James Franklin reflects on Penn State's surprising 2025 collapse, admitting responsibility and channeling regret into a fierce new challenge at Virginia Tech.
Following an appearance in the College Football Playoff semifinal in 2024, Penn State was expected to be in the running for a national championship last year.
PSU entered Week 1 as the No. 2 team in the country. However, things took an ugly turn after cupcake season.
The Nittany Lions lost at home to Oregon in overtime. Then the unthinkable happened with consecutive losses to UCLA and Northwestern.
After a 3-3 start, PSU fired head coach James Franklin.
It didn't take long for Franklin to find a new home. He's the recruiting backyard of Penn State, taking the head coaching job of Virginia Tech.
During an interview with Andy Staples of On3, Franklin said he had a "chip" on his shoulder at VT. But also took full responsibility for how things ended at Penn State.
"Well, yeah, I got a huge chip on my shoulder," Franklin said. "Kind of unusual situation. Again, six games earlier, we're playing for national championship.
"Now, obviously some things happen that were in my control, and I take total responsibility for that. But yeah, I got a big chip on my shoulder, extremely motivated."
Franklin took a lot of high school recruits with him to Virginia Tech that had been committed to Penn State. He's looking forward to the new opportunity he has with the Hokies.
"Really enjoy coming to work every single day, working with a group of people that are passionate about making Virginia Tech proud," Franklin said. "And I feel responsibility to coach (Frank) Beamer. I feel responsibility to Bud Foster....
"Most importantly, our players are driven and excited and motivated. We got a really core, good core group of guys that stayed at Virginia Tech and guys that we brought from a number of other places."
Franklin will be facing an uphill battle to elevate VT to becoming a CFP contender. Unlike the Nittany Lions, the Hokies are not a Blue Blood program.
With that being said, Franklin is a very good head coach. He won a lot of games at Penn State, including the Big Ten championship in 2016, even if the administration didn't feel he won enough elite contests.