However you feel about James Franklin and the way his firing went in October, there’s no denying that he meant a lot to Penn State football in his 12 years as head coach.

Every single player and coach got their start at Penn State under Franklin. When his tenure began back in 2014, he brought an entirely new staff with him, including hiring Temple’s wide receivers coach and Penn State alum Terry Smith to coach the cornerbacks. Over time, Smith became one of Franklin’s most trusted assistants, assuming the role of associate head coach in 2021 and subsequently serving as interim head coach following Franklin’s termination on October 12.

Now, the former Penn State coach is moving on. On Monday, he was hired as the new head coach of Virginia Tech, a program that hopes to regain national notoriety with a coach who saw near-unprecedented success at Vanderbilt and helped Penn State rebuild after the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Coach Smith, along with many of his players, is grateful for the man who helped progress their careers and is happy for him in moving on.

“I’m really happy for him,” Smith said on Wednesday about Franklin. “In this industry of coaching, we all go through highs and lows at some point. If you’re coaching, you’re going to get fired, so I’m just happy for him and his family being able to bounce back.”

“To give me a chance to showcase my abilities and be able to further my education, do some good things, and put my talents on a big stage, I’m forever grateful,” wide receiver Devonte Ross said. “Super excited for him and wishing him the best of luck.”

“Relationship was great,” true freshman linebacker Alex Tatsch said when asked about his relationship with Franklin. “Awesome with my family, awesome with everyone around me, and good to me always. I’m just happy for him; no better person deserves it. Good luck to him.”

“I’m proud of him, happy for him,” Nick Singleton said on Tuesday via Zoom. “He’s been through a lot this whole year. To see him get another job like that is just phenomenal. He’s been my guy, so I’m just happy for him.”

Singleton was one of three five-star recruits in the Class of 2022 who will play their final home games on Saturday against Nebraska. That recruiting class, a consensus top-ten class in the country, was one of two in Franklin’s tenure to finish in the top ten, alongside the Class of 2018 that included Micah Parsons.

“He’s a really good coach and an even better person…He just loves the players on the team and does everything for the players. It’s not about him. He talks about it’s always the players. So Virginia Tech, they got a guy right there,” Singleton said.

“I have a great relationship with Coach Franklin,” Drew Allar said over Zoom on Thursday. “I’m very excited for him; he’s going to do a great job at Virginia Tech. It’s a great spot for him, and I’m very excited to see what he does,”

Allar’s career, in many ways, has been tied to Franklin. The same day that the Franklin era ended at Penn State was the day Allar broke his ankle and suddenly saw his Penn State career come to an end in an eyeblink. The whirlwind of emotions for him, the team, and the fanbase on that fateful weekend is something that will be remembered for a long time.

“Honestly, it was probably one of the worst weekends of my life,” he said. “Coach [Franklin] was at the hospital with me on Saturday night when I was getting more imaging done to figure out everything. Then, I was in the team meeting on Sunday morning when everything was broken to us…it still doesn’t feel real to some extent,”

As much as many people just want to move on from this whole situation, Franklin’s new job’s proximity to Happy Valley and the school’s recruiting efforts will ensure the two are connected for a while. In his tenure at Penn State, Franklin thrived in recruiting the “DMV”, poaching talent from the Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia regions away from notable Power Four schools’ backyards. With him now at one of those schools, the next head coach will have a real challenge.

“The immediate threat is to take Penn State players. With the uncertainty of the next head coach, the most important thing we can do is to protect the locker room,” Smith said when asked about the threat of Franklin’s recruiting prowess. “When it comes to high school recruits, he has an advantage right now, because we don’t have a permanent head coach.”

So far, that’s held. Penn State’s recruiting classes in the upcoming years have already had a sledgehammer taken to them in a way that you didn’t see at other high-profile openings at Auburn, LSU, and Florida. Many decommits and even those still clinging to Penn State have received an offer from Virginia Tech already, with multiple high-profile decommits scheduling visits already.

In fact, it’ll be unprecedented. While Bill O’Brien’s return to college football at Boston College is a recent example, Penn State very rarely has former head coaches on opposite sidelines. The last time a former Penn State head coach led another college program within even five years of his departure was Dick Harlow coaching Colgate in 1922. Jack Hollenback, in 1911, was the last to do it in just one year. The forward pass was only five years old.

Smith was also asked about potentially joining Franklin’s staff in Blacksburg, to which he shrugged off in trying to focus on Nebraska. He spoke of “infinite possibilities” that could lead him to many different places once the season ends, but he remained focused on leading the charge for at least two more games.

Michael is a sophomore from Eastampton, NJ, majoring in international politics. He’s a diehard Knicks, Yankees, Rangers, and Giants fan. When he’s not watching old OBJ highlights, he likes to bowl and play pickup basketball. He’ll forever believe that Michael Penix Jr. was short. You can contact him at @MichaelZeno24 on Twitter or [email protected]