When Virginia Tech fired Brent Pry as head coach last September, the school needed to nail the next football coaching hire. They couldn't take another chance on a coordinator or a Group of 5 head coach. They needed to try and pry (no pun intended) a Power 4 Conference coach away from his program.
Little did anyone know what was about to fall into their lap. One month after Pry was fired, so was James Franklin at Penn State. He became the top target of schools that already had openings and schools that were potentially going to have an opening.
Read More: AP poll results prove that Virginia will always be Virginia Tech's Little Brother
However, that firing happened shortly after Virginia Tech announced a search committee to hire the next head football coach, and they immediately zeroed in on Franklin. Ten days before Thanksgiving, Virginia Tech made the hiring of Franklin official. Now, entering his first season in Blacksburg, it appears that the school nailed the hiring.
James Franklin placed in The Athletic's second tier of head coaches for the 2026 season
Chris Vannini of The Athletic placed each coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision into eight tiers, weighing everything from resume to resources to longevity and more. You would figure, after everything that happened with his dismissal at Penn State, that he would have slid down the tiers. Guess again.
Last season, Franklin was placed in the second tier, "Established winners," surprisingly, that's where he remains ahead of his first season in charge of the Hokies. It's a group of 10 coaches that are in the tier joining Franklin, including Mario Cristobal of Miami and Dabo Swinney of Clemson from the ACC.
So, what should we make of this? First of all, The Athletic agrees that the search committee nailed the hire. We already knew that; we didn't need the outlet to confirm it. Second, Vannini wrote that Franklin was the hardest coach to place in that tier after how things ended in State College. Angry Penn State fans should remember that Franklin had them less than a quarter away from playing for the National Championship just two short seasons ago. Good luck getting there with Matt Campbell.
Third, leaving Franklin in that tier makes sense, as a new start with a huge chip on his shoulder could set the Hokies up for a big season, should things fall into place. A lot has to happen for things to go right, and maybe it won't, but a James Franklin-coached team where everyone has a chip on their shoulder sets up for a very interesting 2026 season.
We are less than three weeks away from the James Franklin era beginning in Blacksburg, and it is shaping up to be a fun but very interesting 2026 season. Where will Franklin be when the 2027 tiers are released? Time will tell. However, you can't deny that Franklin isn't an established winner.
Add us as a preferred source on Google