Marty Gordon
NRVsports@ourvalley.org
The top sports story for the New River Valley centered on the Virginia Tech football program. One coach was fired, and another hired. The question is whether it will make a difference in the end result for the university.
In September, Brent Pry was relieved of his head coaching duties. University officials said unfortunately, the results on the field were not acceptable and a change in leadership was necessary. Philip Montgomery served as interim head coach.
Pry was 16-24 in his three years in Blacksburg.
During the new coaching search, Athletic Director Whit Babcock introduced a plan to the university’s board of visitors to pump close to $229 million into the athletic program.
The additional monies planned investment in athletics over four years, which includes both internal and external sources, provides bridge funding to reach a sustainable financial position by the 2029 fiscal year.
“Virginia Tech is at a historic juncture in the history of Hokie Athletics,” Virginia Tech President Tim Sands said.
The national debut of capped student-athlete revenue sharing and name, image and likeness licensing regulation, and the ACC’s media revenue distribution tied directly to viewership and success for the first time, gives Virginia Tech an opportunity to reset the organization to align with the new realities at the national and ACC levels, according to Sands.
“It has never been clearer that the future of Hokie Athletics will depend on the institutional commitment to compete, in partnership with our alumni and supporters,” Sands said. “Today, we are stepping up to compete, and we ask our loyal fans and generous donors to step forward with us.”
In passing the resolution, the university and its board members acknowledged the many positive outcomes of a strong athletics program. Long term and sustainable success in Virginia Tech’s intercollegiate athletics program creates indelible shared experiences for students and alumni; it is essential to the regional economy and enhances national brand recognition thereby increasing opportunities to recruit student, employee, and partner talent across the nation needed to enhance institutional impact in teaching, and learning, discovery, and engagement.
“We are fortunate to be in a position to make this investment in athletics without impacting the operational funding needed to maintain the strong momentum of our academic enterprise,” Sands said. “We also recognize that this strategic decision to invest discretionary resources in athletics now may limit our flexibility in the near future, and we will be closely monitoring this investment to ensure the funds are spent wisely.”
Sands will appoint an Athletics Investment Oversight Committee to advise him and board members throughout this process. Given the dynamic environment of intercollegiate athletics and potential shifts in future economic conditions, the board will reserve the ability to amend the supplementary budget for any fiscal year as necessary.
This investment plan approved by the board will allow the university to modernize its athletic operations to be competitive in a new, more professionalized environment. Specifically, the plan will support:
A new “front office” for football to manage recruiting, talent development and operations; resources to attract and retain talented coaches in a highly competitive market; additional operating support for athletics teams; investments in Olympic sports; and infrastructure improvements to several facilities to improve the athlete and fan experience.
The next step was to find a new head coach.
A search committee was then formed to identify the Hokies’ next head football coach, and just a month later, information leaked that the group had centered on former Penn State coach James Franklin.
Franklin brings more than 30 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level, most recently serving as head coach at Penn State. Franklin’s career head coaching record is 128-60 and he is one of three active FBS coaches with a 68-plus winning percentage and 14-plus years of head coaching experience. His 104 wins in his 12 seasons as head coach at Penn State are the second most wins in school history.
In a few weeks, Franklin’s arrival had generated 35.8 million views about Virginia Tech across social platforms. His recruiting effort also quickly moved the needle as he signed 20-plus players by the National Signing Day. Several of those players were ones he had recruited at Penn State.
Tech’s recruiting class would then jump 100-plus spots to No. 23 nationally.
As Franklin started putting his staff together, he also brought back Pry as his defensive coordinator.
Now the next era of football begins at Virginia Tech.
