Liam MacKenzie
The wait in Blacksburg, Virginia is finally over as Virginia Tech has announced the hiring of their new head coach in James Franklin on November 17th, 2025 and it is one that should give the program a ton of hope. Franklin was previously the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions where he had a total of 104 wins and 45 defeats in 12 seasons. He also led the program to the Big 10 title game against Wisconsin in 2016 where Penn State was down 28-14 at halftime and would eventually end up coming back to win 38-31 behind the performance of his starting quarterback Trace McSorely at that time. Almost a decade later, he would bring Penn State to the college football playoff as the 6th seed where he would lead the team to the semifinal round after victories over the 11 seed SMU Mustangs and the 3 seed Boise State Broncos but would come one game short of making the national championship after being taken down by the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Franklin also happened to be the head coach of Vanderbilt before going to Penn State where he had a total of 24 wins and 15 losses which was a successful tenure after having back to back 9-4 seasons. Unfortunately, having success in the year 2025 for Franklin at Penn State was not the case as he was fired by Penn State on October 12th of 2025 where his team would suffer three consecutive losses with one coming to the 6th ranked Oregon Ducks which wasn’t the worst of them, but the ones against the Bruins of UCLA and Wildcats of Northwestern who were lower in the Big 10 Standings sealed the deal for his departure to happen. It was a tough ending during his tenure with the program, but injuries on the team included the one that quarterback Drew Allar suffered which happened to be a broken ankle that led the team to where they are now.
So here we are in the middle of November where the Hokies of Virginia Tech presumably have their head coach of the future after they fired their previous head coach Brent Pry back in September of 2025 who is a guy that also had roots from Penn State as he was the defensive coordinator from 2016 to 2021 and had a good connection with James Franklin. The reason for Pry being fired is way different than the reason that Franklin got let go as Pry had an abysmal 16-24 record during his occupation with the program. The Hokies had an incompetent start to the 2025 campaign which saw their record go to 0-3 as one of losses was to Old Dominion by a score of 45-26 which was the nail in the coffin for Pry’s time as the Head Coach. After the departure of Brent Pry, offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery took the role as the interim head coach which will soon see James Franklin become the full time head coach come 2026. The college football world along with the media have been talking recently about James Franklin going to Virginia Tech as talks between the Head Coach and the program have gone on for a few days. As of today, the talks came to agreement on both sides as it resulted in the hiring of James Franklin as Virginia Tech’s newest Head Coach. What Franklin will bring to the table is being able to rebuild a struggling Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) team as he has been able to bring struggling teams out of the ashes which include Vanderbilt and Penn State. The culture that will be brought to Blacksburg is one that will be strong and will include strong core values as they happen to be “having a positive attitude”, “unrivaled work ethic”, “compete in everything you do”, and “sacrifice” as these have been consistently discussed and led by example. Dynamic leadership is something that Franklin has carried with him as he is someone who has balanced praise with constructive feedback and develops systems that will support his players along with his staff. When it comes to recruiting, the pipeline that he has will be a strong one where he has built a strong reputation for recruiting players in the Mid-Atlantic region which consist of states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington D.C., and of course, Virginia itself as people from that state have a chance to play with a pretty solid head coach. Finally, there is the management of the modern era that is a part of college football where Franklin has been able to navigate the current landscape of the American collegiate sport as he has been able to effectively manage the transfer portal and most importantly, Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) negotiations.
A new era has begun in Blacksburg, Virginia where the light has exited, and making the entrance is James Franklin as the Hokies newest Football Head Coach. This is a second chance for the former man in charge at Penn State, but he will be dealing with questions that will be focused on how he can reshape the Hokies roster along with the identity and vision of the program. As conversations have gone on for a few days between the program and head coach, Virginia Tech truly believes that what Franklin will bring to the table will direct the Hokies back to prestige in the ACC and onto a more national stage.
