One staple of James Franklin's time at Penn State was his ability to recruit at a high level. When he was at Vanderbilt before making the move over to the Nittany Lions, he would recruit at a high level. He would own the DMV (D.C., Maryland, and Virginia), and nobody knew that more than Virginia Tech fans who would see Franklin come into the Commonwealth to pluck recruits out from under the Hokies.
That happened way too many times under Justin Fuente and Brent Pry. In Pry's defense, he was able to slowly rebuild relationships from his time under Franklin at Penn State as his defensive coordinator.