Dan Lanning is coming for your program's soul. The fourth-year Oregon head coach has become college football's Grim Reaper as three of his victims, Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State, Trent Bray at Oregon State and James Franklin at Penn State, have already been fired this year.
The Nittany Lions let Franklin go Sunday morning after 12 seasons, one Big Ten Championship and two playoff wins in 2024.
In the summer the preseason magazines and polls tabbed PSU as one of the preseason favorites for the national championship with a senior-laden roster, four returning starters on the offensive line and the three-million-dollar backfield of Drew Allar, Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton.
Expectations ramped also after Franklin acquired linebacker Amare Campbell and receivers Kyron Hudson, Devonte Ross and Trebor Pena in the transfer portal.
The hype crashed quickly after a double overtime loss to the Ducks followed by collapses at UCLA and a third straight loss, 22-21 at home to Northwestern on Saturday.
Franklin wore the tag "he can't win the big games" despite beating SMU and Boise State in the playoffs, coming within a play or two of beating Notre Dame in the semifinals.
The Transfer Portal cuts both ways, It creates an expectation among fans and big-money boosters that any program can achieve an incredible turnaround like Curt Cignetti has at Indiana while at the same time it creates parity that makes every week of the schedule harder.
When 0-4 UCLA can fire its head coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator and then win two Big Ten games in a row, parity is the new reality. Washington State nearly beat Ole Miss in Oxford.
It's never been easier for a program to disillusion its fans and fall short of the hype. WE ARE Penn State is paying Franklin $56.66 million to go away.
The move opens up a high-profile job at a school with two national championships and rich coffers. Bruised pride opens big pockets: The Nittany Lion faithful want to make a splash hire, not merely a needle-mover but a needle-buster. Names like Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Lane Kiffin and Cignetti have been bandied about.
This coaching search will set the market nationally. Matt Campbell at Iowa State, Matt Rhule (a Penn State graduate and current coach at 5-1 Nebraska) will either get interviews and/or raises at their current spots.
It shakes up the entire Big Ten. Hot coordinators like Brian Hartline or Will Stein will be approached, or their agents will. And it's not this job-- a move like this creates ripples across the industry, vacancies throughout the NCAA, especially since Arkansas, UCLA, Oklahoma State, Oregon State and Virginia Tech are already shopping for coaches, and Billy Napier at Florida and Luke Fickell at Wisconsin are standing over seats too blistering hot to sit on.
The Ducks play Wisconsin in two weeks. Lanning could claim another victim.
Another dimension of this multi-faceted coaching shakeup comes in recruiting. Current players on Penn State's roster have 30 days to enter the portal. Already wide receiver LeVar Keys has reopened his recruitment.
In the 2027 class, 5-star RB Kemon Spell, 5-star OT Layton Von Brandt and 4-star safety Gabriel Jenkins have all decommitted, the entire 2027 class for PSU gone in one afternoon.
For the Ducks this represents an opportunity. Yesterday's loss to Indiana showed painfully that Oregon desperately needs to upgrade its athleticism and consistency at linebacker. IU's backers destroyed the Oregon offense, while the Ducks defensive lapses and inability to get off the field on three long touchdown drives exposed how short of championship level the Ducks are in the middle of the defense.
For all his success starting his career 40-7 and recruiting three straight Top Ten recruiting classes, Lanning and the Ducks have come up woefully short in linebacker play and linebacker recruiting. In the Nittany Lions 2026 class there are two four-star LBs, Terry Wiggins of Coatsville, PA and 6-2, 215 Elijah Littlejohn of Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Ducks should crook a little finger at both of them. Chaos is a ladder.