Everything From Virginia Tech HC James Franklin At Wednesday's Press Conference

Virginia Tech football head coach James Franklin spoke to the media during the team's press conference on Wednesday, Feb. 4. Here's the entirety of what Franklin had to say:

Opening statement:

"Tim Sands, met with yesterday, had a great meeting with him. Obviously, that alignment and support is critical. Whit Babcock, Rector John Rocovich, J. Pearson, who was part of the search and a board member. Ryan McCarthy, board member and part of the search. Brad Hobbs. Bud Foster, who I actually saw last night, who's had knee replacement surgery. So, I hope he's doing good. Bud was a big part of the process. Really valuable for me to be able to speak coach-to-coach. So, want to give Bud his flowers. Lynne Doughtie, Bridget Ryan Berman and Eddie Royal. All those guys were a big part of this process. So, wanted to reach out to them and and say thank you... Excited to be here with you guys and and obviously excited about the future of Virginia Tech football. We've got a lot of work done in a in a very, very short period of time, whether that's the combination of working with the guys and being down in the weight with weight room with them like they are right now. That's been a real positive. Our strength staff is doing a phenomenal job. One of the things I think we've done a really good job of is combining all the best things, like Coach [Jarrett] Ferguson and retaining him in the weight room. Obviously, got tremendous history here, understands this place as good as anybody. Then, also bringing four of our strength coaches, led by Chuck Losey from Penn State. I think merging the best of Virginia Tech with some of the things we've done in the past has been really important and has gone very, very well. Obviously, we spent a ton of time when we first arrived here trying to put a recruiting class together in a short period of time. Felt like that has gone really well. We have a number of those young men that came early that are already on campus, competing and working hard. I still believe in today's college football, there has to be an aspect of of high school recruiting. You can't go just transfer portal. We'll be a developmental program and we'll continue to do that, but we also will embrace the transfer portal. The important things is making sure that we're bringing the right fits to our locker room. This isn't just a quest for talent and talent alone. We want to make sure that we're getting great fits here for the community, for the campus, for the university as a whole, for the athletic department and specifically, our locker room. Work extremely hard to create the culture in the locker room. You bring one or two of the wrong guys into the locker room and it can destroy everything. So, I want to be very strategic about how we do that. The transfer portal makes that challenging, right? If these are not young men that you had a pre-existing relationship with, some people have kind of described it as speed dating and we want to try to avoid that. Right? If these are guys hopefully that we recruited in high school, so we have an existing relationship with them and their families. I think that's really, really important because again, the locker room culture is critical. We want to make sure we're bringing the right people in there. Same thing with the high school recruiting. A lot of the guys we brought in, it wasn't about any specific school out there. It was just guys that we have a long-standing relationship with them and their families. So, I feel really good about the young men we've brought into the program. One of the things I talked to the team about very early on, maybe our first team meeting, was about embracing competition. It did not feel like there was enough competition throughout the program on the current roster. And it was going to be different for everybody and they were going to have to embrace that. We need a legitimate three-deep at every position. I don't think we had a legitimate three deep at any position. A guy you can win with, a backup you can win with, then a young guy that you're excited about in the future. And I think we have that at pretty much every position now, a three-deep that's going to have a chance to compete for as many games that we want to be able to play next year. I was a part of a 16-game season, you better have a ton of depth to be able to do that. So, I think we have created that right now. Obviously hiring a staff, we waited, although nowadays, it's hard to keep anything quiet. But we waited until we had the entire staff put together to release it. So, you guys have that information now. I want to be very, very clear because I have not done this my entire career. I'm not in the business of hiring friends. I got enough friends. Maybe three or four of them. That's enough. I hire coaches that I believe are going to put Virginia Tech in the best position to be successful. Some of those guys have become friends after working together. But I'm not in the business of coming to work with my buddies every single day. So, every single one of these guys were hired based on who's the best fit for Virginia Tech. That's going to put our players in the best position to be successful. Obviously, lead that with Brent Pry, our defensive coordinator. Will also coach the linebackers. I've kind of learned through this process over my 15 years as a head coach, one of the things I learned last year is, I think your coordinators must be coaching a position. We went to the float-around coordinators and I think in theory, that's good, but the problem with that is sometimes the coordinators have a ton of stuff that they want to install. And if you're not the actual coach having to work with the players and install that amount of defense or offense, sometimes, you can lose touch with how much it really is. So, Brent will be coaching our linebackers and I think that'll be a real positive. Obviously, he's got great institutional knowledge and community knowledge. We got tremendous history together, as well, and history of playing really good defense which is what it's all about. If I would have took any other job, there's a high likelihood that he would have been the guy that I would have brought with me. So, why exclude Virginia Tech from that conversation? Then [new defensive line coach] Sean Spencer, the combination of Brent Pry and Sean Spencer has been very very successful. Sean was with us for a long period of time. When it comes to tackles for loss sacks, getting people off schedule, creating obvious passing third-down situations, led to a lot of success for us. So, kind of being able to get the band back together from that perspective, I thought, was something that was really good. Sean again understands what Brent wants to do and how he wants to do it. They've both learned and grown over the last number of years as well and some of those experiences will be added. Anthony [Midget], very important to have some Virginia Tech alumni on our staff and then a guy, obviously, who's now also has 10 years of NFL experience. Was a captain of the Virginia Tech football team that played for the national championship. His pride of Virginia Tech, it pours out of him and I think that is important and we're going to lean into that. Nick Perry would be coaching our corners, most recently from Arkansas. Played for Coach [Nick] Saban at Alabama. Obviously, Coach Saban's got a reputation of being one of the better DB coaches and defensive coaches in the history of college football. He came up under that tree. Also has some time in the NFL. Was a really good hire for us. And then Vic Hall, the legendary player from Gretna, Virginia. I know you guys are familiar with the capital of Virginia. Greta, one-stop light. Vic, I got to know. Was an analyst for us at Penn State, then left to go to Rutgers full-time. We were able to bring him back. Obviously, not that we were out trying to get UVA grads on our staff. But I thought it was important to get people from the state of Virginia that know how important high school football and football in general are in the state. So, Vic will do a phenomenal job with that. Will also be our defensive recruiting coordinator from an organizational standpoint. On offense, Ty Howle. Ty will also be coaching the tight ends. Ty has been an offensive coordinator before and called plays before. Also held that role for a number of games for us at Penn State. Been waiting for the right opportunity for Ty to take this next step. Ty and I see the game in a very, very similar way. I think he's going to do a phenomenal job. When I hired Ty, his job was to create the best tight end room in the country. He did that. Was also one of our better recruiters. Was a coach's kid. Dad was a long-time high school coach. Again, capital of North Carolina, Bunn, North Carolina. I know you guys have all heard of that. But Ty would do a great job for us. Norval McKenzie will be our assistant head coach and run game coordinator, working with the running backs. Norval was with us at Vanderbilt when we first got the job. Left, and has done a phenomenal job everywhere he's been. Being able to bring him back from Georgia Tech was a great hire. Matt Moore, talking to the players and specifically offensive linemen. We had four of our five offensive linemen back. Trying to retain that group. Matt was a big part of that. Universally respected throughout our program. So, getting Matt to stay with us and coach our offensive line was a big piece of the puzzle. Danny O'Brien is going to coach our quarterbacks. Danny played for me when I was the offensive coordinator at the University of Maryland. Danny was ACC Rookie of the Year, won nine games that year. Went on and played in the CFL for a number of years, and now, is back with us and will do a great job. Also, a lot of the guys that we were able to bring out of the transfer portal, Danny had significant relationships with those guys and that was a big part of that as well. Fontel Mines. Actually tried to hire Fontel a few years ago to Penn State. Was able to get him a significant raise at Virginia Tech and he stayed. So, when we were able to get here and be able to retain Fontel from a coaching and recruiting perspective, we thought that made a ton of sense for us. And then Doug Shearer. We are committed to special teams. I think a lot of coaches in a lot of programs give it lip service. Went out and tried to hire the best special teams coordinator we could. Doug will do a phenomenal job with that. We also have three coaches total, two analysts working with our special teams, as well. But they've been playing great football here and great special teams football here at Virginia Tech for a long time, obviously with Coach [Frank] Beamer. So, we want to make sure that we build on that as well. So, that's kind of a general opening statement for you guys in terms of the staff that we've hired and the importance of the transfer portal process as well as the high school recruiting process. But I'm happy to open it to questions."

On what changes Franklin has made to have Virginia Tech have a big-time program:

"Yeah, so, let me say this. No. 1, there's been a ton of work done by a lot of different people in the athletic department on campus. And I do think we've made significant progress. Our training room looks totally different right now. It's as little as lighting and paint, also just in terms of how we interact with the student-athletes. A ton of equipment in the weight room that we needed to get, as well. We've done those types of things, as you guys know because you FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] everything. That was a joke. But like you guys have already heard, obviously, we're going to do the indoor [Editor's note: Franklin is referring to the Beamer-Lawson Indoor practice facility, which will now have heating.]. I don't think a lot of people have taken that necessarily serious. Why do you not need heating in an indoor facility? I have never been in an indoor facility that does not have heating. It actually feels to me colder in the indoor than it does outside. I don't know how that's possible. But that's important. And where I think that's important is, we got to keep the guys healthy and safe. If you want to get developed, you got to be out there. And freezing cold conditions, obviously, they increase the likelihood of some soft-tissue injuries and things like that that we'd like to avoid. We also want to be one of the fastest teams in college football. You want to spend time working on speed development in the offseason. So, that is a critical piece. It's also a big part of, we want to be able to send a bunch of guys to the NFL and achieve their dreams. I don't think it's an ideal situation to be running for the pro scouts in an ice box. That's one of the most important days of their football careers. We want to create a great situation there. So, that is happening. I think you guys know some things in the stadium are happening, as well. But the reality is, we still got a ton of work to do. We got a ton of work to do. The bones of this facility are phenomenal. I love how I can stand in my office, look out and we got our practice field right there. We got our weight room here. We got the stadium right here. There's some practices from an NCAA perspective that you can't be all scrimmage. 50% of your practice could be scrimmage. So, now we can maximize our field space for half the practice, on the practice field as well as the indoor. But then, we can also transition into the stadium very easily. It's right there. Training table, training room, locker room, it's all right here. It just needs to be updated. Some of you guys have seen some of these things. I think the locker room is phenomenal. The wet area is phenomenal, but the whole building needs to feel that way. So, we got a ton of work to do. But I think you'll continue to see great strides and I think by the time we get here for training camp, there'll be a significant shift. We'll continue to do those things. I'm happy with the progress we've made up to this point, but we still have a lot of work to do."

On the discussions with Pry, who served as Tech's previous head coach from 2022 to the third game of 2025:

"Me and Brent had been talking in general, about a number of jobs. And as this thing evolved and it started to look more like Virginia Tech was going to be a strong possibility, we had not really talked about Virginia Tech in terms of me coming to Virginia Tech. So, we started to have those kind of conversations. And I was talking to him as if Virginia Tech would not be an option to him. He actually stopped me and he said it actually would be. And part of it is, his family was going to stay here for at least a year in terms of where his kids were in school. So, that was a major factor in that. Then once you kind of get through all that, that this is a possibility, I think the reality for him of what that was going to look like and how it was going to be, and [if] he [was] actually going to be comfortable doing it [set in]. Like I've said this before, I think you guys heard me say it. The humility that you have to have to walk back into this building as not the head coach, I think, is significant. To walk by that office or I call him into the office to have a meeting with him. I think the humility and the love that he has for Virginia Tech and how much he believes in this place, I think that plays a major role. I don't know a lot of people that could have done that, to be honest with you. I don't know of too many examples in the history of college football where that's happened. But this is a unique situation based on his love for this place, his family situation, and then also our history. So, that was something we both had to kind of work through. I talked to the leadership council about it, as well, because I wanted to see what the team how they would respond to it. I also had conversations with the administration about how they felt about it and [whether they] would be okay with it. But one of the best things is, we had a team meeting; I brought him in and the entire room gave him a standing ovation, which was pretty cool. Which is a pretty cool moment for him and for me. But, yeah, it wasn't like it was a total slam dunk because how was it going to work? There was some contractual things, as well. There was a number of things that we had to work through for it to make sense for everybody. But I think at the end of the day, it's been a win. I will tell you this, I was not here during his time as a head coach. But he feels like the most energetic, positive guy that we have on the staff right now. And to be honest with you, that's a little bit of a challenge, right? I love being a head coach But there's aspects of being a head coach that I miss being a coordinator. I miss being a quarterback's coach, where you're coaching ball and not, as much as I love you guys, not doing a ton of this, right? And transfer portal and NIL and compliance and all the other things that you have to do, raising money. He's coaching ball, so I think in a lot of ways, he's back doing what he loves and why he got into this profession in the first place. And sometimes, I envy that, to be honest with you. But it's been great. I think he's really happy doing what he loves and what I believe is what he does best."

On how Franklin feels about the quarterback room:

"Yeah, I feel really good about the room in terms of the competition and how it looked before. So, I feel really good about that. But I will say, it's not ideal in terms of how we spaced it out. In a perfect world, we would have got a senior or junior, backed up by a sophomore, backed up by a freshman type of deal. But at the end of the day, this isn't the draft, right? It's not like it's your turn to choose and you choose this guy. There's still a recruiting process, and we needed to go out and get the best available guys that we could. I wish they were a little bit more spread out, but again, I am happy with the talent. I am happy with the wiring, how these guys are wired. I think you have to be wired differently at the quarterback position and how you go about your business. So, I'm very pleased with that right now. To your point, I wish it was spaced out a little bit, but at the end of the day, we got a lot of young talent in that room that has a chance to be a part of Virginia Tech. Not only present, but future."

On if there's any leaders who have stuck out already:

"I appreciate the question, but literally, I've been around the players now for four days to that point. Because it's kind of crazy the way the schedule is. You bring all these guys at mid-semester. Then, we were on the road for two weeks, recruiting and running away from the weather, that we weren't here with them. So, it's too early for me to speak on that. I was just down in the weight room. We had a 7:00 lift group, a 9:00 lift group that I went down and kind of interacting with them, those types of things. But I haven't been around them enough. I'll have a better idea the next time we get together. But the feedback I'm getting from the strength staff, the feedback I'm getting from the leadership council. I met with last year's leadership council when I first got the job, the holdovers. I wanted to hear their feedback on strengths and weaknesses from their perspective of Virginia Tech. I met with them yesterday and [wide receiver Ayden Greene] made the comment, which I thought was a really good comment. He talked about how many things are going well and how good he feels about things. But he said the air even feels different in the building, right? So, I think according to the players, things are going really well and they're excited. According to the strength staff, guys know how to work here. I think Coach Ferguson really created a really good culture here of how to work. So, the feedback has been excellent from that perspective, but more than that, I don't have a ton of details or information that I can speak confidently on at this point. I'll have more information on [that] once I get around the guys more and I'm able to evaluate more."

On media access:

"So, I think the plan is we're going to bring the coordinators in next, give you guys an opportunity to get around them. We're also looking at the overall calendar, the access that you guys have gotten in the past. Is there anything that we can do to give you guys more access? We respect the jobs that you guys have to do. The one thing I would just say is, as we have the ability to kind of add some things and some opportunities for you guys to get around the team and evaluate the team and things like that, I don't want it to become an expectation. And so if we do something this year, it doesn't mean we're necessarily going to do it next year. But when we have the opportunity to give you guys some unique access so you guys can do your jobs and cover Virginia Tech football in a way that we appreciate, we're going to look at all those things and have some discussions whether it's with Travis or Hazel or whoever. There may be some things that are helpful for you guys."