Josh Pate: James Franklin is a 'grand slam hire' for Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech officially announced the hiring of James Franklin on Monday. And, considering all things, Josh Pate couldn’t be much higher on the hire by the Hokies.

Pate instantly reacted to the announcement of Franklin being hired to come to Blacksburg on Monday afternoon. He felt, considering Franklin’s history, namely recently, to be known as one of the better coaches in all of college football, that it was as massive of a grand slam as they could have cracked out of the ball park at VT.

“Buddy, this is as big a grand slam as you could ever hope to hit at Virginia Tech,” Pate stated. “What I didn’t say is, man, James Franklin is guaranteed to win the ACC, guaranteed to win 10 games a year, guaranteed to go to the playoff. I’m not talking about that because no one can see the future. Franklin himself doesn’t know anything like that. What we know is the information that was available, and the reality. The reality is the lines really got blurred, the water really got muddy over the past few weeks or month or so about the quality of coach that James Franklin is. Franklin is one of the ten, conservatively one of the fifteen best in the country. None of us, six months ago, would have said, yeah, Virginia Tech is one of the top-fifteen programs in the country. So, when you’re able to acquire a coach of that caliber, it’s a grand slam.

“Now, I want you to think a little further down the rabbit hole with me for a second. Forget about the last couple of games he had at Penn State, because there are a lot of theories why it went sideways. I just think they were all in on defining themselves as championship or bust, which is ill-advised always for the very reasons we saw play out at Penn State. It didn’t work…But, I don’t want you to think about that. I’m not thinking about that. Here’s what I’m thinking about. This dude was coaching in the semifinal of the College Football Playoff just 11 months ago. And, fast forward to November 17th, and I just hired him as the head coach at Virginia Tech. And, by the way, he didn’t get fired there because of scandal. Like, there’s nothing more, there’s no added context you need to know. They just had a season that went a little bit sideways…and I think time will bear out that it was pretty crazy that Penn State made the move in the knee-jerk fashion they did. But, as for Virginia Tech, it’s November 17th and we just hired a head coach that was in the playoff, semifinal of the playoff, less than a calendar year ago. Like, whomst amongst us would have ever thought that we were going to be in that situation a year ago? Just, like, forget about the name for a second. Just say the thing out loud. We just hired a College Football Playoff head coach. We just hired a guy who was in the semifinal. I keep saying that because I’m not really sure people are picking up what should be put down on this. It’s a grand slam hire.”

Franklin arrives with a career record of 128-60 (.681), one of the best active win percentages in the sport, over a decade and a half of a career as a head coach at Vanderbilt (24-15) and, more notably, at Penn State (104-45), with him being the second-winningest coach of all time in Happy Valley. That includes winning a Big Ten Championship and making the semis last year of the College Football Playoff, being a few plays away but losing by three on a go-ahead field goal to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, with the Nittany Lions.

Now, following his midseason firing at Penn State and his hiring now at Virginia Tech, Pate only has one question about this – money. He thinks, if Franklin has at least the dollars it’ll take to actually compete, with him focusing on what this means for their recruiting, specifically in-state, the Hokies should be able to maximize what this tenure could be.

“So now, how is it going to work there? Well, it’s all about spending, obviously,” said Pate. “Virginia Tech has talked at great length recently about how they’re going to be more all-in on spending. We’ll see. Devil is always in the details there. I’ve got to imagine that they sold James Franklin on it, because he had options…James Franklin is a guy who is very, very well-versed on what is and isn’t good enough to win. So, if they had an offer, they had a compensation package, they had a structure on the table from Virginia Tech that, according to him, wasn’t going to be good enough to compete, he wouldn’t have taken the job and he would have just either waited or he would have just sat it out. That’s what he would have done, and he would have been well within his contractual rights to do so.

“He took the job – and don’t forget, like, Brent Pry used to be on his staff and most recently got fired there, so I assume, unless those guys just don’t talk anymore, that he got a really, really good scouting report on the program, on the town, on the administration, on the unique fabric that is Virginia Tech. And, it didn’t turn him off, and it may have turned him on to the job. So, I’ve got to imagine, like, the due diligence was so thoroughly done on both sides of this equation that, now, if the spending is there, and I’ve got a playoff-caliber coach? Guy has been rock steady, as consistent as they go? Virginia Tech is going to achieve right in line with how much they’re invested. So, if you’re invested to the level that Miami is, or not even that. If you’re invested remotely, within a nine iron of how Miami spends, or Florida State spends, or how SMU spends, or how Clemson spends, and then you’ve got a really good staff? Man, the culture there, in general, is going to punch above its weight. But, that’s not an excuse to not spend. It’s just, if we can get close to them, we trust that the spirit at Virginia Tech is going to do the rest for us. If we get nine-tenths of the way, Virginia Tech itself will take us over the finish line. That sounds like rah rah stuff. At some places, it is. I think there’s a little reality to that at Virginia Tech.

“It just all boils down to, with the hire of James Franklin, are they also a little more all-in on spending? A great coach with inadequate resources has a ceiling on him, and that’d be the same thing with James Franklin at Virginia Tech. But, if you raise the ceiling there, he’s going to get you to the ceiling. He’s going to absolutely press his neck against the ceiling, however high it is at Virginia Tech.”

Beyond that, though, Pate thinks this is just as ground-shaking of a move for the Atlantic Coast Conference as it is alone for Virginia Tech. He feels the Hokies have been one of the programs in the league that have not been pulling their weight, with five losing records in their last six seasons and having just one ten-plus win campaign since 2012 after having thirteen from 1995-2011 under Frank Beamer, including eight-straight to open their membership in the ACC from 2004-2011. VT could now, pending what they do invest into the program, change the hierarchy in the league and be in contention for that upper tier.

“The other part of this is, you know what the impact here is on the ACC? That was my first thought. I led with James Franklin and Virginia Tech because I know that’s who’s watching this. But, me from a distance, I just thought it’s insane that the ACC has been as collectively down as it’s been for a long time,” said Pate. “That is the fault of Virginia Tech and Virginia. That’s the fault of Florida State. That’s the fault of Miami. Clemson is really the only one that’s more than done its part in a conference that should be second-best in the country or battling to be second-best in the country at worst, but they haven’t been. So, Virginia Tech has been part of that equation.

“I’m just excited about the impact on the ACC, because folks just haven’t had to worry about Virginia Tech. And now, you’ll have to worry about Virginia Tech. That’s a really, really good thing. Virginia Tech being good is a great TV product as well, so that’s a really good thing too.”

Franklin will be introduced tomorrow morning as the head coach of Virginia Tech. Pate, while still wondering how much the powers that be there put into it, expects that to be the first day of what’s a very successful tenure there too, if for no other reason than the floor he thinks that will be set immediately by Franklin

“This unequivocally proves that Virginia Tech is taking football seriously. They’re taking and investing in it seriously. So, that’s great,” said Pate. “It doesn’t guarantee the results, although I’d say, with James Franklin, you put a really, really high floor on, you know, what the possibilities are there. Like, I really don’t foresee disaster, you know, bust-type scenarios for James Franklin at Virginia Tech.

“I think this is going to be a really good thing there. It’s going to be a really good thing. And then, Virginia Tech? They did their part in hiring him…but I just got to see what the investment is. I know they’re going to push their chips further in. How all-in is Virginia Tech on football, and what does it look like when Virginia Tech is all-in on football?”