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Ryan Day on the firing of James Franklin: ‘He’s gonna land on his feet’
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Ryan Day spoke with the media on Tuesday afternoon in the leadup to Saturday’s Week 8 battle at Wisconsin, but 1 of the main topics of his press conference didn’t have anything to do with No. 1 Ohio State‘s latest Big Ten showdown.
It had to do with the recent firing of Penn State head coach James Franklin, who Day had a ton of big battles with. The Nittany Lions were No. 2 in the preseason AP Poll and won their first 3 games. But then it all went downhill a few weeks ago, starting with a double-overtime home loss to Oregon, and Penn State didn’t recover, losing as big favorites to UCLA and Northwestern.
The sudden demise sank Franklin, too, who was fired on Sunday afternoon. A few days later, Day spoke about his longtime opponent.
“James, anytime you are somewhere for as long as he has, he did a lot of great things,” Ryan Day said. “We had a lot of great games against each other. He’s gonna land on his feet. He’s a really good coach.”
One of the many things that led to Franklin’s firing was his record against Ohio State and Day himself. Franklin was a woeful 1-10 against the Buckeyes, which included an 0-6 record against Day. Franklin would’ve faced Day again this season on Nov. 1, when Penn State visits Ohio State, but Franklin won’t get that chance now.
Franklin took over at Penn State in 2014 and went 104-45, posting 6 10-win seasons. But he had just a 4-21 record against AP top-10 teams, and his record against top-10 Big Ten teams was even worse at 1-18.
Day has heard plenty of criticism himself at Ohio State, including just last year after losing at home to Michigan, so he knows what college coaches go through.
“But then you got to get back to work. That’s the world we live in,” Day said. “It’s something that, I think, for all of us, we need to make sure we focus on what matters to us and what’s at hand. I said it before, whether it’s the negative things or the positive things or things like that, those are all kind of noise out there. … There’s a lot that comes at you, whether you’re a player or a coach, our ability to focus and concentrate on what’s important is what’s critical, so that’s what we got to do.”
Maybe Day and Franklin will meet again as coaches down the line, but all of a sudden, things have changed at Penn State, and the Ohio State-Penn State rivalry will feature a different coach on 1 sideline starting in a few weeks.