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Penn State Football

PSU HC James Franklin Gets win No. 100

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin November 12, 2022 David Hague/NSN

Penn State’s 55-10 win over Rutgers Saturday in Piscataway was No. 100 for James Franklin as a college football head coach.

Close to finishing up his ninth season at Penn State, Franklin is now one of 27 active FBS coaches in the “100 Club” overall and one of 18 coaches who has 100 at the FBS level. 

The Penn State boss is also one of nine coaches in the 100-win fraternity who’s had at least 75% of his wins come at one school. Franklin got his first 24 wins at Vanderbilt, where he coached from 2011-13 before taking the Penn State job. The other 76 have happened at Penn State. Among the other eight are fellow Big Ten bosses in Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald. Other members include Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, Navy’s Ken Niumatalolo, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy and Utah’s Kyle Wittingham. All 100 of Franklin’s wins have come at FBS schools. That’s something only six other coaches can say. It took Franklin 151 games to get to 100 wins. That’s faster than all but six coaches. 

Franklin was asked about his looming milestone Wednesday in his post-practice media availability. He reflected on his run at Penn State and expressed optimism for the future. 

“When we first got here, it was under very different times and very challenging times,” Franklin said, “and then obviously, we’ve had a change, as you guys know, from the leadership level and athletic department level.

“I’m looking forward to the direction that we’re going and really what we have done. If you look at the entire picture, I’m pretty proud. Obviously, there’s still some things that we need to do better, and I need to do better, and those things, but the overall body of work is something I’m pretty proud of,” he continued. 

With 76 wins, Franklin is fourth all-time on Penn State’s list. He’s 16 away from passing Bob Higgins and moving into third place and 29 away from passing Rip Engle and moving into second. He’s still 334 away from passing Joe Paterno.

 

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