ESPN's Paul Finebaum makes strong statement on whether firing James Franklin was the right move by Penn State

The Penn State Nittany Lions made the boldest move (so far) of the 2025 college football season by firing head coach James Franklin on Sunday.

Franklin, who had been the head coach at Penn State since 2014, was fired following the Nittany Lions' third straight loss (Penn State has lost games to Oregon, UCLA, and Northwestern over the last few weeks).

The move sent shockwaves through college football as Franklin took Penn State to within one game of a national championship appearance less than a year ago.

Paul Finebaum makes strong statement on whether firing James Franklin was the right move by Penn State

It'll be years before we know whether firing Franklin was the right move by Penn State (if the next coach can't at least get the Nittany Lions to the College Football Playoff, the decision to fire Franklin will look poor in retrospect).

For now, though, ESPN's Paul Finebaum believes that firing Franklin was a move that had to happen.

“It was the correct decision, Greeny (Mike Greenberg)," said Finebaum during an appearance on Get Up. "But that doesn’t make it any less stupefying. You said it, but it’s still hard to wrap your arms around this fall from grace. I have never seen anything like this in nearly 50 years of covering college football, but he had nothing. He had nowhere to go. Losing to Oregon just proved that he can’t win big games. We already knew that going in, but these last two (losses) have been some of the worst coaching I have ever seen.

"There was no faith in him. I talked to several people who were at the game Saturday, and the Penn State fans were literally wearing bags over their heads. This is one of the proudest programs in college football, so it was absolutely the right call. And there should be no turning back on that decision at all.”

We don't have nearly enough information yet to judge this decision by Penn State. We'll see how Finebaum's take ages in a couple of years.