Back in October, the Penn State Nittany Lions decided to make a shocking decision to fire head coach James Franklin in the middle of the season. That kicked off a wave of several head coaching firings, including Brian Kelly and Billy Napier.
Now, about a month later, James Franklin and Virginia Tech reportedly have mutual interest in Franklin becoming the next head football coach for the Hokies. Virginia Tech fired Brent Pry back in September following a disastrous loss to Old Dominion.
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ESPN’s Pete Thamel Reported the James Franklin News on College Gameday
On his weekly appearance on College Gameday, ESPN reporter Pete Thamel reported that James Franklin and Virginia Tech share a “mutual interest” and are in the “early stages” of talks that would make him the next Hokies’ new head coach.
As the college football season starts to wind down, schools like Virginia Tech are likely going to try and finalize its coaching staff for the upcoming 2026 season before this current season ends.
In a separate report by CBSSports, writers Chris Hummer, John Talty, and Matt Zenitz believe that James Franklin will end up taking the Hokies’ vacant head coaching position:
“Franklin has spoken to coaches and even recruits about potentially joining him in Blacksburg (among other places) over the last few weeks, per sources. He’s giving the job strong consideration, and several industry sources believe he’ll likely take it –”
GettyJames Franklin’s firing from Penn State could have been influenced by Adidas.
The way that James Franklin makes his decision may cause a domino effect in the college football coaching carousel. There are so many desirable open positions across college football, which means the big programs will want to lock down a name as soon as possible. This takes away the possibility of another school swooping in and swiping a candidate.
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James Franklin May Want Out of the Big 10
James Franklin has been very adamant about his desire to continue coaching, but it makes sense as to why he would want out of the Big 10, which gave him trouble against the big competitors in the conference (Ohio State, Michigan).
Taking the VT job would certainly be a step down from Penn State, but it would offer the Hokies’ football program stability that its been missing since Frank Beamer.
Penn State fired Franklin on Oct. 12 amid a three-game losing streak, including at UCLA and at home to Northwestern, that saw the team go from being ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 to unranked. The Nittany Lions had National Championship aspirations before the season, and those were ultimately crushed before the middle of October.
Another member of College Gameday, legendary coach Nick Saban, also believes that Franklin going to Virginia Tech would be a great hire.
Saban believes that they are “All-In” and VT, and are just in desperate need of a coach who can successfully run the program.
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