Nick Saban endorses James Franklin as ‘great hire’ for major college football program

Former Penn State head coach James Franklin has his name back in the center of the news. After his firing earlier this year, reporting came out Saturday morning ahead of college football's Week 12 slate suggesting Franklin could be circling in on a new job. Nick Saban, for one, is a huge supporter and believes a Franklin hire is a swell idea for a power conference program.

ESPN's Pete Thamel joined the College GameDay set live, where he revealed that "James Franklin and Virginia Tech are engaged in the early stages of talks about him becoming the next Virginia Tech head coach." He added that a resolution on a Franklin-Tech marriage will be finalized by sometime next week, one way or the other.

After hearing news of a potential James Franklin and Virginia Tech partnership, Nick Saban lauded the Hokies and sold them on a good coach and man he views as a "class act" in the college football business.

"I don't think there's any question about it, and if you focus on what he's done, what he's been able to accomplish, how many games he's won, rather than what we sometimes do in the media and talk about what he didn't do in terms of beating ranked teams — this would be a great hire for Virginia Tech," Saban declared. "They would get a class guy and a class coach and be very successful, I'm sure."

James Franklin began his head coaching career back at Vanderbilt, where he spent just three total seasons, but was able to get the Commodores out of the SEC basement, an achievement which ultimately landed him the Penn State gig back in 2014. He served as head coach of the Nittany Lions for 11 full years and was in the middle of his 12th year at State College when he was let go on the heels of a poor start this season.

Meanwhile, Virginia Tech is in the middle of a 3-6 season that featured the midseason firing of their head coach, Brent Pry, who posted a losing record at the Hokies' helm in his 3+ seasons. Virginia Tech hasn't won 10 or more games in a football season since 2016, whereas Franklin accomplished that feat six times from 2016-2024. Franklin and Penn State also won the 2016 Big Ten Championship and made the very first College Football Playoff last season, advancing to the Final Four before losing to runner-up Notre Dame.

More on College Football HQ