Recent Comments
When he was the HC at Vandy, he punched well above their weight class in recruiting and on the field. This is was in the late aughts when Vandy was still the doormat of the P5.
No... they're going to take coaches from schools who we'll compete against.
I've heard Manny Diaz's name floated from PSU friends - no idea if there's truth to that - but suppose PSU hires Diaz and now Duke is open. Duke and VT are fishing for a new coach in the same pond.
This guy gets it.
We don't want James Franklin because we don't like him. He is kind of a slimy character, but guess what--behind closed doors, that's probably true of 85% of successful coaches.
Franklin's recent resume is essentially Frank Beamer @VT. Good teams, but more often than not, left you thinking there was more potential.
If the choice was between Bob Chesney and James Franklin...you're taking Chesney??? Yeah, didn't think so.
This is probably mostly moot, because I don't think Franklin is going to have any legitimate interest in VT to start with.
But holy shit do some of us need a reality check. Some half-assed media leak about investing more money in the athletics department doesn't all of a sudden make your mediocre football program the number one job choice on the market. Sorry truth hurts....
Agreed, I said this similarly above
Thank You!
All this time, and we've been overlooking the obvious answer.
The man knows VT intimately, been coaching for years, currently has his team at 4-1, and he wouldn't even have to relocate.
That's right. Brian Motherfucking Stinespring
/sssssss
So, Penn State can't be content to simply big dog us for recruits, but now they're gonna take our coaching candidates too...super
TV money gives them $30M a year more than us. Helps greatly on these kind of calls
Y'all.
You may not like James Franklin, but if any person on this site is acting like we're too good for James Franklin, get a hold of yourself.
Virginia Tech football is *not* an attractive option at the moment:
School President that doesn't value football.
Completely inept AD.
Terrible fundraising infrastructure.
BOV that has been complacent and asleep at the wheel.
A decade of being a non-factor in college football.
Don't start with me about the new budget, I'll believe it when I see it and even *IF* we get the money right, we're still a ways away from competing. We'd need to fire Whit, clean house, hire the right GM/AD etc. etc.
Franklin's inability to win big games is a mark against him but we aren't even good enough to make it to games that would be big by his standards!
I'll accept arguments that other candidates may be a better fit, but anyone who thinks we should turn our nose up at him is insane.
My thoughts as well. He would not be my first choice but I'd be okay with it there are far worse decisions we can make.
This is a point, but we are bringing more $, not PSU $, but,....
"Monty is basically playing HC, OC, playcaller, and primary QB coach"
Does he have a choice as interim HC? He's doing what he can w a bad roster. Im not saying he's our guy long term, but he has few options.
And Drones is horrible, offensive stats going down are because teams have more ideological of him. They're DC is laughing as he sets up to slaughter us.
I see people saying Franklin recruited this area well. Yeah, at Penn State, that has quite a football legacy and tons of money. Is it really realistic for someone to expect that a person coming from a school like that will recruit the same at VA Tech? I would think no.
I'm not super high on Franklin just because I've despised his snake oil salesman approach and him dominating VA recruiting for so long now. But objectively, if we could get a coach with his resume and him bring in a ton of his players, staff, and recruits, we'd be crazy not to pursue it.
This is where I'm at. Name recognition, knows how to recruit, low(ish) expectations.
Only three active coaches (Dabo, Kirby, Day) have won a national championship. I think those are some mighty lofty expectations for VT if we are expecting that type of a hire. I would be over the moon if we could get Beamer-level wins and conference championships again to vault us back to national relevancy and a P2 conference.
Penn State f-ed up,no doubt. What, they gonna hire Saban?
I see a lot of Franklin hating, but he recruits this region extremely well. Does he want to coach more in this era after pocketing $50M?
If we can get him for $10M, I'd do it. The shock n awe and name recognition alone would be insane. And... coaching matters, he can coach, the records prove it.
He recruited at Penn State well, then proceeded to do less with more. We're looking with a do more with less or, better yet, do more with more type coach. No thanks.
In fairness to Franklin (and I'm not very keen on him at all either), he WAS very successful at Penn State. He was one game from making the national championship last year, and a Rose Bowl win before that. 11 years of pretty high end sustained success. Yeah he failed to win the "big one" most times, but Frank Beamer was the exact same. I think most would be totally fine with a return to that level of consistency and winning even if we never win a national title.
Overall I think this was a huge knee jerk reaction from Penn State brass and I truthfully think they are going to regret it. PSU's program was in shambles and shame when Franklin inherited it and made them into a true national power. They hadn't really been relevant in the Paterno era other than a couple seasons here or there since the 90s any consistency. That fan base has very out of line expectations, almost Tennessee-esque.
Also, if you can't succeed at Penn State, where people may actually be willing to sell kidneys to fund the football program, I doubt you would succeed at Tech.
Join The Key Player's Club to read comments posted in exclusive content and its members only forum.
We could do, and have done, a lot worse
I do not want franklin. He has questiobable character and he cant in game coach. In the NIL era just let a gm buy your team and put a real coach out there.
PSU just shelled out more money to make their current coach go away than we'll pay to make one stay for 5 years
Add UAB to the list. Dilfer just got canned
Totally agree there is nothing to be done at this point, but I've never been comfortable with Crist as the QB coach. He's never been a QB coach before he came here, where he did it under an OC who had never done it. But he was a GA in 1994-95 with Pry and coached again together in Louisiana. Even now he's still listed as co-QB coach, with no one listed sharing the title!
It was malpractice to not bring in a real QB coach in the off chance Pry got fired early and you don't turn to JC Price again. Though to be fair, that was far from the only wrong decision this off-season.
There were no internal candidates because so many people are over their heads at their current positions.