What does Saturday’s lopsided VMI win say for James Franklin after just one game?
The contest was nice to celebrate off the field, but on, it was a glorified scrimmage. Virginia Military Institute was outmanned and outplayed.
Now, I believe playing an in-state school like this one is important. It simply is not enough to tell us what this team with a new coach will truly be.
Franklin found mistakes and problems at the end of the game, which is a good sign for what he is hoping to establish in Blacksburg. The mistakes, he said, must be cleaned up in the future. They also had 11 penalties for 93 yards.
“When I kind of look back, those are the things I’m disappointed with in the penalties, specifically the pre-snap penalties and the post-whistle penalties. We’ve got to get those things cleaned up because that was really the only time we struggled was when we hurt ourselves.”
Franklin said the offense did what they were supposed to do and the defense did what they were supposed to do.
“It is difficult to play an option team that specializes in running the ball and hold them to negative rushing yards. We were able to get them off schedule and make them uncomfortable.”
Again, it was hard to tell how good this team can be just because of the competition. VMI is not a normal football program nor is it a Power 5 school.
This week’s Old Dominion University game will help on the back end to tell Franklin more what he has to work with.
But in the midst of all of this, is the question what will it take for Hokie fans to find satisfaction in Franklin’s first year? None of us know that answer after just one week.
The easiest answer would be an eight-win season. Is that possible? Yes, but it will take more effort and clearing up the mistakes from this past week.
Franklin has set the bar high, but we must remember what happened in Justin Fuente’s first year. That success was thanks to what Frank Beamer left him.
In this case, Franklin has had to rebuild and reload a roster which needed a lot of help.
The talent is there. Now, they gotta go out and prove it. We will see, but it could be week eight before we know what this new chapter in Hokie football has in store.
