James Franklin ranked among top coaches of 21st century

James Franklin has Penn State football on the verge of new heights, looking to follow up the program’s first College Football Playoff appearance with a championship run in 2025. The 12th-year head coach’s tenure in Happy Valley has been among the most successful decades in Nittany Lions’ history. But has Franklin’s success been enough to consider him one of the top coaches of the last quarter century?

The Athletic says yes. In the publication’s recently released ranking of the top 25 college football coaches of the 2000s, Chris Vannini slotted Franklin as the No. 16 coach of the last 25 years. The placement takes into consideration Franklin’s time at Vanderbilt as well as Penn State. Vannini compared Franklin’s career to date to that of former Georgia and Miami coach Mark Richt.

“Franklin has been a consistent winner, reaching a bowl game in all 14 non-COVID-19-altered seasons he’s spent as a head coach, with six double-digit-win seasons at Penn State,” he wrote. “Given more opportunity in a 12-team CFP, Penn State won two games and nearly won a semifinal. He also took Vanderbilt to its only top-25 finishes since 1949.

“The only real criticism of Franklin’s run is that he hasn’t won big enough, unable to get over the final hump. It’s a similar resume to Richt at Georgia, but the Vanderbilt success puts Franklin higher.”

2025 could be a legacy-defining year for Franklin’s tenure with Penn State football

Penn State football coach James Franklin. Credit: Matthew O’Haren-Imagn Images

By far, the biggest pain point of Franklin’s time in State College is his lack of success against the nation’s premier programs. Despite a 101-42 record with the Nittany Lions, Penn State football is 1-15 against top-five competition since Franklin arrived in 2014. Franklin could get two more bites at the apple this fall, with matchups against Oregon and at Ohio State on the regular season slate.

With perhaps the best roster of his coaching career assembled in Happy Valley, 2025 offers Franklin and the Nittany Lions an opportunity to reverse—or cement—the big game narrative.

“This is the season James Franklin’s entire coaching career could be judged by,” a Big Ten coach recently said in Athlon Sports’ annual anonymous survey. “If they can’t change their big-game problems with this group, it’s not happening.”

Penn State opens the 2025 campaign against Nevada on August 30.

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