New Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin said he still plans to build the football program on long-term player development and old-school values, despite the significant recent shifts in college sports in the NIL era.
“I’m a big believer that this is still a developmental game for young men — developing them on the football field, developing them in the classroom, and developing them to be prepared for the next phase of their lives,” Franklin said in his introductory press conference Wednesday.
“I still believe you can run your program with an old-school perspective. I want this to be transformational, not transactional.”
Franklin, 53, was hired Monday to replace Brent Pry, his former defensive coordinator at Penn State, who was fired in September after going 0-3 this season and 16-24 over four seasons with the Hokies.
Franklin boasts a 128-60 record over 15 seasons at the helm of Penn State and Vanderbilt. He took the Nittany Lions to the 2024 College Football Playoff and won the 2016 Big Ten championship. His 104 wins in 12 seasons at Penn State were second-most in school history, and he is one of just three active FBS coaches with a winning percentage at 68% or higher over the past 14 seasons.
The Langhorne, Pa., native, who served as an assistant at Maryland and James Madison, heavily recruited the I-95 corridor while at Penn State, including the DMV area — a major recruitment area for Virginia Tech.
While saying that Virginia Tech must stay competitive in the NIL environment, he also said money is not going to be one of the top three selling points when it comes to recruiting players.
“We’re not going to lead with money,” he said Wednesday. “I want young men to choose our program because it’s where they want to be. But we do need to be competitive with other schools, because it doesn’t make sense to ask these young people to walk away from significant money.”
Franklin acknowledged the challenges created by the recent dramatic acceleration of movement within the transfer portal and the related focus on NIL by many athletes. However, he said he doesn’t believe the Hokies have to abandon previous ways of building a solid program and that he doesn’t want to become too dependent on the portal.
“In Year 1, we’ll probably use the portal differently than we will in future years,” Franklin said. “… If you’re a portal team and you live by the portal, then every year you’re going to have to live by the portal. It’s hard to ever get out of that cycle.”
Virginia Tech last won 10 games in 2016. Frank Beamer led the Hokies to 10 or more wins in each season from 2004-11.
Philip Montgomery is the interim coach after the firing of Pry. The Hokies are 3-4 under Montgomery with games against Miami and Virginia Tech remaining.
