When Franklin lost his Penn State job after going 3-3, rumors spread that he’d secretly recruited players to follow him. When he finally got the Virginia Tech job, within little to no time, double-digit Nittany Lions followed him to Blacksburg. That didn’t sit well in State College. However, fast forward a couple of months later, and the Hokies’ head coach debunked the ‘raided our players’ narrative.

“One of the advantages we had was recruiting guys we already had previous relationships with,” James Franklin told On The Triple Option podcast when Rob Stone asked what his sales pitch is for the transfer portal. “When we came here, and a number of Penn State players came with us, I think some people interpreted that as a shot at Penn State. I want to be very clear—that was not the case. I’m very appreciative of my 12 years there, which is unusual in today’s college football. It really came down to this: if you’re going to build something, you want to build it with people you know, trust, and have relationships with.”

Franklin’s firing blindsided him; he wasn’t plotting revenge, just rebuilding with familiar faces. In fact, he revealed that he only found out he was being let go about 20 minutes before the scheduled meeting with Penn State’s upper administration.

Franklin credits his player-first approach: guys moved because they trusted him. He has always prided himself on being a true “players’ coach” who builds deep, personal bonds with his team. When Penn State replaced Franklin after 12 years, players and commits chose continuity over the new regime.

Being a player-first head coach paid off in dividends for James Franklin. The Hokies’ head honcho put together a 25-player transfer portal and recruiting class for the 2026 season. Out of those 25 new additions, 12 were former Penn State players or recruits who decided to follow him to Virginia Tech.

Franklin nearly got his hands on 50% of his final Penn State recruiting class. As a result, it pushed Virginia Tech’s 2026 recruiting class all the way up to No. 21 on ESPN.

Franklin’s message to these families has always been simple: “We have done this before, and it works.” He tells them about turning Vanderbilt into a winning team in the SEC and building Penn State into a Big Ten title contender. He uses those past results to show that his plan for winning works. Franklin retained Brent Pry as DC to anchor defensive continuity amid 25+ offensive transfers.

Franklin’s fast line to conference contender

He made the big splash decision to retain former Hokies head coach Brent Pry as his defensive coordinator. Since Pry has deep roots in Blacksburg and previously worked under Franklin as a top defensive mind, this kept the team’s defensive core stable.

It allowed Franklin to aggressively abuse the modern transfer portal and NIL rules on offense without completely tearing down the existing culture on the defensive side of the ball. Franklin frames the overhaul as business, not a shot at Penn State.

End of the day, by combining a heavy dose of trusted, familiar players with a proven multi-conference blueprint, Virginia Tech has set itself up to challenge the Miami Hurricanes for the conference title, all within Year 1 of James Franklin’s reign.