© Brian Bishop/Imagn
It sure sounds as if there’s no love lost between new Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin and his former employer, the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Franklin was fired midseason following back-to-back losses to UCLA and Northwestern that dropped the Nittany Lions to 3-3 after beginning the season ranked No. 2 in the country.
His firing came as a surprise to many, as Penn State reached the College Football Playoff semifinals a year ago, albeit with a fortuitous path through the bracket.
Now, in his first team meeting with Virginia Tech players, Franklin explained the fallout at Penn State and took a shot at the school in the process.
James Franklin Says He Lost To UCLA & Northwestern Because He Cares About Players
On Thursday, the Hokies released a YouTube video profiling Franklin’s first 72 hours in Blacksburg. As part of the video, it showed a clip from Franklin’s first team meeting with his new Virginia Tech players.
Around the 3:40 mark of the video, Franklin talks about where things went wrong in Happy Valley.
“I’m a players’ coach,” he began. “That’s all I care about. When things changed at Penn State, the reason I struggled is because I care about the players.”
That is…certainly one view of it.
For one, it implies that the rest of the admin at Penn State did not care about the players, which is a pretty bold stance. But also, I’m not sure how caring about the players would lead to a far more talented team losing to UCLA and Northwestern.
If he had cared about the players less, would Penn State have won those games?
Is Franklin referring to caring about certain players specifically? If so, what about the other players? And if he’s referring to every player, what specifically about caring about them led to the downfall?
It’s just an extremely bizarre way to both explain away very real shortcomings and to take a shot at your previous employer. But hey, if he wins in Blacksburg to any extent at all, it’ll be better than the last two coaches the Hokies had.