5 days ago
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James Franklin will reportedly become the new head coach of Virginia Tech.
According to ESPN insider Pete Thamel, Franklin and the school are close to agreeing a deal for him to take over the Hokies.
Franklin had previously been the head coach at Penn State - with the Nittany Lions ranked as high as No. 2 in the country this season.
However, following three straight losses - first to No. 6 Oregon, then to unranked UCLA and Northwestern - Franklin was fired.
At the time, his buyout was the second-biggest in college football history at a $50million price tag.
Within weeks, that number was supplanted when LSU fired their head coach, Brian Kelly.
James Franklin is getting hired by Virginia Tech weeks after his $50m payout from Penn State
Franklin arrived at Penn State after going 24-15 across three seasons at Vanderbilt - making a bowl in each season and finishing 9-4 in both 2012 and 2013.
He would go on to spend 12 seasons in Happy Valley, helping to restore the Nittany Lions being a perennial national powerhouse from its previous lows following the Penn State child sex scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky - and the subsequent cover-up by head coach Joe Paterno.
Franklin had only one losing season at Penn State during the Covid-impacted 2020 campaign.
In that time, he made five New Year's Six bowls prior to the expanded College Football Playoff - winning the 2017 Fiesta Bowl, the 2019 Cotton Bowl, and the 2022 Rose Bowl.
Last season, Franklin led Penn State to its first ever College Football Playoff berth - beating SMU on campus and Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl before losing the Orange Bowl to eventual national runners-up Notre Dame.
In his time at Penn State, Franklin went 104-45. However, he was widely condemned for his failure to win in big games.
During his tenure, Franklin went 15-29 against ranked opponents - including records of 3-21 against top-ten opponents and 1-15 against top-five opponents.
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