Why James Franklin Is the Perfect Fit for Virginia Tech

The minute that Penn State announced that it had fired James Franklin as its football coach, the college football coaching carousel changed.

The job in Happy Valley is now the most desirable opening in this cycle. As one of just two Power 4 schools in a large, talent-rich state, Penn State is always going to pull in top talent. Its expectation is to compete for national championships, and that’s a realistic goal with the right coach in place.

But among everyone else, one of the most desirable names for their next coach will be the man the Nittany Lions just fired. James Franklin went 104-45 at Penn State over 12 seasons. He finished seven of his final 10 seasons in the top 20 nationally. At Penn State, that’s merely acceptable. But there are a lot of schools that would pay handsomely for a coach who can produce those kinds of results.

Right now, one of those schools is Virginia Tech.

It’s no secret that the Hokies have been directionless since Frank Beamer’s retirement. The once-proud program in Blacksburg has been a mess for much of the past decade. Under Justin Fuente, the Hokies sank into mediocrity, and Brent Pry took them to even lower depths. Pry went 16-24 in a little over three years in Blacksburg, and that won’t cut it at a school where football is the top priority.

The Hokies have to make the right move here. And if he’s interested, James Franklin makes perfect sense. Here’s why.

James Franklin Is a Program Builder

The biggest knock on Franklin is one that even he won’t run from: he can’t beat the best teams in the nation. Franklin lost 45 games at Penn State, and 21 of them came against teams ranked in the top 10. Only four of his 104 wins came against teams of that caliber. That’s not very helpful when you’re trying to compete with the likes of Ohio State, given where Ryan Day has the Buckeyes.

Franklin went 1-10 against Ohio State over the course of 11 seasons. The Nittany Lions never got embarrassed by the Buckeyes, but they always found ways to get beat. Given that Michigan was also usually a strong team in Franklin’s time in University Park, Penn State was often stuck in third place in the Big Ten’s East Division. With divisions gone and new Big Ten powers in Indiana, Oregon and Illinois now a factor, Franklin had hit his ceiling at Penn State.

But Virginia Tech wouldn’t be asking Franklin to beat Top 10 teams. For one, those teams don’t compete in the ACC outside of Coral Gables. For another, the Hokies are having enough trouble winning their guarantee games.

And that is something Franklin can do very well. He knows how to take a program that has been shaken to its foundation (or in the case of Vanderbilt, didn’t even have a foundation) and rebuild from almost nothing. Penn State fans might have complained about Franklin’s inability to beat the best teams, but until the past two weeks, they really couldn’t say anything about him beating the teams he was supposed to beat.

Against Maryland, Rutgers, Indiana and Michigan State, Franklin’s overall record was 33-8. Most likely, he’d have similar success against the likes of Boston College, Syracuse, Wake Forest, NC State and Louisville.

Franklin didn’t become a bad coach overnight. He had a bad three-week stretch, but he still knows how to put a program together. Virginia Tech hasn’t had that in a while. 

James Franklin Knows How to Recruit Virginia

To understand what needs to happen to win at Virginia Tech, you have to understand how Frank Beamer won at Virginia Tech. He did it with two key things: great special teams play and by dominating recruiting in Virginia.

When you look at the Hokies’ struggles under Fuente and Pry, the biggest reason is obvious: Virginia Tech has not done anywhere near as well at recruiting Virginia as it did under Beamer.

Virginia Tech is not an easy place to reach. While Virginia has three major talent bases in Richmond, Northern Virginia and the Tidewater region, Blacksburg isn’t within 200 miles of any of them. And few people understand that better than James Franklin.

During his time at Penn State, Franklin regularly plucked good players out of the Old Dominion State. State College is actually about 40 miles closer to Northern Virginia than Blacksburg is, but Franklin also made inroads in the Tidewater region. That was where Beamer made his living for so many years, and where Fuente and Pry failed to make their mark.

Virginia Tech doesn’t have the same relationships it had with coaches around the state when Beamer was running the show. Nor is it essentially unopposed in the state. In Beamer’s heyday, Virginia and Virginia Tech were the only FBS schools in the state. Beamer mostly had his pick of the state’s top talent. Now James Madison and Liberty have moved up to FBS, and Old Dominion both started a football program and joined FBS. 

The Monarchs are especially frustrating for the Hokies because they give Tidewater-area players the chance to stay home and play FBS football. They have also proven multiple times that they can beat Virginia Tech. Since Old Dominion began its program, the schools have met six times and the Monarchs have won three of them, including this year’s 45-26 rout in Blacksburg that led to Pry’s firing.

Franklin can be the key to reversing this trend. He already has relationships with most high school coaches in the state from his time at Penn State. Hiring him would repair the relationships between Virginia Tech and the pipeline it needs.

James Franklin Could Come at a Discount for Virginia Tech

Much has been made of Franklin’s large buyout from Penn State. The Nittany Lions were reported to owe $49 million to Franklin for him to leave. However, there’s a clause in the contract: Franklin is required to seek employment elsewhere in a similar field in order to collect his buyout. 

Specifically, Franklin has to pursue jobs as either a coach, a scout or a television analyst (i.e., jobs that fit his skill set) to comply with his buyout terms. If he secures a job, Penn State only owes Franklin the difference between his new salary and what he was making at Penn State. For example, if Franklin secures a job for $4 million a year, Penn State must pay him another $4 million per year for six years.

That could save Virginia Tech a few million dollars a season when attracting a coach of Franklin’s caliber.  He could choose to take a pay cut, knowing that Penn State would have to make up the difference. While Penn State does have language saying Franklin can’t just take a job for a low salary to soak them, it’s hard to see the Nittany Lions winning a dispute if Franklin takes a coaching job for around $5 million a year.

Obviously, singing Franklin is a gamble. But it’s one that Virginia Tech can and should try. The Hokies can’t afford to get another coaching hire wrong. Franklin might not win a national championship in Blacksburg, but he can compete for an ACC title more often than not. And after the past decade, Virginia Tech fans would take that.

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