It has been three weeks since James Franklin has been on the job in Blacksburg as Virginia Tech's new head football coach. He hit the ground running in recruiting, and now he is beginning to start to put his staff together.
Late Saturday night, it was reported that Franklin was targeting former Hokies coach Brent Pry as his defensive coordinator. Talk about an awkward situation, just three months after being fired as head coach, but the two worked very well together at Penn State when Pry was running Franklin's defense before leaving in November of 2021 to replace Justin Fuente at Virginia Tech.
Now it appears that Franklin is again returning to his Penn State roots to hire his new offensive coordinator in Ty Howle, who is a former Nittany Lions captain and was the co-offensive coordinator at Penn State, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN.
James Franklin plucks Penn State assistant coach Ty Howle to be Virignia Tech's new OC
Four days before being hired at Virginia Tech, Franklin was at the Old Dominion/Troy game on a Thursday night, and there were thoughts that he was potentially trying to grab Ricky Rahne, ODU's head coach, to come to Blacksburg to be Franklin's OC.
Before being elevated to co-offensive coordinator at Penn State, Howle was named the 2024 Football Scoop's National Tight Ends Coach of the Year. He has developed some NFL-caliber tight ends, including Tyler Warren, and turned him into the program’s first-ever John Mackey Award winner
This reported hiring is sending a message that the tight end position, something that Virginia Tech hardly ever used in previous seasons, is going to be a focal point of the offense under Franklin. He has brought in Class of 2026 recruit Pierce Petersohn from Minnesota, a four-star, and he should be a big part of Howle's offense. Times are changing and changing quickly in Blacksburg.