5 Penn State storylines for Week 8: James Franklin fired, new QB & more

Penn State has reached the midway point of the regular season, and big changes are going down this week. Penn State was already about to prepare for one of its trickier road trips of the season with a primetime game in Kinnick Stadium to face the Iowa Hawkeyes awaiting them at the end of this week. But the Nittany Lions will start this week with a major coaching change in place after announcing the firing of James Franklin. Penn State also breaks in a new starting quarterback this week. It is sure to be a busy week for Penn State football this week.

Here are the five storylines we will be following this week as Penn State prepares for its road trip to Iowa on Saturday night.

Penn State hops on the coaching carousel

Penn State made what feels like a necessary change, and it is up for debate if now was the right time to make the move or not. But the decision has been made and now the program is getting a ticket to the coaching carousel. With the current state of the coaching carousel for this season, Penn State is currently the most attractive job on the market, and odds are it could be the highest-profile coaching vacancy to fill this year when all is said and done.

Athletics director Pat Kraft has said the school has a lot to offer any worthwhile coaching candidate, and there will be no shortage of notable names being thrown around as potential successors to Franklin in Happy Valley. Some will be more realistic than others, but the search is now underway. However, do not expect any closure on this search any time soon as coaching hires will likely be made toward the end of the season. Given the jump Penn State has on the job search, a new coach should probably by known by the end of the regular season or shortly afterward. So hang in there. It could be a little while before we know for sure.

Terry Smith takes the helm as interim head coach

With Franklin removed as head coach, longtime assistant and former Penn State player Terry Smith will take on the role of interim head coach. He gets thrown into the role at a tough spot on the schedule with a road trip to Iowa coming up this week and back-to-back games against Ohio State and Indiana coming up after that (with a bye week after the Iowa game to prepare). Smith going 0-3 in his head coaching debut for Penn State may not be an unlikely scenario, but would you have expected any better out of Franklin at this point?

Either way, this will also serve as a bit of an open audition for Smith as a candidate to retain the job in 2026 and beyond. If Smith manages to lead Penn State to a strong finish this season with some surprising wins along the way, maybe this season will not be a total lost cause.

Eathan Grunkemeyer jumping in the offensive spotlight

The head coaching change is just one of the major storylines ongoing at Penn State. The biggest story before Franklin was fired would have centered squarely on the starting quarterback. With Drew Allar suffering a season-ending injury in this past weekend's loss to Northwestern, Penn State's offense will be handed over to Ethan Grunkemeyer. Grunkemeyer played just one snap for Penn State after losing Allar to his injury on Saturday, a fourth-down that saw Grunkemeyer stuffed while trying to pick up a first down on the ground.

Penn State has not given Grunkemeyer too many opportunities on the field in his young college career, but he will be thrown right into the starting role this week. And getting your first start on the road at Iowa is hardly the ideal spot.

What is Penn State's player morale?

Say what you may about having an interim coach and an inexperienced starting quarterback making his debut on the road, but this may be the biggest wild card factor in everything. After all of the talk about national title hopes, and even Big Ten title hopes, going down the drain over the past three weeks and seeing their head coach shown the door and key players taking significant injuries, what exactly is the psyche of this Penn State football team? Everything that has transpired could easily lead to a team losing interest in the second half of the season while focusing solely on individual futures, or this team could come together and play their best overall football game of the season.

Much of how this team comes out on Saturday night will rely on the coaching staff shoving aside the headlines and finding a way to commit to a strong finish to this season no matter what has already happened. If the player buy-in is there, then we could still see some good football the rest of the way. This week's performance against Iowa will be very telling of the overall team mood.

Penn State recruiting takes an immediate hit

Any time there is a coaching change, especially in the middle of a season, the recruiting is going to take some immediate hits. That was the case for Penn State in the wake of the James Franklin firing as Penn State's entire Class of 2027 backed out of their individual commitments. That included one of its key in-state recruits, running back Kemon Spell. This is not to say those recruits will not commit back to Penn State in their recruiting process, but it makes sense for any player to step back from a commitment while waiting to see what happens with their potential future school.

The Class of 2026 held firm as of Sunday, but sudden changes could happen at any moment, given the nature of the recruiting game. Calls to Penn State commits were likely happening as soon as yesterday afternoon, so we will keep an eye on things for the current and future recruiting cycles. The sooner Penn State lands on a coaching hire, the better things will eventually be for the recruiting efforts.

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This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: 5 Penn State storylines in Week 8: James Franklin fired, new QB & more