The Josh Innes Show - James Franklin Gets The Boot

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

James Franklin met the Reaper at Penn State. How wild is it that ol' buddy is getting 50 million bucks to go away? Why would he ever coach again? Just live on the beach and say screw it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So, James Franklin got whacked. A couple weeks ago, I was like, hey, you know what? I don't think I'd fire James Franklin. I think he's decent enough guy, whatever. Penn State said, well, we beg to differ, shithead. We're going to fire James Franklin. Look, I've got some thoughts on these things, obviously, or I wouldn't be talking about it. But I think there's a real problem in the world when a university and the boosters and all the people that have all this money can just look at a guy and go, yeah, we're just going to pay you $50.

million dollars to not work. And look, great work if you can get it. I mean, like the last couple of weeks, you can see it in James Franklin, the way those games were going, that it was probably over. Like, there was this video that was going around after their latest loss to Northwestern Wolf as a 21-point favorite woof following their loss to UCLA as like a 30-point favorite wolf. And, like, he's standing there on the field.

And, like, I think he knows it's over. So, and given what we know about it now, And it made the video seem a lot more profound. And watching it, you're kind of like, oh, this is sad in a way. Like, because I don't think the dude's a bad guy. Like, I didn't find him to be an unlikable guy. He just didn't win enough big games, right? But you say that, but a year ago, the dude was one went away from the national championship.

He was three points away from the national championship game. Like, I don't know, man. Let me play a couple commercials and we'll get into it. Yeah, it's pretty wild. dude. It's kind of like Coach O. You know, Coach O wins the national championship, has a bad year during COVID, gets whacked the next year. But this is one year removed from three points away from going to the national championship game. And look, the vibe I got from Penn State watching Penn State is that I guess a change in direction would be needed because the guy has been there for over a decade, right?

So, like, maybe it's just, you know, the guy wasn't bad at his job. He wasn't terrible at his job, at least, and was fine at his job and could probably win nine, ten games every year at his job. They don't feel like he's good enough to do it against Ohio State or Michigan or now Oregon, teams like that. Although it is wild to think that three weeks ago, three weeks ago, James Franklin is playing Oregon and has rallying taking the game to overtime. And they're driving to try to win the game in overtime. Now they throw the interception and seal the deal in overtime, but he's right there with Oregon. Less than a month ago, I'm watching that game going, well, shit. Penn State's rally because I had Oregon to win the game.

And then, you know, the world falls apart. They lose that game. Then they lose to UCLA. And then they lose to Northwestern and see you later. But to me, there's two ways to look at this. On one side of it, you go, like, what do you do when you fire a guy that's winning probably 80% of his games? You know what I mean? Not everybody's going to win the national championship, right?

not everybody is going to hoist a trophy at the end of things you know there are teams that are going to do it but you haven't been one of them and they think they are one of them but i don't know man there's just something off-putting about the whole thing that like you know how you drive around sometimes and you see people with these signs and they're protesting and they're like we have to stop billionaires right because generally speaking we associate billionaires with like white corporate greed and shit so it's like you know we have to stop all the billionaires in the world done with billionaires down with them yet no one's protesting out in the streets when some guys getting paid 50 million dollars to not work these same people are not asking

where this money is coming from these same people are not like there's people starving in nigeria like none of these people are doing that whenever there's a football coach that's getting paid 50 million dollars to not work like that is it is impossible to comprehend that to sign a deal. This guy, you thought he was so good at what he was doing that you had him sign a deal that you knew was going to pay him $50 million if you fired him. Like, think about this. Coach O won a national championship, and his buyout was like $17 million.

And Coach O was all excited. He's, I got $17 million. I'm okay. I got $17 million. Imagine like you're James Franklin and you're like, hey, haven't won a national championship. Big picture haven't been all that close. and here I am getting paid $50 million to go away. Like, how does that, like, obviously it feels nice to know that you're still set.

You're already set with the money you've already banged. But knowing that you're going to get $50 million. I don't know how these payments are going to go down. I don't know if there's a story that is detailed how these payments are going to go down. I have no clue. But, like, he's got like a Bobby Bonilla contract, basically. But, like, every month now, check's going to come in the mail. You're going to have a direct deposit.

it. Actually, someone did break down. I don't know where it is. Jilly was telling me about it. They were breaking down how much money this dude was going to make, like, per minute for the rest of his life. Let's see. James Franklin buyout breakdown. Let's see here. And, of course, they bring up Jimbo Fisher, who also had a giant buyout. So it's the second highest sum ever behind Jimbo Fisher. Boy, Franklin led Penn State, blah, blah, blah. Here's a look at Franklin's full buyout and contract details. Franklin's contract was bought out for approximately 49.7 million.

Franklin was under contract through 2031 after signing a 10-year extension in 2021. Franklin's buyout is only the second most expensive. It's behind for a coach in college football history behind Fisher. He takes over the number two spot after former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn had a $21.7 million buyout following the 2020 season. Fisher's buyout with $77 million. Like, holy shit. But somebody broke it down like per minute. So if you do the math on it, then he's owed $49.7 million.

Okay, so if he's owed $49.7 million, and that's what for the next seven or eight years? Like, the dude's getting paid something like thousands of dollars per minute to live. Now I've got to find the damn thing because Jilly was telling me about it. And it's super fascinating. And I got to find it at some point. But like, holy shit, that old buddy here is like, hey, like he, like when he wakes up to take a piss, like he's getting paid thousands of dollars to wake up and take a piss in the morning. Like it's 4.30 in the morning. He's at that point where he doesn't know if he wants to roll out of bed or not or if he just wants to, you know, like hold on to the pee because if he knows he gets up and goes to take a leak, that he may just stay awake and he doesn't want to because he's got nothing going on.

Yet he's like, yeah, I guess I'm going to get up and take a leak. He stumbles to the bathroom, like it's half lit. He's walking into the wall, farts when he takes a leak, you know, and he's trying not to wake up the rest of the house. When he gets up to do that, he will be making hundreds of dollars. Breathing every breath this man takes over the course of 24 hours. He's getting paid probably more than your salary. Yet none of these people that are out protesting like kings and shit.

No kings. no kings and oh my god can you believe all the billionaires and there's people that are poor yet we still have billionaires this dude's getting paid 50 million dollars to do nothing i need to find better details on this like the per minute breakdown like i got a fine i wish i can't believe i forgot about this but just think about this the dude's 53 years old he's got the rest of his life in front of him. Like, 53 is like the new 12, like, 12. Like, 53 is nothing.

This dude just sit here collecting $50 million to hang. And I know, like, the mindset. Like, it's easy for me to sit here and say, just take that fucking $50 million and just enjoy life. But you know that this guy's stewing over this shit. And you know the guy's like, God damn, and I want to keep coaching. Like, and it's, like, to me, and I get it, right? Like, if I had gotten whacked and I was getting paid all this money to just sit around and do nothing, I'd still be like, I want to go out and compete.

Like, I understand it. I get it. I respect that. But, like, man, just sitting there. Like, Coach O didn't give a fuck. Like, I think Coach O wants to coach. But Coach O's like, I don't give a shit. I'm just going to collect $17 million.

I'm going to bounce around and maybe, like, you know, help a team out a little bit. And then I'm going to go fuck some hoes. That was Coacho. Coach O's just, like, looking for ass. He was like, I'm making $17 million to do nothing. and I'm going to pound ass. I'm going to slay ass and hit the beach. And that was what that video was a couple weeks ago when he was hanging out with Teabob.

And he was like, you know, he's kind of bored at being at the beach. But that's all the dude did was hung out at the beach and tried to hook up with chicks. Let me go to Twitter really quick. Talk amongst yourselves. Let me see if I can find that. James Franklin buyout. Okay, James Franklin, buyout. Breakdown.

Let's see if someone will have a tweet about that because Jilly was reading it to me yesterday. It's freaking wild, man. Let's, like, okay, think about these buyouts. Jesus Christ. Like, Mark Stoops' buyout at Kentucky is $38 million. Mark Stoops is shit. Kentucky is shit.

And this guy's buyout is 38 million. These agents are like, they're miracle workers. Holy shit. Wow. So this is bonkers. Actually, what's even more bonkers? Dig on this. James Franklin's giant buyout is due to a 10-year contract he signed in November 2021.

He was coming off a four-and-five season in 2020 and went seven and six in 2021. Geez. It's stupid, man. Like, unbelievable that people are getting this kind of cash. Hey, look, more power to you. I don't hate you for doing it. But, like, it's amazing that people just find this money. Like, these rich-ass people just find this money.

And we're still sitting here in a world where we're like, yeah, the schools can't directly pay the players. What? Come again? Exqueze me, baking powder. We can't directly pay these dudes. We have to go, like, do the stupid NIL shit to pay these guys. but we're paying, you know, there's $50 million buyouts for coaches? And the thing is, I never disliked Franklin.

I don't mind him. Like, I get why, like, look, you're in a world where you want to win titles and you're in the Big Ten, and there's only a handful of schools that feel like they have a legit shot to win it. You're in one of the leagues that feels like they can. So I get it. And look, you weren't going to survive the two. Like having back-to-back historic losses, it's wild that that's all it takes, though.

And obviously, this has been building for a while. Franklin can't win the big game. That's been building for a while. But it's amazing that losing to UCLA and Northwestern, they're like, fuck you, go. Kindly leave, sir. Lord. 50 million to do nothing. And the whole world, there's no one in the world.

Where are the protests? I need protest. I did hear someone or there was a tweet or somebody was like, oh, I think it was from somebody in the Philly media was like, they're paying $50 million to pay off a football coach but wouldn't spend 17 million to save the public radio station there yeah because what do you think people in happy valley care about fucking the the the nitty lion football program or or fucking some show on npr like get real jesus no one gives a shit about npr anywho more to come