James Franklin is a good coach, but can he be a great coach for the Virginia Tech Hokies?
Frankly, the bar is on the floor. No offense to Brent Pry, now the defensive coordinator for the Hokies, but the last four years weren’t great. He went 16-24 in three-plus seasons. He was fired in 2025 after starting 0-3 with losses to South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Old Dominion.
Two of those losses were understandable. Losing to a Sun Belt team was the end of the line for Pry, though.
Looking even further back, the Hokies have had just three double-digit win seasons since 2010 and only four winning seasons total since Frank Beamer retired in 2015.
The 2010 season is a notable one because that’s the last time Virginia Tech won the ACC. Franklin doesn’t have to do much to be considered a hero in Blacksburg, but the Hokies didn’t hire him just to get back to “good.”
He knows how to run a nationally relevant program. For all his faults and inability to “get over the top” with the Penn State Nittany Lions, he did go 104-45 in 12 seasons in Happy Valley.
That’s why he doesn’t think he has to overhaul the way he does things now that he’s at Virginia Tech.
“You can learn things over the years, you get around really good people, so you’re constantly learning and growing and evolving,” Franklin told The Athletic. “But it’s hard to say that you need to totally reinvent yourself when six games earlier you’re playing to be in the national championship, right?”
James Franklin will be appreciated by the Virginia Tech Hokies
Franklin is a proven winner, and while he doesn’t necessarily have to reinvent himself, perhaps Virginia Tech will give him a chance to find himself as a head coach again.
He’s already having massive success on the recruiting trail, and that’s normally a prerequisite to success on the field. It’s also worth noting that turnarounds don’t have to take forever in the NIL and transfer portal era.
If Franklin can hit the ground running in 2026, he could realistically have Virginia Tech competing for the College Football Playoff in 2027. Heck, Curt Cignetti won a national championship at Indiana in year two.
Even if he just gets Tech back to relevance, though, Franklin will absolutely earn the respect and adulation of the Hokies’ fan base.
After years of not living up to expectations at Penn State, perhaps that will be the one thing he needs to finally reach his true potential as a head coach.
Outgoing Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock certainly sees it that way.
“You want to be at a place where you’re celebrated, not tolerated. And he is celebrated here,” Babcock told The Athletic.
