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.