by George Ahearn

James Franklin has agreed to terms with Virginia Tech to become the program’s next head coach, a move that projects to be the most promising change in Hokies football since Frank Beamer stepped foot on campus in 1987.

Since Beamer’s retirement in 2015, Virginia Tech football has compiled a 63-59 record, sending a once formidable program into a pit of irrelevancy. On the other side, James Franklin has delivered the opposite, putting Penn State in the national conversation year-after-year.

Through 12 seasons in State College, Pa., Franklin led the Nittany Lions to a 104-45 record, becoming the second-winningest coach in program history in the process. Through the 2022-24 seasons, Penn State went 11-2, 10-3 and 13-3, respectively, making it as far as the College Football Playoff Semifinal last season.

Prior to his time at Penn State, Franklin coached Vanderbilt to a 24-15 record from 2011-2013, a program that similarly to Virginia Tech, struggled mightily before hiring Franklin.

It is clear the consistent level of wining Franklin can provide to a program, and that consistency is exactly what Virginia Tech Football has been craving since Beamer’s retirement.

While Penn State has been one of the sport’s best programs over the last decade, it would be remiss not to mention why Franklin was ultimately fired.

Through his tenure at Penn State, Franklin owned a 4-21 record against AP top-10 opponents. Despite all the good, there was arguably just as much reason to be upset at the conclusion of each season.

However, as Nick Saban stated on ESPN’s College Gameday, Penn State’s title hopes were due to an “expectation that [Franklin] created, by what [Franklin] accomplished at Penn State.”

While he may have fallen short when the lights shined the brightest, these same lofty expectations will not exist in Blacksburg. While I expect Hokies fans to be excited about this hire, expectations will be tempered in comparison to Penn State’s this season.

Virginia Tech simply needs a return to relevancy, to rejoin the national conversation. And in the ACC, a significantly weaker conference than the Big Ten, all of this feels very possible under the tutelage of Franklin.

His leadership has always been praised, and following his firing, there was a storm of players, former and current, that defended the character of James Franklin.

Current Linebacker Tony Rojas wrote “I appreciate you Coach for being so good to me and my family. He wasn’t just a great coach, but someone who cared about us players and wanted to develop us as men off the field too.”

Former Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley said “you pushed me to the best player and man I could be. I wouldn’t have wanted to play for anybody else in the world.”

Green Bay Packers star Micah Parsons stated “Coach deserved better. Myself and countless others wouldn’t be where we are today without Coach.”

These affirmations of character speak to the leadership Franklin brings to a program; a strong foundation that should help lift Virginia Tech back into the national spotlight.

While establishing a culture may be step one in turning around a program, the reality of the current college sports landscape is you must able to compete financially.

On Sept. 30, Virginia Tech announced a plan to add $229 million to their athletics budget over the next four years, a move demonstrates the Hokies’ willingness to provide the funds it takes to compete in the current era of college sports. This increase projects to place Virginia Tech football towards the top of the conference in funding.

While compiling the necessary funds is an important part of building a championship-caliber roster, you still need to recruit players to your school – a task Franklin is no stranger to.

At Penn State, he delivered 13 consecutive top-25 recruiting classes, earning the No. 5 ranked class in 2018 and the No. 6 ranked class in 2022.

Before arriving at Penn State, he signed the highest-rated recruiting class in Vanderbilt’s history three years in a row. Regardless of location, Franklin has always recruited high-end talent.

What bodes even better for the Hokies is the recruiting regions where Franklin has established strong ties. Having worked as a coordinator and Associate HC at Maryland from 2008-2010 and spending the last 12 seasons at Penn State, Franklin’s footprint is all over the DMV and the Northeast. Expect Franklin to maintain his recruiting pedigree in Blacksburg.

The last reason why the Franklin hire projects to be such a home run for the Hokies is due to the other jobs currently open across college football.

In the SEC alone, the LSU, Florida, Auburn and Arkansas jobs are all vacant. Other power-conference jobs such as Oklahoma State, Stanford and UCLA are open as well.

On the national scale, Virginia Tech likely ranked in the middle among these vacancies in terms of desirability, so the fact that they were able to land a proven winner with 15 seasons as a power conference head coach is quite impressive.

While other openings did not fit Franklin’s background, and he may have wanted to lead a program that flies more under the radar than some of the SEC giants, Virginia Tech landing one of the biggest fish in the coaching cycle is an indisputable win for the program.

There will be people that are still down on the Franklin hire, and they may be right in the end. However, what is undeniable is that Virginia Tech could not have dreamed to find themselves in this position at the onset of the season, and a program that was seemingly middling out now has new life.

Expect winning to return to Blacksburg, Va., and as fans we should be thrilled. College football is better when the Hokies are nationally relevant, and that rampant fan base has a chance to be reawakened.