In 2009, Coach Mike Johnson came out of retirement to head the football program. The year was marked by many special events and milestones, such as beginning play in our brand new stadium, the Franklin-Cosumnes Community Stadium, being invited to participate in the first-ever Battle At The Capitol Classic at Folsom High (in which our Wildcats beat Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco), and playing in the last year of the DVL before realignment removed Valley and Nevada Union high schools to other leagues. The Wildcats defeated cross-town rival Elk Grove for the second consecutive season (30-15) and neighborhood rival Laguna Creek (38-22) for the 4th straight season! The Wildcats finished in second place at 4-1 in league play and advanced to the section play-offs for the 3rd time in 4 years! The team was led by junior quarterback Derek McIntyre, junior receiver Anthony King, junior lineman/linebacker Cody Mariner, senior defensive end Karmah Yates, senior running back Kenny Hunt, and junior slot back/linebacker Hayden Thornton. Outstanding senior linebacker Cody Galea became the third Franklin football player to earn a Division 1 scholarship when he was offered and accepted a scholarship to play at the University of Nevada, Reno!!  The JV team, led by head coach Randy Rubiales in his first year at Franklin, won the DVL with a 4-1 record and finished 7-2-1 record, including wins over Folsom, Nevada Union, Sheldon and Laguna Creek. The defense gave up only 78 points all season and the team outscored its final three opponents 163-0 to end the season strong!!

Franklin Varsity ended its season by beating #3 ranked and neighborhood rival Laguna Creek 21-20 for the third year in a row. Dennis McIntyre's JV squad also went 9-1, winning the league championship by going undefeated in league.

Franklin High School opened in 2002 with only freshmen and sophomores, so it did not field its first varsity football team until Fall 2003. That Wildcat team was comprised of only juniors and sophomores since there were no seniors yet at the school. It also began playing in one of the Sac-Joaquin section's toughest leagues, the Delta Valley Conference, made up of long-time area powers Elk Grove, Nevada Union, Davis (with 8 section football titles between those three schools), Valley and Laguna Creek high schools. To start the football program from scratch, head coach Mike Johnson came from Lincoln High School in Stockton, where he was very successful and won a section championship of his own in 2000 with the Trojans with an impressive win over Elk Grove HS in the title game.

Under the strong leadership of Coach Johnson as well as benefiting from two successful youth feeder programs (the Laguna Creek Junior Cardinals and the Franklin Junior Wildcats), the Franklin Wildcats improved dramatically in a very short period of time. Johnson began the Wildcats' tradition of annually playing a very difficult non-conference schedule to improve the team and prepare them for the rigorous Delta Valley Conference slate. In 2006, in only its fourth year of varsity football, the Wildcats, led by QB Oscar Loza and RB/LB "Squeaky" Russell, went 8-2 and won the Delta Valley co-championship!! This included the Wildcats' first-ever win over Nevada Union. No new team in area Division 1 history had ever advanced to the Sac-Joaquin section play-offs in such a short period of time!! The Wildcats also landed its first two players on Division 1 college football scholarships when lineman Zack Waller and WR/DB Brandyn Thompson signed letters-of-intent to attend Boise State University of the Western Athletic Conference.

In 2007, Coach Johnson took the Wildcats back to the Sac-Joaquin section play-offs again while finishing second in the DVC. Led by QB Mark Clifton, center and special teams standout Robert Davis and RB Johnell Murphy, Franklin finished second in the DVL and again advanced to the play-offs. That season also included another win over Nevada Union on the road, another first for the Wildcats. No other area Division 1 high school had advanced to the section football play-offs in consecutive years in only 5 years of varsity play. The Wildcats traveled to Napa High School for their first round play-off game, where they lost a hard-fought game to the eventual section champion Indians.

In 2008, Brian Prahl moved up from coaching the Franklin freshmen to take over the varsity head coaching position from retired Coach Johnson. Coach Prahl continued the Wildcat tradition of playing an extremely difficult non-conference schedule by playing teams who were all ranked either in the Sacramento Bee or Stockton Record Top 20. Coach Prahl and his Wildcats followed that up with the school's first-ever win over Elk Grove in Elk Grove's Homecoming game, 35-14.

Wildcats' year-by-year records:

2003 3-7 (juniors only)
2004 3-7
2005 3-7
2006 8-2 (4-1 conference, Sac-Joaquin section play-offs participant)
2007 6-4 (4-1 conference, Sac-Joaquin section play-offs participant)
2008 4-6 (3-2 conference) 

2009 6-4 (Sac-Joaquin section play-offs participant)