STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — 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

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