James Franklin looking to poach Texas A&M assistant, former Penn State staffer for Virginia Tech
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Now that the dust has begun to settle around the whirlwind that was the college football head-coaching carousel, the newly hired individuals at various schools are filling out their staffs.
And perhaps nobody has made as quick work of getting his new program set up as James Franklin, as he already made national headlines when he transformed the Virginia Tech recruiting class during the Early Signing Period.
And now, Franklin has shifted gears towards filling out his coaching staff, and he’s looking to bring a former peer back into the fold.
As CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz reported, Franklin is targeting current Texas A&M defensive line coach Sean Spencer for the same role in Blacksburg.
Spencer worked under Franklin and newly hired defensive coordinator Brent Pry while with Penn State from 2014-2019.
The 55-year-old boasts a lengthy and varied coaching history, with his career beginning in a myriad of assistant coaching roles within the lower levels of college football. Spencer first made it to the D-I level as a defensive line coach at Bowling Green from 2009-2010, and he then joined Franklin in the same role at Vanderbilt from 2011-2013.
The Hartford, Connecticut native spent two years (2020-2021) as the New York Giants’ defensive line coach following his time at Happy Valley, and he also served as Florida’s co-defensive coordinator/D-line coach from 2022-2023.
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
