What was supposed to be a championship window of a season for Penn State in 2025 ended with a record just a touch above .500 and a new head coach.For Franklin, it meant new beginnings, and after a short time away from the headset, the 54-year-old native Pennsylvanian landed a few hundred miles down the road in Blacksburg to coach the Virginia Tech Hokies.THE 5 MOST DISAPPOINTING PRESEASON TOP-10 COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAMS OF THE 21ST CENTURYJohn Rocovich, Timothy Sands, James Franklin, and Whit Babcock hold up a Virginia Tech jersey during a press conference celebrating Franklin as head coach at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Virginia, on Nov.19, 2025.
(Brian Bishop/Imagn Images)While it's a new locale for the one-time Big Ten championship-winning coach, his quotes at ACC Media Days on Thursday morning sound all too familiar for those who have heard Franklin speak during past offseasons in State College.One could argue that you'd rather hear a coach boast about "winning the offseason" than losing it.Franklin's last several years in Happy Valley will cause all but the most optimistic fans of his to roll their eyes upon hearing this quote.It's a similar refrain for anyone familiar with the Penn State program under Franklin, with his boasts of having all the pieces in place being followed by good-yet-disappointing campaigns year after year causing Nittany Lions fans to wince.INTERNET IS UP IN ARMS ABOUT ESPN FPI RANKINGS, BUT EVERYONE IS MISSING ONE KEY POINTPenn State athletic director Pat Kraft gives head football coach James Franklin a big hug following a 33-24 win over Indiana at Beaver Stadium Saturday, Oct.
28, 2023, in State College, Pa.(IMAGN)Franklin was famously 4-21 against top-ten opponents while at Penn State, and the fact that he only won one Big Ten title in his 11 and a half seasons with the program doesn't help his cause.It even earned him the name "Big Game James," a moniker that was mostly tongue-in-cheek and more of a pejorative than anything else.I...