Dennis Franchione

Dennis Franchione died on Tuesday 6 October 2026 in Austin, Texas, at the age of 75. Family members confirmed his death to Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and it was then reported by On3, Patch and other outlets.

He had lived with cancer for about a decade. He was diagnosed with a cancerous kidney tumour in 2016 and cleared it, and in 2021 received a more serious diagnosis but reached full remission after treatment. According to family friends, the cancer returned earlier in 2026 and he moved to hospice care in October.

He was survived by his wife, Kim, his daughters Ashley and Elizabeth, and his son Brad. Funeral arrangements had not been announced at the time of the first reports.

Dennis Wayne Franchione was born on 28 March 1951 in Girard, Kansas. He stayed close to home for college and earned a Bachelor of Arts from Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas, in 1973.

He met his wife, the former Kim Kraus, after giving her a tour of Pittsburg State at her father's request. They married in 1977 while living in Peabody, Kansas, and had two daughters, Ashley and Elizabeth. His son, Brad Franchione, from an earlier marriage, also became a football coach.

Franchione began coaching in 1973 as head coach at Miller High School in Missouri, then worked as an assistant at Mulvane High School in Kansas and as head coach at Peabody-Burns High School from 1976 to 1977. In 1978 he joined Kansas State as an assistant, and in 1981 he became head coach at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas, where his teams went 14, 4 and 2 and won a Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference title and the Sunflower Bowl.

After two seasons as offensive coordinator at Tennessee Tech, he returned to his alma mater, Pittsburg State, in 1985. Over five seasons the Gorillas went 53 and 6, won five conference titles and reached the playoffs, and he was named NAIA national coach of the year in 1986 and 1987. He then spent two seasons at Southwest Texas State, going 13 and 9.

In 1992 he took his first Division I-A job at New Mexico. His 1997 team went 9 and 4, won the WAC Mountain Division and played in the Insight.com Bowl, the Lobos' first bowl since 1961. At TCU from 1998 he turned a 1 and 10 team into a 7 and 5 Sun Bowl winner in a single season. With LaDainian Tomlinson leading the nation in rushing, TCU reached another bowl in 1999 and went 10 and 1 in 2000 as WAC co-champion. He accepted the Alabama job before that season's bowl game and was not allowed to coach it.

At Alabama he went 7 and 5 in 2001, including an Independence Bowl win, and 10 and 3 in 2002 with a share of first place in the SEC West, though the team was banned from the postseason by NCAA sanctions arising from the previous staff. In December 2002 he left for Texas A&M, informing his Alabama players by video teleconference.

At Texas A&M from 2003 to 2007 his teams went 32 and 28. They reached the Cotton Bowl after the 2004 season and the Holiday Bowl after a 9 and 3 regular season in 2006, and beat Texas in 2006 and 2007. In 2007 it was revealed that a private email newsletter called VIP Connection, written by his assistant and sold to boosters for 1,200 dollars a year, had shared injury and recruiting information withheld from the public. A university review found NCAA and Big 12 rule violations. He resigned in his press conference after a 38 to 30 win over 13th ranked Texas in November 2007.

After leaving A&M he lived in Horseshoe Bay, Texas, and worked as an ESPN Radio analyst in 2008 and 2009. In January 2011 he returned to Texas State, leading the Bobcats into the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2012 and into the Sun Belt Conference in 2013. He retired on 22 December 2015.

Franchione and his wife Kim were married for nearly five decades. In 2005 he donated one million dollars toward an indoor practice facility for Texas A&M athletics. After his A&M years he made his home in the Austin area. His son Brad coached on his staff at Texas State. He was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.

Franchione finished with a head coaching record of 213 wins, 135 losses and 2 ties, eight conference championships and a bowl record of 4 wins and 3 losses. Several assistants from his Pittsburg State staff, including Gary Patterson and Jerry Kill, went on to become successful head coaches.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote that his three seasons at TCU were his greatest contribution to the sport, starting a period of growth that Patterson continued. His departures from TCU and Alabama and the newsletter affair at Texas A&M also shaped how he was remembered. In 2026 he was named on the ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame.