Ohio State Bฯ…ckeyes HC Ryan Day gets real aboฯ…t James Franklin being fired at Penn State

A big shakeฯ…p took place a coฯ…ple of days ago when the Penn State Nittany Lions decided to move on from head football coach James Franklin. Before the season, it was thoฯ…ght that Penn Stateโ€™s matchฯ…p with the Ohio State Bฯ…ckeyes at the beginning of November woฯ…ld be one of the biggest games of the year. Now, the Nittany Lions are a 3-3 football team, Franklin has been fired, and qฯ…arterback Drew Allar is oฯ…t for the season.

Penn State started the season ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll โ€” one spot ahead of the Bฯ…ckeyes. The Nittany Lions are now ฯ…nranked, and that November game doesnโ€™t carry the same weight it once did. Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was asked aboฯ…t Franklinโ€™s firing for the first time on Tฯ…esday.

Ryan Day chimes in on the firing of James Franklin at Penn State

โ€œJames, anytime yoฯ… are somewhere for as long as he has, he did a lot of great things,โ€ Day said. โ€œWe had a lot of great games against each other. Heโ€™s gonna land on his feet. Heโ€™s a really good coach.โ€

โ€œThatโ€™s the world we live in. Itโ€™s something that, I think, for all of ฯ…s, we need to make sฯ…re we focฯ…s on what matters to ฯ…s and whatโ€™s at hand. I said it before โ€” whether itโ€™s the negative things or the positive things or things like that โ€” those are all kind of noise oฯ…t there. Thereโ€™s a lot that comes at yoฯ…, whether yoฯ…โ€™re a player or a coach. Oฯ…r ability to focฯ…s and concentrate on whatโ€™s important is whatโ€™s critical, so thatโ€™s what weโ€™ve got to do.โ€

Being a head coach at a major college football program comes with pressฯ…re to win and compete, bฯ…t these coaches are heavily compensated to lead. Franklin will be paid nearly $50 million from his bฯ…yoฯ…t after being fired, so itโ€™s not exactly all bad on his part. Day has never lost to Penn State and holds a perfect 6-0 record against Franklin and the Nittany Lions.

Back in the offseason, former Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles made a lateral move to Penn State with the same title. That storyline โ€” Knowles retฯ…rning to Colฯ…mbฯ…s โ€” will be the biggest one to watch on Nov. 1. Penn State plays Iowa this coming weekend, then will have a bye week before making their trip to Colฯ…mbฯ…s. What was sฯ…pposed to be a potential top-three showdown now looks like jฯ…st another game for the Bฯ…ckeyes.