STATE COLLEGE — Pat Kraft wants to win national championships in Happy Valley. To try to do so, Penn State’s athletic director made the toughest decision of his career.

Penn State fired coach James Franklin on Sunday after the Nittany Lions — who began the season ranked second — dropped three straight games, two in embarrassing fashion to unheralded teams.

Fighting back tears at times, Kraft was emotional Monday as he took the podium in the Beaver Stadium media room just a few feet from the tunnel leading onto the field. It’s where Franklin took his final walk after 11-plus seasons toward the locker room to jeers and obscenities after the team’s sloppy 22-21 loss to Northwestern on Saturday.

In the end, just nine months removed from the College Football Playoff, where Penn State came one game shy of making the national championship game, Kraft based his decision on results, not character or effort.

“This is not a three-game thing,” Kraft said. “This is really diving into where we were as a program and what is the trajectory of this program. And you all know, I’m not shy to admit it, I’m here to win national championships. I believe our fans deserve that, and I wake up every day trying to achieve that goal.”

The Nittany Lions (3-3, 0-3 Big Ten) are out of the running this year. The athletic department now will search for a coach Kraft hopes will bring the program its third championship and first since 1986.

“This is also about the modern era of college football,” Kraft said. “Our next coach needs to be able to maximize elite-level resources, attack the transfer portal and develop at the highest level. This person has to fit Penn State. They need to represent the toughness, the blue-collar work ethic and the class that defines this institution.”

In the meantime, the goal is to simply salvage what’s left of a lost season, one that’s seen starting quarterback Drew Allar and star linebacker Tony Rojas sustain long-term injuries. Allar is out for the season while Rojas’ return is questionable.

Interim coach Terry Smith, who played for Joe Paterno from 1987-1991 and was hired by Franklin when he became Penn State’s head coach in 2014, is the man Kraft tabbed to pull the Nittany Lions out of their funk.

It will be a tough task for a team that struggled to put away three nonconference opponents before enduring this recent skid.

Smith has to guide the Nittany Lions through a brutal three-game stretch right away. They travel to Iowa on Saturday before visiting No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 1 and hosting No. 3 Indiana on Nov. 8.

“We need to get back to enjoying ball, being tough, gritty and passionate,” Smith said. “All I want to do is help Penn State be successful and win. I’m sitting in this press conference because we didn’t win enough.”

The longtime Franklin assistant, who has been one of Penn State’s best recruiters, also got emotional.

He paused to find the right words to describe what his former boss meant to him and what the players they recruited are feeling. Smith said he and Franklin had a “heartfelt” conversation Sunday night after Franklin addressed the players.

“Those kids love him. He went into every one of their homes and brought them here,” Smith said. “James is a great guy, man. He’s done so much for all of us.”

Former athletic director Sandy Barbour signed Franklin in 2021 to a 10-year contract extension worth up to $85 million. According to terms of the deal, Penn State must pay Franklin’s base salary of $500,000, supplemental pay of $6.5 million and insurance loan of $1 million until 2031.

Kraft refused to get into details about the buyout. He said only that it would be covered by athletic department funds.

Franklin went 104-45 at Penn State but just 4-21 against teams ranked in the top 10. He was noncommittal when asked if he still wanted to be Penn State’s coach after Saturday’s loss.

Smith, however, hopes to make a case to lose the “interim” tag as the athletic department searches for a permanent replacement.

“When you watch us play, you guys will come in here and your questions won’t be effort. Your questions won’t be, ‘They looked lethargic,’” Smith said. “If we lose, it’s going to be because that team beat us and they were just better. I promise we’re going to put a better product on the field that every Penn Stater is going to be super proud of.”

Matt Rhule professed his love for living and working in Nebraska and trying to return the Cornhuskers to the upper echelon of college football.

That said, he did nothing Monday to shut down speculation he could be up for the Penn State job.

“This place is elite,” Rhule said at his weekly availability. “And I want to be a great father, and I want to be a great college football coach. And so I’m not going to talk a lot about job openings when they come.”

Rhule's name surfaced immediately as a front-runner because of his ties to Penn State. He was a walk-on linebacker at Penn State under Joe Paterno in the 1990s, met his wife at the school and is close friends with athletic director Pat Kraft.

Kraft hired Rhule in 2012 at Temple, where he coached for four seasons before leaving for Baylor. Rhule left Baylor after three years and was the Carolina Panthers' coach for two-plus seasons. He came to Nebraska in December 2022, hired by former athletic director Trev Alberts.

Rhule is 17-14 in three seasons in Lincoln. The Huskers are 5-1 and entered The Associated Press poll this week at No. 25.