The early signing period exposes uncomfortable truths about leadership, roster trust, and which programs still hold real pull in recruiting. From Wednesday to Friday, prospects locked in their futures, but no team entered more vulnerable than Penn State. And the man casting the brightest light on their collapse was the coach they dismissed weeks earlier. Nothing, however, stung more than Virginia Tech HC James Franklin’s next line.

“Well, I must admit, I haven’t slept much, and I’m a little envious,” James Franklin told 247Sports on December 3. “Because I saw other coaches that got hired, and they landed, and none of their commits decommitted from those schools.”

It was a well-aimed reminder of what Penn State voluntarily gave up. He was referring to other newly hired coaches who landed smoothly without a single decommitment. Meanwhile, he inherited a storm and still out-recruited his former employer.

Expected or not, Penn State’s fears materialized with brutal clarity as early signing day confirmed how many Nittany Lion commits followed James Franklin to Virginia Tech. Eleven flips. Eleven future building blocks rerouted to Blacksburg. And that tidal wave was just the opening act. The former Penn State HC crash-landed into a program in disarray, ran straight through the smoke, and somehow walked out of the early signing period with one of the fiercest flip waves in the nation.

Then came the part where he exposed just how chaotic his onboarding really was. While other coaches stepped off planes greeted by the No. 1 recruit in the country, James Franklin was answering questions he couldn’t possibly solve yet. Recruits and families flooded Blacksburg including 17 official visitors in one weekend. TE Pierce Peterson, who followed him to VT, pressed him about position coaches, coordinators, and offensive philosophy. The HC repeatedly answered, “I have no idea. You’ve got to trust me.” And somehow, they did. 

Armed only with relationships and eight off-field staffers he brought from Penn State, James Franklin reconstructed Virginia Tech’s 2026 backbone in real time. With him at the helm, the Hokies now hold the No. 23 recruiting class nationally. Six of those signees, Davion “FatRat’’ Brown, Messiah Mickens, Troy Huhn, Thomas Wilder, Pierce Petersohn, and Benjamin Eziuka, sit in ESPN’s Top 300. And all but Wilder flipped from Penn State after Franklin’s hiring on Nov. 17.

“We grew up with a Virginia Tech that was kickin’ butt and taking names,” he said on ESPN. “This is gonna be the type of class and the type of young men that are gonna help us restore that.”

And the contrast with Penn State only grew uglier. Because while James Franklin joked about not knowing who the tight ends coach is, the real meltdown unfolded 250 miles northwest. 

Penn State makes an embarrassing power four program history

Penn State is officially the first Power Four program ever to sign zero recruits on early National Signing Day. This was once a program sitting at No. 13 with 28 commits. Now it’s entering December with an empty ledger. As Ian Purdy noted, the closest comparison is SMU and Washington signing ten players. Penn State is on pace to sign none. For a program that prides itself on stability, it is a historic collapse.

Since James Franklin’s exit, 23 of 28 commits from the 2026 class have bailed. The class now ranks 124th nationally, with the remaining five openly exploring alternatives. Meanwhile, his “different process” at Virginia Tech turned into a recruiting conveyor belt flipping some of the best Penn State four-star recruits who followed their HC and packed their bags for Blacksburg. And the damage control in State College only makes the optics worse.

Penn State still holds in-state prospects Matt Sieg and EDGE Jackson Ford, but even they’ve begun window-shopping. With West Virginia poaching the blue-chips who didn’t follow James Franklin, the Nittany Lions are watching their former coach rebuild overnight while they endure the worst recruiting collapse in modern program history. And unless something changes fast, this will be remembered as the single most costly firing the university ever made.