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Whether it be a coach at a new destination or a coach trying to stay at his current destination. There are a number of these situations taking place around the country, and we will have some fun looking into those programs.
To start, we are going to look at James Franklin, who was fired by Penn State after he led the Nittany Lions to a record of 104-45 in his time. This after leading an awful Vanderbilt team to a record of 24-15, including two straight nine-win seasons before being hired by Penn State to replace Bill O'Brien.
Franklin, who took the Nittany Lions to the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2025, was unceremoniously fired after three straight losses during the 2025 season. While the first loss could be explained by Oregon being a better team, the final two losses, one to UCLA and another at home to Northwestern, could not be looked past. With those two losses, Franklin and Penn State became the first team in history to lose two games in a row against teams that were favored by more than 20 points. It was bad but perhaps not bad enough to fire him in the middle of the season.
Penn State’s loss was Virginia Tech’s win, as Franklin took the Hokies job shortly after being fired and after making sure the Florida State job was not going to open. Always known as a great recruiter, he did his first bout of recruiting directly from the Penn State roster.
Getting multiple players to go from Penn State and the Big Ten to Virginia Tech and the ACC shows his ability to connect with players. His second big recruiting win was to get the recently fired Hokies coach Brent Pry to remain on staff and become his defensive coordinator. Few coaches would want to stay at the place who fired them to work for the man they hired in his place. But Pry was the defensive coordinator for Franklin at Penn State before getting the Virginia Tech job.
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So, it makes sense in that way and allows Franklin to have someone on the staff who knows the area better than he does. Pry will also know how he likes to work. When Franklin took the position, Virginia Tech was ranked outside the top 75 in high school recruiting for the class of 2026. After getting to Blacksburg, he not only brilliantly trolled Penn State with a Crumbl cookie social post, he also brought in enough impact players to get the team ranking up to No. 29 in the industry recruiting ranks. Some of these recruits, QB Troy Huhn, RB Messiah Mickens and LB Terry Wiggins, are all four-star recruits and were all committed to Franklin in Happy Valley.
Franklin was also able to bring in QB Ethan Grunkemeyer, who finished the season as the starting QB for Penn State after the injury to Drew Alar. Despite having a solid end to this year, Grunkemeyer decided to leave and is expected to be the starter for the
Hokies.
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The biggest thing in the favor of the Hokies is their conference. No longer will Franklin be forced to butt heads against the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Indiana and Oregon. While Miami made the title game last season, the rest of the ACC has been mediocre and with Florida State and Clemson both sliding behind the pack, Virginia Tech under James Franklin has the talent and recruiting to fill the gap at the top of the ACC.
There is a chance Virginia Tech could make the 12-team playoff this year. But there will still be a large step in the right direction in Blacksburg for the first time since Frank Beamer retired.
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