Penn State needs to make the difficult move and fire James Franklin

It happened again. James Franklin coached the Penn State Nittany Lions to a loss in a big game. Franklin cleared one hurdle this year when Penn State finally made the College Football Playoff semifinal after defeating SMU in the first round and Boise State in the second round. Still, the Nittany Lions couldn't get past Notre Dame on Thursday night, losing 27-24 and eliminating them from the playoff.

The Fighting Irish are ranked No. 3 in the AP Poll, released before the start of the CFP. This means Franklin's record against AP Top 5 opponents is now 1-15, with the one win coming in 2016. It is time for Penn State to make what is admittedly a really hard move, and move on from Franklin.

James Franklin at Penn State:

• 1-15 vs. top 5 opponents
• 4-20 vs. top 10 opponents
• 15-29 vs. top 25 opponents
• 4-17 vs. Michigan and Ohio State
— Brandon Koretz (@BrandonKoretz) January 10, 2025

I understand the argument against. Franklin is 101-42 during his time at Penn State and has led them to six 11-win seasons, a Big Ten Championship and a bowl game in every year but one. However, at what point does it get impossible to defend his failure to beat the teams better than Penn State each year?

The Nittany Lions consistently lose to the best teams in the Big Ten and ride their wins over the lesser teams in the conference to a New Years Six bowl or now the College Football Playoff. This season, for example, Penn State's 13 wins came against teams with a combined win percentage of .494, while their losses were all against teams ranked in the AP Top 5, with a combined win percentage of .907.

Penn State's loss Thursday night isn't on Franklin. The Nittany Lions had the ball with under a minute to play and a chance to drive into field goal range and win the game but quarterback Drew Allar threw a bad interception that set up Notre Dame at the Penn State 42-yard line. The Irish gained 19 yards and Mitch Jeter sent them to the National Championship with a 41-yard field goal.

However, this is just another game in which Penn State failed to pull off a victory on a big stage, and the only consistency throughout all these losses is Franklin. Penn State is a program that can attract a lot of high-quality coaches and they can't possibly be worse against the best teams in the country than Franklin. When will enough be enough?