'Everything Is New': Virginia Tech HC James Franklin Speaks on Hokies At Day 2 of 2026 Fall Camp

BLACKSBURG, Va. — One of the first things that Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin tackled on his to-do list when he became the Hokies' head coach was meeting with the team's leadership council.

"There's about six or seven of them, and it kind of rattled off all these concerns," Franklin said after practice on Aug. 6, the first fall camp practice session where the media was permitted to watch and observe. "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."

As a result, Franklin likes where things are headed and feels like there's a solid balance between the two. It helps that a plethora of things in the team are new.

For one: The feel of the program is new. There's construction going all around campus, not to mention a culture change. Out with the old and in with the new. Virginia Tech's hope is that it can vastly exceed last season's 3-9 disappointment — and the rash of 6-6 or 7-5 regular-season records before it — and produce a new age of Hokies football.

Franklin wasn't convinced that the practices were a well-oiled machine on Day 1, but the second day made him "very pleased."

"Practice went the way it should have [on Thursday]," Franklin said. "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.

"... 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."

That extends out to other various facets of the organization. Take preparation, for example — Franklin remarked that one of the little things he noted that he wasn't happy with was players taking care of their bodies, with several cramping up on Days 1 and 2.

The transfer portal is another example. Franklin and Co. have a clear-cut rule: They don't go to the transfer portal often if it's a player that they don't know.

"We don't go to the transfer portal very often if it's somebody that we don't have a pre-existing relationship with," Franklin said. "... You reduce risk by doing it that way because you've heard people describe [the transfer portal] as speed dating. 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."

During the post-practice media session, Franklin said that the question of No. 1 quarterback won't be answered yet and that "a lot of times, the guys already know who the starter is." The answer itself to who starts on Sept. 5's season opener against VMI will come before then, though Franklin and Co. are not in a hurry to name their No. 1 signal-caller.

"It's Practice 2, right?" Franklin said. "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.

"... Once it becomes clearly obvious, then we'll do that."

Virginia Tech's 2026 season starts on Saturday, Sept. 5, at 7:30 p.m. ET against VMI. The game — the first meeting between the two schools since the 1984 season — will be broadcast on the ACC Network.

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