James Franklin has been out of a job for a few weeks now, having been fired from Penn State after a disastrous start to their season. This officially ended one of the longest tenures in college football by any coach, which was already 11 years long.
Since then, he has been mentioned for the coaching job for almost every program imaginable. Florida, Texas, LSU, Arkansas, etc. — you name it — and Franklin has been considered their new coach. A source close to ESPN called him the ‘X factor’ in the current coaching market:
“The X factor right now in a bunch of these searches is James Franklin,” an industry source told ESPN.
However, more recently, speculation has been going about what seems like a perfect fit for the former Nittany Lions head coach: Virginia Tech. The Hokies fired their head coach, Brent Pry, in September after their 0-3 start to the season. Since then, they’ve been looking for a replacement, and recent reports suggest that they’re heavily considering Franklin.
According to Kolby Crawford, from 247Sports, this is a real possibility, and the most relevant party to the situation is Franklin’s agent, Jimmy Sexton.
“Obviously, his agent is Jimmy Sexton. I think this is the most important thing. There’s real, real smoke behind this. There’s obviously a lot behind this. The ball is in James Franklin’s court. If James Franklin wants to be the coach at Virginia Tech, yeah, he can go be the coach at Virginia Tech,” Crawford said.
The ball is in James Franklin’s court pic.twitter.com/yW4f3zJrhW
— Kolby Crawford (@kolby_crawford) October 30, 2025
For the 247Sports analyst, the decision is entirely James Franklin’s to make, as it looks like the authorities at Virginia Tech would be happy to have him.
Is James Franklin Among The Favorites To Become Virginia Tech’s Next Head Coach?
No, he isn’t. According to the oddsmakers, the favorite to become the next Hokies head coach is former NFL coach Jon Gruden, with odds of +400.
Behind him is South Carolina’s Shane Beamer, who’s the son of legendary Hokies coach Frank Beamer, with odds of +500. The rest of the front-runners are California’s Justin Wilcox (+600), Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield (+700), and James Madison’s Bob Chesney (+800).
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