James Franklin Introduced As Next Head Coach Of Virginia Tech
If you were wondering how long James Franklin would stay on the sidelines after his unceremonious exit from Penn State, the answer turned out to be: barely long enough to get a cup of coffee.
On Wednesday, Franklin was introduced as the new head coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies. And if anyone expected a subdued, chastened coach simply happy to have a job, they got the exact opposite. Franklin arrived in Blacksburg with the energy of a man ready to renovate a house down to the studs.
“Does it look, feel, smell, and operate like a big-time program?” Franklin said during his appearance on ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show. It wasn’t a rhetorical question. It was a challenge.
A Cultural Overhaul, Not Just a Coaching Change
Virginia Tech has been drifting. The program that Frank Beamer built into a national brand has spent the last 15 years feeling less like a powerhouse and more like a nostalgia act. They have appeared in just one ACC Championship Game in that span. The Brent Pry era ended with a thud—an 0-3 start this fall and a seven-game skid that felt like rock bottom.
Franklin knows this. He also knows that fixing it is not just about calling better plays on 3rd and 7.
“It’s not just James Franklin,” he said. “It’s the marketing office, the ticketing office. Everybody’s got to take some time and look in the mirror and say, ‘Are we operating like a big-time program?’”
It is a bold move to walk into your new office and tell the marketing department they need to step it up, but that’s the Franklin brand. He isn’t just coaching a team; he’s trying to shock a system back to life.
The $229 Million Commitment
Talk is cheap, but athletic facility upgrades aren’t. Franklin made it clear that he didn’t jump at this job just for the fresh mountain air. He needed assurances that the university was ready to play ball in the modern era of college athletics.
The school’s board of visitors recently approved a massive $229 million initiative for athletics funding. For Franklin, that was the green light. It signaled that Virginia Tech was done being passive.
“The reality is in today’s day and age, there’s an NIL component,” Franklin said. “For us, we’re not going to lead with money… But then, we need to be competitive with all the other schools as well because it doesn’t make sense for us to ask these young people to walk away from significant money.”
Emotion, Recruiting, and Saquon Barkley
Despite the business talk, there was undeniable emotion in Franklin’s introduction. This isn’t just a job; it’s a redemption tour. After going 104-45 at Penn State but failing to snag that elusive national title, Franklin has a chip on his shoulder the size of Lane Stadium.
“You could not have found a coach that’s going to pour his heart and soul into this place more than me and my family,” he said. “I give you my word on that.”
And he’s wasting no time. Franklin is already working the phones, calling the top recruits in Virginia and trying to salvage the current class. He even dropped a classic line about his philosophy: “I’m not sure why, but the plays just seem to work better when you got really good players. We had a running back at Penn State… named Saquon Barkley. And for some reason, when we handed the ball off to him, the plays just worked better.”
It’s funny because it’s true. And it’s exactly the kind of straightforward, “let’s get real” attitude Virginia Tech needs right now. The Hokies have their man. Now, we find out if the rest of the university is ready to look in the mirror and match his intensity.
