Most of the time, when a big-name head coach lands somewhere new, it barely moves the needle for West Virginia University. Coaching changes happen every year across college football, but very few of them meaningfully alter the Mountaineers’ day-to-day world.
This one is different. Virginia Tech’s decision to hire James Franklin – fresh off his exit from Penn State- has real, immediate implications for WVU and for Rich Rodriguez’s efforts to rebuild the program. READ MORE: What James Franklin’s hire at Virginia Tech means for WVU
These two schools have been here before. More than 20 years ago, when the Mountaineers and Hokies were battling inside the old Big East, the rivalry had real recruiting undertones. The borders mattered. Territory mattered. And in 2025, they matter again.
WVU has long relied on the state of Virginia as one of its most important recruiting pipelines. Tidewater, Richmond, and Northern Virginia are all rich with Power Five talent, and for decades, the Hokies have been inconsistent in holding that territory. WVU, along with others, has often been able to swoop in and pull key players out of the Commonwealth.
Recruiting Rivalry
That luxury may not exist anymore – not with Franklin in Blacksburg.
Franklin is many things, but above all, he is an elite recruiter. He’s aggressive. He’s relentless. And he’s strategic about where he applies pressure. At Penn State, he built a roster with heavy Mid-Atlantic roots, consistently pulling blue-chip talent out of Virginia, Maryland, and especially Western Pennsylvania.
He even dipped into West Virginia when he felt the talent was worth the battle. The Mountaineers already had to compete against Franklin for recruits while he was at Penn State, but the difference now is proximity. Virginia Tech – unlike PSU – targets nearly identical pools of talent as WVU. The overlap is direct, not peripheral.
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And Franklin isn’t shy about how he plans to build the Hokies. He’s made it clear that while he’ll use the transfer portal, he refuses to lean on it the way some programs have.
“In Year 1, we’ll probably use the portal differently than we will in future years,” said Franklin. He cautioned, however, against becoming overly dependent on it: “If you’re a portal team and you live by the portal, then every year you’re going to have to live by the portal. It’s hard to ever get out of that cycle.”
That is classic Franklin – philosophical, disciplined, and rooted in long-term program building. And that means he’ll be targeting high school talent heavily, especially in the exact regions WVU needs to protect.
“I’m a big believer that this is still a developmental game for young men – developing them on the football field, developing them in the classroom, and developing them to be prepared for the next phase of their lives,” he said. “I still believe you can run your program with an old-school perspective. I want this to be transformational, not transactional.”
That message resonates with families. It resonates with high school coaches. It resonates with the types of players West Virginia has historically been able to land.
NIMBY
For WVU and Rodriguez, this is the challenge: the recruiting map just got tighter. The borders just got fiercer. And Franklin’s arrival in Blacksburg ensures that the Mountaineers won’t just be competing with Penn State, Pitt, or the SEC anymore – they’ll be fighting a revitalized regional rival with a coach who knows exactly how to recruit this terrain.
If you’re a WVU fan, you don’t need to panic. But you do need to pay attention. James Franklin didn’t just take the Virginia Tech job. He just stepped into WVU’s backyard – and he’s bringing a recruiting playbook that already proved it can win here.
