It's no secret that former Penn State football head coach James Franklin hit his limit in Happy Valley. Whether it was coming up short in big games during the regular season or falling short when on the brink of greatness, he was always a beat behind.
From the time he was hired in 2014 to his departure in the midst of the 2025 season, though, Franklin brought the Nittany Lions back into the national spotlight. He left the program on a low note, but delivered a 104-45 overall record, a Big Ten Championship, multiple double-digit win seasons, and the team's first College Football Playoff appearance in history.
Franklin did what he does best. He built a program back up.
After all that success with the Nittany Lions, he believes he got too comfortable. He told The Athletic's Ralph D. Russo that when the 2025 season rolled around, he didn't hold the entire staff to the same standard he had throughout his tenure. They lacked a spark, perhaps got complacent, and that was the downfall of the season.
Is being comfortable the real problem for Franklin, though? Not necessarily.
James Franklin's real problem is when the expectations arrive
Virginia Tech is the most comfortable situation he can be in. As Russo suggested, he was "the candidate" for the Hokies once their head coach position opened up.
“Heck, in a way, if he did bring the exact same Penn State model here, I wouldn’t mind playing in the final four and the [CFP],” outgoing Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock said.
Everything about this sounds great for Franklin. Implementing his tried-and-true model can yield the success the Hokies want. They wanted him in his truest form, Russo explained.
Franklin doesn't have to change anything, he just has to apply it to a less competitive conference than the Big Ten. He doesn't have to be the greatest coach in college football. He doesn't have to out-coach Ohio State's Ryan Day or Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman or Oregon's Dan Lanning or Indiana's Curt Cignetti. He doesn't have to worry about winning a national championship.
Nothing sounds more comfortable than that. Comfort is where Franklin thrives.
The real problem is figuring out what to do when things get uncomfortable, when he reaches uncharted territory, or there's a new height the program has to reach. The expectations on him right now allow him to coach freely and do what he does best. He did it at Penn State; he did it at Vanderbilt.
“There’s always pressure, and he’s always got to win, and one day, maybe here, hopefully, it’s if you don’t win the national championship, it’s a disappointment,” Babcock added.
Once his model doesn't apply to the situation, things go south. It's not just losing to a top-tier program anymore or hitting his ceiling. It's losing to UCLA, it's losing to Northwestern, it's losing traction on the season entirely when the team is at its peak. If comfort level was the issue, Penn State wouldn't have gone 0-3 to start Big Ten play in 2025. It would have lost the usual big games and plateaued. Expectations for the Nittany Lions rose, and Franklin was no longer in a situation he was comfortable coaching in. He crashed and burned and went to a program where his model will succeed until it can't.
He said it himself that coaching in the ACC is a much different scenario than coaching for a national championship. Franklin is right where he wants to be: at a program looking to elevate to the next level without his coaching needing to elevate alongside it.
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