Everything From Virginia Tech Head Coach James Franklin After August 6's Fall Camp Practice

Virginia Tech football head coach James Franklin spoke to the media after practice on Thursday, Aug. 6, just under a month away from the Hokies' 2026 season opener against VMI (Saturday, Sept. 5; 7:30 p.m. ET; ACC Network). Here's the entirety of what Franklin had to say in his post-practice media availability session:

On what Franklin has seen from these early practices:

"It's hard to say. I mean, as you guys know, everything is new. I don't know if you guys saw like the the dumpsters out front. There's construction everywhere. It looks like a construction site. The weight room is different. How we're practicing is different. There's obviously some carryover based on the transition from [defensive coordinator Brent Pry] to me, obviously, but everything else is just different, right? So we're trying to establish a culture. We're trying to establish standards of how we practice and how we work, and they're still figuring that out. I was not overly happy yesterday with what you're able to do in the summer, with what you're able to do with OTAs, with what you're able to do with meetings.

Now, in the old days, you couldn't do any of that stuff, right? With what you can do now, you should be able to hit the field, and no one cares that it's our first year. It should be a well-oiled machine, and that was my expectation. I wouldn't say it was that. Now, today, I was very pleased. To me, practice went the way it should have. Offense made some plays, defense made some plays. Special teams did their job. For us to to have the season we want to have, we have to play complementary football, and that's all three phases doing their job and making plays when the opportunities present themselves.

So, I was very pleased with the practice today. Now, as you guys always know, I'm gonna watch the film, and I'm probably not gonna like it as much as I do right now, right? That's always the case. But in terms of leaving the field, I felt like we did a really good job of kind of laying the foundation of expectations and standards of how we're gonna work around here. Last thing, I know it's is a long answer, but it's even like little things like taking care of their bodies. We've got guys cramping up on day one and day two, and they're missing time. And the No. 1 ability is availability or durability. And they're not going to earn jobs, they're not going to earn the trust of their teammates and the staff if they're not out there. So today, yes. Yesterday, not so much."

On how the team is handling change:

"I think it's good. One of the big things, when I first got here. I met with the leadership council. There's about six or seven of them, and it kind of rattled off all these concerns. What are the things you love? What are the things you guys have concerns about? And all those concerns, for the most part, are gone now. Like we've been able through the support of the administration, through what we're trying to do with the coaching staff, we've been able to kind of answer a lot of those concerns and questions they've had. So, I think that's important as a new staff coming in to show that you can get things done and get things done quickly. Obviously, the support of the administration and universities allowed us to do that. So that that helps, but it's just it's it's new. Everything is new. [Wide receiver Ayden Greene], he made the comment that like even the air feels different, right? You walk in the building, and we showed them a video today. We want it to be a really tough, challenging environment. But we also want it to be fun, and we want them to want to come into the building, right? That's a fine balance between those two things and right now, I kind of like where we're headed."

On the quarterback room and how it's evaluated:

"Right now they're all getting reps, and it rotates by day in terms of what reps they're getting, who they're getting the reps with, and then we just track everything. Really, at every position, but at the quarterback position specifically, whether it's touchdown interception ratio, whether it's explosive plays, percentage of explosive plays per completion, whether it's completion ratio percentage, excuse me, all those things. We track it all because you need that. QBR. You know, we're doing QBR as well, so all those things are part of the evaluation process, and then just watching how the guys respond. It's funny because sometimes, like you guys need us to name the starter. A lot of times, the guys already know who the starter is, right? A lot of times, you want to know who the captains are. It don't really matter who we list as the captains. The locker room knows who the captains are, right? So, hopefully, more times than not, those things all align."

On if that's on the players themselves:

"It's Practice 2, right? We're not gonna really name anybody at any position for a while, because I want them competing up till almost game week, I think a lot of times, the fans and the media want you to name the starting quarterback. Once again, the locker room, they know, right? So it's not as big of a deal as it is for us as it is for everybody else."

On if Franklin will announce the starting quarterback before the season opener against VMI (Sept. 5):

"We're not gonna be like some of these people now, like they do the Daffy Duck lineup, like we're not gonna play those games with you. I think that's disrespectful to you guys and the fans. Yeah, so we will, you know, before game week, right? It may be the day before game week. I'm not sure. It could be before that. Again, it's not as big of a deal for us as you guys, but out of respect for your guys' jobs and what you got to do, once it becomes clearly obvious, then we'll do that."

On the trust level and whether it's deepened since early summer:

"Yeah, I think think a couple of things. First of all, I think that's one of the differences now in college football, and you could make an argument. We all have our opinions, right, on some of the things in college football now. But every single one of those kids chose Virginia Tech and chose us, because every single one of them could have left, right? So, I think there's a little bit different of a mentality and buy-in with that because they all chose to stay, you know, or come here. So I think that helps. I also think, you know, when you when you retain Brent Pry and Jarrett Ferguson and Michael Hazel, all these guys, and they can say these are the guys we need to retain, not only from a playing perspective but also from a culture perspective. That helps too, right? If you come in and you don't have any of that holdover and people that you trust that can tell you that, that helps too. And then we brought so many players that we knew. That helped. We don't go to the transfer portal very often if it's somebody that we don't have a pre-existing relationship with. So, we recruited the heck out of a kid, and we finished No. 2. I think Bryce Baker is an example of that. We recruited him for two years. We finished No. 2 because he wanted to stay home. So, as soon as the transfer portal opened, he was very comfortable with us. We were very comfortable with him. You reduce risk by doing it that way because you've heard people describe [thhe transfer portal] as speed dating. Well, you know, I don't necessarily love that unless you feel like you got somebody or some pre-existing relationship that can vouch for a guy that you're going to bring into the locker room."

On whether Franklin wanting a "three-deep at every position" is a process that's been successful so far:

"It's Day 2, so it's hard to have real strong opinions at this point, but just based on all the work that these guys have done this summer, we are bigger, stronger at pretty much every position. You guys come out here, right? You'll have your own opinions that you'll write about tonight, like the eyeball test, right? I think we have more guys that look like ACC football players that can go out on the field now. Some of them aren't ready mentally yet. Some aren't ready emotionally yet. Some of them are super raw. Like [tight end Pierce Petersohn], for example. I'm watching him today, and I'm like, 'Gosh, he looks still raw.' Well, I got to remind myself he played quarterback in high school. He's never even played tight end, right? There's a lot of guys like that that we see some really exciting things like Pierce, but they're still developing young players and sometimes playing a position for the first time."

On Luke Reynolds and his confidence and whether he had that during his days at Penn State with Franklin:

"I think so. I think so. You know, and it's just like that too, right? There's a fine line to it. I want it to be extremely competitive. I don't mind them talking little trash back and forth, but then when it's done, we're Virginia Tech, right? And some guys can't do that. They go too far. So, there's a fine line to that. But I think we need more of that. I think we need more energy. I think we need more enthusiasm. I think we need more confidence. I think that's what we were lacking yesterday. Yesterday, I felt like we were just trying to get through practice. Like I put something up. ... We're acting like it's hot. Like I put up the temperature at Mississippi State and at Alabama and at FSU and like I put all these temperatures up. I'm like, 'Hey guys, everybody's doing this, right?' Like, so I think we need that energy, and I thought we lacked that in Day 1. I thought it was more like they were just trying to get through this and adjusting to the new tempo in practice."

On if it looks like the light is coming on with Reynolds more:

"We've always thought Luke was a big-time player. We thought he was going to have a huge career, and when we felt like we had a chance to get him here, we were like, yeah, this is a no-brainer. And not only that, he's just an awesome kid. He's really liked by his teammates. You guys saw flashes of what he can do in the spring game. But again, he's a true tight end. He's going to stick his nose in there and knock you, and he's 252 pounds as well. So, that makes him even more difficult to defend because they got to choose, right? Are we going to play nickel and try to match up with them, and then he's going to put his nose in the C-gap and mash your ass, right? And then if you if you end up putting a you know a linebacker in there, then he's going to be a matchup problem. So that those to me, that's when you get the most value out of tight ends is when they're true tight ends."

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