Are you tired of seeing a pair of 230-pound edge rushers? What about 275-pound defensive tackles? Apparently, Virginia Tech is too, as the Hokies are one of the heaviest teams in 2026.
Check out this chart.
Before you say being heavy is a bad thing, it depends on the type of heavy. New Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin brought Chuck Losey with him from Penn State to serve as the Hokies’ new strength
coach. Losey’s official title is the Assistant Athletics Director for Athletic Performance – Football.
That’s a fancy title, but, officially, Losey is the head of Virginia Tech’s strength and conditioning. Look at Penn State’s recent history of putting players in the NFL. There were 260-pound players running the 40-yard dash in under 4.4 seconds.
Now, we aren’t saying that Tech’s offensive or defensive linemen will run the 40 in 4.4 seconds or less. They don’t need to. But consider this: 30 players on Virginia Tech’s 2026 roster weigh 300 pounds or more. There’s nothing wrong with a 230-pound edge rusher coming off the bench on third down to rush the passer. But those players can’t play on every down, or your run defense will suffer.
Who knows how many games Virginia Tech will win in 2026? One thing we do know: the Hokies won’t be pushed around as they have been over the past decade.
