{"id":306344,"date":"2025-11-22T03:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T03:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/306344\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T03:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T03:05:07","slug":"saquon-barkley-reacts-to-james-franklin-hiring-at-virginia-tech-wish-him-nothing-but-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/306344\/","title":{"rendered":"Saquon Barkley reacts to James Franklin hiring at Virginia Tech: ‘Wish him nothing but success’"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Penn State<\/a> fired James Franklin<\/a>, former Nittany Lions star Saquon Barkley<\/a> expressed his surprise with the decision<\/a>. Now that Franklin is heading to Virginia Tech<\/a>, Barkley expressed his excitement.<\/p>\n

Barkley shared his reaction to Franklin\u2019s hiring in Blacksburg after 12 years in Happy Valley. The Philadelphia Eagles star played for Penn State from 2015-17 before becoming the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking with reporters Friday, Barkley wished Franklin the best at Virginia Tech and reflected on their relationship. However, he knows where his heart lies if Penn State ever takes on the Hokies.<\/p>\n

\u201cHappy for him,\u201d Barkley said, via The Athletic\u2019s Zach Berman<\/a>. \u201cThe way I look at it is James Franklin\u2019s a guy who, I had offers \u2013\u00a0probably had like three or four offers \u2013 but I wasn\u2019t really a big recruit. Him, alongside (Sean Spencer<\/a> and Charles Huff<\/a>) believed in me and gave me an opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I know for sure that I\u2019m not sitting here right now in front of you guys answering these questions if it wasn\u2019t for James Franklin. Excited for him and his family, wish him nothing but success, But at the same time, anytime he plays Penn State, I gotta go with Penn State.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franklin had a 104-45 overall record during his time at Penn State, and the 2016 season was the first of six 11-win seasons. Barkley helped lead that charge as the Nittany Lions won the Big Ten and finished ranked No. 7 in the country following a Rose Bowl appearance.<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech officially announced Franklin\u2019s hire earlier this week after he emerged as the top target in the search. He signed a five-year deal worth $41.8 million, the school announced Friday<\/a>. Following the introductory press conference, Franklin met the Virginia Tech faithful at Wednesday\u2019s men\u2019s basketball game and had a strong message<\/a> for those in attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so excited to be here,\u201d\u00a0Franklin said. \u201cWe are honored and humbled to be here. We don\u2019t take this for granted, one minute, whatsoever. We are going to work our tails off to make you guys proud. That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about. I\u2019m going to bring a staff here, and you\u2019re not going to find a staff or a head coach that will pour their hearts and soul into this place like we will. \u2026 So let\u2019s have this place rocking tonight to help our basketball team. Let\u2019s make sure Lane Stadium is rocking on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need you. We can\u2019t do this by ourselves. It\u2019s going to take an entire community pulling the rope in the same direction. Let\u2019s take pride in our state and the football that we have and the tradition and history. I think we can do something very, very special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Penn State fired James Franklin, former Nittany Lions star Saquon Barkley expressed his surprise with the decision.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,126549,398,396,397,158747,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-306344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-james-franklin-91-neshaminy","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-saquon-barkley-15-whitehall","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}