James Franklin, Virginia Tech Coming to Berkeley in 2026

Former Penn State head coach James Franklin will be coming to California Memoria Stadium next season when his Virginia Tech team plays Cal in an ACC football game.

Virginia Tech announced on Monday that Franklin as been hired as the Hokies' next head football coach, adding a big-name coach to the conference’s roster.

Virginia Tech is one of four ACC teams that will play conference games at Cal next season, so the Bears and Cal fans will get a first-hand look at what Franklin has done with the Hokies’ roster.

The date of next season’s Cal-Virginia Tech game has not been set nor have the dates for any of the other eight conference games Cal will play in 2026.

Franklin was fired by Penn State on October 12 after the Nittany Lions lost three consecutive games to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern. Penn State was ranked No. 2 in the preseason AP poll and won its first three games before the slide.

Franklin’s Penn State team had won at least 10 games each of the three previous seasons and went 13-3 in 2024 when the Nittany Lions played in the College Football Playoff.

He will inherit a Virginia Tech team that is 3-7 overall and 2-4 in the ACC this season, but beat Cal in double overtime on October 24. The Hokies fired head coach Brent Pry after they began the season 0-3. Philip Montgomery is their interim head coach.

Cal plays eight ACC games this season, but the conference voted to add a conference game next season, so each team will play nine ACC games starting in 2026.

Cal’s other three 2026 ACC home games will be against Clemson, Wake Forest and Stanford, and the Bears conference road games will be against North Carolina State, SMU, Syracuse and Virginia. The dates for those games have not been announced.

Cal will add one ACC opponent for next season, although that opponent has not yet been announced.

Cal has four nonconference games scheduled for next season, so one of those games will have to be canceled to make room for a ninth conference game.

The Bears are currently scheduled to face UCLA, BYU, UNLV and Wagner in nonconference games in 2026, and it seems unlikely that the game against UCLA would be canceled.

Cal and UCLA have scheduled a four-game series against each other, starting in 2026 and running through the 2029 season. Next season, Cal will play UCLA in Berkeley on September 5.

Recent articles:

How Cal could finish as high as third place in the ACC standings

Betting sites give Cal slight edge over Stanford in the Big Game

What do ESPN's analytics say about the Big Game outcome?

Cal women's basketball team wins its own tournament

Cal's second-half rally falls short in basketball loss to Kansas State

Cal football GM Ron Rivera discusses impact of win over Louisville