Interesting thread (started here, continues in a quote tweet here) on ACC teams' Collective/Rev Share payments.
My thoughts:
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It's nice to get confirmation that VT is spending like they said they would
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There's so little publicly available data out there, but the connected people have a really good idea. it's really interesting to see that Hale estimates the ACC 'median' football pay is ~$15m/$16m.
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Jake Dicker is a really good coach and he should get the hell out of Wake.
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Comments
Also, sorta related, a quick excerpt from Hale's substack piece on ACC media days:
Get used to JMFF doing what JMFF does best
Edit: That was intended to be a little... snarky?
Virginia Tech fans are going to get tired of him complaining and pushing. It won't be this year. It won't be next year but if he makes it five or 10 years here, people are going to interpret his requests as excuses.
I think that would depend on if he can deliver.
Yeah, if he delivers on an ACC championship in the next few years, and is making noise on the national scene, I don't think VT fans will tire of his pushing any time soon.
I think if he has Beamer-level results for over five years, despite asking for more and more and interviewing at other schools and continuing to give the administration/boosters ultimatums - just like you did every year at Penn State for the last five years – people will get sick of it.
remember how upset people were with the Justin Fuente/Baylor thing? That is going to happen every single year if Franklin turns us around. If he wins 8/9 games this year in Lincoln Reilly gets fired – I promise you it is going to happen this offseason.
if he improves every year/with every gift, then none of this matters.
You are right. And I say "and?"
If Franklin is good enough to be getting the looks from other schools, that's good for us, and frankly, it's on us to retain him.
If we want to be a serious football school, we'll just have to deal with this kind of thing - Franklin or not. Most coaches aren't Frank Beamer.
Even Beamer considered a move to UNC.
And that was before todays environment of college football being about nothing but the Benjamins.
I tend to agree. I also had zero issue with the Baylor/Fuente thing.
I think fanbase at large will not respond well.
The Fuente Baylor thing was as poorly received as it was because the fanbase was already divided on Fuente before it even happened. That 2019 UVA game broke something in our fanbase psyche.
If it had happened after the 2016 or 2017 season the fanbase would've been screaming "oh my god, retain this man." After 2018 it would've been a collective "good riddance."
Subsequent seasons were turbulent times for the fanbase to say the least.
I know I'm being biased by how much I detest Penn State football, but I'm largely with you on the concerns. Was not sold on Franklin's ability to recruit at a high level here (thankfully, I was totally wrong about that) or his ability to win big here without clearly superior talent. Although it looks like we will have that over all but a few ACC teams, so we should be good. Can now see 9, 10, even 11 win seasons after a couple of years to recruit the talent.
My real hope is that Franklin gets us to those regular double digit win totals in 2 or 3 years, gets us back as a major program and then someone pays VT a boatload of money to hire him away. We then keep the money flowing and the big recruits/winning proves to be self-sustaining with the next coach.
Will see. The future does look bright. Let's get back to being decent in 2026, good in 2027, real good after that and just see where it goes.
My opinion is that if he has beamer-level results for over five years (assuming we mean prime beamer where he was averaging 9+ wins and a conference championship every few years) then we will not be able to keep him no matter what we try. Some other school will back up a much bigger brinks truck than us
$$$ --> coach --> recruiting --> success (if you're lucky and you have the right formula) -->
$$$ --> coach --> recruiting --> success (if you're lucky and you have the right formula) -->
$$$ --> coach --> recruiting --> success (if you're lucky and you have the right formula)
repeat indefinitely
The John Iezzi Sons of Saturday Podcast about the recruiting infrastructure under Fuente has absolutely scarred tf outta me.
Franklin (or any future coach) can continue to make requests for funding without my complaint. It won't necessarily change my donation level - the budget is the budget in my house - but I won't begrudge our coaches for asking for more, regardless of how they perform.
Perform = good
Don't perform = bad
But even a bad performer might recognize that the program's funding needs to be at a higher level than what it is.
Some food for thought, in ten years Franklin will be 64. According to Google, the average retirement age for college football HC's is 60-65.
At that point in his career unless he's winning at the level of Nick Saban, would a blue blood try to hire him?
The question is not would someone hire him. The question is would be able to create enough leverage to make continuous demands of the fans/boosters?
If he does do enough to create that leverage, the fans/boosters will be ecstatic.
Yeah, if we're dealing with an issue like this for multiple years, it must mean we are winning a lot more games than the last 15 years. Think most people will be alright with that.
I'll also add: what's the likelihood that JMMF even wants to move on to another school?
Based on his interviews, I get the impression that as long as he feels the administration is supporting his efforts, he's not interested in looking for a new home. I truly think he felt blindsided by Penn St firing him.
But what if someplace else wants to support his efforts more?
might take a year or two, but if Franklin is winning, get used to the offers and ultimatums.
This isn't our biggest worry right now.
If he's successful in a year or two, he likely won't want to leave just yet. The reason he took this job is because it's ideal for him right now.
I agree this isn't a worry for right now.
I'm just saying... The fanbase should be aware that this is a Buzz Williams hire, not a Frank Beamer hire.
JMFF is always going to do what is best for JMFF. Right now, the venn diagram of 'what is best for JMFF' and 'what is best for VT' is nearly perfectly overlapped. There will be some day in the future where that is not the case. So the fanbase shouldn't be shocked or upset when JMFF makes a decision that only benefits JMFF.
I have zero issue with this. But I think a lot of folks will.
I'm not sure he's a Frank Beamer OR a Buzz Williams hire. They were both outliers, and there is a lot of space between them.
Let's just hope the overlap lasts for a while. I'd prefer this problem to the one of "we overrated this guy as head coach and our team can't beat the little sisters of the poor" that we've been plagued with lately.
Franklin is definitely not a Buzz Williams type of coach. That doesnt mean he wouldn't leave in 4 years. Im sure he had his chances to leave at PSU and never did. We've see OU and ND lose their coaches to other schools so I doubt he never had an opportunity to leave. And Vandy was a stepping stone job. He was always going to leave because its Vandy.
However I dont know if he leaves Maryland if they dont screw him over. He seems so pissed at them that it was his dream job.
If he wins then some school will make a run at him, but he isnt going to forget why PSU fired him, a hangover loss after an OT game against a top 10 team. He had won enough to survive that if he was at VT, because Frank survived that.
I think that VT would not get rid of a coach if he lost in OT to a top 10, even if it happened every year. Especially after the year they had the previous year. The early losses in the season were tough but, it happens.
Much would depend on the coaches attitude. Look we liked Pry and yes, he had to go but, we didn't throw him out on his backside.
For perspective, I can't recall the last time we played well enough against a top 10 to sniff overtime. I guess the 2021 opener against UNC counts, but that was a pretty artificial top 10 as it turns out UNC wasn't very good that year, and even that was 5 years ago. Before that was maybe 2016 ACCCG against clemson, where we started to come back in the 4th and lost by 7 (but had the ball right outside the red zone). Again, that was 10 years ago now. Before that would be 2014 vs Ohio state I guess.
Am I missing any?
Edit: I think Miami was #7 when we played them in 2024 and basically had the win on that foolishly overturned TD at the buzzer. So I guess that one counts
I don't think this is a Buzz Williams hire.
While I will agree both Franklin and Williams took the VT job to self-promote, Williams saw it as a chance build his brand whereas Franklin sees this as a unique opportunity to build a strong football brand into his own likeness. VT has given Franklin near-complete authority and has more power than the AD and arguably will have more power than the incoming president. For that reason, I think Franklin sees this as a long tenure. So, even if a bigger school comes knocking on Franklin's door, offers him more money, and more resources, I don't think that Franklin jumps into that opportunity if he isn't given the same amount of authority. It certainly can happen, but most schools are not willing to give up that level of authority to a coach.
I think Franklin sees he can win here and fortunately, has a much easier path. If we fund him and he's contending, why leave for another rebuild?
I hope we have a big buyout owed to us if he leaves because I can totally see someone offering a truck load of money to bring in someone new, and would love to see them pay us that ton of money.
Insert - 'Don't you put that evil on me' in response as well.
With all due respect, after the way our AD and donor base has cheaped out the last 2 and a half decades, a constant reminder that we have to spend money to make money isn't a bad thing and I would welcome the constant pushing from the team.
This is how I feel as well. Franklin can push, beg, remind, and pester all he wants. Finally, the suits see what it's going to take to play big boy college football now and they better be prepared to do what it takes, even if that means putting up with top tier coach James Franklin bugging them and everyone else to death about money.
This. I feel like our program has long been a walking, talking billboard for the maxim, "Buy it Cheap = Buy it Twice." Reminders to that effect from inside the house no longer bother me.
If only someone had told me about that before I went and bought a load of cheap crap for my house....