The day after he had surgery on his injured knee, Dominic DeLuca called James Franklin, worried that his football career might be over.

DeLuca had led Wyoming Area to a state championship, finishing the game despite tearing his ACL during the win. It was the Penn State coach, DeLuca said, who helped calm him down on that phone call, outlining a plan for him to rehab, delay his enrollment by a semester and then join the Nittany Lions.

DeLuca’s one-of-a-kind journey from injured walk-on to three-time captain has been well chronicled. But he’ll have to write the last chapter of his Penn State story without Franklin, who was fired on Sunday after the Lions’ third straight loss.

It hasn’t been an easy few days in the locker room.

“Coach Franklin was one of the only coaches to believe in me

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