Virginia Tech Lands Former Penn State Coach James Franklin As New Head Coach
Virginia Tech bets big on James Franklin to restore Hokies college football glory after years of struggle.
After a few weeks of waiting, James Franklin made the decision to accept the head coaching job at Virginia Tech.
The former Penn State coach had been mulling an offer from the Hokies, doing his own digging into the university as he wanted plans for NIL and assistant coaches salary pool.
After being fired by the Nittany Lions on Oct. 12, Franklin has been searching for his next spot, having conversations with Arkansas about its opening in the process. But, it was Virginia Tech that made the most sense to Franklin in the long run.
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Over his 15 seasons at Penn State, Franklin won 128 games, but could not get past the ‘big game’ stigma that followed him during his time in State College. After the overtime loss to Oregon, the wheels seemingly fell off the bus for the team, leading to a loss at UCLA, followed by another loss in Happy Valley to Northwestern.
According to CBS Sports, James Franklin and Penn State did settle on a negotiated buyout, which will drop his buyout from $49 million to $9 million. In this case, that is a win for both sides, given that Franklin had mitigating language in his contract.
But make no mistake, James Franklin is a winner, and will bring a different element to Blacksburg, coming off a college football playoff semifinal appearance last season.
This move by the Hokies should signal that they are ready to win now, and will do whatever it takes to get the football program back into ACC relevance. After firing Brent Pry, Virginia Tech officials went right to work on trying to land the former Penn State coach.
The Hokies have struckout on their last two hires, with Justin Fuente and Pry, so this decision to lure Franklin to Blacksburg was key in the school making sure the football program was not going to continue flailing in the wind.
For Penn State, this means some of the $49 million buyout will be reduced, thanks to mitigating factors in the contract of James Franklin.
As for the Hokies, the football team has not reached double-digit wins since the 2016 season, and they are confident James Franklin can take them back to the top of the ACC in short order.