There is a narrative developing among certian local NRV sports PR/media
folks that Franklin is shutting out local media, etc. This element has been critical of his locking down Merriman center, etc. and his desire to have excessive control. My guess is there are local boosters who will feel similar if they do not yet. My feeling is in many ways VT locals have been spoiled for years and Beamer, MY, and Pry levels of access and laid back approach are not typical of majority of sucessful Coaches. They should be asking themselves if Franklin's approach is more like Nick Saban. or was Saban more like Beamer and Pry?
We know Brent Pry had some time management issues that were part of his failure as HC. Could it be that allowing local boosters and local media to just drop in on folks by walking through Merryman contributed to the problem. If one is a friendly personable type and you do not limit access to building, then it may be coach or coaches who strike up conversation with someone cutting through even if the booster or local media guy/gal had no intent on dropping in to try and get access ot coach, etc. Also, some have complained of very structured and limited time for presser introducing coaching staff. Could it be that Brent Pry was too nice and allowed media to take up too much of his and his assistants time? Yes, one needs to allow acccess and fans want info. that is provided by local media. Flip side of this is that time for coaches and players is a distraction from tasks that prepare and training team to win on the field.
Finally, some have complained that Frankin is getting out info through National meda that he has relstionship with vice local guys. Well, there are several legit reasons doing this may be more benefical to VT Football program and Franklin personally. Local media is not going to get VT attention that will help VT have higher profile for national recruits and even many in the so called footprint. So getting VT name in national ESPN vice local media benefits recruiting raising profile of VT in a way local media cannot. Also, Franklin did not get national reputation by just talking to Happy Valley media. Bottomline if you as coach and program want a higher "nationaly revevant" profile you do not get it by spending time with local media. I think Franklin is aware enough and listen's enough where he will not totally shut out or shun local media, they can help with fans support and fundraising. However, it is going to be different and less laid back and more time managed than it was under Pry. This is imho necessary and a good thing.
61 Replies
5mo
If you are changing a long-time culture to be something more transactional and driven in order to achieve the main goal (in this case, to win), then you almost have to do things that piss off the established power brokers. You have to bust it up, and that isn't pretty. Now, whether the things being done all have to be done, and whether they are being done in an acceptable manner, are different questions that may or may not matter.
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
All the while trying to rebuild a program that was nearly burnt to the ground. Look at the recruiting and transfer class he had to work to bring in. Small market papers need to get over themselves; Franklin is here to first and foremost restore VT to a Top 25 and National Program, not spend his days on the radio with Jim Bob from ESPN Radford.
** Edited by VTFinance10 at 2/11/2026, 7:21:29 AM
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
access he's had in the past. He definitely got a big boost when he initially took the job, but that's not going to last. He doesn't need to bend over backwards for the locals, including TSL, but he is going to need to give at least some access.
(In response to this post by VTFinance10)
5mo
More than MC does at PSU he will.
(In response to this post by reestuart)
5mo
media is ABSOLUTELY the way to go, and VT fans should be happy if Franklin is taking a national approach, because I know I'd rather read on TSL about the Hokies winning football games, rather than reading insider gossip or coaches quotes about reasons why we aren't winning. Winning is all that matters.
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
have been spoiled rotten by extremely and excessively generous access over the years by 1st Frank Beamer and then Brent Pry as well as MY. They reacted very negatively to Fu's limited and introvert approach more and more the less he won. Some whined to high heaven about Buzz even when he was winning, can't argue too much about how folks have felt because of the way he left.
Once folks are given something they feel entitled too it, nobody likes change. Hence their will be excessive whining about Franklin. If he wins won't matter much.
As for TSL, you guys will have to adjust whining will accomplish nothing. Probably have already done it but should probably talk to local PSU media folks as to best approach to get most interesting content and access.
(In response to this post by Scream_On_D)
5mo
If he is sentient, and/or has feelings/emotions... this side of Coach Spock; it would be hard not to... be tuff to have no leftover aluminum-foil clad heady effects Eye reckon.
That, and Sexton bent them forward and they said: "ahhhhhh" on every, single, issue.
D. All of the above. Indeeds... in, ♠️'s... most plural.
💯,
b.street
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
(In response to this post by AnotherTechW)
5mo
And vt is a national brand and pushing it. I always remember buZz when hired was on ncaa playoffs and he had vt logo on. Vt got more national exposure than any article in roanoke
(In response to this post by vtox1)
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Vippie1
5mo
basically in not so many words he conveyed - you locals cant help further my career/brand so screw ya, I'll be an ass. But if you had a bit of national clout, he'd give you the full court BS/Buzz charm-press so you could spread the Buzz gospel about how unique and erudite he is.
Whatever CJF is doing I'm pretty sure it is about what he believes is best for VT football, not CJF.
** Edited by Vippie1 at 2/11/2026, 8:39:18 AM
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
thing. Everyone is different, does thing different. The benefits of great national relationships is that you can recruit nationally. Maybe being the local darling led those past coaches to not be great recruiters. I'm sure our fans will pick at everything not done like it was, even though they complained that it wasn't done right.
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
From a fan perspective, like Pete D'Amour says, "Let the man cook."
Here at TSL, we understandably have a different viewpoint. I've got four guys whose jobs are to produce VT-related content, and football drives the bus. David is very busy with hoops and his role as Managing Editor, so he's not really affected by a football shutout. Nick Brown also stays really busy as Director of Media.
That leaves Chris and Andy. Chris more than Andy is capable of producing content without access, because we didn't have media access the first seven years of Chris's career, and he learned how to write without it. Andy relies on access more than Chris does, because Andy is a classically-trained journalist who lets his subjects do the talking, and he (partially) builds his content around that. He's capable of writing columns, and often does, but he gets very antsy if he can't ask questions and get answers from the people he's covering. There's only so many mailbags you can do if you're Andy.
Without access and info, we also run into situations where we've got overlap. For example, Chris is currently doing positional breakdowns, and Andy is just as capable of doing them and doing them just as well ... but Chris is already doing them.
These guys WANT to work. They want to tell stories and provide value to our subscribers. Lack of access makes that more difficult.
We'll keep working on ideas for the offseason.
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
subscription to Techsideline primarily due to what is happening with the football program and James Franklin's leadership. I'd be surprised if this is not the case with many VT fans. Since I've been subscribed to TSL I have gotten EXACTLY what I was seeking... great in-depth sports journalism. For example, the position-by-position analysis articles have been awesome. So, as a fan, I see the football program and day-to-day football reporting by TSL as symbiotic. I'm sure the TSL side realizes this. FANS are why any of this matters. VT fans have a national reputation (even when the team has struggled) and fans fill seats and contribute to initiatives and love to be engaged. TSL is the BEST and, truly, the ONLY source of its type. As I've seen first-hand as a fairly new subscriber, VT Football NEEDS TSL. Yes, Coach Franklin, the national media is a great tool which will help VT Football to become relevant again. It will help in nationwide recruitment. It is absolutely necessary if VT football is to become the program that all of us long to see. But, the fans want daily, expanded information from a source that is locally-based with a boots-on-the-ground style of reporting. That level of fan engagement is also what it takes if VT Football intends to achieve long-term excellence. We expect it. We are the ones in the seats (and, frequently, out of our seats!)
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
L
lazarus1
5mo
reminds CJF that providing some access to local media like TSL helps inform the fans and boosters who help to pay for the program including coaching salaries. The question is, do we have an AD who himself provides access so you can tell him that. In any event I wouldn't be overly concerned unless he still is refusing access by say the Spring. I saw where he is on the road in Massachusetts recruiting so he is staying busy for now.
** Edited by lazarus1 at 2/10/2026, 11:44:56 AM
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
Football drives the ENTIRE athletic department, everything else is secondary, and the BIG givers came in ONLY because of VT commitment.
VT is doing quite fine on developing a top 10 National Program.
(In response to this post by lazarus1)
5mo
But, other than that Whit has zero ability to tell Franklin to do anything with any authority. Whit is here to serve and support Franklin not vice versa.
(In response to this post by 1947Sunbowl)
5mo
If you were Franklin would you take media advice from Whit?
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
He was on the road in January. February is the dead period. No in-person recruiting, either on campus or off campus.
February is a football coach's least busiest month of the entire year, except for about a two-week stretch in July when they all go on vacation. If their reasoning is "we're busy", well, they aren't going to get any less busy.
(In response to this post by lazarus1)
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lazarus1
5mo
schedule but that it's the AD's job to make the coach available; and, if Whit wanted to he could make that happen for a brief one hour interview; but Whit himself is not available to ask him to do his job.
** Edited by lazarus1 at 2/10/2026, 3:22:13 PM
(In response to this post by Chris Coleman)
5mo
Franklin is available only if he wants to be available.
(In response to this post by lazarus1)
5mo
the avatars?
It would be a fun experiment and I bet the answers would not be that dissimilar.
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
Media access is a choice. They want press that are not cynical and constructive. I would say the snarkier the reporter the lower the totem pole
(In response to this post by goodbadugly)
5mo
With the hubbub* lately around the VTAD, its probably difficult to get anyone to settle down for a podcast. Get the head cheerleader or Hi-Tech member for a glimpse into their activities.
* Got this from Connections this morning
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
continue your relationship with Pry. Try to get him back on the podcast if Franklin won’t do it. Seems like he might encourage Franklin to warm up to TSL if you can leverage the prior relationship with Pry to provide some positive coverage of the team and Pry.
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
We can request interviews all we want. We request them via Travis Wells. Travis takes them to the football staff ... who often just doesn't answer. Because they don't prioritize it.
I've been requesting Franklin on the podcast ever since he was hired (though we did lay off during December and January while he was hiring staff and working the portal.) Travis says things like, "It's on my list to discuss with him." "We've talked about it." "It's just a matter of finding time." Etc.
Nick has been requesting interviews of basketball personnel. They've quit responding.
Baseball? Great -- Szefc is coming on soon. Wrestling? Tony's coming on the pod soon. Softball? Pete loves being on the pod.
Football and MBB? Eh. WBB? I'm not sure where that lands right now, but Megan Duffy has been pretty accommodating in the past. She's no Kenny, haha (he would do long pods and then hang around afterwards talking), but she makes time and does a good job.
** Edited by Will Stewart at 2/10/2026, 9:47:19 AM
(In response to this post by vatechcowpatty)
5mo
access moving forward. If he grants no access then there is no reason for media to follow the rules and they can just directly reach out to anyone they want with no repercussions, since the only card Franklin can use to control the media is access.
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
then I'd suggest you find others to interview, like former VT players in all sports. I believe you'd have several hundreds of former VT football players over the last 40+ years that would love to come on TSL to chat about old times, tell their fun stories, and/or give their perspectives on current VT sports as former players - and it doesn't have to be stars or players that went professional for the podcasts to be interesting. You also have hundreds of players from basketball, baseball, softball, wrestling, and other sports to choose from. Tell Andy to stop worrying about interviewing coaches (because they're just going to give you guys the same "coach speak" anyway [and we're definitely tired of hearing that from the past 10 years]) and have Andy start making phone calls to the hundreds of former VT athletes out there to interview or do podcasts...how about a group podcast with 3 former VT players (one from each decade over the last 30 years) and quiz them or make a competition or game of it...it'd be a blast, and once you find some lively former VT players or even former VT coaches that are fan favorites you could bring them back periodically during the season to comment on games or give us their predictions...what about interviewing some of your long-time TSL members and let them chat a bit about why they've been Hokies and TSL members for so long,...IMO you have unlimited Hokies that Andy and TSL could interview.
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
"what about interviewing some of your long-time TSL members and let them chat a bit about why they've been Hokies and TSL members for so long"
Uh, no. That would get very few views and very little interest.
As for interviewing former athletes and coaches, that's trickier than you would think, but it is a gold mine if mined properly. It would surprise you how few of them are good interviews, how few of them have good setups for remote interviews (most people have no clue, even with coaching, how to look and sound good remotely), how few of them can commit to an interview (much less a regular feature), etc. But it can be done. We have only begun to tap the possibilities with our new studio.
(In response to this post by Scream_On_D)
G
GBOHokie
5mo
What TSL represents? By that, how many alumni, how many Hokie club members, season ticket holders, past ambassadorships you have done for fund raising, how much was raised. I don’t know how significant the numbers would be. But it could help get the door maybe opened a little bit. They are busy doing cost benefit analysis. It cost me this much time to do this and this is what I think my return will be. No different than any other business. I talk on ESPN and X number hears me. I talk to TSL, well you bring a much smaller but loyal group. Hope they recognize that. I am guessing some of Chips work is why Pete will talk. Also just his personality. Even if not Franklin maybe you could get Pry back.
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
highly entertaining!
(In response to this post by Scream_On_D)
5mo
Ruggerio and Rocco can't be that busy.
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
2
2hhoop3
5mo
sounds like a tough situation. If they win this type of behavior likely doesn't amount to much for them. If they lose or need a favor this type behavior could bite them in the behind. VT's communication strategy, both as a University and especially as an athletic department, has raised more questions than answers provided over the last decade or more. I wish you good luck!
** Edited by 2hhoop3 at 2/10/2026, 9:18:11 PM
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
H
HokieSA
5mo
Is that a CMY thing? Stephanie Ballein? Or the SID over MBB? Obviously Mike has done the podcast (pre-season) and all in all seems like he'd be very accomodating. Is it just a this time of year thing/middle of stretch run of season that they're not accomodating?
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
time and season. He can do interviews after the season is over.
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
I view TSL as being in the position to be a key media tool that helps VT. They should want to come to you in order to help describe and promote each of the aspects of the vision for VT athletics. It's all laid out in the BOV deck and in the statements from CJF.
The key for access is in the stories about things that are top priority for the VT coaches and admin. The "value add" to use corporate buzz words.
And FYI, this is not a criticism, just an outside perspective on how to help break through the access barrier.
** Edited by HokieAl at 2/10/2026, 2:43:00 PM
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
who might bring it up to Pry?
I’m just thinking Pry might be your long winding detour to Franklin.
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
In general, I think we need to discuss the access issue as a company and set a strategy for whom to request, what channel (interview/podcast), via whom, etc.
One of the things we run into -- FREQUENTLY -- is that we'll request someone, and instead of just granting the interview, VT will delay, delay, delay, then make that person available to everyone via Zoom.
That's another thing y'all need to understand. The major sports are loathe to grant "exclusive" one-on-one interviews because, when they do, other outlets ***** about it. (Including us, maybe?) Sons of Saturday tends to get some exclusive interviews, but we think that's probably just because they DM the athletes directly, and the athletes say yes. They got Neo and Tobi, for example. We've requested both through formal channels, and .... LOL. Nope.
(In response to this post by vatechcowpatty)
V
VT72
5mo
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
😉🤜🤛🫵👍
(In response to this post by Will Stewart)
5mo
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
I can see why he kicked everyone else out of Merryman. Having the football team share a building isn't "big time", and that's what he said he is trying to build. In his interviews he hints that we still have a lot of work to do in that regard. Whomever our next coach is will certainly appreciate his efforts. On sitting down with the local media, I can understand why its a lower priority, especially right now. It's not like he wasn't working. He's given them a lots to write about and discuss on their platforms. Just let the man cook. IMO he was too busy re-recruiting his PSU high school recruiting class, building our transfer portal class, and hiring his coaching staff to pal around with the local media. I guess I'm not seeing that there would be much of a difference in the content the local media is putting out other than some extra Franklin quotes here and there, which would be fluff. I didn't get a whole lot out of Pry's openness. At first I appreciated it, but it quickly became an avenue for him to mention things that quite frankly it was his job to fix, and I felt like he was talking about his team as if he is one of us.
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
(In response to this post by TekkNerd)
5mo
I love Franklin by the way. But, we went to the Moon. We have satellite imagery that can spot the size of a baseball from space. We have AI that's helping develop molecular formulas to fight cancer and disease. Yes......even at 3 and 9 and the HC of VT Football, he could find 1 hour for an interview.
(In response to this post by VTFinance10)
R
RJHokie
5mo
I’ve seen similar posts, perhaps from you as well, about this. Your thoughts make sense though. Franklin definitely wants national media exposure.
The Merryman situation supposedly resulted from a Franklin staff member believing Merryman should be a football only facility and apparently Franklin agreed. One problem that arose was access to the wrestling locker room and practice area was cut off, and they had to work that out.
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
to any media whatsoever. If he’s devoting his time to scheming ways to crush our opponents rather than spouting niceties and coach speak in the media, that’s perfectly fine with me.
(In response to this post by vtox1)
5mo
opponents. That’s really all that matters. Could care less to hear him in questions and answers by local media. All hes thinking about is on a much higher level, making Virginia Tech a national conversation, which will indeed help with awareness and recruiting of Virginia Tech across the country.
(In response to this post by Zanderhokie)
5mo
The local media and access by non-football persons is pure noise. Let them concentrate on football and only football.
(In response to this post by Zanderhokie)