James Franklin reveals how much contact he had with recruits prior to taking Virginia Tech job

James Franklin was among the first head coaching dominoes to fall in 2025’s wild coaching carousel season. That included both when Penn State fired him six games into the regular season on Oct. 12, and when Virginia Tech hired him a month later on Nov. 17, making him the first new hire of the cycle.

Three weeks later, Franklin’s tenure in Blacksburg is already off and running as the Hokies secured a surprising Top 25 recruiting class on Wednesday’s Early Signing Day, according to Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Rankings, thanks in part to double-digit flips from 10 former Penn State commits.

During an appearance Wednesday on Rivals’ College Football National Signing Day show on YouTube, Franklin opened up about what went into building out Virginia Tech’s hastily-put-together 2026 signing class, including how much contact he had with recruits during his month-long hiatus.

“Not a whole lot. To be honest with you, when everything went down, I needed to take a little bit of time and take a deep breath, it was kind of shocking and caught me and my family off guard. So we were kind of working through that,” Franklin said Wednesday. “And then people started reaching out, (Penn State) recruits that obviously had not signed yet and were interested in going where I was going to go. And I went on ESPN (College GameDay) and that kind of got some things going as well, and people were excited and wanted to come with us.

“So all these things factored into it, but ultimately, I wanted to make sure that they were in the best position to take care of them and their families and their futures, so I didn’t know if it would time up. But it ended up working out.”

Did James Franklin intentionally troll Penn State with dessert on National Signing Day?

It’s hard to tell if there is some bitterness between James Franklin and Penn State. One thing is clear, though, Virginia Tech had a sweet treat at the Hokies’ Early Signing Day ceremony Wednesday.

Incidentally, this comes just days after Penn State was tied to BYU head coach Kalani Sitake. That didn’t work out, though. In no small part, that was because Crumbl Cookie CEO and Cougars booster, Jason McGowan, seemed to want to make sure he stayed in Provo. That’s why some fans are wondering if Franklin may have been intentionally trolling Penn State by serving Crumbl Cookies as a snack.

The situation with Penn State and BYU was an interesting one, especially once reports indicated Penn State was targeting Sitake as their next head coach. That’s when McGowan took to social media, writing: “Some people are not replaceable. Sounds like it is time for me to get off the sidelines and get to work.”

Whatever behind-the-scenes efforts McGowan made clearly worked wonders as Sitake opted to remain at BYU and signed a contract extension earlier this week. Given his prior connection to the Nittany Lions, it’s unlikely Franklin wasn’t aware of Penn State’s hiring fumble. Whether that factored into Virginia Tech’s Crumbl order for the Hokies’ Early Signing Day festivities or if it was merely a coincidence may never be known. After all, Crumbl Cookies are very popular around the country.

— On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this report.