous hires in all three phases of the game. Heading into 2025, however, Penn State ‘got away from that,’ which led to the Nittany Lions not playing “the way that [the Nittany Lions] were capable of playing.”

The second risk Franklin noted was that a change in communication style inside the Lasch Building proved disastrous.

“I allowed us to talk about things other than 1-0,” which was a staple manta in the James Franklin era at Penn State. Instead, by allowing the conversation to steer toward larger goals like the national championship, Franklin recognized that “negativity” comes after losing games that created cracks in the focus on the larger goals.

Ultimately, Franklin called these “calculated risks” that he thought Penn State needed to make “to make the next step.

Finally, in discussing his firing from Penn State, Franklin noted once again that he was “blindsided” and “caught off guard” about the “lack of conversation” surrounding his firing from athletic director Pat Kraft.

Franklin noted that he felt like he “earned at least that, a conversation.” “I felt like I had earned a little bit of grace with how it was handled at the end,” he continued.

Despite everything that happened, Franklin reiterated multiple times how appreciative and proud he was about his time at Penn State before moving on to discussing his new gig at Virginia Tech.

“This isn’t the same James Franklin,” he said. “I spent a ton of time soul-searching and being honest,” to move forward at Virginia Tech.

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