James Franklin’s Virginia Tech debut went well.
The Hokies, now led by the former Penn State Nittany Lions head coach, took down VMI, 73-3, in one of the biggest blowouts of the opening weekend.
But during the game, one of Virginia Tech’s players was hit with a personal foul penalty, for high-fiving a member of the military in celebration. Running back Marcellous Hawkins Jr. was on the receiving end of the penalty. He was seeking to celebrate a big run with a member of the military, high-fiving the member of the armed services.
The referees quickly hit Hawkins Jr. with a flag, announcing a personal misconduct penalty.
“We got a penalty for high-fiving one of our members of the core,” Franklin said. “Not a huge fan. I don’t know why we can’t high-five somebody in the military. It seems somewhat un-American to me.”
Franklin does want team to clean up the penalties
While Franklin was not happy with that particular flag decision from the refs, he understands that his team needs to clean up their penalties moving forward.
“We tell the guys all the time: you show softness or weakness anywhere, then the next opponent is going to attack that same weakness,” Franklin said postgame. “So we’re going to have to be prepared and ready for the things that we didn’t do well, because Old Dominion is going to be all over this tape just like we’re going to be all over theirs.”
Franklin was still quite pleased with the efforts of his players.
“Not everybody believes this, but my belief, when you get a game like this, and the points get the way they got, my job is to get the starters out and get the backups in,” Franklin said. “But they should have the opportunity to play football, like getting the threes and fours in there and still call the defense and call the offense. We need to see what Bryce Baker is able to do. To put Bryce Baker in and just hand the ball off the whole second half, that’s not fair to Bryce Baker, and that’s not the right thing for us to do for developing Bryce and other players on our roster. So, that depth showed up today, and this is going to be valuable for them.
“They’re going to get coached. They’re going to get evaluated. They’re going to get patted on the back. They’re also probably going to get their ass ripped a few times too.”
