While the college football coaching carousel continues, James Franklin went from coaching the Penn State Nittany Lions to being fired, and now will be the next coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies. While things apparently happened quickly, there are some people who believe this is an incredible hire by the school.
One college football analyst believes this to be the case, so let’s take a deeper dive and see what they said about Franklin’s new landing spot.
Josh Pate Believes James Franklin Hire is a ‘Grand Slam’
While on ‘Josh Pate’s College Football Show‘, the college football analyst discussed why he views this to be such a significant hire for Virginia Tech.
“Buddy, this is as big a grand slam hire as you could ever hope to hit at Virginia Tech. What I didn’t say is, man, James Franklin is guaranteed to win the ACC, guaranteed to win 10 games a year, guaranteed to go to the playoff. I’m not talking about that because no one can see the future. Franklin himself doesn’t know anything like that. What we know is the information that was available, and the reality.
“The reality is the lines really got blurred, the water really got muddy over the past few weeks or month or so about the quality of coach that James Franklin is. Franklin is one of the ten, conservatively one of the fifteen best in the country. None of us, six months ago, would have said, yeah, Virginia Tech is one of the top-fifteen programs in the country. So, when you’re able to acquire a coach of that caliber, it’s a grand slam.”
Pate would continue to discuss how great of a hire getting James Franklin is for the Hokies.
“Now, I want you to think a little further down the rabbit hole with me for a second. Forget about the last couple of games he had at Penn State, because there are a lot of theories why it went sideways. I just think they were all in on defining themselves as championship or bust… This dude was coaching in the semifinal of the College Football Playoff just 11 months ago. And, fast forward to November 17th, and I just hired him as the head coach at Virginia Tech.”
James Franklin will officially be announced as Virginia Tech’s next head coach at a press conference on Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET from the Carillon Clinic Court at Cassell Coliseum. The press conference is open to the public while also being streamed live to Virginia Tech football Facebook and X pages, as well as the Hokiesports YouTube channel.
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