Penn State Nittany Lions football coach James Franklin is probably not going to be roaming the sidelines at Beaver Stadium at the start of the 2026 season. Back-to-back losses to the UCLA Bruins and Oregon Ducks have Franklin on the ropes in State College, Pennsylvania. Type in “James Franklin buyout” and see how trending a topic it is on any search engine.
Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde believes Franklin could be replaced by Nebraska Cornhuskers football coach Matt Rhule as the Nittany Lions’ headman if/when the two sides mutually agree to part ways.
As for where Franklin could go, Forde mentioned several possibilities: the Wisconsin Badgers, Northwestern Wildcats, Florida Gators, and Ole Miss Rebels coaching jobs. Forde predicted Franklin would take the Mississippi job after Lane Kiffin fled Oxford for the Texas Longhorns and Steve Sarkisian left Austin for the BYU Cougars.
“Kiffin’s departure, in turn, opens the way for the second big escape move: James Franklin flees Penn State for Mississippi. He would prefer Florida, but we’ll get to that in a minute. It’s clearly time for Franklin to get out of increasingly Unhappy Valley, and his 24–15 record at Vanderbilt stands as testament to his ability to win the SEC without many advantages,” Forde wrote.
“(Franklin could perhaps relocate to Wisconsin, but let’s presume a vacancy there might be filled by Jim Leonhard or Pat Fitzgerald. Or he could go to Northwestern, should it open. But if he can’t beat the Big Ten’s best at Penn State, he’s not going to do it there.)”
James Franklin urged to seek opportunities other than Penn State
NBC Sports’ Nicole Auerbach urged Franklin to seek other coaching opportunities during the next hiring cycle. In particular, Auerbach sees a program in need of building as the best fit.
“As I wrote on Saturday night, I’m not entirely sure where Penn State goes from here. It’s one thing to lose to the best teams on your schedule and another thing entirely to become the first top-10 team in four decades to lose to an opponent that was 0-4 or worse. I do wonder if it would be best for both parties if James Franklin takes a serious look at the Power 4 jobs that open this cycle; his buyout to leave State College is small, and he’d get a clean slate somewhere else. Franklin is a really good program-builder, and a lot of schools will be looking for that (and perhaps be willing to pay something similar to what he makes now). He doesn’t have to live under a magnifying glass and coach in front of fans who chant how much they want him gone. He could decide to start anew, if he wants, at the end of the season,” Auerbach wrote.
Everyone is talking about Franklin’s next move. Nobody foresees it having anything to do with Penn State besides saying “goodbye.”