Joel Klatt believes that James Franklin is landing in the ACC at just the right time.
That doesn’t mean it was good that he was fired last month at Penn State after so many years of winning big but not enough when it really mattered. The Nittany Lions had national championship expectations this season and fell well short of them before Franklin was fired on Oct. 12. None of this was a positive, especially for Penn State and its fan base.
But sometimes bad things happen, and it turns into a positive in the end. That’s exactly what Klatt believes is the case, as he said on Thursday during The Joel Klatt Show podcast. The Fox Sports college football analyst thinks Franklin is joining the ACC at the perfect time after all those years in the Big Ten with Penn State.
“Good time to go to the ACC for James Franklin,” Klatt said. “You got to have the right fit and the right person in order to reach the potential at your school, and I think James Franklin at Virginia Tech fits.”
Klatt knows what Franklin can do, despite continually coming up short in big spots at Penn State.
“Look, he’s an excellent football coach. But it had run its course at Penn State,” Klatt said.
Klatt was surprised Franklin wasn’t considered more for all of the prominent SEC coaching openings that are out there right now. For him, the SEC’s loss is the ACC’s gain — or, more specifically, Virginia Tech’s gain.
“This guy can absolutely coach,” Klatt said. “I think Virginia Tech, they honestly jump some teams here. I like this fit. I like it a lot. I think James Franklin is going to have the opportunity to build Virginia Tech back into a perennial contender in the ACC. It’s not a very tough league. Good time to go to the ACC for James Franklin.”
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
