Taylor Sheridan has emerged as one of the most successful and highly prolific writers and directors in modern television. Which one of his shows is your favorite?
Who Is Taylor Sheridan?
The actor-turned-writer-director labored in obscurity for many years. He grew up in Texas, and after dropping out of college, Sheridan was aimlessly working odd jobs when a talent scout approached him at a mall.
That led him to Los Angeles, where he started auditioning and landing small roles on shows including NYPD Blue and CSI, according to Fortune.
Sheridan finally landed a higher-profile role on Sons of Anarchy, but when he tried to renegotiate his contract after two seasons, he got a life-changing reality check that led him to change paths.
What Are Some of Taylor Sheridan’s Films?
He turned his attention to writing scripts, making his screenwriting debut in 2015 with Sicario, which was met with widespread acclaim.
He followed it up by writing and directing Wind River, a film that features many of the same cast members and themes as Yellowstone.
When Did Yellowstone Premiere?
That led to Yellowstone, which launched in 2018.
The show became a cultural phenomenon, and Sheridan has followed it up with two prequels, 1883 and 1923, with other Yellowstone-related shows on the horizon.
What Are Taylor Sheridan’s Biggest Television Shows?
He also writes, directs and produces a stunning array of other projects, including Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lioness, Landman and more, making him one of the small handful of the most powerful players in Hollywood today.
Which one of Taylor Sheridan’s television projects is your favorite? Scroll though the pictures below to see his show ranked worst to best, based on fan reviews, ratings and staff opinion.
Taylor Sheridan’s TV Shows, Ranked
Taylor Sheridan has become one of the most in-demand writers and directors in the world! Read on to see his best and worst television projects, ranked.
Several senators, both Republicans and Democrats, expressed concern at the Judiciary Committee hearing about the market power of a Netflix-Warner tie-up.
The Seattle Seahawks will take on the New England Patriots in the 2026 Big Game at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, February 8. One option for a potentially massive payout is a Seahawks vs. Patriots score prediction. Both teams went 14-3, won their divisions, and then had to survive hard-fought conference championship games. The Seahawks beat the Rams, 31-27, to win the NFC Championship Game, while the Patriots earned a 10-7 win over the Broncos on the road in a defensive struggle that ended with a surprise blizzard.
The latest Patriots vs. Seahawks odds list Seattle as a 4.5-point favorite, while the over/under is 45.5, both unchanged from the opening line. The Seahawks are -238 money line favorites (risk $238 to win $100), while the Patriots are +195 underdogs. You can use these sportsbook promos to bet those lines or any of the numerous NFL props available. The SportsLine Projection Model is predicting that the Seahawks come away with a 24-20 win, an exact score prediction that pays as high as +15000 on some of the best sports betting apps. You can also boost your bankroll for the Big Game even further by capitalizing on some of the best Big Game promo codes.
SportsLine’s model, which simulates every NFL game 10,000 times, is up well over $7,000 for $100 players on top-rated NFL picks since its inception. The model enters the 2026 Super Bowl on a 53-37 run on top-rated picks dating back to 2024. Anybody following its NFL betting picks at sportsbooks and on betting apps could have seen strong returns.
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Patriots vs. Seahawks exact score prediction, betting preview
In a season where the playoff picture was crowded from start to finish, both the Seahawks and Patriots established themselves as upper echelon by the midway point of the season. Seattle loss its opener to San Francisco and fell to 3-2 after a Week 5 loss to Tampa Bay, but ripped off wins in 13 of the next 14 wins to earn its way into the Big Game. Meanwhile, New England lost two of its first three but has won 16 of its last 17.
Sam Darnold and Drake Maye both looked like NFL MVP candidates at points throughout the season, though they’ll likely fall short to Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. Darnold has rejuvenated his career by throwing 60 touchdown passes in the last two seasons and Maye became the youngest player in NFL history to lead the league in completion percentage (72.0%).
Both teams were top five in the NFL in scoring offense and scoring defense and the SportsLine Projection Model is predicting thin margins against the spread and with the over/under. It’s slightly leaning towards Seattle to cover against the spread based on the percentages and also projects that the Under hits in 59% of its 10,000 simulations of the Big Game, higher than the implied odds of 52.2%.
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President Trump’s call to nationalize elections draws constitutional pushback, White House clarifies
President Trump suggested Republicans should take control of elections, prompting clarification from the White House and mixed reactions from lawmakers
President Donald Trump suggested that Republicans should “take over” elections during an interview on “The Dan Bongino Show,” prompting clarification from the White House and mixed reactions from officials.Bongino resigned as FBI deputy director in January of this year.Trump claimed without evidence that the 2020 election results were incorrect, proposing that illegal immigrants be removed from the election process. It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.”The Republicans should say, we want to take over, we should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places,” Trump said. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”The White House later said the president was talking about voter ID legislation instead. “What the president was referring to is the SAVE Act,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt.The Constitution grants states the authority to decide the “times, places and manner of holding elections,” leading to backlash from local election officials. Sarah Copeland Hanzas, Vermont secretary of state, said, “I think what happens is when the president speaks like this, it sets out ripples of uncertainty and mistrust in elections across the country.”On Capitol Hill, reactions have been mixed. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said, “The president is shouting the quiet part out loud. He wants totalitarian tactics to take over elections.” Meanwhile, GOP leadership in both chambers echoed the press secretary, supporting voter ID but opposing federalizing elections. “The president is expressing his frustration about the problems we have in some of these blue states where election integrity is not always guaranteed,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.Trump’s comments come shortly after the FBI seized records from an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia, as part of an investigation into the 2020 vote count.Trump has long pointed to Georgia as evidence of wrongdoing, despite repeated findings that his 2020 loss there was legitimate. “You’re going to see something in Georgia where they were able to get with a court order. The ballots. You’re going to see some interesting things come out,” Trump said on Bongino’s podcast.Currently, there is no legislation in Congress that would allow the federal government to take over elections. The SAVE Act, referenced by the press secretary, is a Republican-backed bill that would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. Supporters argue it aims to prevent non-citizens from voting, though election officials say such occurrences are already rare. Opponents warn it could disenfranchise voters lacking proper documentation.
WASHINGTON —
President Donald Trump suggested that Republicans should “take over” elections during an interview on “The Dan Bongino Show,” prompting clarification from the White House and mixed reactions from officials.
Bongino resigned as FBI deputy director in January of this year.
Trump claimed without evidence that the 2020 election results were incorrect, proposing that illegal immigrants be removed from the election process. It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.
“The Republicans should say, we want to take over, we should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places,” Trump said. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
The White House later said the president was talking about voter ID legislation instead. “What the president was referring to is the SAVE Act,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The Constitution grants states the authority to decide the “times, places and manner of holding elections,” leading to backlash from local election officials.
Sarah Copeland Hanzas, Vermont secretary of state, said, “I think what happens is when the president speaks like this, it sets out ripples of uncertainty and mistrust in elections across the country.”
On Capitol Hill, reactions have been mixed. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said, “The president is shouting the quiet part out loud. He wants totalitarian tactics to take over elections.”
Meanwhile, GOP leadership in both chambers echoed the press secretary, supporting voter ID but opposing federalizing elections. “The president is expressing his frustration about the problems we have in some of these blue states where election integrity is not always guaranteed,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
Trump has long pointed to Georgia as evidence of wrongdoing, despite repeated findings that his 2020 loss there was legitimate.
“You’re going to see something in Georgia where they were able to get with a court order. The ballots. You’re going to see some interesting things come out,” Trump said on Bongino’s podcast.
Currently, there is no legislation in Congress that would allow the federal government to take over elections.
The SAVE Act, referenced by the press secretary, is a Republican-backed bill that would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. Supporters argue it aims to prevent non-citizens from voting, though election officials say such occurrences are already rare. Opponents warn it could disenfranchise voters lacking proper documentation.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that he had told the country’s foreign minister to “pursue fair and equitable negotiations” with the United States after weeks of escalating tension with the Trump administration. It was the first clear signal from Iran that it could take part in talks that are expected to take place later this week.
The decision came after “requests from friendly governments in the region to respond to the proposal by the President of the United States for negotiations,” Pezeshkian said in a social media post. “I have instructed my Minister of Foreign Affairs, provided that a suitable environment exists — one free from threats and unreasonable expectations — to pursue fair and equitable negotiations, guided by the principles of dignity, prudence, and expediency.”
“I’d like to see a deal negotiated,” President Trump said Monday. “Right now, we’re talking to them, we’re talking to Iran, and if we could work something out, that’d be great. And if we can’t, probably bad things would happen.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with the possibility of a new military attack, as what he’s called an “armada” of U.S. warships heads for the Persian Gulf. He initially said the U.S. could attack if Iran killed protesters amid its brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrations that rocked the country in early January. Last week he wielded the same threat, but said an attack could be launched if Iran refuses to negotiate a new agreement over its nuclear program.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), left, the Royal Navy air defense destroyer HMS Defender (D 36) and the guided-missile destroyer USS Farragut (DDG 99) transit the Strait of Hormuz, in a Nov. 19, 2019, file photo provided by the U.S. Navy.
Zachary Pearson/U.S. Navy/Getty
U.S. senior envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling to the region, and Gulf countries, including Turkey and Qatar, have been working to arrange talks for later this week. The White House has not confirmed that Witkoff will attend negotiations with Iranian officials. Foreign ministers from Qatar, the UAE, Oman, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have also been invited to participate in talks, if they occur, The Associated Press reported Tuesday, citing an unnamed regional official.
Iranian protester tells CBS News Mr. Trump should “keep his word”
“Our biggest fear is that if they [the Iranian government] stay in power, they want to take revenge, because people crossed their red line by going to the street, by shouting ‘death to Khamenei and Islamic Republic,'” Zahra, who participated in the protests as they reached their peak on Jan. 8 and 9, told CBS News on Friday.
Her name has been changed to protect her identity.
She said people in Iran would support a U.S. intervention to topple the regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“People without ties to the regime, they want them gone at any expense. They want Khamenei to be either removed or arrested or whatever. But they want the Islamic Regime to be gone,” Zahra said. “Every single one of them, from the so-called hardliners — the circle closer to Khamenei — to the ones who were known as the reformists … we want all of them gone, because they are a system. They’ve been working together, and they’re complicit in this.”
People gather during protest on Jan. 8, 2026, in Tehran, Iran. Demonstrations have been ongoing since December, triggered by soaring inflation and the collapse of the rial, and have expanded into broader demands for political change.
Anonymous/Getty
Zahra said during the protests in Iran, “we saw President Trump’s tweets on satellite TV. We read when he said: ‘Help is on the way.’ People trusted him. People trusted him big time. And people came to the streets.”
She asked Mr. Trump to “keep his word.”
“We tried every possibility, and all of that was peaceful,” Zahra said. “People were unarmed and they were shot in big crowds. So, what I see is that these people have done everything they could for a better future. And now there is an understanding among them that we can’t do it by our own.”
Shaboozey has issued a statement after facing some criticism for his Grammy acceptance speech, with some claiming one of his lines — “immigrants built this country” — ignored or diminished the role of Black people and enslaved Africans.
The country star, whose parents are from Nigeria, largely earned plaudits for his acceptance speech after he won Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Amen,” his collaboration with Jelly Roll. Shaboozey dedicated the prize to the “children of immigrants” and “those who came to this country in search of better opportunity to be a part of a nation that promised freedom for all and equal opportunity to everyone willing to work for it.”
But some took issue with Shaboozey’s remark that “immigrants built this country,” arguing it diminished the forced contributions of slaves. Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, was arguably the most prominent person to speak out in a post on X, where she appeared to quote Shaboozey, but did not mention him by name.
“Are people including enslaved Africans, descendants of those enslaved, and Black people whose unjust, low-wage labor sustained the economy in the 1800s/1900s as immigrants when they say ‘immigrants built this country’?” she wrote, adding: “[O]ur ancestors weren’t folks who came here seeking a better life. They arrived in chains, were bred like cattle, and severely violated, sexually and otherwise. Their trauma shouldn’t be diminished or forgotten, even in efforts toward freedom from ICE’s inhumane, violent tactics. We can only get to justice for all when truth is taught, embraced, and spoken.”
In his own note, shared on Tuesday (Feb. 3), Shaboozey wrote, “To be clear, I know and believe that we — Black people, have also built this country. My words were never intended to dismiss that truth. I am both a Black man and the son of Nigerian immigrants and in the overwhelming moment of winning my first Grammy my focus was on honoring the sacrifices my parents made by coming to this country to give me and my siblings opportunities they never had.”
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Shaboozey also noted what it meant to become the first Black man to win the Grammy for Best Country Duo on the first day of Black History Month. “It stands on the foundation laid by generations of Black people who fought, sacrificed, and succeeded long before me,” he wrote. “This moment belongs to all of us.”
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In finishing his statement, Shaboozey said, “My entire career has been rooted in lifting people up, honoring where we come from, and expanding what’s possible. I am proud to be part of this legacy, and I intend to continue doing that work for the rest of my life.”
Shaboozey was one of several artists — along with Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, and Olivia Dean — to speak out in support of immigrants, or against Donald Trump’s brutal immigration crackdown, during the 2026 Grammys. Other artists also showed up wearing “ICE OUT” pins, including Justin Bieber, Brandi Carlile, Jack Antonoff, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Margo Price, and Samara Joy.
Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
Multiple Authors
JAMES FRANKLIN DIDN’T have any answers. Instead, minutes before Virginia Tech‘s Nov. 22 home game against Miami, he was asking for a considerable leap of faith. Roughly a dozen of them, actually.
It had been just 38 days since Penn State made the decision to fire Franklin six games into his 12th season with the program. Now, sporting a maroon hoodie inside the Hokies’ team room, he was pitching a collection of high school prospects on why they should join him in Blacksburg. Among the group: quarterback Troy Huhn, running back Messiah Mickens and six other recruits who a month earlier had made up the core of a promising Nittany Lions recruiting class.
The clock, less than two weeks from the 2026 early signing period, was ticking. But Franklin, only 72 hours after his formal introduction as Virginia Tech’s new head football coach, was still assembling his coaching staff and learning to navigate his new campus. He also couldn’t say precisely how the program would attack the impending transfer portal window.
“They’re asking me who the coordinators are going to be? And I just said, you have to trust me,” he told ESPN. “‘Who is my position coach going to be?’ And I just said, you have to trust me.”
Franklin and the Hokies picked up 17 pledges over the next 12 days, including commitments from 11 ex-Penn State recruits led by Huhn, Mickens and fellow ESPN 300 prospects Davion Brown and Pierce Petersohn. Unranked upon Franklin’s Nov. 17 hiring, Virginia Tech’s incoming class enters Wednesday’s national signing day 21st in ESPN’s national class rankings, catapulted by the hottest finish to the 2026 cycle of any program across college football.
Virginia Tech’s gain came at significant expense to Penn State, which saw its initial 2026 class crater in the lead-up to the early signing period. With nearly 50% of Franklin’s former Nittany Lions class in tow, the Hokies secured the potential foundation to an ambitious rebuild on a campus just 367 miles south of Happy Valley.
To pull it off, Franklin leaned on long-standing relationships, a trusted recruiting staff from Penn State, a significant financial push on the recruiting trail and a pair of frantic late-November recruiting weekends, in turn offering an immediate window into the promising impact Franklin’s presence could bring to a football program that has posted just one winning season since 2020.
“It was unusual and stressful,” Franklin said. “I don’t want to go through it again. But it ended up working out really well, hopefully for these kids and their families, but also for Virginia Tech.”
ESPN spoke with 12 members of the program’s 2026 class, including eight ex-Penn State pledges, along with program and industry sources to go inside the unprecedented 2½-week recruiting run that supercharged the start of the James Franklin era at Virginia Tech.
“Coach Franklin told us this place was going to be home,” Huhn, ESPN’s No. 12 pocket passer, said. “He told me when I committed to Penn State to always trust him. I just relied on that.”
“We took a detour there for a second,” said linebacker Tyson Harley, another former Penn State commit. “But we got where we were supposed to be because we put our faith into Franklin.”
VIRGINIA TECH’S TORRID finish to the recruiting cycle might have unfolded across 16 days in the final days of a three-win season. For Franklin, however, it was years in the making.
Mickens, for instance, had known Franklin since middle school. He later became the very first to commit to Penn State’s 2026 class. Like him, most of the Nittany Lions’ pledges had spent their high school years around the program, attending camps and visit weekends on campus, with Franklin at the heart of it all. Current and former recruits describe an energetic and engaging coach who forges close bonds with his players long before they step onto the field.
“He’s family,” said Hokies offensive tackle signee Marlen Bright, who was offered by Penn State during his freshman year. “Coach Franklin has been with me on my journey for almost five years now. If you ever see Franklin next to my dad, they’re like brothers. I call him Uncle Franklin.”
Virginia Tech marks the latest restoration project Franklin has undertaken since he landed his first head coaching position at Vanderbilt in 2011. His relational approach to recruiting has been central in each stop.
With the Commodores, it helped lay the groundwork for consecutive nine-win seasons in 2012 and 2013. Upon arriving at Penn State in January 2014, Franklin needed only weeks to cobble together an impressive signing class that included future All-Big Ten quarterback Trace McSorley and future NFL pros Chris Godwin Jr., Mike Gesicki and Marcus Allen, a rapid, late-cycle recruiting turnaround that carried many of the same notes as Franklin’s successful start with Virginia Tech.
“He’s one of the best head coach recruiters that I’ve been around,” a holdover from Virginia Tech’s previous recruiting staff told ESPN. “He has a vision and a plan, and he’s extremely personable when recruits are on campus. You understand why he gets good players.”
Franklin had assembled another tight-knit and talent-rich Nittany Lions class in 2026. Then, after an overtime loss to Oregon and two embarrassing defeats to UCLA and Northwestern, he was out as Penn State’s coach on Oct. 12. “I was just in shock,” linebacker recruit Mathieu Lamah said. Several commits, including Brown, the ranked receiver prospect, reopened their recruitments immediately.
Suddenly, the figure behind the program’s incoming class was gone. But Franklin didn’t disappear. Multiple prospects told ESPN that the 54-year-old coach stayed active in class group chats in the weeks after his firing and continued making regular phone calls, reassuring families of former recruits who never really became former recruits.
“He was checking up on me probably once or twice a week,” said Mickens, ESPN’s No. 13 running back in 2026. “He kept it real with me. That just showed my family what kind of coach he was. The whole time, he was telling us he was going to get a job somewhere soon.”
When Penn State fired Franklin, the program’s 2026 class sat at No. 18 in ESPN’s national rankings. Around the same time, Virginia Tech’s class was hanging on by a thread a month after the school fired former coach (and current defensive coordinator) Brent Pry.
Over the next eight weeks, while Franklin plotted his next steps and Penn State embarked on a 58-day search for his replacement, the Nittany Lions’ incoming class fell apart. Multiple former Penn State recruits told ESPN that communication from the program became sporadic. With no head coach in place, the vision for the future was unclear. And the front office infrastructure Franklin had left behind only left the program more vulnerable.
Sources familiar with the program described a Franklin-centric front office operation at Penn State that relied heavily on its head coach and an old-school approach to financials in college football’s NIL/revenue share era. Contracts and negotiations moved slowly, according to families of former recruits. At the time of Franklin’s firing, the vast majority of the Nittany Lions’ 2026 class were not fully locked into revenue share agreements.
“We were trying to get the serious stuff set up and we just couldn’t,” said Lamah, who later signed with Virginia Tech. While programs such as Florida and LSU retained most of their recruiting classes amid coaching upheaval in the fall, Penn State’s collapsed. The Nittany Lions signed just two 2026 prospects during the early signing period. “You can tell who spent this cycle and who didn’t,” an SEC general manager told ESPN.
Meanwhile, by early November, Franklin had made his intention to secure another job clear.
“My name was being mentioned with a number of different jobs and they were getting pulled and pressured in a lot of different directions,” said Franklin, who was linked to Arkansas and Florida State as well as Virginia Tech. “I said [to the recruits], ‘Look, this decision should be made here pretty soon and try to hold out as long as you can.'”
The night Franklin’s hiring was announced, he invited members of Penn State’s recruiting staff to his home and offered them roles in the Hokies’ front office. Eight longtime Nittany Lions personnel figures, including general manager Andy Frank, followed him the next day.
Within hours, Franklin and his staff were back on the phone with recruits. Days later, some of the biggest names from Penn State’s 2026 class visited Blacksburg with the early signing period on the horizon.
“You know the feeling when you go to a family gathering and you see a cousin you haven’t seen in a while?” Bright said. “That was the feeling we had that weekend because that’s family to me.”
WHEN HUHN AND the other former Penn State recruits walked into the hotel lobby of The Inn at Virginia Tech on Nov. 21, one peculiarity in particular caught their attention.
“It just felt weird that Coach Franklin wasn’t wearing blue,” Huhn explained. “That shocked me a little bit. I mean, we’re still getting used to it.”
Short on time, Franklin gravitated to familiarity in his earliest days at Virginia Tech, opting against flying across the country and trying to flip prospects he hadn’t recruited before. Instead, he turned his attention to getting his former Penn State class and the remaining Hokies commits to campus for the final two weekends before the early signing period.
“I wanted to build it with people that I knew, trusted and respected,” Franklin said. “No better starting point for me than the people that I had relationships with. I wanted them to be a foundation.”
Franklin’s first recruiting weekend at Virginia Tech was a concoction of competing emotions: the joyous spirit of a pseudo-Penn State reunion mixed with uneasiness around the early signing period and uncertainty hovering over the Hokies’ interim coaching staff.
“They still had the current coaches on staff there,” said Huhn’s father, Jay. “Coach Franklin invited them to all the events we had. And so it was kind of awkward for everybody. Do I have a job? Is Troy going to be here? It was almost like an interview process for everyone involved.”
However, the unique circumstances also provided an advantage. Seldom, if ever, is a sitting head coach as available on a game weekend as Franklin was in Week 13. While interim coach Phillip Montgomery led the Hokies on the field, Franklin spent the weekend recruiting.
There wasn’t time to hatch any fresh ideas. So Franklin & Co. stuck to the traditional Virginia Tech official playbook. Staff, recruits and their families spent Friday night at McLain’s, a combination bowling alley/arcade/sports bar just off campus. On game day, not even the two-touchdown defeat to Miami could dampen the excitement surrounding Franklin’s arrival. That night, the recruits dug into steak over dinner in the club level overlooking Lane Stadium.
One of the most significant moments of the weekend, according to multiple recruits, came Saturday morning. As the current Hokies warmed up on the field, Franklin pulled the group of official visitors into the program’s team room. He wanted to understand their concerns and share his vision for the future at Virginia Tech. And he wanted to impart how badly he wanted them to be there with him in Blacksburg.
“He sat down with all of us together and just spoke from the heart,” Mickens said. “It was the same coach I committed to at Penn State.”
The next morning, Franklin found Mickens in the hotel lobby. He wanted to get a gauge on where the four-star running back stood on Virginia Tech after the visit weekend. “He told me once I committed, then we’re going to get the whole class,” Mickens recalled.
Mickens left without making a firm decision. He still had a visit scheduled to Oklahoma the following weekend. He thought he needed to take 24 hours to think it over. But somewhere along the five-hour drive home to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Mickens’ choice crystalized.
The next morning, Mickens called Franklin and the first domino in the Hokies’ late-cycle recruiting run fell.
“I told Coach Franklin I was going to commit,” Mickens said. “He was like, ‘Cool. Now let’s go get the other guys with us.'”
MICKENS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED his commitment to Virginia Tech on Nov. 25. The rest of the ex-Penn State contingent followed over the next week, including Huhn on Dec. 1. Among the former Nittany Lions pledges who visited for the Miami game, four-star safety Matt Sieg, who signed with West Virginia in December, marked the Hokies’ only miss.
Coveted in-state offensive tackle Thomas Wilder, a previous Virginia Tech commit, rejoined the program’s class Dec. 1. Late-cycle decommits Maddox Cochrane (Wisconsin) and Garrett Witherington (Kentucky) — prospects Franklin’s staff has previously pursued at Penn State — jumped at the opportunity to be part of Franklin’s rebuild as well, tacking on to the late surge of incoming talent that will represent the Hokies’ highest-ranked signing class since 2018.
“We needed a foundational class to build around,” Franklin said. “At the end of the day, it came down to the relationships we had with these kids and their families.”
By the close of the early signing period, Franklin and Virginia Tech had 22 pledges and a top-25 class. Two months later, Franklin insists the pilfering of the Nittany Lions’ class “was not an attack or a shot at any program.” Nonetheless, as former Iowa State coach Matt Campbell inherited a tattered class at Penn State in December, the contrasts were impossible to ignore.
Franklin’s instant retool and the decisions Virginia Tech made that led to it have drawn praise from across the sport. “It’s the blueprint for why you hire and fire someone early,” one ACC general manager said. Industry sources were particularly impressed with the Hokies’ financial aggression in the final weeks of the cycle; multiple sources confirmed to ESPN that one former Penn State recruit more than tripled his previous $250,000 deal upon signing with the Hokies.
The Franklin era at Virginia Tech is still very much in its infancy. After pulling together a 25-man portal class featuring 12 Penn State transfers in early January, Franklin hit the road to begin his work in the 2027 class last month. “I literally haven’t even been around our guys,” he told ESPN.
Early signs, though, are encouraging. Beyond his initial success on the recruiting trail, Franklin has successfully blended Pry-era personnel holdovers into his Penn State-heavy front office. He still believes his model of program-building, once adapted to the unique features of Virginia Tech, can work in 2026. And the university has displayed a motivation to continue to invest in the program. Since pledging $229 million in athletic department spending over the next four years late last year, the school has announced record donations — including a $20 million gift from an anonymous donor in December — and plans for major facilities upgrades.
No different from when he was at Vanderbilt or Penn State, Franklin believes he can build at Virginia Tech.
“The challenge is to do it again and do it at a different place and a place that’s very hungry to win,” Franklin said, “But the reality is I need to surround myself with people that I trust and that I can build this thing around.”
On that front, Franklin is already on his way. He landed at Virginia Tech in November flanked by key players from his Penn State recruiting staff. Sixteen days later, they were joined by 11 more familiar faces from the 2026 class who signed on to follow them into the Hokies’ program.
But a disastrous Nittany Lions season that spiraled despite consistent recruiting and significant financial investment is still fresh. Months into his tenure, Franklin is quick to caution: On the field, inside the program and at the administrative level, the Hokies still have a long way to go.
“It’s early on,” he said. “The good thing is there’s a ton of excitement to get Virginia Tech back to where it was. But there’s still a lot of work and tough decisions that need to be made.”
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – For the second time in as many weeks, University of New Mexico guard Jake Hall is the Mountain West Freshman of the Week. Hall had the hot hand for the Lobos last week, shooting 17 of 25 from the floor, 9 of 15 from deep. He averaged 21.5 points per game, leading […]
