The Virginia Tech Hokies are the favorites to land former Penn State Nittany Lions and Vanderbilt Commodores head coach James Franklin. Before Franklin commits to continuing his career in Blacksburg, though, the 53-year-old is monitoring the Auburn Tigers and Florida State Seminoles jobs.
Both teams have been accused of acting fearfully in not firing Hugh Freeze and Mike Norvell, respectively, after 3-4 starts to the season following 3-0 starts. AU at least got back on the board last weekend with a 33-24 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville.
"First job off the board? It might be Virginia Tech, as the Hokies have interest in James Franklin, but the former Penn State coach might not want to sign on before he sees whether Florida State or Auburn — or both — come open," Bruce Feldman and Ralph D. Russo of The Athletic reported.
Franklin eyeing a return to the South is an interesting development. Virginia Tech is willing to pump $229 million into athletics, much of, if not most of that, going to the football program, so they could be the next Texas Tech Red Raiders-like spender.
The thing is, though, Texas Tech hasn't won a title. All the money in the world doesn't prepare a program to make a championship run. That's why so few programs have been able to do it.
Auburn and Florida State have done that. Franklin could bring a standard to both programs that would be appreciated right now amid all the losing their current coaches have been experiencing the last few seasons.
Of course, title-winning programs will turn on Franklin eventually if he isn't able to accomplish that. That's a problem for another day, way down the road, though.
For now, it's about bringing back respectability and not wasting anymore money on the Plains and in Tallahassee. Franklin doesn't get the most out of players, but Tiger and Seminole fans probably trust him to get more than Freeze and Norvell have been getting.