Penn State

There is No Point in Doing Cautionary Tales with James Franklin, Who Lost at Home to Pitt’s Backup QB After Four Virginia Tech Turnovers

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Oct 8th, 2026 · 3:07 PM EDT

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I saw some people sharing this column on social.

It’s from CBS Sports’ John Talty and titled “Penn State fired James Franklin to join college football’s elite — instead, it became a cautionary tale.” The subheader reads – “The Nittany Lions’ mess of a coaching search and stumbling start to 2026 should serve as a stark reminder that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of a coach firing.“

He writes:

For all the frustrated fans begging their favorite school to fire their coach immediately, take a gander over at Penn State.

Under first-year coach Matt Campbell, Penn State is 3-2. The Nittany Lions, which began the season ranked No. 18, have lost their last two games to Wisconsin and Northwestern. Already 12th in the Big Ten, Penn State has No. 19 USC this weekend and then a similarly slumping Michigan team the week after. Northwestern outgained Penn State 506-291 in its 34-13 win last Friday. 

James Franklin doesn’t look so bad now, does he?

It was almost exactly a year ago that Penn State AD Pat Kraft fired Franklin. Penn State pulled the plug on Oct. 12 after a loss to … Northwestern dropped the program to 3-3. Franklin had guided Penn State to a College Football Playoff semifinal the previous season, but Penn State grew sick of his antics after 12 seasons and believed it could do better. Penn State wanted a coach more capable of winning a national championship. 

…

…even if you believed it was time to move on from Franklin — and there’s a justifiable argument that it may have been — you still need to land the plane with the right guy to follow him and take over the program. And from the moment Penn State fired Franklin, there was considerable industry skepticism that the school was going to be able to land the caliber of coach that justified its decision. 

Yeah look, Penn State’s error wasn’t canning James Franklin. He had to go. But they didn’t have a solid plan behind it, and ended up having to turn to Matt Campbell, who didn’t have much choice but to bring his Iowa State guys to Happy Valley. It seems like these are above-average players who are a terrible fit for Big 10 football, highlighted by the fact that they gave up 413 rushing yards to a Northwestern team that only had to chuck it 14 times with Aidan Chiles.

Talty’s column is mostly fine, and focuses on Penn State’s sloppy process.

I just hate this line: “James Franklin doesn’t look so bad now, does he?”

Disagree with that! We saw vintage Big Game James less than a week ago, when Virginia Tech was 4-0 and playing at home on Friday night. They were winning 24-21 when Pitt’s starting quarterback, Mason Heintschel, was knocked out of the game with a torn ACL around the 13-minute mark in the third quarter.

Pitt’s backup, Holden Geriner, played the majority of a second half that turned into a clown show, featuring a multi-quarter stretch in which the teams combined to go fumble/downs/punt/downs/fumble/touchdown/interception/safety. Then it all came down to a razor-close field goal attempt that Virginia Tech’s kicker just barely missed and Pitt escaped with a 35-33 win.

Franklin’s team should have won the game. Say what you will about the final field goal, and look at every camera angle out there, but VPI fell apart offensively in the second half and failed to take advantage of Heintschel’s absence. I know it’s year #1 for Big Game James down in Blacksburg, and his kicker should hit a chip shot to win it, but they had opportunity after opportunity to put that game away and turned the ball over four times while committing eight penalties for 82 yards.

James Franklin is who we thought he was. It took us five games to see it with his new team.

And, as always, “more than one thing can be true.” Penn State did the right thing in firing Franklin but didn’t totally think through the “what comes next?” part.