Virginia Tech is set to hire James Franklin as its next head coach, sources told FootballScoop on Monday.
Franklin-to-Virginia Tech was a match many foresaw when Franklin hit the market more than a month ago. In fact, at the risk of quoting myself, this was written in FootballScoop's Coaching Autopsy after Franklin's dismissal from Penn State: "Franklin could undoubtedly get the Virginia Tech job tomorrow and win lots of games without a beat-Ohio-State-and-win-a-national-title-or-else hammer swaying above his head for 365 days a year."
It took about 30 tomorrows to get the deal done, but it's now done. The courtship hit hyper drive over the weekend when Virginia Tech let it be known that they had been patient for as long as they could, and on Sunday Maryland announced Mike Locksley would return for the 2026 season. Many in the profession speculated Franklin was possibly waiting on that job to open, where he was once offensive coordinator and head coach-in-waiting behind Ralph Friedgen. With Maryland not hitting the market -- and after speaking to Auburn and Arkansas -- Franklin is taking the bird in hand at Virginia Tech.
Franklin inherits a Virginia Tech program well removed from its Frank Beamer glory days, when the Michael Vick-led Hokies played for a national championship in 1999, won three ACC titles from 2007-10, and posted 17 AP Top 25 finishes in 19 seasons from 1993-2011. Virginia Tech's last major bowl trip came in 2011, its last conference title in 2010, and getting above the .500 line is now the major goal as the 3-7 Hokies are heading toward their fifth losing record in six seasons. Relatedly, AD Whit Babock told university leadership the Hokies were $80 million below in annual budget where they need to be to compete in the ACC, and the school has committed $230 million over the next four years.
Though his struggles to reach the pinnacle of the sport were well documented, Franklin establishes a high baseline everywhere he coaches. After going 24-15 in three seasons at Vanderbilt, Franklin went 104-45 over 11 and a half seasons at Penn State, with one Big Ten championship, five AP Top 10 finishes, and one trip to the CFP semifinals.
From Franklin's Penn State bio:
James Franklin, a 30-year football coaching veteran at both the collegiate and NFL level, was appointed Penn State’s 16th head football coach on January 11, 2014 and enters his 15th season as a collegiate head coach. Franklin’s career head coaching record is 125-57 and is one of three active FBS coaches with a 68-plus winning percentage and 14-plus years of head coaching experience. Franklin attributes his success on the field to the strength of his teams’ dedication to four core values: positive attitude, great work ethic, compete in everything you do and must be willing to sacrifice.
Under Franklin’s direction, Penn State has finished in the top 12 of the final College Football Playoff rankings in seven of the last nine seasons, has earned berths in seven New Year’s Six bowl games with four wins and won the 2016 Big Ten Championship. Franklin guided the Nittany Lions to a school-record 93% graduation success rate in the most recent GSR report and a perfect single-year 1,000 APR for the 2018-19 school year.
- Franklin owns a 125-57 career record, leading his teams to six Top 10 finishes (all at Penn State) and nine Top 25 finishes (7 at Penn State; 2 at Vanderbilt).
- He reached 100 wins at Penn State in 2024, becoming one of seven active FBS head coaches with 100 or more wins at their current school (Kirk Ferentz, Iowa; Dabo Swinney, Clemson; Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State; Kyle Whittingham, Utah; Troy Calhoun, Air Force; Kirby Smart, Georgia).
- Franklin reached the 100 wins at Penn State in just 141 games, making him the third-fastest among the seven active FBS coaches to do so, trailing only Smart (117 games) and Swinney (129 games).
- Since 2016, Franklin’s 74.3% winning percentage (87–30) ranks fourth among current FBS head coaches who have coached throughout that span.
- In the last nine seasons under Franklin, Penn State is one of four teams to rank in the top 12 of the CFP final rankings at least seven times, joining Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State.
- He joins Ryan Day (Ohio State), Smart and Swinney as the only active coaches in college football to have won at least five New Year's Six or College Football Playoff (CFP) games during the CFP era.
- Penn State has currently posted three consecutive 10-win seasons for the first time since 1980-82, and six 10-win seasons in the last nine years for the first time since 1978-86.
- The Nittany Lions have won 34 games over the last three seasons (2022-24), marking the first time in program history that Penn State has won at least 34 games over a three-year span.
- Franklin is one of four current Big Ten coaches (Ryan Day, Kirk Ferentz and Dan Lanning) to have won a Big Ten Championship and became the first African American head coach to win a Big Ten title after Penn State’s 2016 victory.
- With PSU's victory in the Rose Bowl Game in 2022, Franklin became the fifth coach to win the Rose, Fiesta and Cotton Bowls at the same institution, joining Joe Paterno (Penn State), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), Mack Brown (Texas) and Terry Donahue (UCLA).
- From 2016-19, Franklin led PSU to three New Year’s Six bowls - 2016 (Rose), 2017 (Fiesta) and 2019 (Cotton) - marking the first time Penn State as a program went to three New Year’s Six bowls in four years since 1980-83 (1980 Fiesta, 1982 Fiesta, 1983 Sugar). The Nittany Lions matched that same feat from 2021-24 - 2022 (Rose), 2023 (Peach) and 2024 (CFP First Round, Fiesta and Orange).
- Franklin’s squads won three New Year’s Six bowl games in six years (2017-22), marking the first time PSU has won three New Year’s Six bowl games in a six-year span since 1991 (Fiesta), 1995 (Rose) and 1997 (Fiesta).
- He guided Penn State to back-to-back New Year’s Six bowls in 2016 (Rose) and 2017 (Fiesta) for the first time since 1985 (Orange) and 1986 (Fiesta), and twice more in 2022 (Rose) and 2023 (Peach), and 2023 (Peach) and 2024 (CFP First Round, Fiesta and Orange).
- Penn State was ranked in the AP Top 25 for the 63 consecutive polls in which it was eligible from 2016-20, marking the third-longest streak in program history and longest streak since 1993-2000 when PSU was ranked for 121-straight weeks.
- From 2016-19, Franklin led Penn State to 42 wins, the most in program history for the Big Ten era in a four-year span, and 28 league wins, a program record.
- Franklin has coached 18 All-American selections, 32 national major award winners or finalists and 59 NFL Draft picks at Penn State.
- In his first 14 years as a head coach, Franklin mentored 116 players reaching the NFL ranks.
- Franklin is one of just four active head coaches, joining Smart, Swinney and Day, to have produced at least three drafts with two first-round picks from the same school.
- Fifty Penn State players have been selected in the last eight NFL Drafts, the most for PSU in an eight-draft span since 1987-94 (54 players). In addition, five or more Nittany Lions have been drafted in a program-record eight-consecutive years.
- He has mentored eight Penn State first-round draft picks in his 11 years with the program. In comparison, Penn State had just four first-round picks in the 11 years prior to his arrival and seven in the 14 years before he took over.
- Franklin has secured top-25 recruiting classes each of his last 13 seasons, including a top-5 class at Penn State in 2018 and the No. 6 class in 2022.
- He is first all-time in wins and winning percentage (minimum 80 wins) by an FBS African American head coach.
- Franklin became the first (and only) African American head coach to win a Big Ten title and is the first (and only) African American FBS head coach to reach 100 career wins.
- With victories in the Fiesta Bowl, Pinstripe Bowl, Music City Bowl and Birmingham Bowl (formerly the Compass Bowl) for Franklin, it marked the first time in each bowl’s history an African American head coach earned the win.