Virginia Tech is betting big on James Franklin, but Paul Finebaum isn’t buying the idea that the Hokies just landed one of college football’s elite coaches.
Franklin is in Blacksburg after 12 seasons at Penn State, where he went 104-45 and got the Nittany Lions into the College Football Playoff in 2024. That run ended with a last-second semifinal loss to Notre Dame. But for all the wins, Franklin’s Penn State story always came with the same stain: the games that mattered most kept slipping away.
His record in bowl games was 6-6. Against ranked teams, he finished 16-29.
Against top-10 opponents, he was 4-21. Against top-five teams, he was 1-16.
Penn State gave him one more shot to flip that script after the playoff push and the return of several key starters were supposed to fuel a strong 2025 season. Instead, the Nittany Lions opened 3-3 after being ranked No. 2 in the preseason, and Franklin was fired.
Now he’s starting over at Virginia Tech on a five-year, $41.75 million deal, and Finebaum made it clear on “The Paul Finebaum Show” that he doesn’t see Franklin in the same light as many others do.
"Well, he's not," Finebaum said. "You've got to remember the media is not overly analytical when it comes to people they like.
Franklin got out. Nobody remembered he was fired by the end of the year.
He's doing 'GameDay,' sucking up to everybody... He's got an easier job.
It's a better fit for him. He's followed a bunch of losers at Virginia Tech, so it shouldn't be very difficult for him."
That blunt assessment cuts against the wave of optimism around the hire. Franklin has not shown he can consistently get a team over the hump, but he has shown he can raise the floor of a program. That’s a big reason Virginia Tech is intrigued.
The Hokies were a major ACC force in the late 1990s and through the 2000s, but they haven’t been able to recapture that edge since Frank Beamer retired. Justin Fuente produced one double-digit win season and also had three losing seasons. Brent Pry followed with three losing seasons in four years, and his lone winning campaign was a 7-6 finish.
Franklin’s track record is built on turning things around. At Vanderbilt, he inherited back-to-back 2-10 seasons and delivered two 9-4 seasons in three years. At Penn State, he took over after 8-4 and 7-5 seasons amid the cloud of the Jerry Sandusky incident and eventually produced six double-digit win seasons.
So the question in Blacksburg isn’t whether Franklin can build something. He already has that part on his résumé. The real test is whether he can do it fast enough in a more competitive ACC and turn Virginia Tech into something sturdier than what the program has been for years.
In Other News...
Minnesota May Have Found Two 2027 Commits Rankings Are Missing
Minnesotas 2027 board already has a couple of names that stand out if you look past the rankings, and quarterback Furian Inferrera is one of them. He does not have much game tape for evaluators to lean on, but the Gophers interest makes more sense when you consider what has shown up in person: a big frame, a live arm and the kind of tools that can make a camp session stick in a scouts mind.
Offensive lineman Jamail Sewell is the other prospect drawing a closer look, and he brings a very different kind of intrigue. He is still relatively new to football, but his athletic background and rare size give him a ceiling that is hard to ignore, especially for a program trying to identify upside early. Minnesota seems to be betting that both players are better than the early outside numbers suggest, and for now that is enough to keep them on the radar. [Read more 🡒]
Wisconsin Just Raised The Pressure On Niko Medved In Minnesota
Wisconsins latest recruiting win in Minnesota is the kind of development that tends to linger around the Gophers program, especially when the Badgers land two of the states better 2027 prospects. Babou Ann and Jake Thelen both chose Wisconsin after the Badgers made a hard push in Minnesota, while Niko Medveds staff did not extend offers to either player or to Ty Schlagel, who ended up at Nebraska. For a program trying to build a stronger in-state pipeline, those decisions matter as much for perception as they do for the roster itself.
The bigger issue for Minnesota is how that trend could play out under the NCAAs new five-years-to-play-five-seasons rule, which may shrink future classes and make every scholarship more valuable. The Gophers are still in the mix for Isaiah Santos, a four-star small forward from Texas, but the pressure is obvious when nearby rivals are already taking advantage of Minnesota recruiting misses. Wisconsin has shown it can turn those battles into real roster gains before, and Minnesota would rather not keep giving the Badgers that opening. [Read more 🡒]