Many expected when James Franklin was fired last month by Penn State that he would land a new head-coaching job sooner rather than later.
Franklin was listed among the favorites for most—if not all—of the open coaching jobs including Florida, LSU, Auburn, and Virginia Tech, where he ultimately landed earlier this week when the Hokies announced him as the successor to Brent Pry.
“I’m honored and humbled to join the Hokie family,” Franklin said in a statement. “My vision is simple: to restore unmatched excellence, to build something that lasts, and to serve this University, the Commonwealth of Virginia and our amazing fan base with honor, integrity, and passion. I look forward to getting to work with our players, our staff, and the entire Virginia Tech community.”
Franklin turned a bad situation into a pretty great one — many analysts believe he can compete for College Football Playoff appearances yearly at Virginia Tech.
And while he spoke to several other schools about their head-coaching vacancies, there’s one that Franklin reportedly rejected before hammering out a deal with Virginia Tech.
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According to college football insider Josh Pate, Franklin turned down Arkansas, which was searching for a replacement to recently fired Sam Pittman.
“The Arkansas coaching search has taken some twists and turns,” Pate stated on his podcast over the weekend. “Look, they’re trying to lead people to believe they didn’t want James Franklin. Of course, they wanted James Franklin. Doesn’t look like James Franklin wanted Arkansas. So that ship, it looks like it sailed.”
With Franklin out of the running, On3’s Pete Nakos believes Arkansas “has interest” in Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck and former Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald. He also stated the school is set to reach out to more candidates this week.
“The Razorbacks are set to hold more in-person interviews this week as they begin to cut down their list of candidates,” Nakos wrote. “Among the top names to know are Tulane’s Jon Sumrall , USF’s Alex Golesh, Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield and North Texas’ Eric Morris are names to know.”
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