Getting the Band Back Together
There's some content that is tough to read (about how far we've fallen), but if this quote doesn't make you want run through a wall - you're dead...
Brian Dohn, a longtime recruiting analyst for 247Sports, agrees: "This is only the beginning of Franklin's vision. He is armed with the funds to compete in the revenue sharing/NIL world, and a staff with ties across the region. It is the type of recruiting that takes away the 'Can he?' build a playoff contender and replaces it with 'how long?' before it is one."
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Thanks for sharing. An exciting read as we make our way to the end of the offseason.
I'd love to know which SEC school was interested in Pry for head coach
Has to be Arkansas or Kentucky, just looking at the list of schools with new coaches this year. My money is on Arkansas.
I remember when Arkansas fans thought they were getting Franklin it would have been kinda funny to give them Pry instead
"We have Franklin at home"
Heuplek's comment made me chuckle, but this made me cackle.
No way that either fan base would have been okay hiring him as HC, right? They've got SEC money to hire way better candidates than a guy who went 16-24 at VT with easy schedules. Makes it very hard to fathom that. Like what would the AD at either school have seen that would make them go "hey we need some of that in our football program"?
That's a great article for VT, Pry, and Franklin.
Shows how the community is special. I like it.
I really hope this works out from a wins perspective.
I'm worried it's going to work out a bit TOO well and we'll be looking for another coach in 4ish years lol.
After 4 consecutive titles, I'll allow it
A few specific things in the piece really caught my attention.
First, this table. When you segment the phases of the Virginia Tech Downfall TM by CFB era (instead of coaching era, or arbitrary 5 or 10 year increments), it paints a really, really clear image:
Next is this quote from Pry:
Sounds like Pry regrets stepping away from the defense. Which is interesting in the wider purview of the sport - I do think in the GM-era, we are going to see a return of the head coach spending more time on ball TM. But I don't think VT had the infrastructure at the time to do this, so even if Pry tried, it would have failed.
It was mentioned above, but Pry getting an HC offer from an SEC school... I don't buy it at all. Maybe an interview. I'd be shocked at an offer.
Finally, the piece about the community supporting Pry after firing is wholesome. I feel like the 'this is home' mantra (or some iteration of it) is used by every school. Every program thinks they're special or different. Maybe I'm naive, but I'm drinking the koolaid. Blacksburg is special. Those other places aren't.
It had to just be a conversation or maybe an interview to be HC. No way he had an actual offer
Ha, now it feels like we're talking about recruits with committable and noncommitable offers
So, I had to read that section several times because I read it differently the first time and needed to read it again to check myself.
I initially thought when Pry said, "he", he was referring to Franklin, but the SEC DC offers threw me for a loop on that. And, on the flip side, I couldn't believe a single SEC school would remotely be interested in Pry as a HC period.
I can theoretically buy him getting an offer. But I imagine it would have been chump change and relying on our buyout for most of his salary. It also would have been a stopgap for whatever school while they spent little money and looked for a better coach. If Pry flipped things around I can see them being happy at getting a "bargain".
That said, same money but not having to move? Stay in Blacksburg especially when Tech wasn't running him out of town on a rail. It just hadn't worked.
SEC schools don't chase bargains in 2026. Even UK is paying $5.5m/year with over $2m in incentives.
There's no way he gets an SEC HC job after getting blown out by ODU at home.
He is getting paid $5 million a year by us...
Stoops made more than the basketball coach, a national title winning coach too.
Saw some chitchat about this article. There were several things that were just flat out wrong or interpreted incorrectly in the article. This may have just been a misstatement about him getting three offers, 2 assistant coach (DC?) offers from the SEC and one head coach offer from elsewhere.
Pry getting a head coaching offer from sec school- cocaine is one hell of a drug
I guess he would've taken classes as a GA so technically one could refer to Tech as his alma mater, right? Just something that made me stop and reread that sentence several times.
Between that and the quote about having a HC offer at an SEC school, I have a feeling this article was at least edited by, and possibly mostly written by an LLM.
To be fair the article says "opportunity" not "offer" my guess is he was considered for an interview but that's it.