Virginia Tech finished its search for a new head football coach this week. James Franklin was asked to leave State College, PA earlier this season by the less-than-happy denizens of “Happy Valley”; so, now he will move south to Blacksburg, VA and assume the mantle of head coach for the Hokies. On the surface, this seems like a great hiring decision by the school and a smart acceptance by Coach Franklin.
After a long career as a position coach and as a coordinator, Frankin took over the head coaching job at Vandy in 2011. When he took the job, Vandy had produced records of 2-10 in each of the previous two seasons and was basically seen as a doormat in the SEC. Franklin was there for three seasons, and the Commodores went to a bowl game in each of those three seasons. His overall record in those three seasons was 24-15; that is a whole lot of winning for a team that was a doormat when he arrived.
James Franklin’s tenure at Vandy earned him the label of “program builder”; indeed, the turnaround at Vandy – – the only private school in the SEC – – was eye-catching. At the end of the 2013 season, the folks at Penn State were looking at a different situation. Two years earlier the school fired Joe Paterno who had been there since 1966 amid a particularly nauseating sexual assault scandal. Bill O’Brien had been the coach in 2012 and 2013, and the Nittany Lions had posted winning records in both seasons, but fans felt the vibe was wrong. O’Brien had saved the football program at Penn State from disintegrating, but some fans and boosters felt that the program needed a boost to get back to where it was in Paterno’s glory years. That person turned out to be James Franklin.
In eleven seasons at Penn State from 2011 through 2024, Franklin’s teams were above .500 ten times; the one losing season was the foreshortened 2020 COVID season. But fans and boosters did not like the fact that Franklin’s teams never “broke through” and beat one of the other big dogs in the Big-10. Under Franklin, Penn State’s record was 3-7 against Michigan and 1-10 against Ohio State. Earlier this season after three consecutive losses to Oregon, Northwestern and UCLA, Franklin was fired at Penn State.
With that as prologue, I think this is a great hiring decision by Virginia Tech and another opportunity for James Franklin to do what he has shown he can do. Tech was successful for years under Frank Beamer but since his retirement in 2015, things have not been nearly as positive for the Hokies. In the last three seasons Tech has amassed a cumulative record of 16-21. Tech needed to find a “program builder” and they found one in James Franklin.
From Franklin’s perspective, this is a good landing spot for him too. After sub-.500 records in four of the last five seasons, he will be seen as successful with an invitation to a minor bowl game in mid-December. And, as he builds out a program in Blacksburg, the route to something more than passing national recognition is relatively easy in the ACC. Clemson and Florida State had dominated the ACC for years, but neither program is currently seen as unassailable; Miami is on the ascent but none of the other schools are “fearsome”.
If Franklin can attract recruits even close to the caliber of the players he got at Penn State – – not at the Saquon Barkley or Abdul Carter level – – who were evaluated as reasonable prospects for NFL football, the Hokies could become a contender for top positions in the ACC. There are other job openings in college football this year but landing one in the ACC just might be the “sweet spot” for a coach looking to get his new team into the periphery of the national spotlight.
Oh, and also, neither Michigan nor Ohio State will show up on the Va Tech schedule…
Finally, this note from Knute Rockne:
“I’ve found that prayers work best when you have big players.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
I think it is a crime that Penn State fired Franklin. If beating OSU and MSU was the criteria for success, most of the Big Ten coaches would be failures!
dave:
Penn St. fans and alums think that the Lions should be a Top 5 team every year and falling short of that kind of performance generates unrest. Losing to Oregon this year should not be embarrassing; losing subsequently to UCLA and Northwestern was simply more than those folks with lofty expectations could bear.