James Franklin is the new head football coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies. Never mind that the outgoing head coach, Brent Pry, was hired back to serve as Franklin’s DC at Va. Tech just weeks after being removed as the boss. Pry and Franklin go back to their time together at Vanderbilt as well as Penn State.
As the head coach of the Hokies Pry struggled to find success finishing his run with a 16-24 record. Pry was 10-13 in the ACC and lost numerous close games. Franklin has an overall head coaching
record of 128-60. He’s overseen only two losing records over his 14 1/2 seasons as a head coach: his first year at Vandy in 2011 (6-7) and the 2020 COVID shortened season (4-5).
Now let’s put the Hokies through The Goal, our 2026 Summer Scheming analysis system.
Throughput
Acquisition: The last three Va. Tech prep recruiting classes average to 39th in FBS. Their portal classes are 49th which puts their acquisition at 44th in the country. Middle of the road P4 recruiting for sure.
Development: Over the past two draft classes VT has put 13 players into the NFL, which places them above FSU, Pitt, Duke and UNC and tied with BC.
Deployment: This preseason Bill Connelly’s SP+ has the Hokies ranked 32nd in overall SP+. VT’s offense is 34th, the defense is 38th, and the kicking game is 89th. Franklin’s influx of PSU talent and his move to retain Pry as DC were smart moves. The hiring of Ty Howle as OC leaves a lot to be desired as he follows Franklin from PSU where the offense was meh.
Bottleneck
Virginia Tech has never gotten all the way over the also-ran hump at the national level. The 1999 BCS National Championship runner-up season with Michael Vick seems like a million years removed from the Brent Pry run in Blacksburg. Even with a generational talent in Vick, VT got close to the top but then the Hokies were smoked by that Chris Weinke and Peter Warrick led Seminoles squad.
Now they’re State College South and while I love the hire for them will James Franklin really do more in Blacksburg than he could at Penn State? The ACC is that much easier to compete in compared to the top of the Big Ten, the teams that foiled Franklin like Ohio State and Michigan, seemingly every fall.
The VT strength of schedule is 52nd of 138 in FBS per CFB News. Franklin’s Hokies should start off 4-0 before hosting a tough Pitt team on October 2nd, a Friday, at home.
Inventory
The inventory space includes returning production per Bill Connelly, the On3 top-100 list and the Athlon preseason All-Conference Team honorees. Va. Tech is ranked 4th in returning production. They return 69% from a year ago.
The Hokies do not have a single player on the On3 top-100 and only one player on the Athlon All-ACC Team. Of the starting 22, the Hokies will rely on seven dudes from the transfer portal including former Nittany Lions QB Ethan Grunkemeyer.
Duke transfer WR Que’Sean Brown caught five TD’s a year ago and joins LA Tech transfer Marlion Jackson and his 18.5 yards per catch. RB Marcellous Hawkins averaged 6.3 yards per carry a year ago.
VT’s biggest transfer portal acquisition on defense is more than likely CB Cam Chadwick Jr. Chadwick picked off four passes with four PBU’s in ‘25. DT Kemari Copeland returns with 4.5 sacks, and he joins Isaiah Brown-Murray’s five PBU’s from the CB position.
Operating Expense
James Franklin’s contract is supposed to be around $8.2M per season. Dating back to Vanderbilt he’s won 9.5 games per season as a long tenured head football coach. If he can win nine games this season with the Hokies, his contract is worth $863K per win. That makes “Big Game James” more efficient than Bill Belichick, Mike Norvell, Pat Narduzzi, Dabo Swinney and Marcus Freeman.
The Goal
I don’t love James Franklin’s OC hire and I can’t make that more clear. I get that he wanted continuity, especially with the QB coming from State College with him and his reuniting with Pry. But I would’ve wanted him to go after someone with new ideas. If they start off 4-0 they’ll have an interesting slate for the latter 2/3 of the schedule.
Pitt on a Friday, a road trip to Cal, and then Ga. Tech and at Clemson before an idle week. Then they head to a good SMU team before hosting Stanford and a road trip to Miami before facing their rival UVA in the Commonwealth Cup.
Season Prediction: I can see VT anywhere between 5-7 and 7-5, so I’ll go with 6-6. I think they have talent, again I don’t love the OC hire, and I think they’re a year away with Franklin’s freshman recruiting from being a real ACC contender with his typical 9-win seasons.
