The College Football landscape was drastically changed last weekend when the Penn State Nittany Lions were stunned at home by Northwestern. The loss instantly led to the firing of James Franklin on Sunday Afternoon, bringing chaos to the coaching carousel while also creating a vacancy at one of the Nation's best programs.
On Saturday Morning, James Franklin made his first public interview since the firing, appearing on ESPN's College GameDay. The crew asked James Franklin about the fairness of the firing which he wouldn't speak on, but a legendary head coach came to the rescue.
Nick Saban calls out Penn State for firing James Franklin
When James Franklin wouldn't say whether Penn State was being fair or not in firing him, Nick Saban jumped in to say it's unfair.
"It’s unfair as hell for you to go to the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, get in the Final Four. Come out, being ranked number one this year — an expectation that you created by what you accomplished at Penn State — and for those people not to show enough appreciation for that and gratitude for all the hard work that you did, I’m saying it’s unfair."Nick Saban
While Nick Saban, James Franklin, and many others may feel the firing was unfair, the fairness of the firing isn't what Penn State was looking at. Franklin had every chance to prove he was the man for the job at Penn State, and in the end, he couldn't get his team over that last hump.
By losing three straight games, James Franklin made it easy for Penn State to pull the plug on this tenure. In the end, we'll get to see how Franklin's successor fares and how he fares elsewhere, which will end up telling us who got the better side of the breakup.