psuvatoo

Franklin emotionally and mentally collapsed and quit last year. There was a lot of pressure (much of it self-inflicted) on him to finally get over the hump and win a "big game" (hence the nickname "Big Game James"). He poured everything he had for 9 months into the home game against Oregon. A white out against Oregon as the favorite ... and yet he and Drew Allar choked that game away. He and the team quit on themselves, even though they still had plenty to play for - a legitimate shot to get back to the CFP. They then went and did something that hadn't been done by anyone in college football for over 50 years - they lost back to back games to unranked opponents as 20+ point favorites (UCLA and Northwestern). There was no coming back from that for him at Penn State. He lost confidence in himself, he lost the locker room, he lost the support of much of the fanbase, and he was losing recruiting battles against all his peers (Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, Notre Dame, etc). There was a lot more to the story that also contributed to the dismissal - his relationship with the AD, his handling of NIL and roster management and more ... Franklin is a very good coach and will certainly rebuild VT to a 9ish win program soon. I'm confident that Penn State, Virginia Tech, and Franklin himself will all be better with the change. Good luck. Maybe we can meet up in a CFP game.

1) Franklin will absolutely upgrade the talent and winning percentage at VT. No question. 2) Franklin completely mismanaged the 2025 football team at Penn State and deserved to be fired. The train was headed off the rails. He lost control of the locker room through his lack of attention to accountability both on and off the field, talent evaluations, playing time determined by NIL funding rather than talent, distribution of NIL funds among the roster, loss of confidence by his coaches (there are reasons most of his staff chose not to follow him to VT) ... the list goes on. It's not necessary to get into details now. There are actually 3 winners in this situation - VT, Penn State, and Franklin. All three will come out better than had he not been fired and remained at Penn State. Good luck to all of us.

I'm not sure I've ever read a posting on the internet that was filled with more inaccuracies than yours.

Franklin will be a great coach for you guys, but he isn't perfect. Other than 2016/17, he has really had a bumpy ride with his offense - he hit a homerun with Joe Moorhead in 16/17, but all of his other offensive coordinators have been a issue. He's consistently been nails with the defense, except for this year.

Here is some more perspective ... I think Penn State was the underdog in all of those games except this year's Oregon game where they lost in 2OT, and the 2021 Iowa game where Penn State was in control of that game, lost their QB to a game ending injury (along with a starting DT), and the back up QB was so unprepared that he literally couldn't get a snap off (that falls on Franklin's shoulders). You can do further research in that stat if you want, but I'm confident I am very close. The reality is there aren't any coaches who consistently beat top 10 teams when they are underdogs. Yet, Franklin got bashed continuously for that record. Should he have won a few more? Yes, and he was very close in almost all of those losses, but the ball literally bounced the other way too many times. Congrats - you've got a good coach and even better man in him.

There is no 30 day portal for fired coaches. That has been eliminated. There is a single portal period of Jan 2- 16 for everyone or 15 days beginning 5 days after a new coach is hired (i.e. Penn State, VT, Florida, Auburn, LSU, etc).

Yes, those could very well be the last minute details that are being worked out. Sexton may be going back to PSU and saying "hey, pay us $5 or $10 million today and we are gone forever". Then, he turns around to VT and says "I want the 5 or 6 years at $10 million per year fully guaranteed no matter what happens, unless James voluntarily leaves VT and then we'll pay you $100,000 for the paperwork. Lol".

The word "buyout" is an inaccurate and lazy term being thrown around by any idiot with a social media account. What Franklin has is a 10 year contract with Penn State paying him approx. $8 million per year with 6 years remaining on that contract (hence approx. $50 million). Penn State is obligated to pay him the remaining money (most likely on continued monthly installments), but with a couple of VERY important details. First, Franklin has a duty to mitigate damages by making a reasonable attempt to find employment. He can't go sit at the beach for 6 years. In addition, if Franklin finds employment, he has an obligation/duty to accept compensation at "market conditions". He can't accept a head coaching job at a P4 school for $500,000 per year if the going rate is $10 million per year. Most importantly, any compensation that Franklin receives is "credited" against the $8 million per year he would have been paid by Penn State. Yes, the above statements could certainly be open to dispute/litigation, but it's never going to get to that. Franklin and Sexton want to make as much money as possible - they are not going to agree to a $5 million deal as someone suggested yesterday, just so they can make Penn State pay him $3 million per year. Thus, if Franklin has a $10 million per year deal on the table, he's going to take that and both Franklin and Penn State will be done with each other (until PSU and VT play each other in the 2026 or 2027 playoff - ha). Win-win for both. Perhaps there are some last minute discussions with Penn State to finalize his contract with them, but neither Penn State or VT are paying Franklin any "buyout" money.

Franklin was not paid $50 million as a buyout when he was fired. That is a total media uninformed story which has taken on a life of its own. Franklin had a 10 year contract with PSU paying him approx. $8 million per year for another 6 years - hence the "$50 million". The contract had language in it that if Franklin were to obtain another job at less than $8 million per year, then PSU would pay the difference (i.e. if Franklin found a job paying him $6 million per year, PSU would pay the additional $2 million). The contract also had language that Franklin had a duty to mitigate damages and attempt to find another job, i.e. he couldn't just sit on his a$$ for 6 years and go fishing. Additionally, he would have to accept "fair market value", i.e., he couldn't accept a job and negotiate his pay down to $1 million per year and expect PSU to pick up the additional $7 million. Here's the reality - Franklin is just like everyone on this board - he wants to make as much money as possible - thus, he will almost assuredly find a job paying him more than $8 million per year because that will be the going rate for him at a P4 job. No matter what you may think of him, there are plenty of programs that objectively recognize him as a top 10 coach and he will be paid accordingly. Bottom line, Franklin is going to find a job that will pay him more than $8 million per year and Penn State won't be paying him any additional money beyond this year. Win-win for Franklin and PSU.

Does the ACC benefit more by having VT or Miami win that game? There's your explanation.