James Franklin was fired for the first time in his career in October 2025. Having studied his downfall, the Virginia Tech head coach has pointed out mistakes he made at Penn State that he would not repeat in Blacksburg.
“One of the things that I think that I had really done a pretty good job of at Vanderbilt and at Penn State was hiring complementary pieces,” Franklin admitted to The Athletic on July 9. “So we may never have been the best in the country on offense, or the best in the country on defense, or the best in the country on special teams, but we played really good complementary football.
“And early on at Vanderbilt, and early on at Penn State, I was heavily involved in the offense, and as time went on, and you’re able to hire people with much more significant resumes, you get further and further away from it. And you’re struggling with, I brought this person in to do a job, and you’re going to let them do the job.”…