A coach of Franklin's resume being fired in October almost never happens, and, over the summer, no broker would've even set odds on the possibility that Franklin would be the Virginia Tech coach in 2026. In the world in which Penn State recovers against Northwestern, and they just have the 1 embarrassing loss against UCLA after being hung over against Oregon, maybe Franklin isn't fired, and now the only way anyone gets him out of Penn State is poaching him with an exorbitant salary, one that Tech probably can't afford. And then there's the factor of how Franklin's spent most of his coaching career in the mid-Atlantic, and how Penn State and Virginia Tech share a lot of overlap. I just don't know that Babcock, or any athletic director for that matter, can expect to replicate this kind of hire in the future.