Virginia Tech HC James Franklin on new job: ‘We’re going to be aggressive’
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Virginia Tech has a new head coach now, hiring James Franklin on Monday to lead a program that was once elite but has fallen on hard times in the past decade or so.
Franklin just suffered through hard times amid his firing as head coach at Penn State a little over a month ago. So, Franklin is very familiar with grinding through challenges, and he knows there will be plenty of those in Blacksburg. Virginia Tech is a 3-7 football team in mid-November and just 2-4 in the ACC, records that Hokies fans would never have imagined during the glory years under Frank Beamer.
Brent Pry, who was Franklin’s former defensive coordinator at Penn State, was fired by Virginia Tech a few months ago after the Hokies stumbled to an 0-3 start. So, Franklin will get a shot to do what Pry couldn’t in Blacksburg, and Franklin talked about what awaits during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday.
“I need to evaluate the current roster. I need to see how recruiting is going to go, what is available in the transfer portal,” Franklin said. “The reality is, we’re going to be aggressive from Day 1. We’re going to wake up every single morning and give Virginia Tech everything we got.”
Franklin knows there will be a ton to take on, because that’s today’s reality.
“The investment level is what it’s all about. College football has changed,” he said.
Here are Franklin’s full comments on those big challenges ahead:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
