James Franklin remains one of the biggest names still remaining on the big board as college football embarks on a historic coaching carousel, and one school has apparently emerged as a favorite to bring him on as their next head coach.
Franklin is currently listed as the overwhelming favorite to become the next coach at Virginia Tech for the 2026 season, according to the prediction market Kalshi.
Franklin was named the favorite at 69 percent odds to take the top job with the Hokies program, well ahead of the other contenders, namely current James Madison head coach Bob Chesney at 12 percent, and USF coach Alex Golesh in third at 10 percent.
In a way, matching up Franklin and Virginia Tech, a mid-level program in a Power Four conference, makes logical sense.
The coach has developed some strong recruiting connections throughout the Mid-Atlantic region of the country where the team is located and still draws much of its on-field football talent.
The school has also revamped its investment into the football program recently, allocating more funds to its NIL scheme and the facilities, indicating a serious push to move into the national conversation.
The Hokies have a reliable, passionate fan base and arguably more realistic expectations than most SEC programs do, where the pressure is on to get instant results against higher-caliber league opponents and contend for the national championship every year, or else.
A school like Virginia Tech gives Franklin a chance to rebuild both the program and his own place among head coaches nationally in more incremental stages, and in a conference with a relatively easier path to the championship than the SEC does.
Despite what happened this season, Franklin still has a solid pedigree leading a major team, going 13-3 with a College Football Playoff berth a year ago, and won at least 10 games in six years, including the last three straight at Penn State.
Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt recently speculated that Franklin could be looking in that direction.
“I’ve heard that he’s pretty close to Virginia Tech,” he said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd.
“He will definitely coach again, and he will have success. The guy was not a bad football coach. He came up short in the most difficult games out there, namely like Michigan when they’re in the top five or Ohio State when they’re in the top five. So he’s going to go someplace and he’s going to make them a better program.”
Other national college football analysts also foresee a path for Virginia Tech to bring on Franklin as head coach, including USA Today.
“By leaps and bounds the most impressive candidate in Virginia Tech’s orbit,” is how analyst Paul Myerberg described Franklin.
He noted that the coach could “reverse the program’s decade-plus malaise and quickly bring the Hokies into ACC contention.”
While some outlets and betting markets like the idea of Virginia Tech bringing on James Franklin, not everyone with inside knowledge believes that it’s a sure thing.
That includes On3 Sports’ Andy Staples, who threw cold water on the idea of Franklin and the Hokies having mutual interest.
“James Franklin’s gonna have options if he thought his best option was Virginia Tech, and Virginia Tech was offering the job, he would have already taken it,” Staples said in comments to The Dan Patrick Show.
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