It's officially hiring season in college football.
According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, Virginia Tech is finalizing a deal to hire James Franklin as its next head coach. Franklin, who was fired from the same position at Penn State on Oct. 12, replaces Brent Pry, a former Penn State defensive coordinator who was fired on Sept. 17. Terms of the contract have not been disclosed.
Franklin compiled a 104-45 record at Penn State from 2014-25. He gets a career reset at a program that lacks the identity Frank Beamer brought to the program in the 1990s and 2000s. Beamer retired after the 2015 season. Now, Virginia Tech will get a new identity in the 12-team College Football Playoff era. This should translate into a win-win situation for Franklin and the Hokies in the wide-open ACC.
Why James Franklin fits at Virginia Tech
Franklin, 53, is arguably the most-successful available coach in this cycle. He won 10 or more games six times at Penn State since 2016. The Nittany Lions won the Big Ten championship in 2016 and reached the College Football Playoff semifinals last season.
Franklin was fired after a three-game losing streak derailed a season in which Penn State opened at No. 2 in the AP Poll. To some, that might seem ridiculous, but Franklin's tenure at Penn State had reached the tired stage.
Virginia Tech should be wired. The Hokies have one 10-win season since Beamer left and own a 77-72 record in the CFP era. This is a barely.500 program that has lost that ESPN-weekday night pull game that defined "Beamer Ball."
Michael Vick. That is who you picture when you define that era. Special teams. Max-effort players who go on to the NFL. Sure, Virginia Tech still plays "Enter Sandman" before games, but the Hokies are 2-13 against ranked teams since 2020.
Franklin could not outrun the record against top-10 teams at Penn State. The "4-21" statistic just kept coming up to the point it became a manual override for his entire tenure. It is such a disservice, however. Franklin made the Nittany Lions a contender again coming out of NCAA sanctions, and he coached high-profile stars such as Saquon Barkley and Micah Parsons.
MORE: James Franklin contract details
Will James Franklin revive Virginia Tech's program?
Virginia Tech is 2-10 against top-10 teams in the same stretch, ironically, with a victory against Ohio State in 2014. The Hokies' last top-10 victory was on Sept. 3, 2021, a 17-10 victory against No. 10 North Carolina on a Friday night at Lane Stadium.
That was a rare moment where Virginia Tech felt like a contender again. Will it happen again?
The last two coaches did not work out. Justin Fuente finished 43-21 from 2016-21. Pry had a 16-24 record before being fired this season. Franklin is a proven program-builder from an elite Power 4 program. He finished 7-6 in his first two seasons at Penn State and had just one losing season -- which was the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Franklin wins at a high percentage, and the Hokies cannot say that they've done that since Beamer retired.
He should enhance recruiting at Virginia Tech. The average recruiting class at Penn State the last five seasons ranked at 15.2. At Virginia Tech, that number was at 45.2. Franklin should be able to at least meet those numbers in the middle and pull top-25 recruiting classes back to Blacksburg on a regular basis. Virginia Tech had five players selected in the 2025 NFL Draft. It's not like the talent isn't there.
There is an opportunity for success in an ACC where parity reigns supreme. In the Big Ten, Franklin had Penn State at third-wheel status behind Ohio State and Michigan. The ACC doesn't have two front-wheel programs right now, and Franklin's record against top-10 teams will not be a constant talking point.
The Hokies have not won the ACC championship since 2010 and have not played for the conference title since 2016. Franklin should be able to build a roster able to do both within the next three seasons. That should be a reasonable expectation.
If there is a question, then it's whether Franklin is a long-term hire at Virginia Tech. Would the coach have a few successful seasons then be tempted by another swing at the SEC -- which had several openings this cycle -- or the Big Ten -- where he could always return? Franklin has to win with the Hokies for that to happen anyway, so it should not be a concern.
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How James Franklin impacts the coaching carousel
Franklin is the major Power 4 hire of this cycle. There are eight openings, including four in the SEC (Florida, LSU, Arkansas, Auburn), two in the Big Ten (Penn State, UCLA), one in the Big 12 (Oklahoma State) and one in the ACC (Stanford).
Franklin was among the candidates for most of those openings, and the irony here is Penn State cannot honestly say they are still on their A-list candidates, not with Indiana's Curt Cignetti and Nebraska's Matt Rhule signing extensions at their respective schools. Remember, from the late 1990s through the 2000s, Virginia Tech was a better program than Penn State. Can that happen again? Only if the Nittany Lions hire the wrong coach.
It's a bit of a surprise Franklin did not wait and maybe take a more high-profile job in the SEC. Now, the attention turns to Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin. He becomes the most-sought after coach in this cycle, now. Will the Rebels' coach entertain one of those SEC offers while the program is in the middle of a College Football Playoff run?
That's why the hiring season is so much more fun than the firing season.