Feb. 2, 2011
Watch Commodore football head coach James Franklin’s press conference to announce his first signing class at Vanderbilt. Video
Also, make sure you check out National Signing Day Central for bios on each signee including video highlights, quotes, photos and more.
PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
Vanderbilt Head Coach James Franklin
Opening statement:
“You know you were born to be a college football coach when your birthday falls on signing day so it was a good day for me today and things have gone extremely well. It’s amazing what you can do with a positive attitude and a little hard work. I’m proud of what this staff was able to accomplish.
“I would like to thank a few people who allowed this all to be possible. First of all, my boss Chancellor [Nicholas] Zeppos, him being here is a nice surprise for me. Vice Chancellor David Williams has been unbelievable since the day I arrived on campus. I would like to thank the provost and Vice Chancellor of academic affairs. I want to mention two other people who have been important to our success so far here. They have allowed for me to figure out how this campus works and the do’s and don’ts. That’s Kevin Colon who is the Associate Director of Athletics and Candice Lee. They have been unbelievable so I did want to mention them.
“I know that Larry [Leathers] hit on this and I want to mention a few people who may go unnoticed. I want to make sure they get some notice. That is Andrea Cain, who is our assistant recruiting coordinator who does a tremendous job in the office. Andy Frank, who is our director of football operations, and Norval McKenzie. It’s obviously great for us to see one of our former players go on and really be a special coach and administrator down the road. I think Chris Beatty is going to run with the offensive recruiting coordinator role. On the defensive side of the ball, Wes McGriff is going to be the defensive recruiting coordinator. We are really going to try to emphasize recruiting. Those are some people I wanted to thank before we got started.”
On the class…
“Let’s begin with the class. It has been an exciting couple of days. Really, for about the last month I’ve been amazed with what this staff was able to do with a short amount of time. Recruiting usually takes two years, minimum a year and a half, so we were able to hold on to the commitments that were here. We were able to add some players who we think can be difference makers as well as the guys who are already here. The last 48 hours were exciting. Herb Hand has been around some great football programs and we got on a roll the other night and the commitments kept coming and Herb said he had never seen anything like this before. It was a great place to be. The coaches were running around yelling and screaming and as we all know, you work hard and you don’t always get the dividends so it was nice to see the staff work extremely hard and run around here. I was watching Larry’s face light up watching the staff and it was a good environment to be in.”
Closing statements…
“We are excited and we have already started talking about 2012. We had some of those prospects calling and asking about next year. I think we have identified a lot of needs and I think we answered a lot of questions that we had. This is just one step and we are excited. I think it helped motivate our staff, what we were able to get done in a short amount of time. I think it is exciting to them to see what we can do over the next year. I’m excited about what we did and our staff is excited. The team is excited and I want to thank them for taking up their free time to be hosts. Really, everyone on this campus has bent over backwards for us.
“A guy I would like to mention who has been a mentor to me since I got on campus is Tim Corbin. Tim and his wife came both weekends and had dinner with us. He spoke to the recruits about turning the program around as well. He has been unbelievable. One night he stayed in with us till 12:30 in the morning watching film, asking questions. I think he may have been stealing ideas for what he can do in recruiting, but I might do the same thing with him as well.”
“That’s how this whole campus has been. There has been a sense of community. Everything that we talked about through the process has happened. People have a commitment to excellence and want to be great in football.”
On the three quarterbacks and their ability as a dual-threat…
“I think the biggest thing is that from every position, we want athletes. We want smart guys who can solve problems at every position, guys who have the opportunity to make plays when things aren’t perfect. You love, as a coach, when something may go wrong that the guy under center still has the chance to make a play for you. A guy who can take a negative-six yard sack and turn it into an eight-yard scramble, if he can go 40, 50 or 60 [yards] than more power to him, but we need someone athletic back there. The defensive lineman in this league are athletic so we need someone who is smart and are problem solvers and we think all these guys can do that. It is our job as coaches to develop them. I told them in the recruiting process that I’m going to recruit a guy next year to take his job, which will create a competitive environment. It will bring out the best of our team.”
On if the quarterbacks will be competing for a starting job next season or if they will redshirt…
“I don’t believe in redshirting. Redshirting is a defeatist mentality. Every single guy that we recruited has been told they are coming to play. If they come and aren’t ready then we will deal with redshirting at that time, but I want these guys to come in and feel like they can make an impact right away.”
On closing out the recruiting class…
“It was really about 12 stages of emotion. There was a point where we had about 12 guys on the board and five scholarships left and I was panicking because I thought they all were going to come. I was confident and got a couple of commitments so I was feeling good. Then, a couple guys we didn’t get so I started to feel nervous that we weren’t going to get any of them. Then it swung back and we got a commitment and we got the next one and the next one.”
On how strong other SEC schools recruited and how Vanderbilt compared…
“I’ll be honest with you, as proud as I am for what we have done this year, we still have a long ways to go and I understand that. Any time you have a goal and you reach it, you have to set a new goal and new expectations and reach those. We understand that. As excited as we are, as a staff, we are realists and this is just one step of the foundation. We have to keep taking strides every year. Take risks and be as aggressive as we possibly can.”
On getting student-athletes to Vanderbilt…
“Basically, this staff was not going to take `no’ for an answer. We told every recruit that. We would go into their homes and tell them reasons they should come and tell their family. In the end, we would look them in the eye and tell them we weren’t taking `no’ for an answer and they were coming to Vanderbilt. That was the attitude Charles Bankins had.
“You have a world-class institution in the greatest conference in the world. Within a conference like this, there are not many cities that are going to compete with us. We have too many variables and too many things that should attract families and young men. There is a very specific population across this country that says, `I don’t have to settle. I can get a great education and play big-time football and live in a great city.’ There are not too many people who can sell that. When you get with people you can look them in the eye and explain those things to them and you have a staff who can develop relationships.”
