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James Franklin didn't want to let Penn State 'off the hook financially.' Here's why he did
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- James Franklin didn't want to let Penn State 'off the hook financially.' Here's why he did
BLACKSBURG, VA – We'll get into the money ordeal, just not the way you'd think. Not through the fascinating lens of who in their right mind walks away from $40 million ?
James Franklin does, and before we examine the why and what he was thinking, we need to attack this money thing from a different angle. Not the money of losing, and getting paid tens of millions to not coach .
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But the money of winning, and what it now costs to field a championship roster in the NIL-driven era of college football.
"I'll give Penn State credit, they went all-in last year," Franklin told USA TODAY Sports in a wide-ranging interview. "But they went all in for one year."
That's where this money trail begins. Not with Franklin letting Penn State off the hook for $40 million by accepting the Virginia Tech job in December and allowing the mitigation clause in his $49 million buyout from Penn State to kick in.
But with Penn State, a college football blue blood for decades — a blue blood in dire straits when Franklin arrived in 2014 — not acting like one until it was forced to see the ugly truth in 2024.
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You remember the 2024 season, right? Penn State lost a gut-punch of a game at home to Ohio State — yet another loss in a big game for Franklin — and lost in the Big Ten championship game to Oregon . The Lions played that season, Franklin told USA TODAY Sports, with an NIL budget of $7 million. Seven million .
There were Group of Five schools with larger budgets.
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Ohio State, the eventual national champion, played with a budget in excess of $20 million. So did Notre Dame, the national runner-up. So did many other blue blood, Power conference programs chasing the biggest prize of all. Or at least a ticket to the College Football Playoff ride.
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"We were still competing against schools that had been all-in every year of the NIL market," Franklin said. "Schools that did whatever it took."
Like Ohio State going out and buying the best young defensive player in college football ( Caleb Downs ), the best running back in the SEC ( Quinshon Judkins ), the best high school player ( Jeremiah Smith ) and a Power conference championship-winning quarterback ( Will Howard ) heading into 2024. Or Notre Dame throwing big money at quarterback Riley Leonard and wide receiver Beaux Collins .
You remember 2024, right? Franklin and his staff convinced players to play for less at Penn State, and the Lions reached the CFP and beat SMU and Boise State — and were a game away from playing in a national title game rematch against Ohio State.
Wait, not a game away. A play away.
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One lousy play in a 27-24 loss to Notre Dame in the national semifinal, an interception from quarterback Drew Allar at Penn State's 28 to set up the Irish game-winning field goal. The score was tied at 24, there were 38 seconds remaining in regulation, the Lions got 13 from running back Nick Singleton on first down, and there were 33 seconds to play, and it's the CFP, and it's now or never, and it's time to end this thing. Forget overtime.
And then it happened.
"Can't even begin to explain the disappointment," Allar said.
Franklin, sitting right next to Allar in the postgame aftermath, did what he always does. Protect players, shoulder the blame, and then declared, "There's going to be a ton of guys coming back next year that are going to be hungry and are going to be motivated for more."
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Which brings us all the way back to the $7 million.
Penn State finally realized after a punch to the gut to end 2024, it had to spend to win. So after not completing a pass to a wide receiver in the national semifinal (that's not a misprint), Penn State went out and spent millions in the transfer portal on wide receivers Trebor Pena, Devonte Ross and Kyron Hudson . The school also spent a truckload to keep critical pieces from the 2024 roster from heading to the NFL ― or to other college programs.
A year after Ohio State went all-in, Penn State did, too. The first time in the NIL era both teams were on the same financial level.
Then Allar threw another galling interception in Week 4 — this time at home in overtime against Oregon, ending the most anticipated regular season game in decades — and the 2025 season was gutted for all to see, like a prized buck in the rich hunting grounds of Central Pennsylvania.
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Right there in Happy Valley, where Penn State's all-in hand busted despite a full house.
A week after that, the Lions lost by five at UCLA , and then lost by one at home to Northwestern. And that was it. Franklin's career at Penn State — which before the 2025 season included 34 wins over the previous three seasons, six double-digit win seasons in 10 non-COVID years, and a 4-21 record vs. the Top 10 — was over.
One play in January, and three losses before the calendar escaped October. And the whole damn thing was blown up.
Suddenly, firing a coach just six games removed from leading your program within a whiff of playing for it all came quickly into focus. The panic move from president Neeli Bendapudi and athletic director Pat Kraft fell in line with the rest of reactionary NIL world.
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It's not personal, it's just now or never.
"Football is our backbone," Kraft said. "We have invested at the highest level. With that comes high expectations."
It's here where we reintroduce the concept of what numbskull would willingly walk away from $40 million? The same guy who had his heart ripped out with a six-game prove-it season.
The same guy who 12 years earlier followed Bill O'Brien's gem of a job breathing life into Penn State after the horrific Jerry Sandusky scandal cost the program its soul, and then won the Big Ten in Year 3. The same guy who couldn't beat Ohio State enough (who has?), and couldn't get out of the East Division while battling the Buckeyes and Michigan year after year. The same guy who, for some reason, had a woefully substandard NIL budget every season but one at Penn State.
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Then got fired six games into the first time Penn State went all-in.
So yeah, now it's time for the answer, time for Franklin to explain what in the world he was thinking when he walked away from $40 million — and gave Penn State a financial lifeboat in the process? By agreeing to coach at Virginia Tech , Franklin's buyout from Penn State was mitigated from $49 million to $9 million. So the Lions, pinching NIL pennies until 2025, saved 40-large after firing the second-winningest coach in school history.
"You go through that deal, and you're thinking, I don't want to let them off the hook financially. That's something you're struggling with," Franklin said. "But it wasn't about me penalizing Penn State. At that point, it was about what do I need to do for my family and for myself to be happy and move on?"
He taps his index fingers on his desk inside the Merryman Athletic Center, a few Michael Vick deep balls from Lane Stadium. The house Frank Beamer built, where all of those hard-working, overachieving Hokies of the past carried that beat-up lunch pail winning season after winning season. And the explanation is just beginning.
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"It's unusual to stay at a place now for 12 years." Franklin said. "You pour your heart and soul into something. There were 12-15 times where I could've left for another job, but I was committed to that place, and I was committed to those people."
He trails off again because he's been avoiding this answer for months, mainly because he doesn't want to make excuses for a Penn State run he's intensely proud of, and he really doesn't want to rehash it. What's done is done.
Do you really want to know why a man walks away from a $49 million vacation?
"This place, Virginia Tech," Franklin continues, "This place wanted us . You know what that feels like? They wanted us . That's powerful. Money can't replace that."
Getting the band back together
We're not done with the money theme just yet. It's time to add a few actors to the Shakespearean drama.
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When Franklin finally made the decision he wanted to coach again, he wanted to do everything he could to replicate what he built at Penn State. In other words, the structural pieces in place to build and grow and win.
The first person he reached out to was Brent Pry , his longtime defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt and Penn State. The one assistant who knew Franklin better than any other, who knew the program and the process and exactly how to piece it all together.
And the man who had just been fired as head coach of Virginia Tech.
"How about that for a plot twist?" Pry says.
Virginia Tech fired Pry after an 0-3 start to begin 2025, and zeroed in on Franklin not long after he was fired by Penn State. But that's massively underselling it.
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Hokies athletic director Whit Babcock met Franklin at the Atlanta airport, and had an entire plan in place for how the university would strengthen its financial commitment to football, and how the long, cold winter of Virginia Tech football — the golden years of Beamer Ball ended in 2011, four years before he retired in 2015 — were over. Babcock's plan, Franklin says, had every answer for every question.
"I don't think we ever talked about my contract," Franklin said. "They had a number they were comfortable with, and I don't think we ever talked about it again. It was all just about, what do we need to do to put Virginia Tech back on the map?"
But before that reality unfolded, Franklin and Pry talked at length about coaching together again if Franklin found the right job. Once Babcock full-court pressed Franklin with the right job, the 800-pound you've-got-to-be-kidding-me had to be addressed.
Franklin wanted the guy Babcock just fired — the coach he just agreed to pay $6 million to not coach in Blacksburg after a 16-24 record over three seasons and three games — as his defensive coordinator.
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More than any other piece of the band Franklin was stitching back together — including former Penn State assistants Ty Howle (offensive coordinator), Danny O'Brien (quarterbacks), Sean Spencer (defensive line), Chuck Losey (strength coach), Andy Frank (general manager), Kevin Threlkel (chief of staff) — Pry was critical.
It wasn't just Babcock who had to be convinced of the strange move, Pry had to buy it, too — and agree to let Virginia Tech off the hook for a majority of the $6 million because of his mitigation clause.
Somehow, the financial dysfunction all fit perfectly together.
"I do think there's an aspect of talking about it, and then the reality of actually doing it and what walking back in this building is going to be like for Brent," Franklin said. "You know, the humility that you have to have to do that, and to walk past this office. It takes a special guy who has a lot of love for this place."
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Pry, maybe the most unassuming coach in a fraternity of peacocks, made the deal and moved a couple offices down from Franklin ― and from his old office.
"Now looking back, I should've demanded access to the head coach's bathroom," Pry deadpanned.
Franklin's rationale, his pitch to Babcock, was simple: If Pry is good enough to be hired by an SEC school as defensive coordinator, he's good enough to do the same job at Virginia Tech.
"I think once everybody took the emotion out of it and stepped back, it was like, yeah, this could make a lot of sense," Franklin said.
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The parallel world
When Franklin left Vanderbilt after the 2013 season to accept the Penn State job, five high school recruits that were committed to the Commodores followed him to Happy Valley. One was quarterback Trace McSorley , who would become one of the greatest players in school history, and the most valuable player of the 2016 Big Ten championship game.
By the time national signing day had come and gone last December, 11 high school recruits had flipped from Penn State to Virginia Tech, and not long after the transfer portal opened a month later, 12 Penn State players transferred to the Hokies ― including rising sophomore quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer .
The very player Franklin will structure this buildout ― which looks a whole lot like the beginning of the Penn State buildout in 2014 ― around.
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"What I came here for," Grunkemeyer said. "To help (Franklin) turn this around."
That first Penn State recruiting class was the most important in Franklin's 12 seasons. Not just for how it set the foundation for the first Big Ten championship since 2008, but how it proved the staff could develop players and place them in the NFL — the No.1 priority for players prior to the advent of NIL and free player movement.
Ten of 25 players from the NCAA sanction-saddled 2014 recurring class played in the NFL, despite 18 of the 25 not ranked nationally by the 247Sports composite. It should come as no surprise then, that the 11 Penn State recruits flipped to Virginia Tech when Franklin accepted the job.
Or that 12 more players on the Penn State roster — including Grunkemeyer, starters TE Luke Reynolds and LB Keon Wylie, and 2026 projected starters S Kenny Woseley Jr. and DE Mylachi Williams — followed Franklin to Virginia Tech.
Quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer followed James Franklin from Penn State to Virginia Tech.
Grunkemeyer, like all quarterbacks, is the key. He got his chance when Allar sustained a season-ending injury, and completed nearly 70% of his passes for 1,339 yards and eight touchdowns. So if you're going to dream at Virginia Tech, dream big.
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It's not so much Grunkemeyer's numbers in his first season as a starter, as it is what happened in early November against eventual national champion Indiana . A moment where Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza 's remarkable, last-minute, game-winning touchdown pass in Happy Valley kept the Hoosier's unbeaten season alive.
Grunkemeyer outplayed Mendoza that day, then won his last four starts of the season — including a bowl win over Clemson. Grunkemeyer didn't throw an interception over the final four games of the season.
But what would've been the biggest upset of the season was simply another side note to the untethering of the program in an all-in season. From everything that could go right prior to the beginning of the season, to everything that could go wrong once the heavy lifting began in late September.
"The upgrade in NIL needed to be done, considering how NIL was being used before (2025)," Grunkemeyer said. "But then that comes with expectations, and as players, we have to do our part. Players should be getting paid, and the one thing (Franklin) does a really good job of is you wouldn't know who is getting paid by the standard he sets and the culture we have."
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Not long ago, Franklin and his wife, Fumi, vacationed in The Bahamas to decompress from yet another grind of a football season. As he was walking through the lobby at the resort, Franklin ran into Amani Oruwariye , an overlooked cornerback recruit from his first recruiting class at Penn State.
It was Vanderbilt, Boston College and Cincinnati showing interest in Oruwariye more than a decade ago, and that's about it. So when Franklin left Vanderbilt for Penn State, he took Oruwariye — an unranked national recruit in the 247Sports composite, and 33rd best at his position — to Happy Valley and turned him into an All-Big Ten player.
Oruwariye has played six seasons in the NFL, and is currently a backup for the Baltimore Ravens . He's the story Franklin has sold to every player on the Virginia Tech roster. To the high school recruits who decommitted from Penn State and signed with Virginia Tech, to the Penn State players who followed Franklin to Blacksburg, to critical Hokies players who were kept in the fold from Babcock's commitment to financial support.
You want to play football and get to the NFL? We want you here, and we'll get you there. There's a track record.
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Besides, everybody loves to be wanted. And paid.
"It's kind of an interesting parallel," Franklin says. "The business model has changed, and you better be bold and aggressive under the new model. You better embrace it, and you better go after it. You can't sit and hope for the best."
Even when you have $49 million reasons to do just that.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB .
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why James Franklin gave up $49 million buyout to rebuild Virginia Tech
