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J
JHHOKIE OP
Oct 29, 2025 at 12:05 AM ET
Franklin can’t win big games at PSU. Would VT be different?
Not from where I sit.

38 Replies

9
97Hokie
9mo
Let’s start with being relevant again.
V
VTKATT
9mo
Third times the charm?
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DLDesk
9mo
We cant get to big games so he should be good!
banishedtothelounge banishedtothelounge
9mo
We can't win enough to get into a 'big game'...
M
marcbvtgm
9mo
Doubtful. Didn't win them at Vandy either. Certainly not worth the risk.
V
VT ChemE 1986
9mo
He didn’t have “My sweet boy, Diego”
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marcbvtgm
9mo
He had a QB who hung around the NFL for 2-3 seasons. And a pretty good RB.
Of course, neither was recruited by him.
S
Synaesthesia
9mo
VT winning 10+ games a year, but never against top-5, was VT's golden age
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DDhokie31
9mo
What coach is available that has consistently beat top 10 teams? Good luck
M
marcbvtgm
9mo
With top 10 resources? Probably some. But definitely not Franklin.
H
Happy Dog
9mo
Saban
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DDhokie31
9mo
Key word is "available". No chance in hell he comes to VT
H
Happy Dog
9mo
He's available if Miss Terry says he is! Lot of $$$ out there.....
AbsolutVT03 AbsolutVT03
9mo
No idea... but right now we're not even winning little games. If we get to
the point where losing big games matters then it means we will have improved a lot.
Techsupport Techsupport
9mo
Couldn't win the big one vs Never been to the big one. Thats the choice
I'll take a guy that has rebuilt 2 P4 programs from the ashes all day every day. Anything after that is a dice roll. You're looking for a guy that doesn't exist right now, and if he did, he'll be wearing blue/orange or purple/gold.
bigbadbird bigbadbird
9mo
Are we waiting for coach to show up in a chariot and sweep us off our feet?
1MetroHokie 1MetroHokie
9mo
Calling Ben Hur. 😊
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hburghokie09
9mo
Easier to win big ACC games than in the B1G
Would you take Beamer at his heyday at this point? His record vs top 10 was 8-33. I'd take competing for ACC titles most years and I think Franklin could do that.
1
1947Sunbowl
9mo
VT first has to win game
The brand first has to get to average 9-10 games a year, THEN we consider big games. HOWEVER PSU is experiencing the spoils of going to the playoffs and no where to go. Before PSU joined the Big 10, they had a wonderful program all together, every win was great, a lose damn but we get better. Joe Pa had it rolling. (lets dont for this discussion talk about the scandal). They got to the Big 10, and while their fan bases travel plans for road games changed alot (from East coast to mid west, they still had the same . After the problems, and two coaches, Franklin came in and brought them up to the national stage, It was good for a while for the fan base, but 1 game or 2 every year, agh. but Franklin had them on the national stage. (JUST LIKE VT in 2000-2010. PSU now as a program is a jauganaut as an athletic dept. YOu have a different fan base now, then when Franklin came. Higher expectations, (goes along with the 800 million dollar renovation of the stadium).... IT was perhaps time to go. No VT needs that rebuild job to be a consistent 10-2 9-3 program. (that is what historically Miami, FSU and Clemson are). as well as national presence. If he can do that, he would have built a foundation that is sustainable.
V
VT ChemE 1986
9mo
I do not trust any coach who has had success with the resources of PSU
I want someone who has proven they can achieve success only a budget. In particular we need someone who can build a player pipeline from scratch. Pry and Franklin always had the benefit of recruiting based upon the PSU name. Once Pry lost that we all got to see what was really under the hood.
reestuart reestuart
9mo
At this point, it would be nice for VT to play in some big games.
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Vippie1
9mo
Lol, what i would give to have big meaningful games to lose again at VT
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mlewisr
9mo
You got that right Chesney would be a better choice
Franklin's career record against AP-ranked top-10 teams, including his time as a head coach at both Vanderbilt and Penn State, is currently 4-26. That includes a 1-18 record (.053) against top-5 squads, and Franklin is also 17-36 overall (.321) against AP Top 25 ranked teams in general. When trimming those numbers to his Penn State tenure alone, Franklin's top-5 record is 1-15 (.063), top-10 record is 4-21 (.167) and top-25 record is 16-29 (.364).
AbsolutVT03 AbsolutVT03
9mo
What is Chesney's record? Never mind that I think the vs Top 5 or whatever
stat is overblown and misleading. If you're playing a true top 5 team then you should lose most of the time. This is especially true if you are not a top 5 team. There's also the caveat of how you count Top X teams. Is it their ranking at the time of the game? End of the season? Are you using a specific poll or ranking or any of them or all of them? What if you beat a Top 5 team in game one but that team turns out to be vastly overrated? Conversely if you beat a team early that is underrated and they end up in the Top 10 that win doesn't count towards the stat but it probably should. The point there is you can massage the numbers to make a Top X stat look better or worse than it really is depending on the point you're trying to make. As far as VT and the new coach, whoever we end up with is going to have some flaws or cons or reasons he could fail here. It's kind of a crap shoot really. Even if we went out and poached a current, successful, proven coach from the SEC or Big 10 there's no guarantee it would work. Lincoln Riley and Brian Kelly are two examples of that (Kelly more so right now obviously). At this point I'm ready to support whoever we hire and let them get to work.
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mlewisr
9mo
Good points
Agree but at what cost? Mike Elko is making 7mm for 6 years and Brent Key is making 4mm. Those numbers will be going up, but it gave the teams a chance to see if they would pan out before they gave them the big $. There have been allot of recent examples of paying large long term $ to Coaches that have not worked out.
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Marooned
9mo
James Franklin may be in a better position to defer
His compensation, since he’s getting the big bucks from PSU. Putting that increment into the roster should be a big incentive.
Techsupport Techsupport
9mo
So he's "basically" tracking with Frank Beamer.
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Happy Dog
9mo
Agree with you on that - Chesney is on the rise, and we should rise as well
Tuckahokie Tuckahokie
9mo
He has a bunch of Top-10 finishes (maybe 5?) in his decade at PSU which
is similar to Frank's best stretch...that doesn't sound bad.
M
marcbvtgm
9mo
Except Franklin underachieved given his resources & talent. FB overachieved
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Happy Dog
9mo
Right now we can't win big OR little games, so........
H
HokiesACC2004
9mo
He's not my first choice but we could do a lot worse
M
marcbvtgm
9mo
We could do worse...that's the attitude for success right there
JRHokie JRHokie
9mo
Whose your Choice ? Just wondering..
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HokiesACC2004
9mo
I would roll the dice with Bob Chesney
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Happy Dog
9mo
With you on that - Franklin is the safe choice, Chesney is out-of-the-box
VT inferiority complex won't allow us to pick Chesney. We will go with the safe "name" choice if it's Franklin, and that will probably be fine.
Tuckahokie Tuckahokie
9mo
JMU has been getting uppity lately...that would be humorous at least :>)
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Happy Dog
9mo
They've earned it - they are playing good football
Watched some of their game last night. They are pretty relentless and get better as the game goes on. I'm really impressed with them. I'd be absolutely fine with Chesney. I'm actually more concerned with the GM than the head coach.