2026 FBS Preview

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Virginia Tech Hokies 2026 Season Preview

ACC · James Franklin, year 1 · 3-9 last season · No. 33 in our FBS ratings

Franklin Inherits Roster Talent, Not Results

A roster ranked 40th nationally in accumulated talent produced a 3-9 season, and closing that gap between pedigree and production falls to a first-year staff that had no hand in recruiting most of this cupboard.

Grunkemeyer's Learning Curve

Can Ethan Grunkemeyer produce enough behind an offense that returns just 32.5% of its snaps from a 3-9 team? With Kyron Drones and his 1919 yards gone and almost no continuity around the new Penn State transfer, the likelier path is a rocky, inconsistent first year while Grunkemeyer and a nearly all-new supporting cast learn each other in real games. The defense returning 56.7% of its production gives Franklin's staff a floor to lean on, but this season rides on how fast the new quarterback can settle in.

Three Games Define It

James Franklin's first year in Blacksburg gets judged on three trips: at Miami, at Clemson and at SMU, the only games where Virginia Tech is projected an underdog. Everything else on the slate, from home dates with Stanford and Old Dominion to a manageable swing through Maryland and Boston College, sets up a projected 7-5 season if the Hokies simply hold serve. Split even one of those road tests against Miami, Clemson or SMU and the bowl math gets a lot easier than the schedule difficulty rank of 47 suggests.

A Franklin Reset, Fast

Seven wins would nearly triple last year's total, and a jump from 3-9 to a projected 84 percent bowl shot is the loudest vote of confidence a first-year staff could ask for. The schedule rank of 47 is manageable enough that Grunkemeyer does not need to be spectacular, just competent behind an offense being rebuilt largely from scratch. Trust the number on the page: 7-5 is the realistic ceiling and the floor for Franklin's debut, and getting there validates the hire before it validates anything else.

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Grunkemeyer Inherits a Broken Line

James Franklin's first Virginia Tech offense will run through Ethan Grunkemeyer, the Penn State transfer projected to start after throwing for 1339 yards, 8 touchdowns and 4 interceptions there, and he inherits a passing game that ranked 119th nationally while the ground attack hummed at 32nd. That split is the whole story: the run game can carry this offense, but Grunkemeyer's job is fixing a unit that allowed 29 sacks and finished 99th in that category. If he can even stabilize the play-action passing behind that rushing rate, Virginia Tech's offense stops being the bottleneck it was at 21.4 points per game.

Virginia Tech is starting over at quarterback with James Franklin taking over a room that lost Kyron Drones and his 1919 passing yards. Ethan Grunkemeyer, a Penn State transfer who threw for 1339 yards with 8 touchdowns against 4 interceptions, takes the first-team reps as the front-runner, though Troy Huhn and Bryce Baker are both in camp to push him. Whoever wins the job inherits an offense that ranked 119th in passing yards per game in 2025, so Grunkemeyer's arm is the clearest lever this staff has to move that number in 2026.

Marcellous Hawkins ran for 749 yards on a unit that ranked 32nd nationally in rushing yards per game despite a passing game stuck at 119th, and James Franklin's staff added Louisiana transfer Bill Davis, who put up 763 yards and 6 touchdowns last season, to pair with him. That trade of Terion Stewart's 469 yards for Davis's production upgrades the room's ceiling rather than just replacing bodies, while four-star Messiah Mickens gives Franklin a long-term piece behind Hawkins and Davis. With Jeffrey Overton Jr. and Tyler Mason back for depth, the ground game should stay Virginia Tech's clearest offensive strength even as the passing attack drags the rest of the offense down.

James Franklin's staff didn't just patch the receiver room, it imported the group's best proven target in Que'Sean Brown, whose 63 catches and 842 yards at Duke dwarf anything Virginia Tech's returning corps produced behind a passing attack that ranked 119th in yards per game. Ayden Greene (31 catches, 516 yards) and Takye Heath (22 catches, 200 yards) still give the offense a returning nucleus, but the departures of Cameron Seldon and Isaiah Spencer leave Brown as the clear No. 1 the moment he steps on campus. With Marlion Jackson and Davion Brown adding more juice to a passing game that has to shed its 119th-ranked production, this is a room built to erase last season's stall points rather than manage around them.

James Franklin brought two of his own pieces along, and Luke Reynolds arrives as a 4-star addition who profiles as an immediate contributor even after just 2 tackles in limited action. He joins a room that already produced modest but real numbers, with Ja'Ricous Hairston's 12 catches for 3 touchdowns and Benji Gosnell's 12 grabs giving Virginia Tech two proven pass-catching tight ends. With passing offense stuck at 119th nationally in yards per game, this group's ability to move the chains matters more than the recruiting stars attached to Reynolds or fellow newcomers Pierce Petersohn and Matt Henderson.

Twenty-nine sacks allowed and a passing game stuck at 119th nationally were the real problem last year, and James Franklin inherits a line that mostly stays intact behind seniors Johnny Garrett and Montavious Cunningham alongside Layth Ghannam. The ground game held up fine at 32nd in rushing yards per game, so the priority for this group is protection, not reinvention. Franklin still added tackles Thomas Wilder and Buddy Wegdam plus interior lineman Benjamin Eziuka to push a room that returns more bodies than it lost, betting continuity plus a talent infusion fixes the pass-blocking issues rather than a full overhaul.

A line that managed just 19 sacks and 59 tackles for loss a year ago loses its two most disruptive run-stoppers in Ben Bell and Kody Huisman, leaving Kemari Copeland (48 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 8 TFL) as the lone proven force under new coach James Franklin. The fix is volume over continuity: Curtis Jones Jr. arrives from West Virginia with real production (22 tackles, 3 TFL), while four-star Tyson Harley and three-stars T-Ron Richardson Jr. and Garrett Witherington add bodies to a front that finished 116th in havoc rate. Elhadj Fall and Jason Abbey provide some returning snap continuity, but this group's ceiling depends on whether the newcomers can turn raw numbers into the pressure that simply never showed up in 2025.

Kaleb Spencer's 67 tackles and 9 TFL are the lone proven production left in this room after Caleb Woodson and Jaden Keller both walked out the door, and a defense that finished 106th in tackles for loss and 116th in havoc rate needs Spencer to do more than just tally stops. James Franklin's first staff went to the portal and high school ranks to rebuild around him, bringing in Keon Wylie from Penn State and four-star Terry Wiggins from Coatesville, while Noah Chambers returns as the other steady piece behind Spencer. With opponents staying on schedule 45.6% of the time a year ago, the whole unit's ceiling rides on how fast Wylie and Wiggins can pair with Spencer to change that number.

Cam Chadwick Jr. (66 tackles, 2.5 TFL) anchors a secondary that gave up 30.2 points and 225 passing yards a game a year ago, and James Franklin went to the portal to add bodies rather than bank on internal fixes alone, landing Jaquez White from Troy (67 tackles, 3.5 TFL at Troy) and Kenny Woseley Jr. from Penn State. The high school haul adds another layer, with four-star Zaevion Cleveland signing out of Green Run and three-star Amauri Polydor joining from St. Frances Academy, though neither has game snaps yet. With Isaiah Cash gone and Tyson Flowers, Isaiah Brown-Murray and Thomas Williams all back, this group has more competition for reps than it did last season, but the tackles-for-loss and havoc numbers from 2025 mean White and Woseley need to produce immediately, not develop on the side.

John Love hit 15 of 20 field goals with a 56-yarder last year, but James Franklin still went to the portal for Marshall's Nathan Totten, who averaged 44.9 yards a punt and steps in for departed Nick Veltsistas. That leaves Love fending off freshman Will Love for placekicking duties while Aiden Daugherty waits in the wings, a real competition rather than a returning-starter formality. Add Wisconsin transfer Deed Capper into the long-snapper mix behind Christian Epling, and this is a special teams unit Franklin rebuilt piece by piece rather than simply inherited.

A Total Rebuild Under Franklin

James Franklin didn't just get a new job, he got a new team: Kyron Drones' 1919 passing yards walk out the door, and Ethan Grunkemeyer, who threw for 1339 yards and 8 touchdowns at Penn State, projects to take over under center. The skill-position overhaul is just as steep, with Que'Sean Brown (63 catches, 842 yards at Duke) and running back Bill Davis (763 yards, 6 TD at Louisiana) replacing departed producers Donavon Greene and Terion Stewart. With 27 players in and 27 out plus a No. 30 recruiting class, this roster bears little resemblance to the one that went 3-9, and Grunkemeyer's chemistry with his new receivers will decide how fast that shows up in the standings.

Ethan Grunkemeyer

Everything about James Franklin's first year in Blacksburg comes down to what Ethan Grunkemeyer does with this offense. The Penn State transfer threw for 1339 yards with 8 touchdowns against 4 interceptions in his prior stops, a modest line he now has to build on behind a receiver room that adds Que'Sean Brown, who caught 63 passes for 842 yards and 5 touchdowns at Duke, alongside returning target Ayden Greene. If Grunkemeyer can get the ball to Brown and Greene while Marcellous Hawkins handles the ground game, Virginia Tech has a real shot at climbing out of a 3-9 season.

A Program in the Red

Virginia Tech did not just lose games in 2025, it lost bettors money in almost every situation, covering just 25% of the time overall and a brutal 20% as a home favorite. James Franklin inherits a roster that went 0-5 straight up against ranked teams and could never string momentum together, covering only 25% of the time the week after a loss. That combination, a favorite that could not hold leads and a team that kept bleeding after setbacks, is the market's way of saying the rebuild starts from a lower floor than the record alone suggests.