After James Franklin was fired last October at Penn State, despite what the school owed him, you knew he wasn't going to be unemployed for long. The only question was which school was going to beat out the others for his services.
It just so happened that Virginia Tech was open after Franklin's former defensive coordinator, Brent Pry, was fired in mid-September after a 0-3 start to the season. Virginia Tech's search committee was formed when Franklin was fired, and in the end, he surprised some by taking the job in Blacksburg. On Friday afternoon, before facing Pitt in a battle of undefeated teams in primetime in early October, Franklin explained why he took the job.
James Franklin drops a quote that has been a long time coming for Virginia Tech fans
Bussin' With The Boys are in Blacksburg for the showdown, and host Will Compton and Taylor Lewan were joined by Josh Pate hours before kickoff. They had Franklin on set to interview him. It didn't take long for Franklin to get asked about Virginia Tech and the job.
"They're invested right now, they're committed to winning at the highest level,'' said Franklin.
Two years ago, there was no chance that James Franklin would have considered taking the job in Blacksburg. There was no investment when Pry was in charge, but that all changed last summer when former AD Whit Babcock got the wheels moving on a $229 million budget plan to pump into athletics so the school could compete with the big boys of the ACC.
The investment was approved last Sept. 30, and that was perfect timing in their pursuit of Franklin. Now, let's be frank: that wasn't the only reason he took the job, as there were a lot of other things that needed to be worked out, and by mid-November, they were, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Truth be told, this was something that the school needed to do, whether they got James Franklin or not. The money in the current state of college football and college athletics as a whole just wasn't there. You had to figure at some point that Franklin would have the Hokies playing a rather big ACC game at home, but who had it in just his fifth game at Virginia Tech? I bet not many.
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