Who won the James Franklin-Penn State breakup? One year later, there are no winners

When Penn State decided to fire James Franklin on Oct. 12, 2025, it did so to send a message. After three straight losses to Big Ten opponents, a Nittany Lions squad that was seemingly set up for success had underperformed to the point that athletic director Pat Kraft wanted to step in and steer the football program in a new direction. 

It was an emotional decision to part ways with a coach in Franklin who had led Penn State to 104 wins and five top-10 finishes across a 12-year tenure. But Kraft, in his press conference explaining the firing, said the move had to be made immediately in the best interest of the players on the team and the direction of the season. At the time, Penn State was 3-3 on the year. 

One year later, the breakup between Penn State and James Franklin has sent both parties on a wild ride, with each side, at different times, feeling they were indeed better off after the split. But the cruel twist of this particular week, the one-year anniversary, is that it finds both Penn State and James Franklin in eerily similar states of disappointment, with a lot of work left to do to make the best of their first year in a new situation in 2026. 

James Franklin was fired, Matt Campbell was hired, and millions were spent on the coaching change, yet Penn State found itself with a 3-3 record again on Oct. 12. 

So let's detail the chapters of the last year for this breakup, noting specifically when each side has seemingly had an argument for "winning" the split and ultimately the path ahead for both Penn State and Franklin. While this week paints a particularly bleak picture (they are currently a combined 0-4 against teams with a winning record), there are plenty of opportunities to flush the past and rewrite the present. 

Penn State fired James Franklin to join college football's elite -- instead, it became a cautionary tale

John Talty

Chapter 1: James Franklin feels the love while Penn State searches for partners 

James Franklin was a little bit surprised by Penn State's decision to move on six games into the season, but it also made him an early "home run" candidate for Virginia Tech as the Hokies fired Brent Pry even earlier in the 2025 campaign. Franklin had about $49 million worth of reasons to remain out of coaching, but a full-court press from Virginia Tech, including a plan for enhanced investments and the opportunity to get back to work, brought him to the table. 

After a settlement with Penn State and a new contract was secured, Franklin received a hero's welcome in Blacksburg as the kind of coach who can return the Hokies to the top of the ACC. He got Frank Beamer's blessing for the job; he retained his former assistant, Brent Pry, as defensive coordinator and quickly began assembling a staff of former colleagues to work on his plan for the 2026 season. In just about five weeks' time (from getting fired on Oct. 12 to being hired on Nov. 17), James Franklin had gone from being blindsided by a firing to feeling an outpouring of love and support at his new school. 

Meanwhile, Penn State was left playing the waiting game. 

While Franklin was officially out of work for just 36 days, Penn State endured a 54-day coaching search to replace him, leaving Nittany Lions fans with a very different feeling. Because while Franklin quickly picked himself up, found a new home and hit the ground running (which included efforts on the recruiting trail that impacted Penn State), athletic director Pat Kraft was working his way through in-season due diligence on potential candidates. If Penn State was going to hire a sitting head coach, then it wasn't likely to happen before the end of November, but it seemed savvy at the time to be one of the first brand names open in what was expected to be a busy coaching carousel. 

One by one, more big-time schools joined the coaching carousel. And much to the displeasure of Penn State fans, those jobs were also filled before the Nittany Lions had introduced their new head coach. 

Making matters even more frustrating was seeing some of the potential big-name candidates come off the board due to new contract extensions. Indiana coach Curt Cignetti dispelled any rumors or reports quickly with a new deal announced by the school on Oct. 16. Matt Rhule played at Penn State and worked at Temple with Pat Kraft, but he agreed to a new contract extension with Nebraska on Oct. 30. Texas A&M coach Mike Elko also landed a new deal on Nov. 15, and after that things started to quiet on the Penn State coaching front. When word got out that Kalani Sitake had become the focus of Penn State's search, BYU activated its community -- from Crumbl cookies to reworked investment strategies -- to ensure the Cougars wouldn't lose one of their own. 

By the time Iowa State coach Matt Campbell was hired in early December, Penn State could feel satisfied with the result even if the process was exhausting. Campbell's reported interest or non-interest in the job had been miscommunicated at some point in the process, but that didn't undo the angst of watching a handful of SEC jobs both open and get filled in the time it took to make the hire. James Franklin spent those 54 days getting wooed, celebrated and feeling the love. By the end of 54 days at Penn State, they were happy to have a qualified candidate say "yes."

Chapter 2: Talking season sharpens expectations 

Though James Franklin and Matt Campbell have different personalities, they both command the podium with presence and carry themselves with obvious confidence in media days-type settings. And sure enough, both the Penn State and Virginia Tech fan bases came out of the July-August preseason run-up with an idea of what they were going ot get in Year 1 with a new head coach. The expectations were different for both personnel and scheduling reasons, but they were mostly clear. And for Penn State, those expectations are making the current struggles even more disappointing.  

Matt Campbell brought with him not just two dozen former Iowa State players but also a handful of assistant coaches and support staff to help lay the foundation of his program in State College. The players discussed this in the preseason, heartwarmingly telling tales of the large group chats where Penn State holdovers could offer advice on places to go around town, while the Iowa State-infusion crowd could help the rest of the team understand what makes their new coaches tick. This roster transition seemed to be going much more smoothly than the coaching search, so even if Penn State was replacing eight NFL Draft picks, it appeared to be a group that could contend in the Big Ten. 

Many experts liked the Penn State roster Matt Campbell put together, but they really loved the schedule. 

After James Franklin spent most of his career with annual games against some of the best teams in the Big Ten, Penn State entered 2026 with a slate that avoided the preseason favorites. With no games scheduled against Indiana, Ohio State or Oregon, the Nittany Lions had seemingly avoided the toughest foes and stood a chance of being favored to win in as many as 10 games. Penn State wasn't going to be compared to Indiana or Ohio State in a power ratings-style discussion, but finding a way into the College Football Playoff picture (even as a contender) was in the cards if it could win some of the coin flips against teams like USC and Michigan. We had not even seen a down of Penn State football under Matt Campbell, but "Penn State CFP dark horse" was already on the lips of the more optimistic Nittany Lions fans. 

Meanwhile, on the Virginia Tech side, the schedule was a sobering piece of the preseason conversation. It might have actually freed James Franklin up to drive home his enthusiasm for the roster he had assembled, including former Penn State standouts like quarterback Ethan Grunkmyer and tight end Luke Reynolds, and the emotion of unlocking enthusiasm in a college football hotbed like Blacksburg. But with games against Miami, SMU, Clemson and Virginia, the Hokies were staring down three of the four teams that have played in the ACC Championship in the last two years, as well as last year's national runner-up. If Penn State felt like it had fallen behind in the break-up battle with James Franklin back in December, the summertime preseason leveled the playing field with more optimism for on-field success.  

Chapter 3: Penn State, Franklin both enjoy success 

On the afternoon of Sept. 5, hope truly was springing eternal for both Penn State and James Franklin. The Nittany Lions were in total control, and new starting quarterback Rocco Becht was showcasing how this Iowa State infusion could lead to wins in Happy Valley. Becht threw for four touchdowns and 271 yards in a 45-0 win against Marshall, which only even crossed midfield three times the entire afternoon. What followed was a somewhat sloppy win at Temple, then an apparent course correction against Buffalo, with the team rising to No. 13 in the rankings on the back of a 3-0 non-conference record. Three wins against three lesser opponents masked some of the uncertainties or unknowns about the roster, and certainly kept any Penn State fans from wondering if history was about to repeat itself heading into Big Ten play. 

In Blacksburg, things were equally optimistic for James Franklin as Metallica rang out from the speakers in Lane Stadium and the Hokies raced out a 4-0 start to the season. Virginia Tech thrashed VMI and Old Dominion, then turned Maryland into turtle soup with a strong second half in College Park. The quality of performance dipped a bit in one of the many rain-slogged affairs of this 2026 season, but emerging from Chesnut Hill with a win against Boston College provided the Hokies a stage to make some national noise heading into October. 

In terms of the breakup, this is where friends of both Penn State and James Franklin would celebrate how both parties have found happiness with their new partner. Penn State redecorated a little bit to match its new head coach, and Franklin was revitalized by the opportunity to bring Frank Beamer's program back into national prominence. If Franklin got the leg up early, and Penn State caught up in the preseason, here we see both of our subjects flying high, unaware of the despair that's to come in the next couple of weeks.

Getting the band back together: James Franklin, Brent Pry and Virginia Tech's strange do-over

Brandon Marcello

Chapter 4: Mistakes compound into season-defining disappointments

A 3-yard touchdown run by Rocco Becht gave Penn State a 17-0 lead against Wisconsin early in the second quarter at home early Saturday evening on Sept. 26. That is, according to our analysis, the last point of pure optimism that Penn State has experienced this season. All the Nittany Lions had to do was outplay Wisconsin for the rest of the way, and they would improve to 4-0 and potentially start to enter the conversation as a top-10 team. Instead, defensive breakdowns and empty possessions on offense allowed the Badgers to overcome that 17-point deficit and storm back to win 24-20. 

Then, on a short week, the Penn State defense got exposed for its deficiencies against the run as Northwestern rolled up 413 rushing yards in a 34-13 blowout win to open new Ryan Field. In two weeks, the Nittany Lions had gone from potential top-10 team to playing a secondary character in Chip Kelly's biopic and struggling to get stops in ways that could get exposed against other Big Ten opponents. 

Then came last week's White Out, with an opponent in USC that has struggled on the East Coast and a home fan base that did not want to watch a second loss of the season. The game was much closer and more competitive than the loss to Northwestern, but Penn State failed to score a single touchdown in the second half and lost 31-23. 

It was a loss that left Penn State at 3-3 on the year and 0-3 in Big Ten play, matching the records the Nittany Lions had when they fired James Franklin. 

The painful twists and turns of this breakup did in fact reach Franklin's door as well. Virginia Tech had a 14-0 first-quarter lead at home against Pittsburgh in a battle of ACC unbeatens that was sure to send one team into the top 25. But the Hokies gave the game away with four turnovers and 82 penalty yards, finding themselves trailing 35-33 despite out-gaining Pitt 499-295 for the game. John Love's 36-yard game-winning attempt hooked left, but was close enough to being good that even Love thought he had made the kick. It was just a few inches off line, but the mistakes that preceded the kick were worth much more than that. 

Things got worse the following week as Virginia Tech traveled out to Berkeley to play California, and even though the Bears were without starting quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, the Hokes struggled to take control of the game. There were five lead changes in total, but the last was the most painful, as Virginia Tech's defense allowed Cal to march right down the field in the final minutes for a game-winning touchdown with 18 seconds left on the clock. A few inches away from being 5-0 turned into 4-2 quickly, and the heart-breaking nature of both defeats will wear on Hokie fans when they reflect on the season.   

Chapters TBD: The path forward  

While we have chosen this one-year anniversary to recap the ups and downs of the post-breakup lives of both Penn State and James Franklin, it's important to note that the story is far from done. Moments like Friday, Oct. 2 when both Penn State and James Franklin are losing at the same time in gut-punch fashions (with different margins) make it seem like these two are tied together forever, but we know that is not reality. Penn State and James Franklin each have six games left to put a stamp on their Year 1 in a new relationship, and that's plenty of time to undo the mirroring despair that we've seen in recent weeks. 

For Penn State, that starts with Saturday's trip to Ann Arbor against a Michigan team facing its own existential crisis post-new hire. It's an opportunity against a historic rival that could turn a season around, much like how Oklahoma flipped negative vibes with a win over Texas in the Red River Rivalry. A win would not indicate that all issues are solved, but it would make things feel less bleak. James Franklin now has his own turnaround moment as well, with Virginia Tech playing host to Georgia Tech in Blacksburg. It's a tough turnaround from losing in Berkeley to being back in an ACC game seven days later, especially against a Yellow Jackets team that's surging after upsetting Duke. 

One year after Penn State fired James Franklin, it's easy to wonder whether either is better off in this moment. It's possible we still think that at the end of the year, but what this moment, heading into Week 7, presents is far more urgency for success than what either might have imagined at the start of the year. After all, moving on and moving out of this cloud of disappointment has to start with the first step, and the first step is snapping their respective losing streaks.