Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin opened up about his time in Happy Valley, and tenure as Penn State head coach, for first time since his firing. (Mandatory Credit: Brian Bishop-Imagn Images)
For the first time since his dismissal, former Penn State head coach James Franklin opened up about the shock, the sting, and the strange reality of suddenly being outside the program he spent the past decade building shortly after being hired as the next head coach at Virginia Tech.
Franklin spoke at length following his press conference at Virginia Tech on Wednesday. After the formal session ended he lingered in the hallway with a small group of beat writers, including Audrey Snyder of Inside the Lions, and finally peeled back the curtain on what the last month has been like.
“I will tell you this, this was hard,” Franklin said, via Inside The Lions. “When you are at a place for twelve years I do not really have anything that is not blue or white. It is everything. It is not just your job, it is your family, it is a lifestyle.”
He called the experience surreal.
Not painful. Not unfair. Just Surreal. A moment so disorienting he still has not fully processed it.
“I watch college football,” Franklin said. “I will be transparent and say I did not watch the Penn State games. I just had a hard time doing that.”
It was the first completely candid admission from a coach who has been noticeably quiet since his firing. He clarified that it was not bitterness or resentment. It was emotional gravity.
James Franklin Opens Up for First Time Since Penn State Firing
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“Those kids, those coaches, that building… I poured so much into it,” he told reporters. “So sitting there on a Saturday and watching it from my couch, that was a different kind of feeling. I was not ready for that yet.”
Franklin said he remained in constant communication with interim head coach Terry Smith throughout the past several weeks, walking a line between staying supportive and not becoming a shadow presence.
“I was very supportive of the coaches and of Terry, we talk all the time,” Franklin said. “I talked to him last night. He was at my house a couple nights ago. I want to be respectful of what Terry is doing and what the staff needs to do and what the university needs to do moving forward, but I also do not want to be totally hands off. These are relationships and people that I care about. There is a fine line in that.”
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Reporters in the hallway pressed him on that fine line.
Franklin described it as the first time in his career where he has had to consciously step back from players and coaches he still feels responsible for.
“It is a strange spot,” he said. “You want to help. You want to be there. But you have to let them have the space to run it the way they need to. It is not my show anymore. That has been an adjustment.”
Franklin also addressed, for the first time, how his firing unfolded. He did not take shots, did not question decisions, and did not rewrite history. He spoke instead about the speed and shock of the moment.
“You do not expect to go from game planning on a Monday to packing your office on the same day,” he said. “It happens fast. That is the part that felt surreal. One moment you are in your routine and the next moment you are walking out with boxes in your hands. You never think you will be the one having that moment until it is you.”
Reporters noted that Franklin smiled at the end of that thought, not bitter, but reflective.
“I am proud of what we built,” he said. “We did a lot of good things and a lot of meaningful things. I hope people remember that part too.”
A decade at Penn State did not end the way he imagined, but on Wednesday Franklin finally said out loud what he had been holding in: it still feels surreal. He still feels connected.
Inside the Staff Exodus Hitting Penn State After Franklin’s Move
I guess being “respectful of Terry is doing” has its own terms because within hours of his press conference he began pulling Penn State staffers with him and contacting players in the twenty twenty six recruiting class.
Multiple recruits in the 2026 class said they were contacted by Franklin shortly after his move to Virginia Tech, several will be visiting Blacksburg for the Hokies’ game Saturday, an early sign of how aggressively the Hokies plan to retool their roster to contend for the ACC championship immediately.
That dynamic has major implications for Penn State’s recruiting board and NIL planning.
That has all forced interim head coach Smith to prepare for Nebraska while simultaneously reconstructing the operation around him.
Among the departures are Andy Frank, the general manager of personnel and recruiting, and Kevin Threlkel, Franklin’s longtime chief of staff. Both exits gutted Penn State’s infrastructure and removed two of the most important administrative pieces in the building.
“It is a challenge,” Smith told reporters after practice on Wednesday. “We lost a number of staff members and now we have to fill those voids. I am in charge of it. I have to take time to make sure those responsibilities are handled. We will handle it and adjust to it.”
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It was at PRISM where Staszak produced live games and began his career as an on-air reporter.
After a couple of brief stints with CBS-3, WB-17 and WGAL-8 in Lancaster, PA, Staszak began a 12 year stretch at FOX 29 where he became the lead sportscaster in 2007. It was there that Staszak found himself in the middle of Philadelphia Phillies World Series Championship coverage that earned him an Emmy nomination for best sports reporter in 2008.It was one of five Emmy nominations that Staszak earned over the course of his career.
All told Staszak covered three World Series, two Stanley Cup Finals, an NBA Finals and one Super Bowl during his television run.
Staszak left the TV business for 97.5 The Fanatic in 2013, where he enjoyed eight years bloviating his beliefs on how a professional football team should be run.In 2018 when he fortunate enough to be the first sports talk host in the city, along with cohort Zach Gelb, to provide post-game coverage of the first Super Bowl Championship for the city’s beloved Philadelphia Eagles.
Staszak was also a writer for 97.5 The Fanatic along with 4 Philly Sports and now covers Penn State athletics for NittanyCentral.com.
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