James Franklin is hard at work putting together his new staff at Virginia Tech. He has reportedly added three coaches: Brent Pry as his defensive coordinator, Ty Howle as his offensive coordinator, and Danny O'Brien as his quarterbacks coach. All three were with him at some point at Penn State.
Just how these hires end up working out remains to be seen. There are questions surrounding each one, and there are also positives to each hiring. Here are three thoughts on Franklin's reported new staff that the school has yet to officially announce.
3 thoughts on James Franklin's reported assistant coaching hires at Virginia Tech
1. Brent Pry, this is awkward
This was the first reported hiring on late Saturday night. It certainly raised some eyebrows, and were you totally surprised? You should be somewhat, as this is certainly an awkward hire, to say the least. If you're Pry, rejoining Franklin makes sense, but at the expense of the school that just fired you? Walking back into the locker room might be extremely weird. He'll be facing some of his former players who quit on him and got him fired. I would love for this to work out in the long run, and it should be better for the program, but let's call it like it is, weird. The first time things go south, the backlash could get interesting.
2. Here we go, again
Again, we are heading down the road in Blacksburg of a first-time offensive coordinator calling plays who has never really done it. Hokies fans remember the Tyler Bowen experiment all too well. I'm not saying that it's going to be as bad as Bowen was, but you can't admit that you're at least worried about the hire. James Franklin knows what he's doing, and fans will have to trust in their new head coach. Howle is a great recruiter and has developed some very good tight ends. It will be a pleasant sight to see Virginia Tech turn into a major tight end school. It's been some time since the tight end position was used like it could be going forward.
3. Getting the Penn State group back together
It shouldn't be surprising to see Franklin surrounding himself with former assistants from Penn State. One name that a lot of people thought might come to Virginia Tech is Terry Smith, but he is remaining at Penn State on Matt Campbell's staff. Again, we'll see how all these moves end up working out, but truth be told, anything is an upgrade at most spots on the staff than what was in Blacksburg.