Penn State’s decision to fire James Franklin was sudden — just 15 days before, he was leading an undefeated team ranked third in the country. It was also a massive departure from the university’s standard operating procedure.

“They never fire anybody,” said Nittany Lions football historian Rex Naylor Jr.

Franklin is the only football coach fired for performance in more than 100 years at Penn State, according to Naylor’s research. Longtime coach Joe Paterno was let go in 2011, but that decision came in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.

Naylor isn’t aware of any coaches being fired for performance in the university’s nearly 140 years of football history, but records from the late 1800s and early 1900s are spottier.

“It is way out of character,” said Naylor, who has a pod

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