Virginia Tech football will fill the first Power Four head coaching vacancy for the 2025-26 cycle. James Franklin fueled rumors of taking over the Hokies. Now Blacksburg will welcome the former Penn State head coach.
Franklin to Virginia Tech “are finalizing an agreement” to become a pairing, per ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel.
“The deal is expected to be completed in the near future,” Thamel wrote on Monday.
Franklin has spent a month without leading a football team. Penn State fired him on Oct. 12 following a third consecutive defeat.
Virginia Tech landing 128-game winner in James Franklin
The Atlantic Coast Conference program adds a coach with 128 total wins on his resume — meaning he's won 68% of his games.
Franklin guided the Nittany Lions to one outright Big Ten title in 2016, plus an appearance in the 2024 College Football Playoffs. He turned PSU into a top 25 contender annually. But he also guided PSU out of a dark time for the program — following the high-profile Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal that brought NCAA sanctions to State College.
Franklin also recruits the regions surrounding Blacksburg in hitting the “DMV” hard on the college football recruiting trail. His connections in the “I-95” corridor of Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia regions bode well for a Hokies team aiming to become re-galvanized.
Virginia Tech has produced just one 10-win season post Frank Beamer — coming in 2016 under Justin Fuente. However, the Hokies haven't won more than seven regular season games during the 2020s decade.
Franklin succeeds Brent Pry — fired after the embarrassing loss to Old Dominion. Pry went 16-24 overall at the helm but started the year 0-3. The Hokies pivoted to former Tulsa head coach Phillip Montgomery, who was a Pry assistant on the 2025 staff.
This rises as the third HC stop for Franklin, who also led Vanderbilt from 2011 to 2013.
