Which College Football Coach Could Be Fired After James Franklin?

At the end of the 2024 college football season, the future seemed bright for Penn State and head coach James Franklin. The team was one game away from competing for a national championship, and many of the key starters would be returning for 2025.

The Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines had been able to combine veteran experience with savvy recruiting in the transfer portal, creating championship-winning teams. Franklin attempted to do the same in 2025, but the results were less than ideal.

Penn State's season hit rock bottom on Saturday with its third straight loss, this time to perennial Big Ten backmarker Northwestern. The Nittany Lions also dropped games against Oregon and UCLA within the conference streak.

Franklin's Firing Could Result in More Moves

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that Penn State fired Franklin on Sunday, a move that could open the floodgates for college football coaches changing their places of employement.

Wisconsin's Luke Fickell and Florida's Billy Napier could be the next coaches to be fired. Fickell and Wisconsin were shut out and humiliated by Iowa over the weekend, while Napier continues to struggle with the level of competition in the SEC. College football is a results-based business, and that's especially true in the era of NIL and the expanded transfer portal.

Coaches were once able to leave their teams at the drop of a hat, and players now have more agency when they're in situations that don't suit them. Putting a great team together is one aspect of coaching, but keeping them together and working as a consistent, cohesive unit is another.

Adjusting to a Changing Landscape

Franklin appears to be one of the coaches unable to adapt to the new era of college football, a list that includes legends of the game like Nick Saban and a debuting Bill Belichick. Belichick's Tar Heels are off to a 2-3 start to the season and his college football coaching career.

Coaches like Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss and Ryan Day of Ohio State have been able to balance the line between high school recruiting and players who enter through the portal. Players are gravitating to the best possible situations, and those are often with coaches that have a track record of getting players prepared for the next level.

Franklin had NFL-level talent at nearly every position on the field for much of his time at Penn State, and he now departs the program with very little to show for it. As college football finds its next coach to fire in the middle of the season, it's clear that the job is not for the faint of heart.