Four days before being hired at Virginia Tech, James Franklin was spotted on the sideline at Old Dominion when the Monarchs met Troy. He said that he was attending the game, supporting some of his former coaches, and tailgating.
Last Monday, he was officially hired as the football coach at Virginia Tech, and he hit the ground running in recruiting. He lined up dozens of recruits to be in Blacksburg last weekend for the Hokies' final home game of the 2025 season against 13th-ranked Miami.
As for putting together a staff for next season, Franklin is in the process of doing that, but there was some speculation that he was at ODU trying to recruit Ricky Rahne, who was an offensive coordinator at Penn State for Franklin, among different titles he held, to leave the Monarchs as the head coach and join him in Blacksburg.