Penn State Fired James Franklin for This? Matt Campbell’s Honeymoon Is Already Over

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Penn State blew a 17-point lead at home to Wisconsin while former coach James Franklin improved Virginia Tech to 4-0. The timing could hardly be more uncomfortable.

More than 10-win seasons. More than major bowl appearances. More than being one of the best programs in the Big Ten.

Most importantly, more than James Franklin.

So Penn State fired Franklin last season and ultimately hired Matt Campbell, believing the former Iowa State coach could take the Nittany Lions places Franklin couldn’t.

Four games into Campbell’s tenure, nobody should be declaring that experiment a failure.

But this is exactly the kind of Saturday Penn State had to know was possible when it decided being very good under Franklin was no longer good enough.

No. 13 Penn State blew a 17-0 lead and lost 24-20 to Wisconsin at Beaver Stadium on Saturday. The Nittany Lions managed only 248 yards of offense and were outscored 14-0 in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Franklin’s new team was finding a way to win.

Virginia Tech rallied from an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit in brutal weather to beat Boston College 21-14, improving to 4-0 in Franklin’s first season in Blacksburg. It’s Virginia Tech’s best start since 2017.

That doesn’t prove Penn State made the wrong decision.

But right now?

It sure makes the decision look uncomfortable.

Penn State suffered the kind of loss James Franklin was fired to eliminate

This wasn’t Ohio State.

It wasn’t Michigan.

It wasn’t a College Football Playoff heavyweight coming into Beaver Stadium and overwhelming Penn State with five-star talent.

It was Wisconsin.

And Penn State had the Badgers down 17-0.

Freshman Josiah Zayas returned an interception 51 yards for a touchdown to open the scoring, and Penn State carried a 17-7 advantage into halftime.

The Nittany Lions were 59-1 since 2014 when leading by at least 10 points at halftime.

Virginia Tech Hokies — James Franklin is off to a 4-0 start in his Virginia Tech tenure while fans of his former program are growing restless after Wisconsin rallied for a 24-20 win over Penn State on Saturday.

Now they’re 59-2.

Penn State’s offense essentially disappeared.

Quarterback Rocco Becht completed just 12 of 29 passes for 129 yards. The Nittany Lions finished with 248 total yards and managed only 20 points despite getting seven directly from their defense.

Campbell didn’t hide from the offensive problems afterward.

“We just really struggled to find a rhythm,” Campbell said, adding that the offense must “significantly improve” if Penn State is going to become the team it expects to be.

Becht was even more succinct.

“Not great,” he said when asked to evaluate his own performance. “I’ve got to be better for the offense. I’ve got to be better for this team.”

That’s fair.

But Penn State didn’t make a seismic coaching change because it wanted explanations for losses like this.

It made the change because it wanted fewer of them.

Meanwhile, James Franklin is 4-0

This is where things get awkward.

Virginia Tech isn’t 4-0 because it has steamrolled everyone.

Saturday’s game at Boston College was played in miserable conditions, with heavy rain and wind gusts approaching 40 mph. The Hokies trailed 14-6 in the fourth quarter.

They tied the game.

Then Jeffrey Overton Jr. ripped off a 76-yard touchdown run to win it.

Overton finished with 209 rushing yards, and Virginia Tech walked out of Chestnut Hill 21-14 winners.

Franklin loved it.

“That was a gutsy win on the road,” Franklin said, explaining that while it wasn’t pretty, in another sense it was “as pretty as it gets.”

There is some irony in that.

Franklin spent years at Penn State being judged less by how many games he won than by the specific games he didn’t.

He produced double-digit-win seasons, developed NFL players and kept Penn State nationally relevant. Eventually, though, the inability to consistently break through against the elite programs on the schedule overwhelmed everything else.

Penn State decided it had reached its ceiling.

That’s a defensible decision for a program with national championship aspirations.

But firing a coach who wins regularly creates an unforgiving standard for his replacement.

Campbell isn’t merely being asked to make Penn State good.

Franklin already did that.

Campbell ultimately has to make Penn State better.

Four games don’t settle anything

It would be ridiculous to declare Penn State’s coaching change a failure after four games.

Campbell deserves time to install his program, recruit his players and build the roster he wants.

Virginia Tech’s 4-0 start doesn’t prove Franklin has suddenly solved every criticism that followed him out of Happy Valley, either.

The Hokies haven’t played anything resembling the schedule Franklin regularly faced in the Big Ten, and the biggest tests of his Virginia Tech tenure remain ahead.

But that’s almost beside the point this morning.

College football is driven by perception as much as patience.

And the optics could hardly be worse.

Penn State fired Franklin because winning a lot wasn’t enough.

Four games later, Franklin hasn’t lost.

Campbell just lost at home to Wisconsin after leading 17-0.

Penn State knew this comparison was coming

Every Penn State loss was going to produce this conversation if Franklin succeeded at Virginia Tech.

That’s unavoidable.

If Campbell eventually gets Penn State into the College Football Playoff and competes for a national championship, nobody in Happy Valley will care that Franklin started 4-0 in Blacksburg.

If Virginia Tech emerges as an ACC contender while Penn State takes a step backward, the conversation becomes much more uncomfortable.

Campbell still controls which version of that story gets written.

Penn State is only 3-1. The season isn’t ruined. There is plenty of football left.

But Saturday offered the first real glimpse at the downside of Penn State’s gamble.

James Franklin was shown the door because Penn State believed it could do better.

On Saturday, his replacement blew a 17-point lead at Beaver Stadium.

Franklin walked through a nor’easter and came out 4-0.

Nobody at Penn State wanted to be making that comparison this soon.

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