Virginia Tech enters Saturday afternoon’s Atlantic Coast Conference matchup with Georgia Tech trying to stop a slide that has come down to the wire two weeks in a row.
The Hokies are 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the ACC after back-to-back close losses, first a 35-33 defeat at Pitt and then last week’s 25-20 setback against Cal in Blacksburg. Virginia Tech grabbed a 20-19 lead when Ethan Grunkemeyer scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:15 left, but Ashten Emory answered with a 2-yard touchdown run with 18 seconds remaining to swing it back to the Golden Bears.
Virginia Tech’s defense was part of the story on Cal’s winning drive, too, taking two 15-yard penalties on consecutive plays, including a pass interference call.
"If you have a penalty during play, those typically are going to happen," Hokies coach James Franklin said. "They're aggressive penalties, and we'll deal with those. But when you have a pattern, that's a different story ... and I think there's a little bit of a pattern with pass interference and playing the ball in the air."
Even with the recent losses, Virginia Tech’s offense has been one of the ACC’s most productive groups, ranking third in the conference at 37.7 points per game. Grunkemeyer, who followed Franklin to Virginia Tech from Penn State, leads the league with 1,734 passing yards and has 12 touchdown passes against only two interceptions.
Georgia Tech comes in at 2-3 overall and 1-1 in league play after edging Duke 28-25 last Saturday. Trelain Maddox scored the winning touchdown on a 1-yard run with 54 seconds left.
The Yellow Jackets have dealt with a defensive loss of their own this week. Linebacker Kyle Efford retired suddenly on Tuesday because of repeated injuries to his right arm, one week after making six tackles against Duke in his first game back in a month. Brent Key said he thinks Efford’s brief return mattered to the team.
"This man willed himself to play until this team turned the corner, until this team got out of the rut that they were in," Key said.
Georgia Tech’s defense has struggled overall, ranking fourth-worst in the ACC and allowing 388.8 yards per game. On offense, quarterback Alberto Mendoza has thrown for 1,193 yards and completed nearly 70% of his passes.
Virginia Tech’s defense will face a real test against Georgia Tech running back Justice Haynes, who has rushed for 462 yards and is averaging 5.3 yards per carry. The Hokies have been strong against the run, though, holding opponents to 86.5 rushing yards per game and 2.7 yards per carry, numbers that rank fourth-best in the ACC.
In Other News...
Virginia Tech Suddenly Has A Kicking Battle Fans Did Not Expect
John Love entered the 2026 season with the sort of track record that usually buys a kicker some breathing room, but early misses have quickly turned a routine special teams spot into a real storyline in Blacksburg. Virginia Tech has watched Love struggle from distance and consistency alike, and head coach James Franklin has already put the job up for grabs while still publicly backing the veteran kicker.
The open competition now gives the Hokies a chance to reset a part of the operation they assumed was settled, with other options waiting in the wings. It also comes at a time when the punting game has its own question mark, as senior Nathan Totten has not delivered the kind of average distance that settles nerves, leaving Virginia Tech with more special teams uncertainty than it expected this early in the year. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Techs Transfer Class Is Already Defining The Hokies Season
Virginia Techs roster makeover has been impossible to miss this fall, with 29 transfers folded into the lineup and several of them already shaping how the Hokies look on both sides of the ball. The impact has been felt across position groups, but it has been especially noticeable on offense, where the new faces have helped change the tone and production of the unit as the season has unfolded.
Ethan Grunkemeyer has given the Hokies the kind of stability they were looking for at quarterback, while Que'Sean Brown has emerged as the teams top receiving option. Not every transfer has been able to contribute right away, though, and Virginia Tech is still waiting on some of the newcomers to settle in, whether because of injury or limited opportunities, which leaves the rest of this class with room to keep defining the stretch run. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Tech Suddenly Has A Discipline Problem James Franklin Must Fix
Virginia Techs latest setback only deepened the sense that the Hokies are beating themselves as much as anyone else is beating them. After leading at halftime against Cal, they let another winnable game slip away, and the pattern has become hard to ignore: turnovers, penalties and an offense that cant quite find steady footing on the ground have all been part of the problem during this rough stretch.
James Franklin and his staff now have a growing discipline issue to clean up as the season moves forward. The margins have been small, but the mistakes keep piling up, and Virginia Tech is leaving too many opportunities on the field while trying to hold together a season that keeps slipping a little farther out of reach. [Read more 🡒]