Pat Kraft walked up the stairs inside Lasch Building on Sunday with a heavy heart, knowing he was about to tell James Franklin, his friend, that he was done as Penn State football coach.
“This was extremely, extremely difficult,” Kraft said Monday at a press conference. “It’s been a very difficult 48 hours. I felt after Saturday, sitting down and looking at everything … we just had to make the hard decision.”
Kraft, Penn State’s director of athletics, fired Franklin after he guided the Nittany Lions to a 104-45 record, a Big Ten championship and a College Football Playoff appearance in 11-plus years.
They began this season ranked second in The Associated Press poll, won their three non-conference games and then dropped three straight in the Big Ten to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern. The three losses were by a combined 12 points, but the Bruins and the Wildcats were three-touchdown underdogs.
“This is not a three-game thing,” Kraft said. “This is really diving into where we were as a program and what the trajectory of this program is. You all know, I’m not shy to admit that I’m here to win national championships. I believe our fans deserve that. I wake up every day trying to achieve that goal.
“It was Sunday when I thought, ‘This is probably time.’ ”
Franklin will receive a buyout that’s worth at least $48 million, covering the final six years of his 10-year, $75 million contract he signed in November 2021 when Sandy Barbour was still the director of athletics.
Kraft, who was hired to replace Barbour in April 2022, was asked how Penn State plans to pay that sum.
“I’m not going to get into the financials,” he said. “What I will tell you is that the buyout is an athletics issue. This is not the institution’s issue. So we in athletics are covering all the costs. I want that to be known.”
Kraft appointed longtime assistant and former Penn State wide receiver Terry Smith as the interim head coach Sunday. He said he will consider Smith as the permanent replacement as he conducts a national search.
He did not mention any other potential candidates, but he has ties to Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, a Penn State linebacker in the 1990s who has been a college head coach at Temple and Baylor and who had an unsuccessful stint with the Carolina Panthers in the NFL.
Kraft was the AD at Temple when Rhule enjoyed his greatest success there.
“Our next coach will be someone who embodies everything Penn State stands for: integrity, accountability, toughness, humility and an elite motivator,” Kraft said. “We’ll find a coach who can achieve excellence at the highest level, doing it with confidence and conviction.”
Under Franklin, Penn State was 5-21 against top 10 opponents and 1-15 against top five opponents, including eight straight losses to Ohio State.
This season, the Lions rank 78th in total offense, 94th in passing offense, 70th in rushing defense, 84th in third down defense and 127th in time of possession.
“I weigh everything when I’m making a decision,” Kraft said. “It’s the PhD nerd in me. I do data. I do analytics. I look at everything. When you start to look at where we’re going and how this year has been playing out, all those things you have to take into consideration.
“How do I give my student-athletes the best chance to win? How do I continue to build this to a place where we are the best program in the country? That’s the motivation. As you put all those things together, you gotta make the call.”
Kraft said he had to put aside his friendship with Franklin when he surveyed the football team’s landscape.
“James Franklin is a tremendous man,” he said, “husband, father, mentor to countless student-athletes and a good friend who has always carried himself with dignity and represented Penn State with absolute class.
“Beyond the wins and the accolades, James has been a trusted ambassador for this university and a friend of the Penn State community. We are all incredibly fortunate to have had James Franklin lead our football program for over a decade.”
