When Penn State fired James Franklin as their football coach, you knew it wasn't going to take long for him to find a new home. The only question was whether he was going to take a year off or jump into a new job ASAP.
He ended up choosing the latter and landed at Virginia Tech, replacing his former defensive coordinator, Brent Pry, who was fired a month before Franklin. In the end, Virginia Tech's search committee zeroed in on Franklin, and a week before Thanksgiving, he was officially hired in Blacksburg.
As soon as he was hired at Virginia Tech, he went to work recruiting and rounding out his coaching staff. He is bringing back Pry as his defensive coordinator. That's right, the same Brent Pry was fired months earlier. Franklin is looking forward to his new start at Tech and vowed not to make the same mistakes he made at Penn State.
James Franklin explains getting the band back together at Virginia Tech
Franklin admitted he made some mistakes before he was fired at Penn State, but he is changing things in Blacksburg. He is surrounding himself with more familiar faces, something he veered away from with the Nittany Lions.
"The minute you think you've got this all figured out is the minute your career goes in the tank," Franklin said. "Systems are really important. So that's one of the things that's been so valuable for me, getting the band back together.
"We have a system that we all know how to recruit to. I went outside of that system a little bit, took on some risk. And risk is important in business. You've got to take on some risk. But I think I probably took on a little bit too much."
Not only is Franklin bringing back Pry, but he also brought some coaches with him to Penn State from Virginia Tech. Quarterbacks coach Danny O'Brien and offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Ty Howle top that list. Expect Franklin to continue to take risks in Blacksburg, but not as many as he did at Penn State.