{"id":51391,"date":"2025-11-18T16:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/51391\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T16:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:45:10","slug":"why-james-franklins-a-great-hire-by-virginia-tech-plus-miami-notre-dame-comp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/51391\/","title":{"rendered":"Why James Franklin\u2019s a great hire by Virginia Tech, plus Miami-Notre Dame comp"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Until Saturday Newsletter \ud83c\udfc8\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s college football newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Tonight at 7 ET, Akron-Bowling Green, UMass-Ohio and Western Michigan-Northern Illinois simultaneously kick off Week 13. Based on how often each team runs the ball, I\u2019m picking WMU-NIU to finish earliest.<\/p>\n

Enter Baldman: Franklin\u2019s Hokies might contend quickly<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech\u00a0just hired a coach<\/a>\u00a0who, earlier in this very same calendar year, was a play away from the national title game.\u00a0Coach hires always feel like dice rolls to me, but \u2026 how do you argue against\u00a0that?<\/p>\n

James Franklin\u2019s career record is 104-45 with five top-10 finishes despite coaching a pre-Diego Pavia Vanderbilt and taking over Penn State in the aftermath of massive sanctions. The Hokies might be sending thank-yous to UCLA and Northwestern for making him available. (And to SEC hiring committees for competing over Lane Kiffin instead, plus Mike Norvell\u2019s agent for Florida State\u00a0not joining the market<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Beyond the basics, this specific fit makes a lot of sense.\u00a0The DMV and Hampton Roads are top recruiting areas, and Franklin\u2019s long coached nearby, spending nine years on Maryland and JMU staffs before becoming the area\u2019s looming presence while at Penn State. Grace Raynor,\u00a0arguing a month ago<\/a>\u00a0for Tech to make this hire:<\/p>\n

\u201c(Previous head coaches) Justin Fuente and Brent Pry failed to recruit the area well. In Fuente\u2019s case, he seemed to care more about recruits in Texas. In Pry\u2019s case? He kept having to compete with \u2026 Franklin. Penn State has eight players from Virginia on its roster, including Norfolk native and star running back Kaytron Allen. In the 2023 class, Penn State signed six of the top 10 players in Virginia in the 247Sports Composite, including Nos. 1 and 2. Virginia Tech and Virginia each signed none.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Penn State, Franklin signed 12 straight top-25 classes, making that seem as mundane as his 10-win seasons (even though Joe Paterno had recruited as low as No. 39 and No. 48 in the 2000s). In this cycle, Richmond four-star WR Davion Brown was among the dozen recruits who decommitted from Penn State after Franklin\u2019s firing.<\/p>\n

Tech was recruiting at that top-25 level a couple decades ago. With Franklin\u2019s hire surely juicing the NIL situation, I\u2019d bet on a return, especially with the school board recently announcing a $229 investment in athletics.<\/p>\n

From Franklin\u2019s perspective, Blacksburg has to look like a place with as much per-capita football passion as State College\u00a0\u2014 but also with far more appetite for mere (\u201cmere\u201d) 10-win seasons, something the Hokies have had only once since Frank Beamer left in 2015. Sure, it\u2019s been 15 years since the most recent of Virginia Tech\u2019s four ACC titles, but that\u2019s still four more than Miami has.<\/p>\n

My one question: Will this full reset be enough encouragement for Franklin to\u00a0rethink his staffing<\/a>?\u00a0If not, this ends up being a smaller-scale version of Penn State, with fans eventually getting tired of, say, eight-win seasons. I realize eight sounds great right now.<\/p>\n

And yeah, just to repeat the joke everyone\u2019s already thought: If Franklin\u2019s problem is having to beat top-10 teams, well, the ACC doesn\u2019t have any right now. \ud83e\udd1d<\/p>\n

But for real. Look at the ever-wobbly conference\u2019s presumed heavyweights:\u00a0Florida State might again go too hard in the portal, while Clemson might again go too light. The conference\u2019s middle class has long been a voluminous turnstile.\u00a0The whole thing\u2019s up for grabs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Quick Snaps<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc7c The Pop-Tarts Bowl started by offering\u00a0one Pop-Tart for sacrifice<\/a>. Last year, that number doubled to two candidates. The assembly has now tripled, as two\u00a0have become six<\/a>. This means next season must\u00a0quadruple\u00a0the tally of potential pastry martyrs to 24. After that? Brethren, a quintupling. Can you envision those 120 breakfast slabs ascending to sainthood? See the Orlando bowl game on Dec. 27 for more information.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa0 Three more coaching items:<\/p>\n

Remember all that to-do about Franklin\u2019s $49 million Penn State buyout? From\u00a0our story on the hire<\/a>: \u201cPenn State recently negotiated a new $9 million buyout to Franklin,\u00a0(\u2026) perhaps an indication of what Franklin will earn at Virginia Tech.\u201d
\n\u201cOle Miss has given Lane Kiffin an ultimatum\u00a0to\u00a0decide his future before the Nov. 28 Egg Bowl<\/a>\u00a0against Mississippi State, a person briefed on the discussions told\u00a0The Athletic.\u201d (Yes, he\u2019s\u00a0posting<\/a> through it.)
\nMaryland is\u00a0keeping Mike Locksley<\/a>\u00a0despite the program\u2019s thousandth midseason collapse in the past decade or so. Weeks ahead of early signing day, Maryland still\u00a0has a commitment<\/a>\u00a0from the nation\u2019s No. 2 recruit, DE Zion Elee.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc9a For the first time since 1959, North Texas is in\u00a0the AP Top 25<\/a>. That had been the longest drought by any team that previously appeared in the AP, a status now held by New Mexico State (1960). That doesn\u2019t include the 19 FBS programs that have never been ranked, with the oldest being NMSU\u2019s rival New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc40 \u201cUnprecedented friction in a long-harmonious conference.\u201d Stewart Mandel on the Big Ten up and deciding to become\u00a0the most internally dramatic conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf68 In\u00a0our new bowl projections<\/a>, look at this potential anger party between four teams furious about having missed the Playoff: a BYU-Georgia Tech Pop-Tarts Bowl and a Miami-Vanderbilt Gator Bowl.<\/p>\n

Speaking of, something that might make up for that ACC titles thing above about Miami:<\/p>\n

Storm Warning: Miami still building case against ND?<\/p>\n

Remember 2014, when TCU entered the first-ever Playoff selection Sunday at No. 3, assuming it\u2019d have a spot? (Frogs fans, I apologize for bringing this up. You crushed Ole Miss in that Sugar Bowl!\u00a0Yes, I\u2019m going somewhere with this.)<\/p>\n

Well, that season\u2019s final rankings not only dropped the Frogs behind Florida State and Ohio State teams that just won conference title games, something the Big 12 famously didn\u2019t have at the time \u2026\u00a0TCU also fell behind archrival Baylor.<\/p>\n

In all six of 2014\u2019s previous weekly CFP rankings,\u00a0TCU ranked as many as six spots ahead of the Bears \u2014 even though Baylor won their October meeting.
\nOtherwise, TCU was the better team that season, as funny as that always feels to say about the team that lost. The Frogs faced a significantly tougher schedule \u2026 for a while.
\nThe committee\u2019s reasoning for the late switch: At the buzzer, Baylor beat 9-3 Kansas State, meaning the Frogs\u2019 and Bears\u2019 schedules became comparable enough for the two to be considered equals.\u00a0Once the committee believed the two resumes were tied, Baylor\u2019s head-to-head win kicked in.\u00a0(Remember: Head-to-head as a\u00a0tiebreaker\u00a0has always been part of the committee\u2019s public criteria.)<\/p>\n

Why do I bring all that up, 11 years later?\u00a0Well, you might recall\u00a0Miami beating rival Notre Dame 27-24<\/a>\u00a0a couple months ago,\u00a0the same margin by which 2014 Baylor beat rival TCU. Ahead of new CFP rankings tonight, the No. 9 Irish rank six spots above the No. 15 Canes, the same distance the 2014 Frogs had on the Bears at one point. Between 2025\u2019s 8-2 duo, the computer ratings favor the team that lost their head-to-head meeting, again just like 2014.<\/p>\n

The Irish have faced the tougher schedule so far, but that part is also about to align, thanks to their ACC semi-schedule:<\/p>\n

What happens if Notre Dame looks a little flat against either of those 3-7 ACC teams that Miami handled by a total 80-17 margin? Or if the Hurricanes put Pat Narduzzi’s envisioned 103-10 beating on 7-3 Pitt, doing what Notre Dame couldn’t?<\/p>\n

Once we end the season with a head-to-head meeting and four common opponents between these two teams,\u00a0there is a scenario in which Miami pulls so close to Notre Dame that the committee lets the on-field result split the difference.<\/p>\n

Obviously, I’m not guaranteeing the Canes will jump the Irish on the strength of beating 3-7 Virginia Tech and 7-3 Pitt. It’s also important to note this committee has different membership than 2014’s.<\/p>\n

But if other teams in this rankings neighborhood spend the final Saturday winning huge games and conference titles while both these teams are idle … OK, let’s wait to see where they rank tonight before we imagine the whole 12-team field coming down to this rivalry.<\/p>\n

If that change happens, it certainly won’t be tonight.\u00a0Expect Alabama’s ranking in relation to Notre Dame’s to be tonight’s focus.\u00a0Predictions here<\/a>.
\nMore:\u00a0In Chris Vannini’s\u00a0136-team rankings<\/a>, Miami’s been ahead the whole time.<\/p>\n

That’ll do it. On my way to Manhattan, the non-Kansas one. Your emails are always welcome at untilsaturday@theathletic.com.<\/p>\n

Sunday’s most-clicked:\u00a0The Texas state trooper who\u00a0embarrassed himself<\/a>\u00a0at South Carolina-Texas A&M.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Until Saturday? Check out\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Until Saturday Newsletter \ud83c\udfc8\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[143,123,125,124,6755],"class_list":{"0":"post-51391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-miami-headlines","11":"tag-miami-news","12":"tag-virginia-tech-hokies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}