Sources: Penn State quarterbacks coach Danny O'Brien is expected to become the new quarterbacks coach at Virginia Tech. O'Brien spent two years as the quarterbacks coach at PSU and worked closely with Drew Allar closely during O'Brien's five total seasons there. pic.twitter.com/XKKqLhlUxN— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 10, 2025
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In Franklin we trust, not sure how to feel on this one with how Allar was but again going to hope this fits the picture Franklin is trying to paint.
Well, hopefully he can develop a QB to actually be able to throw a ball. I know, weird concept but it would go miles in our offensive scheme.
Came here to say this, but you beat me to it. Hopefully he does not suck like every other QB coach we have had in decades.
Would think with the bigger war chest for assistant coaches, we could have gotten someone with a stronger track record. PSU fans are celebrating that he's gone (but they suffer from Penn State Delusion Syndrome so idk).
Unfortunately, it's not the splash hire I was looking for and now we're forced to take a wait-and-see approach.
All I've heard is Aller wasn't good. I feel like this is a concern, no?
All we heard was Drones is working extra hard , working out with Cam Ward, getting his footwork right. Doing extra practices, first in the beamer barn last one off, blah blah blah. Turns out, whatever he was doing made him twice as bad as he was in 2024 which was twice as bad as he was in 2023. Point being, it's not going to be any worse than we've had the last X years.
I'm not super stoked about this hire but it's got to be an improvement over what it's been.
I remember when this same very thing happened to Logan Thomas. Lol. Went to whatever camp and worked with some renowned coach.. played worse than before.
Sounds like my golf game
I feel like LT3 had what it took. Just had a much better supporting cast in 2011. David Wilson was flat out incredible. And seniors Boykin and Coale were great. The 2012 receiving corps had Dyrell roberts who wasn't the same after his big injury and Marcus davis. Then 2013 was even less with knowles and coles. hard to remember exactly but if LT had the talent of the 2011 team his entire tenure then he probably has an amazing career.
I rewatched every int he had senior year, 1 I could other find because it was against like western Carolina. He threw 1 ball he shouldnt have, another I think 2 that were questionable and the other like 10 were on the receivers
edit: update autocorrect shouldn't back to shouldn't
If I remember correctly, it was less about being turnover prone and more about him only being good at deep balls. When throwing short or mid range it was like he was aiming for receivers that were 9ft tall sometimes.
Allars decline also started with Kotelnicki. Franklin went out and hired big splash names and it blew up in his face last year. Going back to what you know is probably right.
There was some further discussion I read somewhere about Kotelnicki at Penn State. His offense is very tight timing-wise, but the WR coach coaches the receivers to react more on what's going on around them (where the DB is, where the open spot is, etc.). Those two philosophies didn't work well together.
That was sekrah insight so basically has to be true.
After experiencing the Penn St fans firsthand over the last few weeks, I've come to the realization that I can't trust anything I've heard out of Happy Valley recently
They fired a coach that took them to the playoffs last year and are happy he's gone. The delusion factor is incredibly high there.
Allar's stats would make him second all time at VT in passing yards and first in TDs and first in completion %
PSU's "splash" hires at OC and DC blew up in their face. Kotelnicki needed a different skill set at QB; and apparently Knowles' D isn't something you install overnight (...and he didn't get along with his boss)
If we keep Brooks and Moore (seems to be quite possible) and run something like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq74KEV51gY) with a bunch of stellar RB's and TE's; I'm down with it.
and against ACC competition, his stats would likely be much better than they were at PSU
Allar also used all of his eligibility. When was the last time VT had a qb play for 2 full seasons, let alone 3-4? Drones anddddd? Tyrod? LT3? Brewer, Evans, Hooker, Wills, etc all played less than two full years due to injuries, portal, etc
We keep bringing it up but I just thought I'd be more impressed with the hires. We keep saying "I trust JMFF. Let's see how this plays out." I don't expect us to pull an OSU and hire some P4 OC to be a position coach or anything, but I want some hires where we're all like "Hell yeah f*#% yeah!" Instead of "let's wait and see..."
eh,
so far we have one proven high performing coordinator, one mostly unproven coordinator and a very meh-to-average position coach.
The ONLY reason people aren't saying hell yeah, fuck yeah about Pry is because he was just HC here. If he was coming in and we were evaluating him as a DC prospect, with his top ten and close defenses, people would be ecstatic.
Pry is the most proven coordinator we've had since Foster. People need to stop judging him on his performance as a head coach and focus on his performance as a DC, because he will be DC'ing here now, NOT HC'ing.
This is honestly super underwhelming. Someone close to JMFF should probably suggest that hiring the same people whose inability to do their job properly got him fired at his previous job may not be the best way forward.
Your line of thinking seems to align with this
FTFY. I've made the same mistake myself.
And he's (and you're) right, BTW. On all three points.
J(ust) M(ake) F(ootball) F(un) ...... again
JMFF just fits so well here. Serendipity
OK, on the coach hires: I don't know mush but the Facebook message above is a message that the OC/DC situation at PSU last year is NOT being duplicated. We should think through that with our analysis.
I'd say run with either.
"MF'n" is a cool middle name.
The "Mutha-Mutha" riff from Spacelord is a cool middle name, too.
Leg for Monster Magnet!
Monster Magnet....leg for you good sir!
Negasonic Teenage Warhead is my fav
The knowles hire was a bit weird to me as Franklin is a people person and Knowles is supposed not, at all. Like I could see a PSU staff cookout and everyone having fun and Knowles sitting any the corner asking Franklin when he can leave ever 10 minutes to which James says anytime and Knowles thinks its a trick to get hime fired.
OSU was happy he left and it hasnt hurt them one bit. He also takes a year to two to install his package which PSU was in a win now mode, they were pieces away not a rebuild.
I really hope you're right. One thing that has never stood out to me from Penn State games recently has been their QB play though, and given that their QB recruiting has been far superior to what we've had since TT5, I'm very apprehensive about this.
I do think Franklin has mismanaged the QB position and failed to build competitive depth. He's repeated given deference to seniority by playing Sean Clifford for so long when he was not good enough (IMO). Then, in the portal era, he refused to bring someone in to challenge Allar.
The starter at Mizzou transferred from Penn St. He threw for almost 2,000 yds 11TDs/9INT in 9.5 games this year 5.5 against SEC comp and 3 games against top 10 competition. Looks like there was some competition for Allar, but portal taketh as Allar was the clear starter.
Personal note, Beau went to York Central (my wife's HS) and we are friends with the basketball coach he played for. I think he played 4 sports. When home over Christmas we go watch the team and saw Beau in a bball tournament. Later we ran into him at the local burger joint and I might have bought he and his girlfriend's dinner.
He's a hell of a kid. Unfortunately he may have been holding out for a better NIL offer.
Edit: for accuracy, looking back my records are sketchy! It appears Beau is entering the portal.
Well report the clear violation then since you're clearly a PSU alum *wink*
Look, I'm thrilled James Franklin is our coach. His staffing decisions so far are fine. There's some reasoning behind them if you or I don't totally love them and I'm good with giving them a chance. This right here? This is just a bad hire. PSU's QB play has been, let's say less than stellar, for awhile. And while this guy was only there the last 5 years, I'd say its pretty notable that the guy coaching Drew Allar sees Allar's stock go from top prospect potential 1st round NFL QB to "does this guy suck?". If there were a position to hire outside of Franklin's loyalty tree based on his history, QB coach would be the one to look outside of the family. Disappointed in this hire
Howle bears some responsibility for the bad QB play and that's one of many reasons why he shouldn't have been the OC hire.
O'Brien also played for Franklin at Maryland in 2010 (Ralph Friedgen's last year), then with Randy Edsall in 2011, before transferring to Wisconsin to play for Bret Bielema.
I cannot express how unimpressed I am with Franklins hiring thus far.
If he can produce a better line and QB than drones, I'll allow it.
I can't emphasize how low the bar is after Fuente and Pry as head coaches.
I think Fuente could've cooked had he come into a VT more willing to do what we just did for JMFF. andfiredcornelsonintothefuckingsun
Wonder if he still would have chosen Corn (or at least fired him at some point) if he had the James Franklin budget...definitely would have got Barry Odom instead of Hamilton.
Part of the (very limited appeal) was Corn was coming in at cost (I believe he was one of the lowest paid OCs in P4 football).
We definitely got what we paid for on that
He was the lowest paid out of schools that report. His offenses were always middle of the pack, not good but not bad. For the money we paid him he outperformed. This is why we need to have expectations and money attached to that expectation because he killed it every year but wasnt good enough. if he was making $1m then you might have to reconsider him but at 400k he was great.
Nope. Fuente chose friendship of Corny over continued employment. Either that, or he honestly thought Corny was doing all the right things. Either way, it wasn't going to work. Granted, I think he could be successful, but only in VERY specific circumstances, with the right players (see 2016 and to a slightly lesser degree, 2017). The big problem was not understanding what it was they needed to succeed, or not being able to adequately recruit it.
I can't decide where I stand on the idea that Fuente was good enough as a coach and the VT AD held him back. I'm sure there is some truth to it. But a coach who was actually very good would not have let us get ass-blasted by ODU in 2018 or Duke in 2019, even with limited support and budget. I don't think our AD with our low-spend, do more with less, good ole days mentality dragged him down that far.
No choice but to wait and see. I'm not familiar with Howle's body of work, this guy's even less so.
I think a lot of the people who have bad gut feelings are gunshy because of how often we've been burned lately, which is entirely fair and I'm not about to tell them they're wrong for feeling that way. But I'm going to reserve judgment for the time being.
Yeah there are positive and negative angles to look at every hire he's made. Until they've got their unit out of the field it's kinda aimless saying you're 'out on this staff' or 'gonna win a natty'
Yep, I think there is just a lot of sense of "been there, done that" at this point.
It's also not confidence-inspiring when PSU fans generally seem to be overjoyed this guy is leaving. At least he's an actual QB coach with experience though, beats trying to shoe-horn Bowen in like Pry did.
I can get the idea that Franklin wants "his people"--the tea leaves seem to suggest that there was alot of divisiveness among Staff @ PSU. Hell, Terry Smith has now taken a WWE-style heel-turn on Franklin. That's rarely a good environment for winning.
Still, its hard to completely wrap your head around supposedly offering top-level Assistant money and the results being largely getting raises and promotions for guys that were loyal to Franklin @ PSU. Some with very spartan resumes. Particularly, as some of the names we were interested in like Poindexter and Trautwein are conspicuously absent.
All I can say is that the on-field product better be stellar or it could get ugly.
What divisiveness? It seems like Franklin is re-hiring everyone whoever worked for him.
The fans were fed up with the guy who almost took them to the championship game last year, and had expectations to go there again this year. While I can understand that, I think they over-reacted. And when we've seen this in the past at other places, it didn't go all that well.
The expectations will be high, but winning cures everything. And I don't doubt that this group can do better than 3-9.
We won't know until we see the results.
Well, Terry Smith pretty much has sided with Pat Kraft who was openly critical of both on field and NIL decisions made by Franklin during his unhinged rant.
So the remaining staff at Penn State has been stuck in a situation where they're either Franklin guys or Kraft guys. Dunno about you, would tend to call that divisive.
Jim Knowles has frankly not worked out...and isn't a Franklin guy. The OCs have been a revolving door of mostly outside hires.
What's Terry Smith GOING to do? He's toeing the company line. Just like the rest of the people who stayed at (or are fans of) Penn State. Would have been VERY difficult for him to leave there. This surprises exactly nobody. If I were a Penn State guy, I don't think I'd have been particularly pleased about how this all went down. I'd probably be ranting on the internet, too.
I don't really call that divisive so much as self preservation. If you're Virginia Tech, you're team Franklin. If you're Team Kraft and you stayed at Penn State, you're not going to be singing Franklin praises. That's loyalty - on both sides.
So there's no reason for us to get divisive about it. I'm on the side of Virginia Tech, and our decision was made. We're on the Franklin train, for better or for worse. And we won't really know the results for a bit. I could be wrong, but I can't imagine it will be worse than Fuente or Pry as head coach.
Doesn't mean we have to agree with every decision Franklin makes, but I'm strongly hoping he succeeds.
I get that and these are all valid concerns, I just want to give them a chance to not completely flop first.
I'm with you. I'm not going to react to every single hire as it gets announced. No point until we know what the whole staff looks like, what the final incoming class (including portalling in and out) looks like, and how things look when we start to get a sense of scheme that will be implemented. While some may have wanted splashier hires, I'm gonna give Franklin the benefit of the doubt that he can put together a staff that works toward implementing what he thinks is a successful vision. Give it a year to transition, a year to build upon the foundation, and ask me again in year three how things are going (barring any catastrophic boneheadedness).
Totally agree and hopefully this Year Zero is better than our last Year Zero.
Hopefully better than years 1, 2, 3 and 4 too!
I am starting to think that we've had the one "splash" hire we are going to get...which is Franklin. From now on I am going to look forward to splash recruits, but that is about it.
Basic physics. After a big splash, every subsequent ripple is smaller than the previous.
Absent another large object entering the water.
I see it as a whole thing. The splash hire includes whoever the hell Franklin wants in the water. We're trippin' if we think we're going to suddenly be able to hire anyone who can outsplash Franklin anyway. It's all just one big "splash."
Exactly. When we pulled the trigger with Franklin, it became his show.
we sure are talkin' a whole lotta splash
There's such thing as too much splash talk and fella oughta be fucking aware of it.
I wonder if this signals we are going to try and bring in Allar as a transfer. Just hired his QB coach and co-OC...
Obviously this year was a disappointment, but if you look at his 2024 numbers, that's about on par with Jerod Evans' 2016 stats.
Laugh at this all you want given lawsuit mania these days but he doesn't have eligibility
I thought Allar's eligibility is done?
Yep, you're right. I figured he was going to apply for some medical waiver for this season. But apparently not.
I don't want to say that our fan base is being overly impatient, but we are. It is understandable as we are proud/hungry and the ACC is hot garbage.
We probably have a few years before ACC football is scattered to the 4 winds, so IMO our real goal should be to position ourselves at the top of said pile so that we get a premium seat at the future table. If things realigned right now, we would end up on the minor league side of the coin.
Toward this goal we really don't have any time to waste, and I think Whit and Sands recognize this. We have a finite amount of time to climb up to the top of the ACC. Any mis-steps can result in us not being *there* when the time comes.
If you buy my logic, imagine you were JMFF. Your goal is to build a once proud program back from apathy in short order with a steady (quick) climb. What would be your priorities?
If it were me I would want a known coaching staff that would hit the ground going in the right direction. With the right Jimmy's and Joe's it should be an easy climb. What we can't afford is setbacks. Sekrah seems to be well informed, and his opinion is that JMFF got burned by trying to make splashy hires.
A splash hire *may* result in immediate success, but even then the school suffers when then coach is poached. Should he listen to Hokie fans who are clamoring for splash, possibly at the expense of success? Give me steady climb.
We hope that JMFF has the same level of success he had at Penn State, and maybe he learned a few things that will make him/us even better. If we truly have several years (fingers crossed) then I believe JMFF can get us "there".
I'm not going to worry about it too much at this point. Franklin has the resume and reputation where you just trust him. He also went with top dollar splash hires the last year or two at PSU and it got him fired. So I think he probably wants people around him he can trust.
At the end of the day, Franklin has alluded repeatedly to the fact that the plays work better with good players. We won 10+ games and multiple ACC titles with a Stiney offense and a ton of high caliber players. I certainly don't anticipate Howle's offense to be anywhere near that anemic, but if we can get that talent level back up, we are going to win a ton of games in the ACC. Coaching and development is crucial too, but without the talent no coach will be able to succeed.
I think this is a really good take. Cosign.
Waaaay too measured of a take for the current climate /s. Totally agree tbh. There are 3, 3 current coaches with a .68% winning percentage. One of them is the coach of the VT Hokies. Lets just let the guy cook and sit at the table like good little boys and girls waiting to be served something besides the shit sandwiches we have been eating for a decade.
Debating this in my head.
No evidence really suggests that this guy is a QB whisperer. Allar isn't good.
But Penn State has always had 4 star quarterbacks. When was the last time ANY of them were good? Across all OC an an coach combinations?
Penn State is the anti-QBU.
From what I hear up here, Franklin puts his own fingerprints on the offense, which makes me concerned that hiring one of his guys in an advanced role might enable him to make the same game time decisions he has been criticized for on the past
Fwiw people up here think O'Brien is an up and comer
Gets the approval of Virginia Tech
quarterbackwide receiver Big Play TreAnyone know the connection here???
Yep, Tre used to play WR at Virginia Tech, O'Brien now coaches QB at Virginia Tech...it's a VT connection
Danny went to East Forsyth HS and Tre is from the Greensboro area.
10 years apart
CJMFF has options to choose from for DC, OC, and QBC but clearly going with what he knows has been successful. PSU was ultra successful for over a decade until the flop of 2025. What's unique about 2025? PSU's AD, donors, and fanbase pushing him to hire coordinators that were not Franklin guys. So, he's reverting to what made him JMFF.
The JMFF revenge tour will be driven by an army of blue chips that are led by a staff of his people, all decorated in maroon and orange, with the intent to dominate the ACC and take on the best of the SEC and B1G in the playoffs to get JMFF and VT their first National Championship.
Let the man cook.
Let Franklin's Benjamins do their work.
Now that looks like an accident about to happen, but dude shows skills, no doubt.
VT's new tagline: Set In Stone
VT's new alternate tagline: Let Him Cook
Much better than Let The Boy Watch
That's pretty dang close to the title of the LibertyU 30 for 30.
Comments like this one really make me take a step back and reflect on how much I appreciate all of you and your senses of humor 😂
I didn't even know this was from a movie! I though it was about Biberty all along haha
Where do you think Will Ferrell got it?
This is from East Bound and Down with the infamous character (my personal favorite of Will Ferrell's) Ashley Schaeffer. So many great scenes with Ashley.
The whole monologue that this scene is from is comedic gold. When my friends or coworkers mention watching something I catch myself saying "let the boy watch" in Ashley's voice and they mostly just start at me like I'm an idiot.
So true. I'm surprised at how many don't know of this great character. I have gotten that look from people as well. On the flip side, I have one bud in particular where we can spend a good portion of our conversation speaking in Schaeffer and just cracking each other up.
I always enjoy every opportunity to say the words to anyone "Consider It Done" and I say it the same way Will does with a serious face, but am smiling inside.
EDIT: Here is the video that will make anyone appreciate the legend that is Ashley Schaeffer
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_hPp4dgmrc8
Let the boy watch! He needs to learn, the way I learned, from my father...
I think about this clip at least a few times a year and will always go back to it when I need a reliable laugh.
"Let Him Cook, On The Blackstone"?
Franklin doesn't have time to learn how to work with new people, so he's going to hire as many people he knows to shorten the time for the staff to gel.
As far as this particular hire, in Franklin's first presser, he talked about how he had to tailor the PSU offense to the weather there (regularly colder than other places and gets more snow). I dont know how real that is but I guess it makes sense, you dont see a lot of teams in the North have pass heavy or pass often offenses. He also said he wants big get WRs because they are game changers (make 1 guy miss instead 2 for a RB).
All of these points point to running a different offense here than he did at PSU, which may let us see how good this QB coach actually is.
That's an interesting point - it is hard to catch a ball when your fingers are frozen.
is State College really that much colder than Blacksburg?
Like, I know they get more snow - but...it's not like we're in Florida. It can get cold AF in Blacksburg during football season. I still think we're gonna be a run heavy offense. And, as long as we're moving the ball and getting points I don't really care
It's not just home games, they were also playing road games outdoors at Minnesota, Wisconsin, an OSU, and Michigan. That's a lot colder than places like GT, Duke, and Wake.
Fair point
Here is a discussion on weather. Heavy snow, high wind, and temperatures below 25 degrees apparently have the biggest impacts on passing and field goals. (Wind is probably the one everyone inherently understands).
While it was after football season, the Bio station at Mt. Lake recorded a temp of -30 below one night. I think it was in '86, and I was living on the side of Afton Mt. in Nelson Co. then. We had a temp of -10 and a high of 0 there that cold spell. Of course, nobody would play football in that kind of stuff, but it ain't like Virginia is the deep South or anything. I know folks up north can definitely handle the cold better than southerners, though, and have met Michiganders and Minnesotans walking around in shorts and T shirts, no socks and sandals when it's in the 30s with a stiff wind. I guess it's all relative.
yeah, I know it doesn't get as consistently cold for as long as places like the upper midwest or new england. But it's not the tropics either. I didn't think the difference between State College and Blacksburg was so vast that the style of play would be drastically different. But, maybe I'm wrong. I've been wrong before.
Oh, I do agree with you to some extent, as far as State College vs Blacksburg goes, but I'd venture there is certainly a difference overall, owing just to longitude, even factoring in the Burg's mountain location. How much difference? Dunno, but like was mentioned above, the ACC opponents aren't found in those more extreme northern climes. At least not yet.
Yeah it's a fair point. We still have to play in Boston and Pittsburgh too. They're not Minnesota or Michigan but not every away game we play is in Miami
I admire the courage this took, lol!
It may have less to do with home games (which tend to be front-loaded anyway) and, as mentioned above, more to do with the fact that only 2 of 17 ACC outdoor away venues (BC and Pitt) are north of the Mason-Dixon line with climates more similar to pretty much the entire B1G which only has 2 of 18 venues south of the M-D line (USC and UCLA).
I'm probably wrong more often than not. But when I'm right... You'll hear about it lol
Reminded me of a quote from a funny obituary: 'he was often wrong, but never in doubt'....
that's a fantastic quote!! I'll have to remember that - it definitely describes some people I know
Just nitpicking here but isn't maryland south of the mason Dixon line?
I believe you're correct - I always thought that long straight northern border of Maryland was the Mason Dixon Line
You are indeed correct. The border between Maryland and Pennsylvania is the Mason-Dixon Line
Yeah, my bad, haha! I was even looking at the map when I wrote that!