00:00James Franklin, just a few weeks ago, he was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions as they were looking to do some damage here in the 2025 season.
00:08I got maybe the best backfield combination in the country. I got Drew Aller coming back. We should be able to roll this year.
00:13They got rolled right out of the Big Ten and so did Mr. James Franklin.
00:18But now he reemerges at Virginia Tech as the head coach and here he is meeting with his team, getting that first look.
00:24But number one, obviously honored to be here. Me and my wife, Fumi, actually we just text my brother-in-law who lives about nine miles from here.
00:36So just just blessed and honored to be a part of this. We've been doing this for 30 years, me and my family.
00:43And I know Virginia Tech well. I was at the University of Maryland for eight years before I left and went to the Green Bay Packers.
00:52I was a young offensive coordinator, went to went to Virginia Tech.
00:57There was a defensive coordinator. I think you guys may know him named Bud Foster.
01:02And that was a long night for the young offensive coordinator, to be honest with you.
01:07But just honored to be here. I want to thank the search committee.
01:11Those guys were relentless.
01:15Obviously, Jay and Ryan and the whole crew just just did a phenomenal job.
01:20John, did you have something?
01:22No, I was just once again wanting to thank you for becoming a Hokie.
01:25I believe Jay may have something for you so you'll be properly attired in the future.
01:32Yeah.
01:33Yeah. Jay sent me a bunch of stuff.
01:37You can't have too much Hokie gear.
01:39Yeah. Yeah. Last week.
01:40There you go.
01:41He's in front of the boys getting the team ready to go.
01:44What he should have said is, guys, I guarantee you one thing.
01:46I will make this schedule the softest in the entire nation like I tried to do at Penn State.
01:50We're going to win a lot of football games, just not a lot of meaningful football games.
01:54They're like, you know what, coach?
01:55Sounds good.
01:57Yeah. You know, it's funny.
01:58I remember when James Franklin was there for a couple of years at Vandy.
02:03And everyone was like, oh, this guy, he's winning nine football games a season.
02:09He was like the fun coach.
02:11And then all of a sudden he goes to Penn State and he's winning 11 games a year, Donnie,
02:17and looks about as miserable as a human being could with an aspiration, of course,
02:22of trying to win a national championship, which he was never going to do at Vandy.
02:27And guess what? He ain't going to do it here at Virginia Tech either.
02:31But you know what he'll be?
02:32He'll be a lot happier with nine wins a season, ten wins a season,
02:35without the pressure that Penn State brought.
02:38So I think it's a great move for him.
02:40I think you've got to be careful, though.
02:43That third go around, I saw Mark Rick come here to Miami.
02:47I saw Chip Kelly at UCLA.
02:49Gus Malzahn at UCF.
02:51Doesn't always work out, but I don't think the aspirations are there for Vatek just yet.
02:57So I think he's going to have a lot of success.
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