Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football (ultimatums sold separately in Oxford, Miss.). First Quarter: Lane Kiffin’s SEC Conundrum. Second Quarter: Which Teams Are Winning the Close Ones, and Which Teams Are Blowing Out Opponents? Fourth Quarter: Zeroing in on Candidates for Coach of the Year … and Not Coach of the Year.
Third Quarter: James Franklin’s Rebound
James Franklin’s 2025 journey has been completely unfathomable, but perhaps it ends in a better place for all involved parties.
From Penn State (20) to unemployed to Virginia Tech (21)—those are the broad strokes. The more granular progression goes from the crushing missed opportunity in the College Football Playoff semifinals against Notre Dame in January, to an offseason building a roster and coaching staff that was designed to replicate the championship runs of Michigan and Ohio State, to being ranked universally in the top three in August, to a shocking 3–3 start and a whiplash firing, to a few weeks of regrouping and now starting fresh in Blacksburg, Va.
A lot to process. It’s a humbling relocation from what had the makings of a lifetime job at a Big Ten power to rebuilding a down-on-its-luck ACC program that is muddling through the final stages of an eighth straight season outside the Top 25.
But jarring and humbling career twists can work out well. And James Franklin to Virginia Tech feels like a win-win.
Franklin wants to win a national title. Penn State, in theory, gave him a great launching pad to chase it, even if the Nittany Lions hadn’t won one since 1986. The goal was not reached, but the goal remains the same.
“We’re just going to go win a national championship somewhere else now,” Franklin said on ESPN’s College GameDay not long after he was fired.
Can it be done at Virginia Tech?
Why not?
It’s a flatter football world, with less distance to climb and more ways to get there than in previous eras. And at the very least, the path to inclusion in the playoff—which is the coin of the realm that Franklin wants to rule—exists.
It’s not an impossible path to navigate. There is fluidity in the ACC, perhaps now more than ever.
Just look at the current standings, which feature a four-way tie for first in the loss column among teams that have a combined two league championships this century. Clemson (22), winner of a league-best 22 ACC championships, is in ninth place, as what looked like a forever run under Dabo Swinney is breaking down. Florida State (23), winner of 16 ACC championships, is tied for 14th and roiling with coaching angst.
The program with the third-most ACC titles this century, with four? That would be Virginia Tech, which didn’t join the league until 2004. It’s been done there before, and it can be done there again.
Big Game James’s problems at Penn State were with the Buckeyes (1–10) and the Wolverines (3–7). Everyone else struggled against Urban Meyer, Ryan Day and Jim Harbaugh, too. And here’s some breaking news: They’re not in the ACC.
A bunch of programs that cycle up and down are, and if there is one thing Franklin is adept at doing, it’s reliably beating the pretty good opponents on the schedule. He should be able to plant Virginia Tech in the league’s upper echelon.
It’s a football-first athletic program. There is a renewed commitment to funding the sport at the necessary level to compete for league titles and playoff bids. There are players in the region—from the Tidewater area (24), where Frank Beamer (25) made so much hay during his tenure, to the rest of the DMV.
Fact is, Curt Cignetti’s for-the-ages impact at Indiana has been largely powered by Virginia kids who went to James Madison with Cig after being overlooked by the Hokies and Virginia in recruiting. Star Indiana linebacker Aiden Fisher is from Fredericksburg; star receiver Elijah Sarratt is from Stafford; star defensive lineman Mikail Kamara is from Ashburn; star running back Kaelon Black is from Virginia Beach. The list goes on.
If fired coach Brent Pry had signed those guys at Virginia Tech, he might still have his job.
Virginia, and the rest of the Atlantic seaboard, is James Franklin country. He’s always recruited well in that area, and on up to New Jersey and New York. Staying more or less in the neighborhood—Blacksburg, Va., is six hours from State College, Pa.—means the recruiting territory won’t change much for Franklin.
While Franklin was a 70% winner at Penn State, he can certainly get better as a head coach. He sometimes seems like more of a marketer than a strategist, and those big-game issues became a reflection of a coach who seemed to make his team uptight.
Franklin’s players (and coordinators) suffered from in-game brain lock way too often. There was the brutal play-calling at the goal line last season against Ohio State. There was the 1-for-16 third-down nightmare against the Buckeyes in 2023. There was the 3.2 yards per pass attempt in ’23 at home against Michigan. There was the infamous fourth-and-5 run up the middle against Ohio State in ’18. There was Drew Allar’s back-foot interception in the final minute of a tie game against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal last year.
Ugly moments against powerhouse opponents. The competition is different in the ACC, and a wiser Franklin should be able to attack this new challenge for a long time to come. He’s 53 years old. He can give this a good run.
Lane Kiffin Melodrama Intensifies
While the Franklin–to–Virgina Tech scenario unfolded rather seamlessly—they had an opening, he was unemployed—things are not nearly as drama-free in the Lane Kiffin sweepstakes (26).
Imagine that, drama and Kiffin together.
As discussed in the Dash First Quarter, the pursuit from within the SEC of the Mississippi coach threatens to undermine the Rebels’ best season since the 1960s. It’s a byproduct of the chaos that college football doesn’t just tolerate but tacitly endorses, allowing schools to tamper with each others’ coaches and paying unconscionable buyout figures to poach them. The hiring cycle is a joke the sport perpetually pulls on itself.
But Monday, the ante was upped in the Kiffin Sweepstakes. Per NOLA.com, Kiffin’s family was flown to Baton Rouge on a private jet for a look around.
As it turns out, this was the second private jet escapade for the Kiffin family this week. On Sunday, they toured Florida, where Kiffin is also a candidate.
Kiffin himself did not make either trip, but clearly this is an escalation of the highest order. Ole Miss administrators and supporters have a right to fume.
This is a Jimmy Sexton operation (27), so playing hardball is part of the process. The Agent to the Stars in the SEC rarely worries about ticking off administrators or fan bases in pursuit of the next big paycheck for the coaches he represents—they may hate him today, but they’ll be groveling to hire one of his other clients tomorrow.
In response, Ole Miss reportedly has delivered Kiffin a deadline—declare your intentions to stay or go before the Egg Bowl on Nov. 28. Does that mean the school would cut loose Kiffin right before entering the College Football Playoff?
The Rebels are a high probability to make the field at this point. Athletic director Keith Carter (28) could be summoning the spine for a Bo Schembechler moment (29).
In 1989, Michigan basketball coach Bill Frieder had agreed to become the coach at Arizona State after the NCAA tournament. Schembechler, who was the AD and the football coach, fired Frieder before the Big Dance, declaring famously that “a Michigan man will coach Michigan.” Interim coach Steve Fisher stepped in and won the national championship, in one of the most absurd chapters in college sports history.
Who among us is ready for defensive coordinator Pete Golding—or, haha, offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr.—to be the Steve Fisher of the 2025 College Football Playoff?
No telling where this ends. But with Kiffin—the man who was fired by the Raiders, who jilted Tennessee after one season, who was fired at USC on the airport tarmac—you can always be sure that it will end awkwardly and acrimoniously.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Forde-Yard Dash: James Franklin Lands in Better Place After Stunning 2025.
