BLACKSBURG, Va. – A new era of Hokies football is underway with a new head coach in James Franklin.
He’s eager to reshape Tech football into the program it once was and send a statement.
When it came to this hire with Babcock had to get it right. He and the Board of Visitors had a long list of expectations for this brand new coach including someone who had a history of performing well in the modern era of football, NIL revenue sharing, a great recruiter and a proven winner and he found that person in James Franklin.
“When coach Franklin became available we had a very brief conversation,” Babcock said. “The committee met on their own and voted eight to zero to make him the top candidate so that kind of set our mission right right there.”
Franklin was fired from Penn State just a little over a month ago after winning 100 games and a college football playoff appearance just last season. He certainly didn’t need to be in a rush to take another job after his $49 million buyout but with time he knew Virginia Tech was the right fit.
“Sometimes people make decisions out of pressure and you know me and my family were in a position where we didn’t need to do that,” Franklin said. “To be able to sit back, be patient, take a deep breath and make make a great decision but not just a great decision for me and my family making sure that I’m making the great decision for whatever school or university I chose to align with. And as this as this continued to go, Virginia Tech made the most sense.”
During his introductory speech, Franklin made it clear his goal was to retain the players at Virginia Tech while making contact with all the top high school athletes in the commonwealth. Even through the changing college landscape Franklin believes you can run a program in a way that can be transformational.
“I’m a big believer that this is still a game, a developmental game of young men and that’s developing them on the football field, that’s developing them in the classroom. that’s developing them to be prepared for the next phase of their life. I still believe that you can run your program from an old school perspective.”
Franklin hit the recruiting trail as soon as he was hired stating that on Monday, he reached out to 40 recruits and plans to speak to all of the top talent here in the state of Virginia. He says that Saturday’s game against Miami will be a huge opportunity for the recruiting and the future of this program.