The college coaching world reacts to Penn State firing James Franklin

Firing college football coaches is not new. Every year, programs decide to go in different directions and change leadership. However, when a place like Penn State, which has had just three full-time head coaches since the 1960s, things change. James Franklin was fired after 12 years in Happy Valley and has built a reputation among his colleagues in the profession. His former job is presumably also a hot item. At least, that’s what Penn State AD Pat Kraft wants it to be.

Here’s a rundown of how sitting head coaches reacted to the news that Franklin was fired. Some react to their names being linked to the job.

Steve Sarkisian reacts to Penn State firing James Franklin

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was asked about the rash of firings through six weeks of the college football season. He singled out Franklin and Penn State as examples of how shocking and ruthless the landscape can be, and complimented Franklin as a coach.

“I’ll use Penn State as example, and I got a ton of respect for James Franklin. He’s a great coach, and he’ll land somewhere, and they’ll be good again, wherever he goes. A year ago, they’re a Final Four team, and they’re in a dog fight to go play for a national championship three weeks ago, 15 days ago, they’re a play away from being a top two team, arguably the number one team in the country, and today, he’s no longer the head coach, so that should just tell you about the business that we’re in and understanding the business aspect of it. I hate it for him. I hate it for those players, but that’s just the reality of the situation that we’re in right now, but he’s a good coach. Somebody’s gonna hire that guy, you know, he’s won everywhere he’s been.”

Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi

“James Franklin is a great coach. It’s the business we’re in. I say “business.” It’s business. The places have got to do what they’ve got to do. I’m not concerned about that. We don’t play them, and James will be okay. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. It’s a shame because he’s a great coach. We all know that. He’s won a lot of football games. He was in the playoff a year ago, and then he’s looking like he is.”

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day:

Longtime rival, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, was brief in his direct quotes about Franklin.

“James, anytime you are somewhere for as long as he has, he did a lot of great things,” Day said. “We had a lot of great games against each other. He’s gonna land on his feet. He’s a really good coach.”

Northwestern head coach David Braun: The last man to play Franklin at Penn State

Northwestern head coach David Braun reacted to the news that Franklin was fired during his weekly press conference, just three days after beating Penn State on the road at Beaver Stadium.

“It bums you out, Coach Franklin and his family, that entire staff have been on my heart the last 24 hours.. To be honest with you, it’s kind of shocking. The kind of success he’s found. He put his heart and soul, his spirit, into that place for over a decade. To see that news yesterday was tough. It’s not just coach Franklin that’s affected, but there’s a lot of other coaches, a lot of other families, a lot of support staff.”

“We all know what we sign up for when we get into this space, when we’re coaching at this level, but that doesn’t make a decision like that any easier.”

Coaches linked to the Penn State job bristle when asked

Syracuse head coach Fran Brown was asked about “bigger jobs” opening up this week. He dismissed the question aggressively, but he did not explicitly say he was not interested.

“I’m working at Syracuse right now, so I don’t really need to talk about that. If this wasn’t where I wanted to be at right at this moment, would I be standing here at the moment?” Brown said.

“So I’m just focused on that. I’m focused on being here. I’m locked in on coaching the players I have here. This is where I work at. I think that’s disrespectful to even bring that up and ask that. What’s the point of asking that?”

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz gets mad at the state of social media

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz was asked how he tunes out the noise when his name comes up for jobs at traditional power schools like Penn State. He took exception to the way social media inflames conversation and creates a constant hum around college football.

“One issue right now amongst college football is the noise that’s associated with people’s programs at all times,” Drinkwitz said.

“There’s no such thing as journalistic integrity on social media. There’s just wild, outlandish reporting, and anybody’s name, I’ll bet every sitting head coach has been listed as a candidate for some job so far. And it you know, as a team, as a coach, we got to ignore the noise and focus on the things that we can control, which is winning and losing football games.”

“Twitter ain’t real, and it’s just a bunch of bull crap thrown on the message boards. So how do I block it out? I ignore it, and I get mad about it when people ask me about it, as far as my name associated with everyone, that’s awesome for the University of Missouri. it means we’re doing something really good.”

Other coaches, such as Matt Rhule and Marcus Freeman, also addressed the rumors about their connection to the opening. Greg Pickel covered Freeman’s extensive comments earlier; you can read them here.

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