Update, 6:03 p.m.;

James Franklin is officially the next head coach of Virginia Tech Football, the program announced on Monday.

Hokie Nation, we got our guy

Coach Franklin’s here to win

https://t.co/qFtXyikfDR
https://t.co/dA4VWjes9z pic.twitter.com/J2MTYyAILt

— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) November 17, 2025

“Virginia Tech has attracted and hired an incredible head coach and extraordinary recruiter in James Franklin. The Board of Visitors enthusiastically supports this hire,” Rector of the Board of Visitors John Rocovich said in a press release. “We signal to Hokie Nation, and the entire nation, the shared importance of athletic support and success.”

Original Post

Former Penn State football head coach James Franklin is finalizing a deal to be the next head coach at Virginia Tech, according to Pete Thamel.

Sources: Virginia Tech and James Franklin are finalizing an agreement for him to become the school’s next coach. Franklin has won 128 games over 15 seasons as the head coach at Vanderbilt and Penn State. He led Penn State to the CFP semi-finals last year. pic.twitter.com/Pr4TyLBB9N

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 17, 2025

Following weeks of speculation and countless rumors, Franklin is heading to Blacksburg, Virginia. Despite suspected interest from multiple SEC programs, including Auburn and Arkansas, the former Nittany Lion head man decided to stay closer to home and rebuild the Virginia Tech football program.

Virginia Tech let go of former Penn State football defensive coordinator Brent Pry as its head coach in September. Pry went 16-24 in three-plus years with the Hokies before being fired after a disappointing 45-26 loss to Old Dominion in week three of the college football season.

The Hokies were dominant in the late 1990s and early 2000s under former Hokie head coach Frank Beamer, but have only won more than eight games in a season once since he retired in 2015.

Sitting at 3-3 at the time and with back-to-back bad losses to UCLA and Northwestern, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Pat Kraft decided to fire Franklin on October 12 following a third straight loss in the Big Ten to Northwestern.

“Penn State owes an enormous amount of gratitude to Coach Franklin who rebuilt our football program into a national power,” Kraft said in a release. “He won a Big Ten Championship, led us to seven New Year’s Six bowl games and a College Football Playoff appearance last year.

“However, we hold our athletics programs to the highest of standards, and we believe this is the right moment for new leadership at the helm of our football program to advance us toward Big Ten and national championships.”

Franklin and the Nittany Lions had some of the highest expectations in program history heading into the 2025 season. The Nittany Lions were the preseason No. 2 team in the country, but it all fell apart following the heart-wrenching White Out loss to Oregon on September 27.

In 11-plus years at the helm in Happy Valley, Franklin went 104-45 and finished his tenure tied with Rip Engle for the second-most wins by a head coach in program history. Franklin was hired in January of 2014 after Bill O’Brien left for the NFL after two seasons in State College.

During his time as Penn State’s head coach, Franklin recruited the DMV and Mid-Atlantic regions as consistently and successfully as anyone. Whoever is the next head coach of the Nittany Lions will now have to compete with Franklin at Virginia Tech, who is known to be an elite recruiter.

Terry Smith continues to lead the Nittany Lions as the interim head coach. Kraft and Penn State Athletics continue the ongoing search for the program’s next head coach.