© James Lang/Imagn
If not for a colossal buyout, Penn State football coach James Franklin would probably have as hot a seat as any coach in the country right now.
The Nittany Lions entered the season with legitimate national title aspirations after returning the majority of a team that reached the College Football Playoff semifinals a year ago.
But fast forward to early October and those hopes are as good as gone after a close loss to Oregon, which dropped Franklin to 1-10 against top-10 teams while at Penn State, and then an embarrassing loss to previously winless UCLA.
Nittany Lions have grown sick of not only Franklin’s failure to win in big games, but also his endless coachspeak and platitudes. Those continued on Monday during his weekly press conference, and they may have been worse than ever.
James Franklin Offers Meaningless Garbage When Discussing Penn State’s Collapse
As you can imagine, Franklin faced a number of difficult questions from media members who wondered where and when exactly it all went wrong for his team.
First, Franklin danced around the fact that he has badly underutilized star running back Kaytron Allen amid a strong start to the season, compared with a difficult one for Nicholas Singleton.
Singleton has 9 more carries than Allen despite averaging 3.8 yards per carry to Allen’s 7.
“He’s obviously been very productive. Obviously, when things don’t go well, then that’s one of the first things you look at. You say he needs more touches, and should have had more touches in that game,” Franklin said.
That’s great to acknowledge, but it was obvious to everyone else in the moment. Allen was also not on the field during an essentially game-ending failure to convert on 4th-and-2 late against the Bruins.
Followed up to ask Franklin if, considering the excitement he and everyone with team expressed about hiring Jim Knowles, if he is “surprised” by the defense delivering a letdown performance in Game 5 vs UCLA…
“Yes, that’s accurate. … We’re not where we need to be right now.” https://t.co/WoudjlTmF5
— Tyler Donohue (@TDsTake) October 6, 2025
Franklin then pointed to the Penn State defense, which was absolutely gashed by UCLA. He said that the unit has not played fast and aggressively and has struggled to adjust to new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ system.
Perhaps that is something he should have considered when bringing in Knowles ahead of a championship-or-bust season.
James Franklin Thinks His Previous Success Should Immunize Him From Criticism
Lastly, Franklin got defensive when asked about the disappointing season thus far.
“…I’m also not going to allow two games that are extremely disappointing to overshadow the growth that we’ve had in this program over the last 12 years,” he said.
Look, the program is better off now than when Franklin took over. That’s undeniable. But you don’t just get to hold that over fans every time you lose a big game. At some point, expectations get adjusted. And if you fail to meet those expectations, you face scrutiny.
If James Franklin doesn’t like that, perhaps he would be a better fit with a different program.