Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman talks James Franklin's Penn State firing

As hindsight shows, James Franklin's ultimate demise at Penn State traces its roots to last January against Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame.

Facing the Fighting Irish inside Miami's Hard Rock Stadium in the Orange Bowl and with a berth in the College Football Playoff National Championship, Franklin's Nittany Lions raced to an 10-0 halftime lead.

They had momentum. They temporarily knocked Notre Dame star quarterback Riley Leonard out of the game. They forced a fumble from backup Steve Angeli, but the Irish recovered, kicked a field goal and trailed just 10-3 at the half.

It ignited a Notre Dame rally that saw the Irish score the game's next 17 points, as well as the game's final points on Mitch Jeter's 41-yard field goal following Penn State quarterback Drew Allar's oh-so-costly interception.

The Irish earned the right to try to end the program's national title-drought that has spanned from 1988. Penn State's drought remained stuck in 1986.

Franklin never beat another Power Conference/major college program after that loss. He fell in double-overtime last month at home to Oregon and saw his squad upended by double-digit underdogs UCLA and Northwestern in consecutive weeks.

Fired Sunday, Franklin's now unemployed. And Freeman was left Monday to comment.

“Again, I have a lot of respect for any coach, but what (Franklin) has done for college football has been tremendous," Freeman said during his scheduled Monday press conference and after guiding the Irish to an 36-7 win against NC State, Notre Dame's fourth-straight victory. "And you never want to see somebody fired.

“As a head coach, right — I'm a head coach — you're going to be OK, right? You're gonna be OK. You feel awful for the people that come and join you that are going to be out of a job too. There's a lot of people affected, a lot of families affected."

Between coaches, players and support staff, most P-4, major college football programs have approximately 200 people in their ranks. Atop that are the staff's families.

While he has his own several-million-dollar buyout and Franklin is owed more than $50 million from Penn State, Freeman focused more on the other employees -- and their families -- who do not have generational, life-changing money to be paid out in the event of a termination.

“Like if Pete [Bevacqua] said, ‘Marcus, you're gone’ tomorrow, it stinks cause I love what I do, and I love coaching these young people," said Freeman, now 37-11 atop Notre Dame since the start of the 2022 season. "But, I'm going to be OK. You feel awful for the people that have joined your program, and their families that don't have a job at the end of the year. That's what's challenging about that."

Freeman noted it's been little more than nine months since Notre Dame and Penn State met in the CFP Semifinals in the sport's first-ever 12-team Playoff with a berth in the championship on the line.

“It's a reminder to — listen, don't ever get too comfortable," he said. "I mean, you're just in the college football semifinals last year, and had a heck of a team. I don't know what's going on with Penn State. I haven't watched any of their games, and you lose three, and that's it.

“So it's a challenging profession. It's a reminder to be grateful for the opportunities you have. But again, each administration will make their own — I don't — Penn State made their own decision and every administration makes decisions based off what they think's important.”

While the 53-year-old Franklin is left to assess what's next in his career, Freeman has much more immediate concerns. His No. 13 Fighting Irish (4-2) face No. 20 USC (5-1) Saturday night inside Notre Dame Stadium in one of college football's longest-running intersectional rivalries. Kick is 7:30 (NBC).

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