Enthusiastic James Franklin Declares Virginia Tech Winners of the Offseason, Says Hokies Are In A Really Good Place – Sports Illustrated

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There was not a more accomplished coach on the market this offseason than former Penn State and Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin and when he chose to come to Virginia Tech, it was a huge win for a program that has been trying to rediscover its winning ways. It was also a huge win for the ACC, getting one of the top coaches in the country to come to its conference and help get one of their marquee programs back to winning.
Franklin has been considered one of, if not the top hire of any program this offseason and Franklin has helped the Hokies retool their roster, landing one of the top transfer portal classes and bringing Virginia Tech's high school recruiting class from outside of the top 100 to inside the top 25. This team is hoping that they can compete right away in the ACC and Franklin did not hesitate to call the Hokies the winners of this offseason:
"We've been sprinting really since we arrived in Blacksburg. 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 and our expectations and our culture.
Obviously when you're able to do something unconventional like we did in hiring Coach Pry as our defensive coordinator, I think that really helped, having someone like that that really understood the challenges of the place, the strengths of the place, the institutional knowledge, the community knowledge was extremely valuable.
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.
From an expectation standpoint, from a culture standpoint, I think we're in a really good place. Again, I feel like we have won the off-season. All that's great. That sounds great in a press conference, it's a good sound bite."
While there will be those who pick apart this quote, I think that Franklin is right when he says they have won the offseason. All of the moves that Virginia Tech has made, whether it was the coaches they hired, to the transfer talent they brought in, to the freshmen that they were able to sign out of high school, this is arguably the most talented team that the Hokies have had in quiet some time.
But just because you think you have won the offseason does not mean that is going to translate into wins. If you are a fan of Franklin, you can say that he won a lot at Penn State, putting together many 10 win seasons, as well as a CFP berth in 2024, getting the semifinals and losing to Notre Dame. If you are critical of Franklin, you can point to his record against Top 10 opponents and the fact that he only won one Big Ten Championship at Penn State and only got to the CFP semifinals in 2024 because of an easy path that included wins over SMU and Boise State.
The expectation for Franklin at Virginia Tech is going to be consistently competing for the conference crown and in doing that, competing for playoff berths.
There is a gap right now in terms of talent acquisition between Miami and the rest of the conference, with the Hurricanes bringing in the top high school classes and transfer portal classes for multiple years in a row, with the Hurricanes making the national championship game last season only strengthening their efforts.
But with Clemson declining in this area and the rest of the ACC not putting the resources needed, Virginia Tech has a chance to become that next program who can close the gap with the Hurricanes and become annual contenders in the ACC.
Winning the offseason is just step one for Franklin in his first season in Blacksburg. The next step is going to be turning those offseason wins into real wins.
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Jackson Caudell has been a publisher at the On SI network for four years and has extensive knowledge covering college athletics and the NBA. Jackson is also the co-host of the Bleav in Georgia Tech podcast, and he loves to bring thoughtful analysis and comprehensive coverage to everything that he does. Find him on X @jacksoncaudell
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