In what will be studied as one of the most monumentally-disappointing college football seasons of all time, the next chapter of Penn State’s tumultuous 2025 campaign was written Sunday when the program announced it would be parting ways with head coach James Franklin.
The news followed the Nittany Lions’ 3-3 start to the season in which they did not take down a Power 4 foe, and it predictably sent the college football world into a frenzy.
Many fans were elated to hear the news, others were stunned, and even more contemplated the gaudy $49 million buyout that Penn State will have to pay to its former head coach.
Here’s the best of the reaction on social media:
Other fan bases such as those down in Gainesville may be hoping that their schools follow in kind as the season wears on.
But in the end, the most vocal people on social media appeared to simply be Penn State fans wanting to celebrate a long-awaited change.
The search for Penn State’s next head coach will be well-documented, and it remains to be seen if this current team can keep its postseason streak alive with it sitting at 3-3 ahead of a brutal slate of games.
Parker is currently the sports editor with the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
