Virginia Tech's James Franklin Reflects On Familiarity And Adjustment

Though Blacksburg is still a relatively unfamiliar town for new Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin, there's still a degree of familiarity in his first spring ball — one he didn't necessarily have at Vanderbilt or Penn State.

Why? The reasoning is simple: Franklin's defensive coordinator, Brent Pry, served as Franklin's defensive coordinator with both the Commodores and Nittany Lions, carrying over the lessons he absorbed when he became Virginia Tech's head coach in the 2022 season. The manner in which practices are run is similar to Franklin's tenure in Happy Valley. Ditto goes for how meetings are conducted.

"Here’s familiarity because Brent brought a lot of the model with him," Franklin said. "So, I think that’s been helpful."

There's still a degree of adjustment, however. For one, Franklin's had to get adjusted to the morning practices — and to the warm weather that won't hold come fall. The balancing act comes between getting everything in and providing a refresher during fall camp, or focusing in on the minutiae. Franklin remarked that he's been pleased with the effort, but that it's still a work in progress at present moment.

"I think the challenge for most first-year situations like this is, do you put a lot in?" Franklin said. "Do you try to get everything in, so then you have recall for fall camp? Or do you focus down and try to get really good at the details? I think that's the balance for coaches all the time. How do you want to handle that? I’d like to see our details a little bit better, but we’ve got a lot of offense in.

"I’d like to see a little bit better on the details, but we’ve got a lot of defense in. And those two things magnify it. We still got a lot of things we’ve got to get cleaned up, but overall, I’ve been pleased. Same thing on special teams."

There's also an added level of adjustment: the institution itself. For Franklin, figuring out the areas of retention — key positions that returned their position coaches included the wide receivers and offensive line — was critical. The same went for the roster, where Jeffrey Overton Jr., Ayden Greene, Marcellous Hawkins and Kemari Copeland are some of the marquee returnees from last year's roster. When asked about the wide receivers, Franklin also spotlighted returner Takye Heath as one of the solid options, plus quarterback-turned-wideout A.J. Brand, who was on last year's squad as a signal-caller.

For Franklin, that familiarity gives the team a leg up.

But as aforementioned, that doesn't mean that there isn't work to do. The team covered two-minute drills Tuesday, and still has "situational" football to cover. Franklin remarked that there's a feeling where there's "not enough" days for Virginia Tech to cram its covering into. Instead, the approach has pivoted to covering the majority of the areas of interest and operating with a recall system in the summer and training camp.

Execution has occasionally lagged, but as a whole, Franklin feels pleased about the effort he's seen three weeks into fall camp.

"I thought the two-minute [drill] at the end of practice today for the offense was poorly executed," Franklin remarked. "But overall, pleased."

One of the players that has broken out in spring ball is defensive end Aycen Stevens. Stevens, a 6-foot-5, 260-pound redshirt junior, served as a reserve on the defensive line for the past two seasons, and he adds another degree of familiarity to the defense. He slots up as one of the potential starting options on the line, which is headlined by Copeland at tackle.

"He’s so consistent in his approach, in his mentality and his physicality," Franklin said.

Beyond the familiarity, there's a sense of newness (and oldness) with how Franklin is approaching his offensive game plan. He didn't call plays at Vanderbilt or Penn State, yet at both schools, it was unquestionably his offense. Still, there's a feeling of synergy that has carried over from Happy Valley into Blacksburg. Ty Howle coming along with Franklin is a big part of that. But for Franklin it's the most hands-on he's been with the offense with quite some time.

"Probably in a while," Franklin said when asked about the topic. "At Vanderbilt, although I had an OC and didn’t call a play, I never called a play at Vanderbilt and never called a play during our time at Penn State, but it was my offense. ... It’s always that fine line of stuff you discuss during the hiring process, what you want it to look like. But you’ve also hired guys with really good reputations, really good resumes. You can push but only so much. I know ultimately you’re the head coach, but coming here and hiring Ty, me and Ty had a ton of conversations about what we wanted it to look like, the things that we thought were going to be critical pieces philosophically, and then look, I’m going to be heavily involved, and are you comfortable with that? He’s like, yeah, I want that. Ty’s been phenomenal."

Franklin and the Hokies begin their season on Saturday, Sept. 5, against VMI. Eleven days remain until Vigrinia Tech's annual spring game, which will take place on Saturday, April 18, at 3 p.m. ET.