{"id":89286,"date":"2026-07-17T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=89286"},"modified":"2026-07-17T08:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T12:05:16","slug":"virginia-tech-embracing-change-in-first-media-day-under-james-franklin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/07\/17\/virginia-tech-embracing-change-in-first-media-day-under-james-franklin\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Tech Embracing Change in First Media Day Under James Franklin"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the last eight months in Blacksburg, the only constant has been change.<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech, along with UCLA, was first to the coaching market last September when the school decided to fire Brent Pry just three games into his fourth season on the job. Less than 24 hours after the Hokies were blown off their home field to the tune of a 45-26 defeat at the hands of in-state G6 foe Old Dominion, Virginia Tech was once again looking for a new leader for its football program.<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech Embracing Change<\/h2>\n

Thanks to swift decision-making by the athletic department, an influx of cash marking a renewed commitment to fielding a competitive football program, and a little bit of luck, Virginia Tech was able to convince former Penn State head coach James Franklin<\/a> that Blacksburg was the right place for his next reclamation project.<\/p>\n

But that was only the beginning.<\/p>\n

Since Franklin’s hiring last November, the university president, Tim Sands, as well as athletic director Whit Babcock, have both stepped down. While the search for the university’s new president is ongoing, Virginia Tech hired a new athletic director, Brian White, from Florida Atlantic, who earned the stamp of approval from Franklin. Franklin, who has quickly become one of the most powerful figures in Southwest Virginia, was on the search committee that identified White as the replacement for Babcock.<\/p>\n

Changes at the Top<\/h3>\n

“[I’m] excited about our new hire of our athletic director, Brian White, who you guys are going to get to know,” Franklin said on Thursday at ACC Kickoff in Charlotte<\/a>. “I think you’ll absolutely love him. He’ll do a phenomenal job not only for Virginia Tech but for the ACC as a whole.”<\/p>\n

With a new athletic director in place, a new fundraising head of the Hokie Club, the athletic department’s primary fundraising organization, in Brad Bell from the University of Georgia, and a school president hiring around the corner, the focus is now beginning to shift on the field where Franklin is doing his best to stir the Kool-Aid.<\/p>\n

“We’re in a really good position,” Franklin said Thursday. “It’s been a sprint since we arrived in Blacksburg, but the guys have been phenomenal. …I think I would describe it as I think we have won the off-season. We’ve had a great off-season in terms of implementing our standards, our expectations, and our culture. …We’ve been able to hit the ground running. We are bigger, we are stronger, we are faster than we have been. There’s no doubt about that. I think our depth is in a position to be able to compete.”<\/p>\n

Goals<\/h3>\n

Competing, even if it’s just for a bowl game in year one, would be a welcome sight for most level-headed Virginia Tech fans. The reality is that the Hokies have struggled to consistently compete over the last decade since Frank Beamer retired. There have been some highs, there have been some lows, and there’s been plenty of mediocrity. The fan base is clamoring for a winner, and the school is finally<\/em> doing its part to ensure that the program is being funded at the level necessary to match the lofty expectations of the school’s biggest supporters.<\/p>\n

Frankin’s the right guy to turn the program around. He’s done it at Vanderbilt, and he’s done it at Penn State. The question is not whether or not he can do it again at Virginia Tech. Rather, it’s whether or not he can put the school in a position to not only compete at the highest level but win at an unprecedented level.<\/p>\n

The Start<\/h3>\n

“It is critical that we open up the season and play really, really well against VMI,” Franklin said. “There will be games [against top teams] later in the season that we’ll be judged by…that I’m ultimately going to be judged by. I embrace that. That’s why we’re all here and excited about what the season will bring.”<\/p>\n

In the early portion of the tenure – the portion where games have not been played – change has been met with positivity. It’s up to Franklin and his staff to turn the positivity and program momentum into wins on the field quickly in his first season as head coach this fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last eight months in Blacksburg, the only constant has been change. Virginia Tech, along with UCLA, was first to the coaching market last September when the school decided to fire Brent Pry just three games into his fourth season on the job. Less than 24 hours after the Hokies were blown off their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5905,"featured_media":89301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35648,7],"tags":[837],"class_list":["post-89286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-virginia-tech-hokies","category-acc","tag-james-franklin"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5905"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89286"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89298,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89286\/revisions\/89298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}