Where Does Penn State Rank in the Big Ten Coaching Hierarchy?

Few coaching jobs in college football carry the weight and visibility of Penn State’s. 

Following the decision to part ways with James Franklin after more than a decade at the helm, the Nittany Lions now find themselves at a crossroads. The next head coach won’t just inherit a storied program, they'll step into one of the most scrutinized roles in the sport.

Penn State remains one of the marquee brands in the Big Ten, yet, in a rapidly changing college football landscape — one now defined by NIL and the transfer portal — the program’s place among the conference’s elite isn’t as clear-cut as it once was.

FOX Sports' RJ Young and Michael Cohen weighed in on a simple but essential question: Just how good of a job is Penn State right now? How does it stack up against the conference’s best coaching positions in 2025 and beyond?

RJ Young: Athletic director Pat Kraft kept it a buck. He didn’t fire James Franklin just because he went 4-21 against top-10 opponents. Or because he made defensive coordinator Jim Knowles the highest-paid assistant in college football history. Or because he dug deep into the coffers to bring back 14 starters from a team whose biggest win last year was over Boise State.

Kraft didn’t pull the plug only because Franklin had lost seven straight combined to Ohio State and Michigan — or because he somehow managed to lose to 0–4 UCLA and an otherwise forgettable Northwestern.

He fired Franklin — and found near $50 million to do so — because it was clear the standard Kraft had set was not met and would not be with a team that fell from No. 2 in the preseason AP poll to unranked at 3-3 before Halloween.

"I wanted to sleep on it," Kraft said, "but I knew that night it was the right course of action. This is