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James Franklin said Saturday he was shocked when Penn State fired him hours after a loss in which the Nittany Lions also lost quarterback Drew Allar to a season-ending injury, but that he cannot wait to coach again elsewhere.
Franklin said that Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft visited him ahead of a meeting and practice last Sunday and told him the university was making a change. Franklin said he had an emotional team meeting to tell people he was leaving.
“To think essentially six games ago we were fighting for a chance to be in the national championship, a two-minute drive away,” Franklin said. “So that’s the thing. … Twelve years, a ton of good moments, a bunch of big wins. But decisions were made. And I’m not involved in those decisions.”
Franklin was fired after a 22-21 home upset at the hands of Northwestern all but ended whatever remote chance the preseason No. 2 team had of reaching the College Football Playoff with a third loss in six games.
Penn State reached the CFP semifinals 10 months ago, when it fell 27-24 to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, then lost at home to Oregon in overtime in late September. A road setback at previously winless UCLA followed. The final straw came Saturday at Beaver Stadium, where the Nittany Lions let Northwestern escape with a victory and lost Allar to injury.
Franklin is 128-60 as a head coach, including 104-45 (.698) at Penn State.
He said Penn State’s decision was hard for him to comprehend when it happened, so he focused on the good times. Franklin said he had a great run there over 12 years and thanked Penn State for being good to him and his family.
Franklin signed a 10-year contract extension worth up to $85 million in 2021. According to terms of the deal, Penn State has to pay Franklin’s base salary of $500,000, supplemental pay of $6.5 million and an insurance loan of $1 million until 2031.
But Franklin said he’s a coach first and foremost, and that’s all he knows as someone with no hobbies.
“We’re just going to go win a national championship somewhere else now,” Franklin said.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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