James Franklin was fired for the first time in his career in October 2025. Having studied his downfall, the Virginia Tech head coach has pointed out mistakes he made at Penn State that he would not repeat in Blacksburg.

“One of the things that I think that I had really done a pretty good job of at Vanderbilt and at Penn State was hiring complementary pieces,” Franklin admitted to The Athletic on July 9. “So we may never have been the best in the country on offense, or the best in the country on defense, or the best in the country on special teams, but we played really good complementary football.

“And early on at Vanderbilt, and early on at Penn State, I was heavily involved in the offense, and as time went on, and you’re able to hire people with much more significant resumes, you get further and further away from it. And you’re struggling with, I brought this person in to do a job, and you’re going to let them do the job.”

Franklin picked up Penn State after a 7-5 season in 2013 and led them to six double-digit wins in 12 years. His early days with the program required his utmost concentration, as he worked closely with the coaching staff and was heavily involved in the offensive play-calling. But as he enjoyed more success and grew the program, he became more of a CEO-style manager.

As Penn State grew, Franklin hired coaches like Joe Moorhead with deeper expertise, which pushed him further from the offense. And in his latter years, he focused more on recruiting and program management.

Even before the 2025 season, Franklin believed his team was only a few pieces away from the national championship. The Nittany Lions lost to Notre Dame in the 2024 CFP semifinals. To build on that momentum, Franklin roped in Jim Knowles as his defensive coordinator. The new Penn State DC was coming off a national championship-winning campaign with Ohio State.

But that move backfired. It took the players some time to adjust to Knowles’ schemes, and before everything could get settled, Penn State had lost three consecutive games. The defeat to Northwestern proved to be the final blow, and Franklin was fired by AD Pat Kraft.

Now, Franklin’s assistants at Virginia Tech must prepare for some level of micromanagement in 2026. Before becoming a head coach at Vanderbilt, Franklin was an offensive coordinator. He had stints at Kansas State from 2006 to 2007 and at Maryland from 2008 to 2010.

Regardless of the nature of his painful departure from Penn State, Franklin has put his past behind him and is ready for a new life.

Franklin identifies another mistake

The Virginia Tech head coach brought in 12 players from Penn State during the transfer portal, but he is not expecting the same results with them. He also identified another action he got wrong in the 2025 season, stemming from his approach to games.

“I’m a big 1-0 guy. 1-0, 1-0, almost to the frustration of a lot of people. And last year, again, trying something different, trying to be a little bit more aggressive, allowed our team and our coaches to talk more big picture than we ever have,” Franklin said on the Triple Option podcast.

That change in approach was also due to the weight of expectations. It didn’t help his team that they were ranked No. 2 in the AP preseason poll. Great teams build towards that. Curt Cignetti admitted that it was only after their game against Iowa that he began to think his team could do something special. At the time, the Hoosiers were 5-0.

The Indiana head coach didn’t let his players think that way. For him, every week mattered equally. Unfortunately for James Franklin, his Penn State team deviated from the philosophy he has lived by in his coaching career.