After Penn State fired James Franklin in October, he knew that he wanted to coach again. It was only a matter of time before he found a new home for the 2026 season. Little did many people know that his new home was going to be in Blacksburg.
In mid-November, when he was hired at Virginia Tech, he did what he always does: he hit the ground running in terms of everything. Before the ink was dry on his new contract, he was recruiting the Class of 2026 and trying to scramble to put a class together. It's not easy to do that late into a season.
Not only did Franklin need to try to retain the recruits that had already committed to Virginia Tech, but he also had to pivot to some of his former Penn State commits. That wasn't easy to get them to come to Blacksburg, but Franklin pulled it off.
James Franklin pulls of fast recruiting with the Class of 2026 at Virginia Tech
It's been said before and needs to be said again: the current state of recruiting in college football is about relationships. The better ones you have, the better off you're going to be. When it comes to Franklin, he clearly has the relationships to recruit. He was able to flip several commits from Penn State to Virginia Tech, but it wasn't easy. Kids had questions, and Franklin had few answers.
"They're asking me who the coordinators are going to be? And I just said, you have to trust me," Franklin told ESPN. "'Who is my position coach going to be?' And I just said, you have to trust me."
It worked, amazingly. Franklin collected 17 commits in two weeks, including flipping 11 Penn State commits to follow him to Virginia Tech. He got some good ones, too. Running back Messiah Mickens headlined the list of Nittany Lions commits, along with quarterback Troy Huhn, just to name a few.
"Coach Franklin told us this place was going to be home," Huhn said. "He told me when I committed to Penn State to always trust him. I just relied on that."
One of the things that Virginia Tech is going to notice over time is that when it comes to recruiting, some big targets are going to visit Blacksburg. Franklin was able to secure some of the top recruits when he was at Penn State, and he should be able to do the same at Virginia Tech. If Franklin can pull off what he did in two weeks, can you imagine what he could do with more time? We're about to find out.