Virginia Tech Hires James Franklin

The news is finally official, Virginia Tech hired James Franklin as their next head coach. Congratulations to Franklin and the Hokies! I am going to root for them to succeed. I mean, first of all, I was rooting for VA Tech the last few years because of Brent Pry, so it is easy to continue rooting for them. Secondly, it would be great to see Franklin beat up on Pitt, just to spite all of my Pitt friends. 

So what does this mean for Penn State? It looks like Franklin has already flipped one commitment to Virginia Tech. I expect others to follow, and I would not be shocked during the off-season if a bunch of players enter the portal and make their way to Blacksburg. I hope Penn State fans are prepared to see this happen, and do not lash out like assholes at the players who decide to go there. No need to send them messages saying dumb stuff like “you couldn’t hack it as a Nittany Lion” or “good luck winning a big game!” That stuff is stupid. The players have been pretty open about how upset they were to lose their coach, and it would not be shocking to see many of them go elsewhere. Just like it will not be shocking to see a bunch of players come here because of whoever we hire.

I am more curious to see who he hires as his assistant coaches. I could see Chuck Losey, the strength and conditioning coach, heading to VT. They were together at Vanderbilt, and Losey has said at some point that he would follow Franklin anywhere (I think he said that). I also wonder if Danny O’Brien finally gets his chance to be an offensive coordinator. I could also see Trace heading there as well to take the QB Coaching position. On the defensive side, I could see Franklin convincing Anthony Poindexter to come there (although, would Poindexter want to coach at VT, since he played for Virginia and was a coach for the Cavaliers?) as possibly his Defensive Coordinator. 

Franklin could hire some big names as well, it looks like VT upped the budget. I wonder if he might contact Joe Moorhead since Akron has been awful (and I think he complained about lack of resources back in the spring…maybe he decides to go back to being a coordinator). He might try to Sean Spencer, who has worked for him before, away from Texas A&M. Another name is Josh Gattis, he is currently an offensive analyst at Syracuse. 

This is an exciting time for my Virginia Tech friends (I think I have like two friends who went there).