Pat Kraft walked up the stairs inside Lasch Building on Sunday with a heavy heart, knowing he was about to tell James Franklin, his friend, that he was done as Penn State football coach.

“This was extremely, extremely difficult,” Kraft said Monday at a press conference. “It’s been a very difficult 48 hours. I felt after Saturday, sitting down and looking at everything … we just had to make the hard decision.”

Kraft, Penn State’s director of athletics, fired Franklin after he guided the Nittany Lions to a 104-45 record, a Big Ten championship and a College Football Playoff appearance in 11-plus years.

They began this season ranked second in The Associated Press poll, won their three non-conference games and then dropped three straight in the Big Ten to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern. The

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