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dzilla77's picture dzilla77
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| 8 months 2 weeks # | James Franklin - Ball is in your court?

You're right from a financial perspective, but not from a timing perspective. We won't know if Franklin or anyone else is a bust for 3 years (or more). At that point the dominoes will have fallen on conference realignment.

VPIhokieME's picture VPIhokieME
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| 8 months 2 weeks # | James Franklin - Ball is in your court?

The end result is the same

I disagree. If we go expensive and it doesn't work out we're completely screwed. If we go cheap and it doesn't work out we have a shot at a mulligan. I think there's time between now and the ACC completely falling apart for two coaches. If the first coach isn't working out in the first couple years you cut ties and move on. You can't' do that with Franklin because you'll be completely coach poor. You pay Franklin now and hope he works out because if he doesn't you're fucked. Or, you risk it on another coach and if he doesn't work out you get one more shot. That's the difference.

VPIhokieME's picture VPIhokieME
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| 8 months 2 weeks # | James Franklin - Ball is in your court?

I think Franklin is the only logical choice.

if money wasn't a limiting factor (i.e. we had lots of it to blow on anything and everything) then I'd agree. But that's not the case. It's a limited resource for us and we have to consider how we spend it. I think Franklin would be a good hire for VT. Don't get me wrong, I'm not AGAINST Franklin so much as I don't think he's the BEST option for us. But he's going to squeeze every last penny out of us. And I don't know that he's worth it. I'd rather spend a little less on a lesser known quantity and save some cash for the assistant coaching pool/staff and bank a little as a contingency incase the lesser known quantity isn't working out (which, we will know relatively quickly whether or not he's working out). With Franklin, you risk blowing your whole wad on him and then not getting much better. If we pay him 12mm and he doesn't have any money left over to bring in good assistants he could fail and fail miserably and then we could be in a really big world of hurt. Much worse than we're in now.

VTJ12's picture VTJ12
| 8 months 2 weeks # | James Franklin - Ball is in your court?

It really doesn't matter if we go expensive or go cheap on this hire and it doesn't pan out. The end result is the same - VT is left out of the new world order of college football, the program loses a ton of money/revenue, and the economic impact to the state and region is devastating and permanent. I'm in favor of going all in on a moonshot because Franklin is much more of a known quantity (proven winner and ace recruiter in the P2) than taking a shot on potential from an up-and-comer. If Franklin doesn't work out, then it really doesn't matter because VT football will be done for as we know it.

Franklin will raise the profile and national attention of the VT program day one of being hired. We have to get ourselves back in the conversation, and he's the safest bet and quickest path to getting national relevance back and an immediate turnaround in recruiting/roster overhaul due to regional ties and proximity. It will be expensive, but again if it pays off that doesn't matter. And if it doesn't pay off, then it still won't matter because the end result will be VT is left out of the top tier of football.

VPIhokieME's picture VPIhokieME
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| 8 months 2 weeks # | James Franklin - Ball is in your court?

Going to be expensive, but the return you get if it pays off will repay us tenfold many times over.

that's just it though. There's a chance this doesn't work out or pay off. The odds of Franklin taking VT to the promised land are not appreciably any better than the odds of (Helton, Chesney, etc.) taking us just as far. Where Franklin is the safe hire is that the odds of Franklin crashing and burning are theoretically lower than the odds of Helton/Chesney/etc. crashing and burning.

Franklin figures to be much more expensive than the younger G5 guys. So what would we be paying for? We'd essentially be paying for better odds at a higher floor. There's a chance Franklin doesn't work out and it doesn't pay off. We could pay him huge sums of money to basically keep us right where we are. I agree that Whit can't risk taking a flier on a relative unknown. It makes a lot of sense that he's going hard after a known quantity because this surely will be his last chance to hire a football coach for VT. The likeliest scenario is that Franklin will immediately get us to 8+ wins and keep us in the 8-10 win range most years. But there's also a risk that we'll pay him a ton of money to only win 6. That's Whit, though. I think VT can afford to risk it on a younger guy for a real moonshot. We'd risk paying less money to a relative unknown so we have more money for the assistants/support staff. That relative unknown could bungle things but at least then we wouldn't be completely coach poor and VT could reset with some of the leftover cash we won't have if we pay Franklin and he fails. Alternatively, the relative unknown could be the next Cignetti/Elko/Dabo/Smart etc. We know Franklin isn't going to win any championships here. We don't know that Chesney/Helton/etc. wouldn't. The risky part is that we don't know that they would either. We know think Franklin would win 8 games here almost immediately. We don't know that Chesney/Helton would. But they could. If it were me, I'd risk it on a guy like Chesney. There's two gambles here. You either gamble that Franklin won't crash and burn or you gamble that Chesney hammers it out of the park. Franklin is surely the safer bet. But the tradeoff with safe is that you know he's not going to win championships for you.

VT is in the worst position we've been in in my lifetime. College football is changing rapidly around us. This is an inflection point. We could play it safe, hire Franklin and hope that he elevates our profile enough to get interest from the P2 when the ACC collapses. Or we could swing for the fences, gamble on young up-and-comer with an exciting vision for the future, save some money to put into assistants so the new guy can surround himself with truly valuable assistants and hope that they elevate our program enough to get into the P2 when the ACC collapses.

Both are gambles. The safer bet has a lower payoff but far more damaging ramifications if it doesn't work out. The riskier bet has much higher payoff potential but also higher odds of failing - though the failure would be financially much less painful with the riskier option, affording us a mulligan. In my view, you take the option that will hurt you less if you're wrong but help you more if you're right, rather than the option that won't be as great if you're right but will hurt you a ton more if you're wrong. At the end of the day we don't KNOW for sure which way it'll go. I'd hedge my bets. If I'm gonna be wrong, I don't want to be SUPER wrong. That's Franklin, imo. Less likely to be wrong, but more painful if you are.

Little Bobby Tables's picture Little Bobby Tables
MEH. 😕
| 8 months 2 weeks # | James Franklin - Ball is in your court?

The only coach they could hire that would make me quit VT football would be Brian Kelly.

I'd be right there with you. I'd hate it, not having VT football to look forward to watching on the weekend (or not watch, if it's CW), but I'd hate Brian Kelly having the reins of the program even more.

He fucking killed a kid. He should be nowhere near coaching football.

Little Bobby Tables's picture Little Bobby Tables
MEH. 😕
| 8 months 2 weeks # | James Franklin - Ball is in your court?

Have him sing on the Gameday set, too. "Yeah my 'crooters are comin'.....to your ci-tay! If you want a little Gobble in your ching-chang, come along!"

Little Bobby Tables's picture Little Bobby Tables
MEH. 😕
| 8 months 2 weeks # | MLB 2025

I wonder if he'll get Gwen Stefani to sing the national anthem at one of their games. ;^)

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