Tech Talk Live is back! On the first episode of the 2026-27 season, new director of broadcasting Evan Hughes and Mike Burnop were joined on the special two-hour show by Virginia Tech athletic director Brian White, legendary defensive coordinator Bud Foster, football head coach James Franklin and defensive tackle Kemari Copeland.
Thursday’s live recording from McClain's at First and Main can be listened to on replay here.
The Hokies open the 2026 season on Saturday, Sept. 5, at 7:30 p.m. ET vs. VMI in Lane Stadium.
Brian White
What have the last couple of months been like for you?
It’s been incredible. An absolute blur, but it’s been a lot of fun.
I’m sure it’s been fun settling in, especially for the kids. A new place, maroon and orange, buying new gear.
It’s been awesome. It’s been really cool. The brand is so strong. You see it everywhere. In town, the flags, the HokieBirds, the Hokie statues, orange and maroon everywhere. I’m excited about it.
Was there a moment when you said, “Wow, I am the athletic director at Virginia Tech?”
If I’m being honest, just too many to name. It’s still surreal to me. During the day, you’re one meeting to the next, as busy as we all are. You’re not thinking about it. But most nights, at the end of a hard-working day, you pinch yourself and think, “Man, I get to be in this role, I get to have this opportunity.” I’m like a kid in a candy store, I’m so excited.
What’s been your impression overall of what you’ve seen so far?
You mentioned the [Tailgate Tour] event in Roanoke sold out, 600-plus people. How about this here tonight? I was not expecting this. Credit to the fans here, this is awesome. I always had a ton of respect for Virginia Tech fans, and that was a big draw for me when I got the first phone call about the job. But I’ve been way more blown away than I could have ever imagined. I’m more excited about the opportunity today than I was yesterday, and more so than the day before, and on and on. Everything I thought about this place is more than true. It’s a big-time fan base.
And you had to be excited about the opportunity to work with a great coach like James Franklin.
Oh, yeah. He’s been awesome. Again, as advertised. You knew he’s a proven winner; everybody knows that about Coach Franklin. You’ve just got to look at his résumé. But working with him, you can see why he’s a winner. He’s just a really competitive, driven dude. He’s hyper organized, he’s a great leader, he’s a really great people person with everybody around him. He just really, really connects — not only [to] the players, but the administrative staff, his coaching staff. You can tell he’s a relationship guy, and I think this is a relationship business. He does really well with it.
Working with Coach Franklin on a daily basis, are there one or two things that stand out that fans should know about how detail-driven and organized he is?
You mentioned detail-driven and organized. Times that by 10. I mean, that’s what he is. He’s very, very everyday, consistent, driven, hard work. Everybody’s hardworking, but he’s hardworking in a way that’s really, really organized. His staff is well-organized. He’s the ultimate CEO, which I think you need to be, and he’s running a well-oiled machine. He brings that energy every day, and that’s infectious.
You brought some new staff members with you tonight. Can you introduce them?
Sure. We got a couple new ones in front, but I will mention any time our new staff members have gotten a lot of attention, I always have to mention that there’s great staff in place at Virginia Tech, and many that have been here a long time. Very fortunate to come into a great athletic department that had been well run and had some really good people in place and staff. Heck, we got Coach Foster sitting in the front row.
But Ryan Gottlieb, our chief strategy officer. Ryan’s somebody that I’ve tried to recruit the last 10-15 years at a bunch of different spots. He kept turning me down. Finally got him to Boca Raton at Florida Atlantic, and he wasn’t thrilled with me when, 128 days in, I told him I took the Virginia Tech job, so I immediately started recruiting him here. But just a really smart business mind, understands the commercial revenue component, the non-philanthropic revenue component of college athletics. Did a great job at Colorado, doubling their ticket revenue from about $15 million to $30 million in one year. Did 11 sold-out concerts at Folsom Field. Just had a lot of success on that side of it.
PJ Mullen, first week on the job. PJ was at Rutgers and did a great job growing their brand, gameday atmosphere. We talk about the driveway-to-driveway experience and the experience for the fans and building that brand. PJ’s our chief marketing officer, really going to focus on brand, communications, marketing, everything we do externally, going to take us to another level, and I say that recognizing that I think Lane Stadium is one of the very best atmospheres in the country. I’m excited what we can do to continue to build on all of the great things already in place.
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You’ve mentioned the driveway-to-driveway experience. Can you expand on that? How much does that mean to you?
I think it’s everything for us if we’re trying to grow our fan base, build the brand and continue to fill the stadium. I know that the stadium has had great attendance for many years, but the better our experience is going to be, the stronger our brand is, the stronger our fan base is going to be, so we can’t rest on our laurels. We need to just continue to make it better. I think about the driveway-to-driveway experience; it’s kind of an old-school sports marketing term, because really nowadays it starts with the ticket purchasing experience, which in many cases is online. But if you’re a fan and you want to come to the game and support the team, how is that experience?
It starts with a ticket purchase, then it’s the traffic coming into the stadium. Then it’s where do you park? And once you park, how is your transition from the parking spot inside the stadium? How is the security? How has the communication been in terms of the clear bag policy or whatever else you need to know before you hit security? Where might things be slipping through the cracks, and even if they’re not, where might we build even better experiences for our fans? Once you’re in the stadium, it’s the gameday entertainment, starting with Enter Sandman, which is obviously an A+, so we’ve got that figured out. But then the whole entertainment piece that keeps you there throughout the game, and then after the game, as you transition outside the stadium, how was that experience? And how will we measure it?
Surveys are huge. We’ve already started studying the surveys. It’s easy to recognize the cell coverage issues, for example. That’s heavy in the surveys, so that’s not just something that is being talked about. That’s a real issue. There’s many other things where you want to really study — if fans are taking the time to fill out a survey — and figure out what the experience is. There’s that piece, there’s the anecdotal piece as we’re talking to people in the community. Not only myself, but my staff, we need to always be listening to make sure that we’re recognizing trends, and we’re going to have some secret shoppers. We’re going to make sure that every part of that gameday experience we’re going to take as seriously as we can to try to make it great.
I’d love to get your thoughts on Invest To Win and Hokie Ventures. How unique are those vehicles? How helpful are those to you and your staff? What’s it been like getting your hands on them in your first two months?
It’s huge. That is our momentum. I think that was a big part of my interest in the position, but also Coach Franklin, obviously. I don’t know that there’s ever been a more critical moment in time in college athletics where investment is needed, so for the Board of Visitors, President [Tim] Sands, the leadership group, for everyone at Virginia Tech to step up and say, “You know what, we’ve got to invest to win. We get it, and we’re going to go all-in on major college sports,” I think it’s a great thing and a really exciting thing, and we’re going to all benefit from it.
Hokie Ventures being a part of that is critical when you look at what revenue-generation arms are able to do in pro sports. They’re able to function with much more fluidity, they’re able to be much more adaptable in terms of the different revenue streams they’re able to pull together and monetize, and I think for universities and athletic departments, there’s just some realities that from the beginning of time we’ve never been able to benefit from. For instance, leveraging our purchasing for corporate sponsorships and so many different things that we think Hokie Ventures is going to allow us to do to operate and function more like a business that an athletic department, just by nature of being part of a state entity, isn’t able to do. It’s going to be coupled with Invest To Win. Incredibly important for us.
You spoke to the Board of Visitors the other day. I’m sure that was fun.
It’s a great group. There’s an athletics committee on the Board of Visitors. It’s very supportive and I think shares our ambition for Hokie Nation, and I think that’s incredibly important. An athletic department can’t be successful without a supportive board, and in my previous stop, that was a huge part of our success. And that was a big draw for me as well. This board very much believes in the importance of athletics, and that’s an exciting piece.
And they established the board of directors for Hokie Ventures and the action for the future. Brad Hobbs will do a great job heading that up.
Yeah, how about that group? A pretty impressive group, right? Very impressive. The business acumen in that group and how accomplished they are, I’m really looking forward to leaning on them and working with them on Hokie Ventures. I think that’s going to be a big, awesome thing for the Hokies.
You guys were able to invest a lot of money in different sports — more charter flights, more coaches. Can you touch on that?
I met with every single head coach in my first couple of weeks on the job. I tried to get it as soon as possible because your coaches, that is your leadership group of the athletic department. That’s the group that’s on the front lines, recruiting student-athletes to Virginia Tech, so you want to hear from them. What are our strengths, weaknesses and opportunities? Where are our barriers to success? That’s a group that I think can carry us where we need to go.
Across the board, how impressed are you with the coaches that are here, and what was that first meeting like with Mike Young?
Coach Young’s awesome. The first time I called him was at the Washington, D.C., airport, just after accepting the position. I tried to make some phone calls to some key coaches and he was great. He said, “I know your daddy, and I know your brother as well.” But he knows everybody. I couldn’t believe when I met with him for the first time. That’s when he told me that he grew up 15 minutes from my office, so I thought that was pretty cool. But he knows everybody really well. He’s as well-connected and respected as a basketball coach as there is out there. He’s had a lot of success. He’s a really good basketball coach, so I’m thrilled to have him leading our program. But across the board, so many of our head coaches have the ambition, the belief in Virginia Tech. The success that they’ve had over time, it’s a really impressive group, and they’re all really driven to win that first national championship.
How about some of the enhancements that are made? The cellular coverage situation will be a two-phase process. Plus, the new videoboard, the LED lights and Hokie Village.
It’s going to be huge. I will say, phase one, thank you to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. They’ve stepped up and made some temporary investments that’ll make it better this year. I will not be perfect. That’s why I’ve got to give PJ credit for coming up with phase one and phase two as we’re talking in the office on how to communicate that, and Ryan credit for putting in dozens of hours of work on this. But we identified as this as an issue. I say we identified it; it was put on me as an issue, really in the interview process, “Go figure this out.”
We’ve been working hard on trying to make it better. This year, we think it’ll be better. We know it’ll be improved in terms of the number of cell phones the system will be able to handle. Still won’t be perfect, still won’t be ideal 5G for everybody, and that’s what we need it to be, and we’re very confident that the permanent investments will be made before the 2027 football season, to where every fan that walks in should have 5G cell service, cellular coverage. That’s the goal, to get it right permanently. But we didn’t want to wait until 2027 to do anything. This year, it’ll be better.
Bud Foster
Coach, it’s great to see you. Thank you for being here.
It’s great to be here. Thank you for having me. It’s a thrill for me to be the filler between Brian and Coach Franklin coming up here, but it’s great to see a wonderful crowd, a lot of familiar faces and great Hokies. And again, congratulations to you [Evan]. It’s great to see Mike and Bill. But yeah, really excited to kick this thing off in the James Franklin era. Really looking forward to it.
You’re a big part of why he’s here, but you’ve been out of it for what, seven years now?
This is Year 7. It’s hard to believe. It’s kind of flown by. It really, really has. And I’ve been blessed to be retained here in some capacity. I have to tell Brian, my role and my title were special assistant to the athletic director. I don’t know if that’s my role or my title anymore. We’ll have to find that out. But I’ve been very appreciative of Dr. Sands and Whit [Babcock], keeping me around, and I feel like I bring some value to the department and the university. It was fun to be on the other side of the fence in the job process. Instead of me being the guy pursuing or being pursued, it was interesting to be on the other side, and my relationship with James was a big key, at least for their interest to start.
Ultimately, I think he still wanted to coach, but then I think the commitment from the institution of where we were wanting to go was obviously a big attraction for him when it was all said and done. He could say Bud Foster could tell him the truth about what we had and what our expectations are. He’s seen it. He was on the other sideline and saw Lane Stadium when it was rocking, when we were rolling, and he knows what this place is capable of doing, and it’s exciting.
You were talking earlier about a time frame. I’m not sure if this is not the most exciting time in my time frame here with the start of a season. You can talk about Mike Vick and all that, but the reestablishment of this program and the new direction, the alignment across campus from the Board of Visitors. I know we’re getting ready to hire a new president and I know that’s going to be critical with the alignment, but I have not seen it this aligned, so to speak, in a long, long time. And there’s a lot of excitement from that standpoint.
Was there a moment where you realized with James Franklin, there was an interest level?
Number one, we hadn’t even met as a board yet. We had talked and we kind of came up with our people, so to speak, and all the people that we interviewed and were interested in the job are all the ones that got the great jobs across the country, and great candidates. But with my relationship with James, I called him. It was Sunday after he got let go, and which was that Sunday, and basically it was just to call him and as a friend and the crazy business we’re in. But we let Brent go, too, and I said, “Hey, by the way, we do have a job opening.” It was really pretty quick, and I just left him a voicemail. But it was the next day, he called me and we had a great conversation, and he still wanted to coach. Obviously, he had a lot of things to sort through, but he did allow us to come in.
There were a few of us that came to his home down in Georgia, and I knew he still had a chip on his shoulder and just felt like he was a great fit here all the way around. He’s a great people person, and that’s what this place is, as we all know. That’s kind of what Coach Beamer built. Just being a family-friendly group and appreciating everybody here, that we were all in this thing together, and that’s what James is all about. And he understood this place and he had a desire to coach. But as soon as he told me that he was interested, and we had our next meeting, it was like Thursday, and he told me that like on a Tuesday, and we went through all these people, and then I said, “Well, I’ve got one more to talk about, and that’s James Franklin. And immediately he went to the top of the list because of his background. He’s a builder. He’s one of the elite coaches in all of football, in everything that he does, and it was just once there was a slight interest, we put on a full court press.
We wanted him when we went to that visit to the house. He’ll tell you he thought we wanted him to sign the contract that night. But James and I talked eight, 10, 12 times a day for I don’t know how many weeks. My wife, Jesse, said, “Why don’t you guys just move in together?” But he also had Michael Hazel being here, Brent Pry being here, people that he values and trusts. I was a truth teller and told him, “Hey, we’re not perfect, and we’ve got a long way to go, but there’s an expectation here, there’s an excitement here and there’s a new commitment here.” I think all of those things were intriguing to him, and once he’s gotten here, he’s seen it firsthand and now he’s hitting the ground running.
A big part of that was he knew he could talk to you as a coach.
Yeah, and we had a lot of success here. There’s no doubt about that, but we kind of let things pass us by in a lot of ways, and he saw that. And that’s the cool thing about this commitment, and I will credit Whit for stepping up to the plate to the Board of Visitors and like, “Hey, look: In this new era of college athletics, this is what we have to do in order to be where you want us to be.” We’ve always been proud of being satisfied with doing big things with less. I don’t know how many top organizations can succeed that way. There’s a part of that, don’t get me wrong, but you also have to have the resources in place, or at least some of them, that give you a chance to take that next step, and that’s what we’re in a position to do right now.
You guys competed against each other. Do you guys remember those Maryland-Virginia Tech games?
Yeah, we beat the hell out of them. He coached with Ralph Friedgen, who was Coach [Frank] Beamer’s best friend and was on our first staff at Murray State when I first started coaching. Ralph kind of took me under his wing. But James was the offensive coordinator, and we played him a couple times and beat him both times. But he talks about I had this blitz coming and he knew it, and they checked and ran a jailbreak screen, and usually we drop our guys out, and one of them busted, and they had a great player, Darrius Heyward-Bey at receiver, like a first-rounder. Took it to the house, and James is like, “Oh, I got him.” And I lined up and ran the same blitz the next time and that told him, “You’re not going to do it again,” and it made for a long night.
But ultimately, I had the utmost respect for James. We got to know each other through that, and I know how Ralph felt about James. And we crossed paths in the recruiting trail when he was at Vanderbilt. We went and visited his staff. Brent was a GA for me, and we stayed in touch and had been close all these years. And I went and visited with their staff and picked their brain a little bit, and really picked it because I want to know what’s here. James Franklin doing to take Vanderbilt to back-to-back nine-win seasons? What are they doing from a recruiting standpoint in that time? That’s when you realize, from our perspective, that we were getting passed by with certain things. When you’re seeing the investment and the commitment and what people are doing with facilities and a variety of things, that impacts the recruiting process because that’s what it’s all about. You can be a hell of a coach, but I know when you have different Jimmies and Joes, that makes it a big difference.
We got a bunch of different Jimmies and Joes right now.
I’ll say this: James has changed the DNA of our program. I’ve had a chance to really watch a lot of practice and I’ve been impressed with how the guys are working. There’s a high expectation here. I’m not going to put all the pressure on James and say, “Yeah, we’re going to go win nine, 10 football games this year.” That’s not fair. We’ve got a tough schedule, but I do know he’s creating a culture. He’s creating an environment of success, and it takes some time.
But I will say this: In two or three years, we’re getting to be ready to be really, really good. Where you guys are used to winning 10 or 11 football games, we’re getting ready to win 10 or 11 football games. I’m putting the pressure on him that way. I’m not saying we’re going to do it this year, but you guys can see through the recruiting, and I’ve not been around a guy that is such a dynamic recruiter and relentless recruiter. I don’t know when he sleeps, or if he does sleep, what’s his mind doing? But that’s where it starts as far as your roster and putting the right players on the field. But what he’s doing now is building that culture, so those players will enjoy this environment and create that brotherhood and commitment and discipline and accountability to each other — what it takes to be successful.
How cool is it that Brent Pry is back as defensive coordinator?
Yeah, and I’ll say this: Brent got the job here because he is one of the top football coaches in all of college football, one of the top defensive coordinators in all of college football. Being a guy who mentored him and has a great relationship with him, I watched him grow and develop. I was so excited for him. I was his biggest fan here. Him and Justin did not have the same resources that James has the opportunity to have. But I think this about Brent Pry, and everybody will agree with this: There’s not one person in here that is not thinking twice about that hire because wherever Coach Franklin would have gone, if it wasn’t Virginia Tech, he was going to hire Brent Pry as his defense coordinator, and Brent loves this place. His family loves this place.
The bottom line is this: You all love Brent Pry because of the person he is, his love for this place, and James has said it. I went into Brent as soon as he took the job. It takes a lot of humility from a guy that, but that shows the people that what Brent Pry thinks about this place and what it can be, and he’s brought it back. He really has brought it back. And I was with Justin, and we had some great runs there. COVID hit and then things kind of went sideways, and Brent was able to bring things back.
We attacked recruiting better, and James is just building on that now, and James already has a foothold inside that. But I just couldn’t be happier, and we’re getting ready to see some really good defense, too. I’m excited about how. Our kids are flying around, and the defensive scheme we’re playing. I’m just excited about this football team and ready to kick off. I know this is going to be a long week for the coaches and players. They’ve been working hard, and I know they’re getting ready to kick this thing off. I know you guys are ready too.
Coach Franklin went on a podcast with former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, who goes, “Is Bud Foster still at Virginia Tech?” He started talking about all of the fits you gave Ohio State in 2014. How often does that game come up?
A lot of people say that is maybe our greatest win. I don’t know. We’ve had some a lot of big wins here. That was a great win, to go in the Horseshoe. As a kid, I grew up in the Midwest and I loved Missouri football. I grew up in St. Louis. I was a Missouri Tiger fan. I loved Notre Dame football. They were on Sunday mornings all the time. Lindsey Nelson, and then Ohio State with Archie Griffin, and I was just a fan. But to go in that stadium and to play the way we did, and it was just a great atmosphere.
We played a great game, and that was one of many wins that we had. I don’t know if that was my best win or my favorite win, but it was a great win. But the thing that I liked about what Urban said, he told James to headbutt me. Urban and I are good friends, so I just there’s a lot of respect there when it’s all said and done. That was a great win, and yeah, it was a pretty cool environment to have 105,000 people quiet.
You’ve been here since 1987. What would be one of your proudest moments?
You’d be surprised. It’s off the field. My proudest moment, believe it or not, is when the 2022 senior class that is involved in the ring here at Virginia Tech — and everybody knows the importance and how big the ring is. For me to be the namesake of the 2022 ring and that class, that was probably, to be honest with you, one of my biggest thrills, to be involved in every with that whole atmosphere and everything that goes along with that.
The tradition and history and the people that have been on that ring, and for me to just be an assistant football coach, to be put on that pedestal so to speak, was probably one of my biggest thrills. To be honest with you, that was pretty special. It showed that the impact of the Lunch Pail and what it stands for meant something to them as well.
Your former players flock to your golf tournament each year and are part of your foundation, which has done so many great things.
Thank you. I appreciate you bringing that up. We’re proud of what we’ve been doing with the foundation. It’s the Lunch Pail Defense Foundation that we’ve had since 2009, and I’ve got a great board, a bunch of Hokies, a bunch of iconic people and fabulous people in their own right, in their own business world.
We’ve been able to raise over a million dollars and give that back to the New River Valley, including some to Virginia Tech. We actually support two areas of academics and two areas of medical, and we support Virginia Tech Advantage, we support the ACE program here locally in the New River Valley. We support Life Ring with Kelly Woolwine and that group when they’re doing pediatric cancer, and then we support the New River Community Health Center, which they’re going from an 8,000 square-foot facility to a new 39,000 square-foot facility. We’re proud of what we’re doing.
It’s all about impacting young people’s lives. As a coach, I took pride in as being a teacher and mentor and impacting young people, and that’s what we’re continuing to do. I appreciate you talking about the former players. I’ve been blessed to coach some great players and even better people, and that’s probably my proudest moment, to be honest with you, outside of what I just mentioned.
The relationships that we have — obviously, we coach those guys hard, extremely hard —but I loved them harder. I get the reward of the feedback from those guys, and we stay in touch, and I do it every day. That’s probably the biggest thrill I have — just the relationships that I fostered through this journey of being in athletics, which is what it’s all about, so it’s been pretty cool.
Anthony Midget is back on staff. He was a captain on the team that went to the national championship game. What’s it like having him back at Virginia Tech?
Number one, it’s great to have him here. One of my all-time favorite people, just because he’s a great person, great guy, was a coach on the field. When he did his NFL tryout and all of that kind of stuff, and playing the league for a couple years, he did come back and was a graduate assistant with us for a few years. Then he got an opportunity to go on to Georgia State, and then he’s gone on to the NFL and that type of thing. But to watch his growth and development as a coach, it’s been fun.
That’s the one thing for me. My seven years outside now of coaching and recruiting and doing all the things that this job demands, I’ve been able to go see some of the former players, watch their teams play and that type of thing. Go to practices, go do those things, support them and show them how much I care about them. And I’ve watched Anthony grow. The impact he’s making right now on our defense and helping Coach Pry, that was a big hire for Coach Pry. I really relied on the back-end guys. I was very fortunate to have some really dynamic secondary coaches in my time here, and I actually conversed with Coach Franklin and Coach Pry about some folks. I’ll throw out Torrian Gray, he was mentioned, but I just think that Anthony is a great fit too.
Just a great teacher, great people skills, loves this place tremendously and knows what it takes to be a Hokie, and the work that it takes. You’ve got to earn your success, and he understands that. And I think more than ever, this day and age, they’ve got to learn how to strain every day, every moment of the day, particularly on the football field. And he understands because that’s what we demanded and what we expected, and he understands that as much as anybody.
How about Logan Thomas getting into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame?
Oh, yeah. My gosh. Sheesh. You talk about a guy that was a special athlete here and very deserving this honor, but you think about a guy that was a high-drafted quarterback, played quarterback for three or four years and ends up playing seven years as a tight end. Who does that?
That goes to show you that he’s a tremendous athlete, but very unselfish. But you just don’t be a quarterback who doesn’t get hit at all, and then all of a sudden he’s right there going toe to toe. It’s like a 12-round fist fight once they put the ball on the ground. But really, really proud of him and excited for him. And he’s back in the Lynchburg area, so it’s good to have him back. And it’ll be good to see him and see him back on campus.
James Franklin
Everywhere we went on the Tailgate Tour, every place was sold out. Tonight, it’s standing room only. The support of Hokie Nation is incredible.
Yeah, I’m not sure how it used to look, but it looks great tonight. I wish everybody that’s listening on the radio could see the crowd and the energy that we have here tonight, and we appreciate. We’ve got to keep this going.
Before we talk about this team, football and your team here, how about the state of college football right now?
Don’t we want to have fun and just talk about Virginia Tech football? Yeah, it’s a little crazy right now. Me and Brian spend a ton of time kind of talking about it. From what I understand, while we were just out on the field, another ruling came out from the ACC perspective. It’s crazy, but it’s also our crazy, right? Like we love college football and we love Virginia Tech. I kind of look at it a little bit like that crazy aunt or uncle you have. We embrace it, and I think the reality is we want to be a part of this, so we need to be bold and aggressive within the rules. And Brian has been phenomenal since he’s arrived on campus in helping us navigate this, because there’s a lot of things kind of going on that the conference is talking about that as coaches, sometimes we’re unaware of. So having that communication is really important.
How has fall camp been? What’s it been like watching these guys progress this offseason?
I’m proud of them. I really am. I’m proud of the entire organization. I think the coaches have done a really, really good job in a short period of time. The staff, the off-the-field staff, has been great. A number of you guys have been out to the facility or to practice and have kind of seen the evolution. You guys are there all the time. These guys were in the staff meeting the other day at 7 a.m. But I’m really proud of the guys and how they’ve worked. We still got a lot of work to do between now and our first game, but the facility looks and feels different. The level of detail in everything we do, whether it’s the training room or whether it’s nutrition or strength and conditioning, I think it’s at a level that you guys would appreciate and respect.
Everything at Virginia Tech should be done with excellence, in my opinion, and we’re doing that right now. We’ve taken some really significant steps, and I feel good about it. We do basically a full-game operation today. Allow them to get their legs back a little bit after camp, but we go through everything: where they stand on the sideline, where they sit on the bench, how we do the locker room before the game, what we do at halftime, every single detail. Where are the officials on the sideline? What’s the coach’s area on the sideline? What’s the substitution box? Every detail is ironed out because we take a lot of pride in it, and all those details matter. I think it allows us to work efficiently and, most importantly, make you guys all proud. So, when you’re watching what’s going on there on the field, you feel proud. You say that’s what Virginia Tech football is supposed to look like.
You talked about how important it was that Virginia Tech looks, smells and feels big-time. The renovations you guys have done so far in a short amount of time are amazing.
Yeah, it helps. Obviously, the Invest To Win was important for both me and Brian coming in, so it really has allowed us to hit the ground running in a lot of different areas. Now, it’s just the start, obviously, but that was powerful. It was a big part of our decision-making process, but then it also allowed us to get things done. Where I think at most schools would probably take you a year and a half to two years, we’ve been able to kind of hit the ground running from a facility standpoint, from a staffing perspective.
I think you guys have heard me talk about this before. When I first got the job, I met with the leadership council. There were about seven guys that were still in the program that hadn’t graduated and kind of what are the issues, what are your concerns, what are the things that I have to be aware of? Some of you have been at other schools. What did you have at other schools that we don’t have here? Some of you have friends at other schools. What are the problems?
There were probably about eight to 10 things that were on that list that we needed to be aware of, and we’ve been able to knock pretty much everything off that list. So that gives you instant credibility from the leadership standpoint when you’re able to get things done in a short period of time.
You just announced your captains. What does that group mean to you in Year 1 at Virginia Tech?
We did it on our picture day. The day we take the team picture, we always invite all of the families into town to come to practice. We have a parents’ meeting to teach them what they need to be able to do so they can eliminate distractions for their sons. We go through kind of everything in detail, but it is also an opportunity to name the captains and do it in front of their parents, and tell them how much they mean to me and how much they mean to Virginia Tech.
The thing that is good is that I get to control editing. What you guys didn’t see is I’m a big softie at times. I was pretty emotional in that meeting about how hard these guys have worked, and everything that they’ve done for Virginia Tech. It was pretty cool to be able to tell those guys in front of their families, and to be my first captains was pretty cool.
And it was so cool because you had their families out there, had a big barbecue later in the day. It’s good that the families are always welcome to practice.
I think it’s important. It’s interesting. Again, not to talk about other places and other times and other coaches, but we had a transfer from Virginia Tech at my last place, and one of the reasons he came is his family was not allowed to watch practice. They were locals and they weren’t allowed to watch practice. All of my practices in 16 years as a head coach have always been open. I want the families there. I want them to see what’s going on.
We’re not going to coach any different. We’re still going to coach them hard, and we’re going to love them hard. But I think all those things are really important. We’re all in this thing together. At the end of the day, we’re using the game of football to develop men. I still believe that. Maybe I’m crazy, and maybe I’m old school in today’s college football, but I still believe you can win a bunch of games and use the game of football to teach life lessons that allow these guys to go on to be very, very successful as fathers, husbands, leaders in their community. So that’s important, and their families are a big part of it.
Fans are blown away by Tyson Flowers. Can you touch on what he means on and off the field?
Yeah, he’s kind of an extension of the staff, and I think everybody in this room will be proud of Tyson and how he plays this year. But just as important is you’re going to be proud of how he represents the football program with the media. He’s going to be an unbelievable father and husband one day. He wants to be great in everything he does, almost to a fault.
You would let him babysit your children. He’ll be the governor of the state of Virginia if he decides to be one day, and president. Like he’s just that type of guy. He’s wired right. He’s been raised well. He’s got what I call home training, and he also has been raised right, kind of as a football player. He’s one of the few guys that I’ve been around that is totally maximizing all of his God-given ability, and I’ve got a ton of respect for that.
I know you have a ton of respect for Kemari Copeland, who is coming on the show after you. What has he meant to the program?
Yeah, I may sit here and listen to him because unless he’s on social media or talking to the media, he never says a word. I’ve been on campus for about I don’t know how long I’ve been here now — nine months, eight months. He said like seven words, but then I see him on like TikTok or whatever those things are, and he’s got all types of personality and got all types of things to say. But he’s a worker. He’s unbelievably strong. Like he broke the bench press record, and I really didn’t want him to do it, because once you get above 400 pounds, who cares? Like, you’re strong, we get the point. If you watch it, he broke the record, and it wasn’t even a max. Like the bar moved so easily and so quickly for him.
He is a really talented guy. I also think this defensive system that me and Coach Pry have run for a long time with Sean Spencer, it fits him. We’re more of a get-off, explosive front. Last year, we were playing an odd front. Those guys were responsible for two-gapping at the line of scrimmage. You’re going to see a much more exciting style of play on defense, but you’re also going to see the defensive line be able to penetrate, make tackles for loss. If you can get people off schedule now on offense and get them into third-and-long, that’s what we want because now the fans in the stadium can become a part of it and an advantage for us. But I think this system is really going to help Kemari.
You had a quote last week where you said their “give-a-darn meter was really high.” How encouraging is it to see that in Year 1?
It doesn’t have the same type of effect when you say “darn.” But I just think that’s important. I don’t care what you’re doing. If you’re invested, you got a chance to be successful, and whether that is businesses that you guys are involved in, or whether it’s raising your children, or whether it’s college football. You’ve got to really be invested if you want to be special, and the reality is there’s enough people doing average shit, right? There’s enough people doing average shit. Excuse me, I said it twice. I’m not supposed to.
There’s enough darn people doing average stuff that we don’t need anymore. And challenging our guys to be special and excellent in everything that they do, whether it’s academically, athletically, socially. There’s also a spiritual component that I think is important for all these guys, no matter what their faiths are, and that’s part of our job to help them on that journey too. But yeah, you’ve got to be invested. You’ve got to be invested in that.
You need someone that’s in the foxhole with you, and this college football thing, as you guys know, is crazier than it’s ever been. For me to wake up every single morning and come to work and know I got somebody upstairs that’s working just as hard as we are, that’s comforting, right? And that’s why the alignment is so critical with the head football coach, the athletic director, the president of the university and the rector of the board. And I think we have that right now.
School has started and you guys are one week away from VMI. What do things look like right now?
Yeah, we’ve gotten a head start on VMI, because one of the challenges with VMI is we’re anticipating that they’re going to run the option, and that’s not like anything that they’ve seen from our offense in all training camp. It makes it difficult to prepare for it. It also makes it difficult to prepare for it because you’ve got to teach your players how to run their offense to simulate it in practice, which is challenging and difficult, so we have gotten started on VMI a few days early to help with that.
We’ll always do that to start the season, but that’s a big one. In this game — me and Bud were talking about this, and he’s gone against Navy over a number of years — it gives you a ton of headaches. I think it makes a ton of sense for the military-type schools because it kind of gives you an advantage because you’re doing something unique and different. So that’s been important. I also think our guys are just ready. It’s that time where they’re ready to hit somebody else. They’re sick of hitting each other. They want to hit somebody else, and they’re looking forward to seeing Lane Stadium packed and going crazy.
Does it help that VMI is going to play at Idaho State this weekend to give you guys a sense of what they’re doing?
Yeah, I think that’s really important. They’ll play Idaho State, where I worked for a year in Pocatello, Idaho. Very similar to New York City, if you’ve ever been there. But we’ll watch that game. I think it’s being streamed on ESPN+, so we’ll get a chance to watch that game. There are advantages and disadvantages, right? They’re getting a head start on us to knock some of the rust off. In college football, you don’t have preseason, but it gives us an opportunity to see them and watch how they’re going to operate.
We’ve watched all the film from where the defensive coordinators come from, where the offensive coordinators come from. Are they going to run true Navy option where you’ve got two wings and a fullback? Is it going to be that style, or is it going to be more some of the gun option that people are doing right now in the zone read, or a combination of both? We’re not really sure. So that Idaho State film will be very, very important for us.
For those of you who don’t know, Coach Franklin was a great quarterback in college. When he left college, he had 23 records. He was lighting them up, so the quarterback room here.
Well, I didn’t play Division I like you, [Mike]. I played Division VIII, and you’re in the Hall of Fame.
Coach, Mike’s jersey is right here on this wall.
That’s what I’m saying! Come on. There aren’t bars in East Stroudsburg with James Franklin’s jersey.
On the quarterbacks, though, tell us about that room. You’ve got four good ones.
Yeah, I like the room a lot. I think in today’s college football, it’s very difficult to have a quarterback room with depth. But we’ve got not only depth, we have talent, and we have some really strong relationships. Ethan Grunkenmeyer, who is a highly-recruited guy out of high school, came with us at the last place, and then went into the transfer portal and transferred to us. Is more of a thrower with mobility, about 6-foot-2, about 210 pounds. Got a really strong arm. You guys got a chance to see a little bit of it in the spring game. Really good decision-maker as well, and he’s the one guy who’s really played a decent amount of college football already. He got five or six games. We were able to watch him play Clemson in the bowl game. They got after Clemson pretty good. He played well in that game, so that’s helpful.
Bryce Baker is a young man that we recruited heavily two years ago out of high school. Chose to stay home in the state of North Carolina, and then when he went in the transfer portal, it wasn’t really like a recruiting process. He was coming. Our quarterbacks coach, Danny O’Brien, went to the same high school as Bryce, and also played for the same high school coach, who I’ve known forever, so that was really helpful. And he’s a bigger guy, probably a similar height, 6-foot-2, but he’s a little bit bigger. He’s about 220 pounds, a little bit more athletic, can make a little bit more plays with his feet and extend plays, and has had a really good training camp.
Then we have two young guys. Kelden [Ryan], who was here. Young man from Texas, who redshirted last year, and really athletic, probably the most athletic guy we have in the room. But was raw as a quarterback when we when we first got here. He’s improved probably as much as anybody in the program right now. I’m really, really proud of him in the film room, and also on the football field. And then Troy Huhn, as a true freshman out of California, is a little bit different than all of them. He’s a big kid, 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, more of a pocket passer, but has some mobility. But really is a tremendous processor and decision maker and distributor of the football. I think we’ve got four guys that we legitimately could play with and win games.
You talked about how much Brent Pry meant to you when you first arrived. Now that you’ve been back with him, how much fun has it been?
Yeah, we FaceTimed his mom the other day because it was her birthday. Obviously, I go way back with the Pry family. I think most of you guys probably heard the story, but his dad was my offensive coordinator in college, so we go way back. Brent’s first year coaching was my senior year in college, but he’s doing great. And a lot of times when I get called out of the meeting room to meet with Brian, or I get called out because Kevin Threlkel or somebody needs me and I’ve got to go deal with head coach stuff, he looks at me like, “Yeah, go deal with that. I’m gonna sit here and coach football.” So, I think he’s happy back doing what he loves, and I think he’s happy back doing why he got into this profession in the first place.
The reality is in college football now, everybody aspires to be a head coach. But if you’re not careful, the head coach position can take you a long way away from what you got into the profession in the first place. Because whether it’s media, recruiting, fundraising, NIL, transfer portal, there’s a ton of things that you have to deal with and you have to manage as a CEO that are a lot further than drawing up four verticals or a zone pressure. That’s why we fell in love with the game, so he’s back to just enjoying coaching and being around the guys and being one of the guys, and I think he’s going to make you guys proud.
Fall camp days can be long. You surprised the guys with a bit of fun one day at the Blacksburg Country Club.
We always have a day that we’re going to cancel the practice and surprise them, and it’s like every year it becomes more elaborate because they’re starting to guess when the day’s going to be, and they’re looking at the schedule and they’re studying the NCAA rules of where it’s going to be. What they also start to do is they call around to all the places. They’ll call McClain’s. “Hey, do you have a private party today at three?” Or they call the country club or their girlfriends work there. And before, we wouldn’t set the fields up, so they’d be looking out the window to see if all the bags are set up. Now no one knows. It’s like the best-kept secret. Me and the young lady Heidi, who sets the whole thing up, are the only people to know.
The trainers, they’re taping all the ankles. They’re in equipment. Then we get into the team meeting and I go through like the worst practice ever. Like 24 periods, and they’re all just sitting there like, “God, this Franklin guy is crazy.” And then we had like all of our managers bust in with speedos and no shirts and duckies around their waists and swimmies and like the real white sunblock on their nose, and the whole room goes crazy. A couple kids were like crying because they were so happy. It’s fun.
We just try to keep them on their toes. Then the other day at the end of practice, we had an ice cream truck pull up and had the ice cream music playing. And I think sometimes people forget just because they’re 6-foot-5, 325 pounds, they’re just big kids. They’re just big, massive kids. As hard as we work, we’ve got to spend some time doing some other things and enjoying each other too.
Thirty minutes flies by quickly. Thank you for the time today.
Could I say one more thing, please? Obviously, I’m preaching to the choir right now. Everybody’s in here for a reason because you’re diehards, correct? We didn’t get to this point by ourselves. I’m talking about just the coaches and players, and this is the only way we’re going to get this thing back. It’s going to take everybody. It’s going to take the die-hard fans. It’s going to take you guys know a couple fans that are on the fence. I need you to pull them back in.
We need all the bars, restaurants, and hotels. We need the entire community having our back, because we want to put a product on the field that you guys could all be excited about, but we cannot do this without everybody pulling the rope in the same direction. It’s easy to show up Week 1. We need you guys every single week, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it.
Kemari Copeland
How is everything?
I’ve been here the past two years, so I was pretty adjusted to everything, and it’s been good.
Walk us through the path from high school to now.
My path from high school started off in Virginia Beach at Kellam High School. I actually committed to Navy first. Something happened, ended up going to Army. My dad didn’t like that because he’s in the Navy, so I was at Army. Was there for two years, left like after the Army-Navy game. I knew that being there, it wasn’t like the path for me. I wanted to go to NFL, so I knew it’d be better to pursue that. Had to go JUCO because my grades weren’t the best. The academy was real rigorous. It was hard, and then after that, came to Tech. It was my dream school coming to Virginia Tech, so I’m blessed.
Did they recruit you out of high school originally?
Yeah. In high school, I talked to Darryl Tapp. Actually, the first time I talked to him, we were on the phone for like 45 minutes, just chopping it up. Something went through and they weren’t able to recruit me, but yeah, I’ve been dreaming of coming here ever since I was in high school..
You could’ve left last year but decided to come back. What was the reasoning behind that?
Overall development. I knew I could come back and develop in many categories. First, it was like my size. I was technically an undersized D-tackle. I’m still technically undersized, but I started off at 280. Now I’m around like 300 pounds, 305 and it’s relatively lean. Kept my six-pack. I can show you if you want to see it later.
The great thing is now the radio audience knows you’ve got a six-pack. How about this defensive line group? Tell us a bit about that room and fall camp overall.
Fall camp has been hard, but I think that’s what you need to become the best football program possible. And we have a lot of great guys. We’ve got a bunch of transfers. Samuel Okunlola came from Colorado. He’s done it. He’s been in a lot of big games, made a lot of big plays. Randy Adirika came from Penn State. He’s a really good player. Mylachi Williams, Aycen Stevens. He was here last year and was holding the lunch belt for a little bit. But yeah, we’ve got a lot of great additions. I could go on and on, but we’re ready to go this year.
When these guys come in from different places, how difficult is that? How does that transition go?
I wouldn’t say it was difficult. I would say in the beginning, everyone’s like kind of timid. Everyone’s quiet, trying to be reserved, and then now we go in the locker room, everybody’s playing around and stuff like that. Like Coach Franklin said, we’re a bunch of big kids, so it’s been good. We’ve all gelled together well. The culture at Penn State has gelled well with the culture that Coach Pry had here, and we all came together. This is like a brotherhood now, so it’s been good.
Tell us about Sean Spencer, who is nicknamed Coach Chaos.
I would say that he’s a D-line coach that’s going to blitz a lot. It’s going to be very exciting to watch, so I’m excited for that.
Where did your love for weightlifting come from?
It started when I was little. In high school, my dad introduced me to the weight room. I didn’t really like it a lot, but I just stuck with it. After school, there was really nothing to do, so I just started lifting. My first time ever squatting, I was 14. I squatted 425, my first-ever time squatting. I was like, “Dang, if I keep working hard, the sky’s the limit.” And I just kept working hard and I fell in love with it.
In the beginning, I was kind of a fat, chubbier kid. I’m still kind of fat, a little bit, but…
You’ve got a six-pack. Come on.
Well, I was a fat, chubbier kid, and I was trying to lose my body fat and stuff, and that also was a reason I started working out. And yeah, it got me here.
You have a back squat of 735 pounds, right?
Yeah, 735. I feel like I can go more. I feel like I can go to 800, but there’s really no point to that.
Are you incredibly sore after a day like that?
The day I did 605 for 10 reps, I think it was two years ago. Broke the record, and I would say my knees and my lower back were sore for like at least a week, and then it goes away. And with the bench press, my chest was sore, but that’s what it took to get there.
What was the feedback you got from the NFL?
It started after the Georgia Tech game. We played an offensive lineman, he was a first-rounder in Keylan Rutledge. I had a pretty good game against him. After that, I saw I was on Mel Kiper’s draft board. I was like, “Oh, this is crazy!” I didn’t even expect it. This is my first year coming back. I tore my triceps last year. I was like, “This is crazy.” NFL scouts started to come in, started to watch me.
Coach [J.C.] Price took me in his office one time. He was like, “Kemari, they have you projected to go to the NFL. See how the season goes, and then if you want to stay here, you can stay. You want to leave. You can leave.” And it was just so much stuff, like people hitting me from the portal, people saying he’s going to the NFL, and you’ve got agents trying to tell you what to do. I would say during October, it was very chaotic. But the NFL, they were like, you can come back, you develop more, you can do stuff. And with Coach Franklin coming back, I knew I could do a lot more.
What should fans know about this group as you guys get ready to embark on the season?
One thing I would say is our defense, the way we’re going to play is with a chip on our shoulder. Like Coach Pry, he feels like it wasn’t right for him. He’s going to have a chip on his shoulder. Coach Franklin, it wasn’t right for him. He’s going to have a chip on his shoulder. For me, I felt like it didn’t go the way I wanted to. I’m going to have a chip on my shoulder, so that’s how we’re going to play. We’re going to play angry, and that’s how you’ve got to play to be a good defense.
Do you like the way that this defense is set up instead of what it was last year? You’re in more of an attack mode.
Oh, yeah. I like how it is. Last year, we had more of a three-down. Basically, that’s a nose guard in the middle and then two defensive ends on the inside. You’re getting a lot of double teams and it’s not really the best. You’ve got to sit and read. But this year we have a four-down, and I can use my talents, just get off, be explosive. I don’t have to read as much.
When you’ve got four guys in there, they can’t really afford to double-team you.
Yeah, so I get a lot of one-on-one blocks, and that’s good. I don’t think anybody can block me in the ACC. I’m confident in that.
Kemari, you’re quite the TikTok star. You’ve got 152,000 followers and over nine million likes on your page. How much do you enjoy that?
I’ve always loved social media. In the beginning, it was more of a YouTube thing. Started posting on YouTube, and then as TikTok blew up, my brother told me, “If you keep posting on TikTok, it’ll blow up. You stay consistent.” When I was at Army, I vowed to myself like, “I’m going to post three times a day,” and I started posting stuff.
My weightlifting stuff, that’s what actually got me out there because people will see the stuff I lift and they’re like, “Dang, what the heck?” That’s when it actually started to blow up. And yeah, I just kept posting, kept staying with it, and then I got here. With Hokie Nation, I gained like 60,000 followers when I got here, just from posting football stuff.
Mike, we’re going to get you TikTok so you can see his content.
I’ve got to get you in a video!
No arm wrestling, though.
No, you’ve got that. I don’t want any of that.
What can you share about Chuck Losey and Jarrett Ferguson in the weight room helping you out?
Coach Losey, he’s a huge reason I am the way I am now. I was 280. He talked to all of the D-linemen. He was like, “Your weight is not what we need to get to that next level.” And this was like in the winter, and like we all sat down and knew we had to have a plan. He told us to eat as much protein as we can and stack as many calories every day.
The whole D-line, we’ve gained a bunch of weight, and I could say he’s helped us a lot strength-wise. Our workouts are a lot harder. Some days you don’t like it, but you’ve just got to get it done. And our D-line has gotten a lot stronger and better.
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