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Jake TrotterOct 13, 2025, 02:24 PM ET
- Jake Trotter is simply a elder writer astatine ESPN. Trotter covers assemblage football. He besides writes astir different assemblage sports, including men's and women's basketball. Trotter resides successful the Cleveland country with his woman and 3 kids and is simply a instrumentality of his hometown Oklahoma City Thunder. He covered the Cleveland Browns and NFL for ESPN for 5 years, moving backmost to assemblage shot successful 2024. Previously, Trotter worked for the Middletown (Ohio) Journal, Austin American-Statesman and Oklahoman newspapers earlier joining ESPN successful 2011. He's a 2004 postgraduate of Washington and Lee University. You tin scope retired to Trotter astatine jake.trotter@espn.com and travel him connected X astatine @Jake_Trotter.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- James Franklin's grounds successful large games played a relation successful Penn State moving connected from the longtime caput coach, diversion manager Pat Kraft acknowledged Monday.
"I'm present to triumph a nationalist championship," Kraft said. "And I judge our fans merit that."
Penn State fired Franklin connected Sunday aft 12 seasons pursuing a stunning 0-3 commencement successful the Big Ten.
The Nittany Lions opened the twelvemonth ranked No. 2 successful the polls disconnected an quality successful the College Football Playoff semifinals past season.
But Penn State tumbled retired of the polls 2 weeks agone aft losing to then-winless UCLA, which hadn't held a pb each season. Then astatine location connected Saturday, the Nittany Lions mislaid to Northwestern.
With the 2 losses, Penn State became the archetypal squad since the FBS and FCS divided successful 1978 to suffer consecutive games portion favored by 20 oregon much points successful each game, according to ESPN Research.
Yet Penn State's archetypal decision of the losing streak continued a troubling and inescapable inclination nether Franklin, which yet led to the move.
The Nittany Lions fell astatine location successful treble overtime to Oregon, dropping Franklin to 4-21 astatine Penn State against AP top-10 opponents, including 1-18 against top-10 Big Ten teams successful league games. Franklin's .160 winning percent against AP top-10 teams is tied for the third-worst grounds by a manager (minimum 25 games) astatine a azygous schoolhouse since the canvass epoch began successful 1936, according to ESPN Research. Penn State has not defeated a apical 10 hostile since knocking disconnected Ohio State successful 2016.
"This is not a three-game thing," Kraft said. "This is truly diving wherever we are arsenic a programme -- what is the trajectory of this program?"
Kraft noted that the diversion section volition screen the $49 cardinal buyout that Franklin is owed, the second-biggest buyout successful assemblage shot past down lone Jimbo Fisher's $76 cardinal buyout from Texas A&M.
Despite that fig -- and the ongoing $700 cardinal renovation to Beaver Stadium -- Kraft said Penn State volition purpose precocious successful hiring its adjacent coach.
"We privation idiosyncratic who volition pull elite talent, clasp players successful the NIL epoch and marque Penn State a destination," helium said. "Our adjacent manager needs to beryllium capable to maximize elite level resources, onslaught the transportation portal and make astatine the highest level."
Franklin reached double-digit wins successful six of his 11 afloat seasons. But Penn State's past nationalist rubric came 39 years ago.
"Football is our backbone. We person invested astatine the highest level. With that comes precocious expectations," Kraft said. "I judge a caller person tin assistance america triumph a nationalist title -- and present is the close clip for this change."
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