BLACKSBURG — From the James Franklin Effect to the James Madison cancellation. From Brent Pry’s return to imminent Merryman Center upgrades. From jersey patches and field logos to his own job security.
Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock addressed those matters, and more, during an hour-plus, one-on-one conversation in his office Tuesday afternoon.
On the job for a dozen years, longer than any of his ACC peers except soon-to-be retired Bubba Cunningham at North Carolina, Babcock was optimistic, reflective and remorseful.
“I’m really glad that 2025 is over,” he said in his first interview since Franklin’s November introduction as the Hokies’ football coach. “A new chapter, a new challenge. It wasn’t good enough last year, and we need to keep making strides and get it back to where it needs to be.”
Tech endured myriad trials across multiple sports in calendar 2025, but none remotely as scarring as football’s 3-9 season, the program’s worst since 1992.
An unsightly 0-3 start prompted the university to dismiss Pry in mid-September, commencing a two-month search that many fans believed should not be delegated to Babcock.
He, after all, hired Justin Fuente to succeed Hall of Famer Frank Beamer after the 2015 season. And six years later, he hired Pry, then Franklin’s defensive coordinator at Penn State, to replace the deposed Fuente.
Why entrust Babcock with a third football search? ’Twas a fair question and one he understood.
But Babcock, well-versed and connected in the agent world, teamed with Tech’s search committee to land Franklin, who in three seasons leading Vanderbilt and 11-plus guiding Penn State, crafted his own Hall of Fame resume, only to get dumped midway through last season with the Nittany Lions at 3-3 and one year removed from the College Football Playoff semifinals.
David Teel: James Franklin wanted to coach again — at Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech President Tim Sands, Franklin and members of the search committee, which included former Hokies defensive coordinator Bud Foster, extolled Babcock’s role in the process, but he remains uninterested in the applause.
I asked him why.
“Yeah, there’s a lot to that one,” he said. “I guess one thing I would say is you’re not going to see me on the trophy stand when we win a conference title. I’d rather the (coaches) and team be out front. I didn’t feel the need to take a victory lap. I just wanted to do right by this place.
“When times are tough, it will draw you inward, makes you a little more insular. I just wanted to help hire the best coach possible and help them get up and running.”
‘A bit embarrassed’
Babcock long ago grew accustomed to the barbs inevitably directed at athletic directors and coaches, but it pained him to see their effect on his wife and their three sons. Landing Franklin has quieted, not silenced mind you, the critics and, in some cases, changed the tenor of Babcock’s interactions with fans and donors.
“I need to get better at that messaging, communicating to the fan base,” he said. “Kind of got knocked on my heels last year. Just was a bit embarrassed that we didn’t meet the standard that they expect. … If there’s anything they need to know it’s that we care and work hard every day to make it better.”
Babcock is contracted through 2029, but have Sands and the Board of Visitors assured him that his job is secure?
“Yes,” he said, “but I know I need to earn that every day. … Getting my feet back under me, and it’s nice to play some offense.”
The freedom to play offense is two-pronged. In late September, the Board of Visitors approved $229.2 million in additional university support of athletics over the next four years, an infusion that helped lure Franklin to Blacksburg.
When Tech dismissed Pry, Penn State was 3-0 and ranked No. 2 behind Ohio State in the national polls. No one could have fathomed Franklin as a Hokie.
But when consecutive setbacks to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern led Nittany Lions brass to dump Franklin, Tech officials pounced.
The ensuing two months have been a whirlwind as Franklin and his staff secured a high school recruiting class ranked among the nation’s top 30 and a transfer class rated among the top 20.
More than 30,000 people watched his introductory news conference live on YouTube or X, and within two weeks the Hokies had generated more than $1 million in ticket revenue, according to internal documents shared with The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press. Tech estimates an audience reach of more than 40 million since Franklin’s arrival, and the Hokie Scholarship Fund’s annual drive already has exceeded $18 million, with more than a month remaining in the campaign.
Virginia Tech Hokies head coach James Franklin stands on sidelines prior to a game between Miami and Virginia Tech Hokies at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia., on November 22, 2025. (Photo by Seth Halsey / Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
“He’s certainly hit the ground running,” Babcock said. “Relentless energy, attention to detail … I like that he’s got a chip on his shoulder with something to prove. We all do at Virginia Tech. Very thankful to the board and campus for the additional funding, which enabled us to go all-in on a coach like that.
“He has had an organized approach since Day 1, and we’re running to keep up with him. Ticket sales, positive energy, philanthropy, hope, hope for a brighter day and excitement for this next chapter. He’s had a huge impact on all of that.”
During his Nov. 18 introduction, Franklin spoke eloquently and emotionally of his decades-long friendship with Pry, dating to Franklin’s playing days at East Stroudsburg in the early 1990s, where Pry’s father was the offensive coordinator and Pry was a graduate assistant coach. Pry later worked for Franklin at Vandy and Penn State, and now, in a crazy twist, is again at Virginia Tech as defensive coordinator.
‘He embraces Virginia Tech’
New Virginia Tech football coach James Franklin, second from right, holds up a No. 25 jersey with, from left, Virginia Tech Board of Visitors member John Rocovich, Virginia Tech president Timothy Sands and athletic director Whit Babcock after Franklin was introduced on Nov. 19, 2025. (Robert Simmons/AP)
During the search for Pry’s successor, Babcock and Pry met at Pry’s home for what Babcock called “a personal” conversation, one that mitigated some of the hurt from Pry’s ouster. Little did they realize.
“I have to believe after being a head coach that he can only be better as a coordinator,” Babcock said. “… And I really admire Coach Pry’s humility in doing it. He embraces Virginia Tech. He was going to stay here and live. … I think it’s wonderful.
“It is really unique, but that’s a unique relationship, and we’re planning on it being successful.”
For all the Hokies intel Franklin gathered from Pry during the search, he accepted the job without having set foot in the Merryman Center, the football’s operations hub. Suffice to say, it pales to what Franklin had at Penn State.
Franklin has said that he wants Tech “to look, feel and smell” like a top-shelf program, and in his mind, Merryman does not fit the bill. That’s why the university is poised to, literally, raise the Merryman roof to provide the football program more space for its expanded support staff.
“While I’m proud of the renovations we’ve made,” Babcock said, “they’ve been kind of piecemealed together. So, we have a vision and money, and we will start this year sooner than later, where it will look completely different. We’re rerouting traffic to make it a more football-only facility, which we’ve been wanting to do for a long time. That will start very soon. People will see a noticeable difference.
“Facilities do matter, maybe not as much in the NIL and rev-share era, but it still shows big-time commitment that something is important here, and that was at the top of his list. Fortunately, with our additional funding support and philanthropy, we don’t have to wait and we can go. It will really knock some people’s socks off, include a new recovery facility, more NFL-like. We have some renderings and hopefully soon we can release those.
“It’s nice when a coach comes in and says, hey, this is what I want to see, and we go, ‘OK.’ Rather than, “We have to go find the money.’”
Tech also will heat the indoor practice complex and upgrade Lane Stadium’s videoboard and lights. Further out, after additional fundraising, Babcock envisions elevating the student section in the north end zone and creating field-level suites.
“He’s very driven to have (the facilities) be as good as anyone’s in the country,” Babcock said. “… He’s got a thorough and a long list, and that’s good. You want a coach that’s going to push and drive it. We meet on it frequently.”
‘Win the last game’
Scheduling is another frequent topic on their agenda, but Babcock said the decision to cancel a 2026 home contest with College Football Playoff qualifier James Madison was made before Franklin’s arrival. Indeed, Babcock started negotiations with JMU counterpart Matt Roan shortly after the ACC’s September shift from an eight- to nine-game league schedule.
With nonconference dates against VMI, Old Dominion, Maryland and JMU on the docket, Tech’s options were limited. Maryland was untouchable since the ACC requires teams to play at least one outside Power Four opponent, and the ODU series had just been reworked.
So as Babcock confirmed, the choice was either cancel the opener versus VMI and open instead with an ACC home game, or ditch JMU and delay the Hokies’ first league contest until late September. A Harrisonburg native and JMU graduate, Babcock realizes the optics of dropping a quality Bowl Subdivision opponent instead of a downtrodden Championship Subdivision program, but with a new staff and roster, he thought it better to virtually assure a Week 1 victory.
“I can understand why people see it a certain way, and maybe we’ll schedule JMU in the future,” Babcock said. “Matt was awesome.”
Other adjustments loom. For example, Virginia Tech has two Power Four nonconference opponents contracted for 2027-30: Maryland and Notre Dame in ’27 and ’28, Arizona and Maryland in ’29, followed by Arizona and Brigham Young in ’30. Liberty also is on the docket each of those seasons.
Would the Hokies want to play Liberty and 11 Power Four opponents? In four straight years? That seems unlikely.
“Anything and everything is on the table,” Babcock said.
Virginia Tech this month filed its 2024-25 NCAA financial report, which showed a 15.6% revenue bump, from $139.5 million to $161.2 million, and a $5.1 million surplus. Donations and ticket sales drove the revenue increase.
But as the Board of Visitors and Babcock have outlined, the Hokies expect $200 million-plus in annual revenue moving forward. Aiding that cause will be corporate logos on the football field and patches on players’ jerseys, the latter just recently approved by the NCAA.
Babcock will be “disappointed” if those revenue streams don’t begin this upcoming season. He expected field logos in 2025, but a deal fell apart at the 11th hour.
While Tech’s multimedia rights partner, Playfly Sports, is assisting the field sales effort, the ACC is exploring the feasibility of a conference-wide jersey patch.
“I don’t think we want the full NASCAR look,” Babcock said, “but the whole (college) athletics world has changed.”
Tipoff of Virginia Tech’s men’s basketball game against Georgia Tech was a few hours away as we talked, and with both the men and women contending for an NCAA Tournament bid, the vibes in Blacksburg are upbeat. But for all the energy expected at Cassell Coliseum this weekend for a Saturday men’s game versus Duke and Sunday women’s game against Virginia, football and Franklin remain central.
“This is an incredible fan base that deserves to be rewarded,” Babcock said. “We sell out a lot of football games, but I bet we pack it really full this season.”
Does conference rival Miami’s run to the national championship game inspire Virginia Tech and show what is possible?
“Yes,” Babcock said. “We want to do that, plus win the last game.”
David Teel, david.teel@virginiamedia.com
