How Virginia Tech Can Create Foundational Season for James Franklin
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BLACKSBURG, Va. — Technically, the James Franklin era at Virginia Tech is in its ninth month, but the former Penn State head coach has yet to head a football game for the Hokies, let alone win one or set a long-term foundation to build on. With pledged money, donations, renovations, etc., the Hokies have made the right steps off the field, but what needs to be done on the field?
How the Hokies can lay the foundation
First things first, the quarterback is the most important on-field role in a program's success. Setting a long-term plan could go a long way. The Hokies expect to have Ethan Grunkemeyer for 2-3 years, but who do they want to be the successor? Most likely, the answer is Troy Huhn or Bryce Baker, pending results in the next couple of weeks to see who gets the backup spot for 2026.
Setting a long-term plan for quarterback beyond the current starter could allow the coaching staff to have a significant weight off their shoulders for the time being — though things can obviously shift quickly in the portal area. For years and years at Penn State, the Nittany Lions repetitively had a long-term plan at quarterback, never starting the season with a true or redshirt freshman at the helm.
Before Allar, Sean Clifford did not start a game until his true junior season, when he was a four-year starter, making 46 and tallying over 10,000 career passing yards and 86 touchdowns. Trace McSorely was also a three-year starter for Penn State, but saw time in seven games as a true freshman. Allar also played in 10 games as a true freshman, pointing to Franklin requiring a level of experience before being a starting quarterback.
Every quarterback who was a multi-year starter for James Franklin spent time in the NFL for multiple seasons, except Drew Allar, who is going into his rookie year.
The second and most obvious thing: winning. Winning is attractive across the board. When it comes to donors, it gives them reason to give the program more money. Recruits and transfers are more attracted to winning programs, which leads to more winning, then more donations, allowing them to effectively snowball on top of each other, and that's how elite programs are built, and that goes back to the early stages of the modern college football era.
Franklin knows what it takes to build a big program, and he's set the foundation off the field. All that's left is for the on-field work to get figured out, and with an elite coach like Franklin, it's not a matter of if, but when.
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Joshua Poslusny - who goes by Poz - is a Radford University sophomore in the School of Communication. He graduated from Ocean Springs High School in Mississippi in 2024. He has previously done work for The Tech Lunch Pail, Tech Sideline, and Sons of Saturday, among others. He specializes in baseball coverage, which he has been doing for the last year. He also has experience covering football, basketball, and softball.