“Fire Franklin” chants have finally taken hold at Happy Valley, and this time, the fans got their wish. After three straight losses, including to UCLA, which ranked at the bottom of the ladder, it felt inevitable that James Franklin’s tenure was nearing its end. But after tasting dust against Northwestern, a one-point biting loss against Northwestern, Franklin received his verdict. But why was he let go on Sunday? It seems it’s all about the optics.

Every Sunday, Franklin would tweet about the next matchup, trying to hype up the fandom. The Athletic’s Mitch Sherman wrote on X, “James Franklin didn’t make it long enough after losing to Northwestern to send his Sunday tweet about Iowa. Probably a good thing for optics.”

Ahead of the Northwestern game, he tweeted, “Game Week! Let’s do th

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