Virginia Tech made an unprecedented move when they hired James Franklin as their new head coach with two games left in the regular season and just over two weeks till Early Signing Day. In making that move, Franklin inherited a recruiting that ranked outside the top 120 on most recruiting websites.
While most expected Franklin could likely bring the class to a decent level, no one realistically thought a top 30 finish was in play with most optimistic hopes focusing in on a top 40 finish.
Instead, Franklin and his recruiting staff went to work immediately, hosting two major recruiting weekends with not only a high volume of former Penn State commits but also several other recruits committed to programs like Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Syracuse most notably. Franklin got to do all this while not having to worry about coaching a team in the process as was the case for every school that the Hokies were going against. The primary source of targets though were still former Penn State commits and targets who he had longstanding relationships with.
While it helped that Penn State didn't have a coach in place (and still doesn't have one in place as of Wednesday evening), there was still plenty of other competition he had to fend off for those commits.
In the end, Franklin pulled off one of the greatest recruiting runs we've ever seen, building Virginia Tech's first top 25 recruiting class since 2018.
In the process, Franklin pillaged his former employer in a way that no head coach has ever done when changing head coaching jobs in the same cycle, at least in this decade and potentially ever. Those additions were foundational in elevating the Hokies to a top 25 class, garnering major national attention in the process.
The numbers also back up that what James Franklin and Virginia Tech have done is truly historic.
