James Franklin's Firing Should Have Former WVU Football HC Candidate Regretting His Choices

Last winter, WVU football fired then-head coach Neal Brown after a six-year tenure marked by mediocrity, and embarked on a national coaching search. The Mountaineers ended up bringing in-state native Rich Rodriguez back to lead the Mountaineers for his second tenure with the program after a wildly successful stint from 2001-2007 – but another name that was listed among the final candidates was Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.

At one point, Mike Asti of WV Sports Now even reported that he believed the job was Kotelnicki's if he decided he wanted to take it. However, Penn State was in the midst of a College Football Playoff run and expected to return a ton of critical pieces for the 2025 season, and Kotelnicki reportedly turned the job down.

“Just what’s going on here, right?” he said. “I enjoy, first and foremost, the players that I get to coach on a daily basis. Working with Coach [James] Franklin has been awesome, and the offensive staff that I work with is elite. So just a really easy decision, quite candidly.”

Fast forward just 10 months later, and the news broke on Sunday that Penn State has fired head coach James Franklin following three consecutive losses – including back-to-back defeats at the hands of unranked opponents – that left the Nittany Lions 3-3 overall on the season and one of just five teams still winless in Big 12 play. Associate head coach Terry Smith has been named the interim head coach, but it's not unreasonable to assume the entire remaining staff, including Kotelnicki, will be looking for new homes after the season – with their stock for landing a new gig down tremendously from where it was at the end of last season.

Now, one has to imagine Kotelnicki might be regretting his decision to turn down the opportunity to head up the Mountaineers – he could have landed his first-ever head coaching gig after 20 years in the coaching industry, and it could have come at a Power 4 job. He would have been coaching in a region he's familiar with after his stint at Penn State, and in a conference he's familiar with after his previous stint at Kansas.

Now, Kotelnicki will likely be looking for a job after this season. After Penn State's rough stretch in recent weeks, particularly with the offense looking lackluster and starting quarterback and NFL prospect Drew Allar seeming to regress from last season, it's not out of the realm of possibility Kotelnicki won't be blessed with another head coaching shot this season or in the near future. And if he is, it likely won't be at the Power 4 level.

WVU fans also might be experiencing some regret too, as Rodriguez is off to a 2-4 start with an absolutely anemic offense that possibly could have looked better under Kotelnicki, though it's hard to tell after Penn State's recent performances. Though it's way too early to write the Rodriguez experiment off as a failure, there are already some grumblings of discontent.