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Exactly. His best offenses had Trace McSorely, a QB whose skillset complemented their super freak, Saquon Barkley, really well, and he was throwing to Chris Godwin and Mike Gesicki in 2016. Still productive without Godwin in 2017.
When they had the dudes, they produced.
He wasn't. It was Joe Moorhead. The stylistic profile of the offense has been consistent under Franklin throughout multiple OC's though. He wants to play a certain way.
I would take every single one of those defenses.
2013: 32
2014: 11
2015: 21
2016: 27
2017: 9
2018: 17
2019: 6
2020: 36
2021: 6
2022: 5
So would all of you. Lets not kid ourselves. Our defense has been absolute ass. I don't care at all that Pry was our coach and got fired. If Bud had taken the job at NC and then flamed out, we would have welcomed him back in a heartbeat. The only person this will really be awkward for is Pry, maybe Franklin, and if they are good with it then fine by me.
Letting this marinate some....the PSU TE room has a 5* and two 4*s (including a VA native) that I wouldn't hate coming down to Blacksburg.
Edit: just catching up on Kolby Crawfords reaction - he mentioned twice that its expected that he brings that TE room with him.
5* Luke Reynolds SO
4* Andrew Olesh FR
4* (composite) Matt Henderson (Powahtan) FR
4* Andrew Rappleyea SO
I think Franklin said it himself that the plays always work better when you have great players so this tracks. Franklin is more a Jimmys and Joes guy than an Xs and Os guy.
This is my christmas party shirt:
I'm not sure I like this. Nobody up here was clamoring to keep him. Underwhelming
Good point about level of competition in the ACC. Seems like Franklin is going with guys he knows can do the job to get VT up to an acceptable base line for him, and doesn't want to reinvent the wheel that got PSU to a place we'd all love to be.
Hopefully all these hires work out and if not he moves on quickly.
I'd have to check but I'm not sure he was OC with mcsorely. Also they had a good running back at the time
Did he call plays at PSU? And if so, do we consider that a positive?
EDIT: remembered that Kotelnicki was calling plays at PSU.
PSU fan consensus on Reddit seems to be that they loved him as tight ends coach and wanted to retain him, but maybe not at the price of promotion to OC because he's untested there. Not seeing any negative reviews of his time at PSU.
Hear fucking hear, my guy.
Last night my daughter was saying she could just buy an Elf on the Shelf and read the book and sprinkle it with cinnamon and it would start working. My wife said if she somehow does ends up with one of those things, she's gonna learn a hard truth real fast.
I will be honest, I am more concerned with who is getting retained (if any) and who is brought in to coach QB.
Bah gawd, is that DCwilson's music?
Not saying I agree with it, I actually very much agree with you. I was just saying that I was not surprised by the move given Franklin's record.
There is a big difference between father and son.
Franklin's offenses at Penn State generally leaned conservative, and their ceiling was QB dependent.
The only two seasons I remember thinking they had a notably fun/exciting offense with some real upside was 2016 and 2017. 2019 was pretty solid.
Outside of those two seasons with McSorely, they were typically not a great offense, which is fine. The defense and control still won a lot of games. We can get away with that to an even higher degree in the ACC.
Worth noting, it's good that his best offenses had a QB like McSorely. It's a lot easier to find a Trace McSorely in today's CFB than it is to find a real deal, elite passer.
Thamel reporting...so just be true :)
Please god dont let us do the classic "overpay for crap bc you have the cash"
I mean cool he's been successful but we had reportedly a top 10 or so salary pool for assistants and these first two hires don't scream top 10 assistants
Considering I don't think I heard a VT TE name called since September, that would be a big improvement.
Are we allowed to pass to them again?
We'll have good TEs.
I've skimmed this thread and haven't seen a single mention of historical polls. Also not sure what historical polls exist that show a team getting smoked and totally dominated in the conf championship, then staying in the playoff.
Bama was dominated far more handily than BYU by the way:
🏈📊DID WE REALLY GET BEAT THAT BADNet Success Rates in Conference Championship Games pic.twitter.com/r2xWgmX79m— parker fleming (@statsowar) December 8, 2025
Quick common sense comparison is between BYU and SMU, and while SMU stayed in the playoff yes they were punished by two spots and only had 3 loss teams below them, and they only lost their championship game by 3 and had a chance to win.
The numbers I was referring to were Chris's SOR metrics that he brought up. Which I pointed out potential flaws in but also recognized if the data is legitimate those should be factored in the discussion
I don;t think this is a money saving move as much as it is Franklin's MO. He has always brought his guys with him.
Great we are going to hire a guy that will get paid less than UVA coordinators and will be expected to produce more. The more th I ngs change the more they stay the same.