James Franklin didn’t just patch up Virginia Tech’s roster - he ripped it down and rebuilt it fast. The Hokies added 27 transfers, pushed the recruiting class into the top 25 after arriving outside the top 100, and brought in enough new faces that the obvious names are already easy to spot.
Ethan Grunkemeyer came with Franklin from Penn State. Que'Sean Brown arrives after catching 64 passes for 846 yards at Duke.
Luke Reynolds gives the offense a former five-star tight end with real name recognition.
But that’s not how a 3-9 team turns itself around. The jump usually comes from the players who aren’t on the billboard in August. The ones who start showing up on tape by October.
One of those is linebacker Caleb Chambers, and he’s already got a little college film to his name. In his debut at NC State on Sept. 27, he put a tackle on each of his first three snaps, the kind of start coaches never forget.
The true freshman finished with 44 tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack across eight games and six starts after injuries forced him into action earlier than planned. Now the DeMatha Catholic product is a sophomore, and fall camp reporting has him starting in the middle of Brent Pry’s defense, with veterans like Kaleb Spencer, Keon Wylie and Curtis Jones Jr. around him.
Another name worth keeping close is cornerback Isaiah White. Two years ago, he was starting at Division II Washburn.
Now he projects as a starting ACC corner. At Troy in 2025, he made second-team All-Sun Belt, posting 67 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, a sack, three interceptions and 11 pass breakups, and Pro Football Focus graded him among the top corners in the country.
One of those interceptions went back 30 yards for a touchdown against Louisiana, and another came against James Madison in the Sun Belt title game.
The receiving group has its obvious headliners, but Virginia Tech also brought in a transfer who can fly under the radar and still change the field. Jackson spent three seasons at Louisiana Tech and quietly averaged 18.5 yards per catch last season.
In 2025, he had 20 receptions for 370 yards and two touchdowns, good for a share of the team lead in scores. The caveat is the quarterback play around him, which was a revolving door.
At 6-foot-2 and 207 pounds, he brings real vertical juice, and the Hokies are betting that the flashes he showed were the baseline.
Up front, edge rusher Kyle Okunlola is the most proven answer Virginia Tech has in a pass-rush group full of questions. He’s logged eight career sacks and 13 tackles for loss at Pittsburgh and Colorado, giving him the rare Power Four résumé in this mix.
The concern is what happened in 2025: one tackle, then a shoulder injury in the opener that ended his season. If he’s healthy, he could be in the starting lineup for the opener against VMI on Sept.
- On a defense that’s thin off the edge, that kind of availability matters immediately.
In the backfield, Marcellous Hawkins and Jeff Overton Jr. are the names most people will circle first, but Terrance Davis is the one who can grind an opponent down when the game tightens up. The Louisiana transfer is listed at 5-foot-9 and 230 pounds, and he’s run for roughly 1,750 yards and 18 touchdowns over three years with the Ragin' Cajuns.
He earned third-team All-Sun Belt honors in 2025 and is projected for a short-yardage role behind the top two backs. That’s not glamorous work, but it’s the kind that starts mattering in the fourth quarter.
Then there’s the tight end piece, which fits Franklin and offensive coordinator Ty Howle’s plan perfectly. Virginia Tech is expected to lean hard on two- and three-tight-end sets, rolling bodies through the formation and forcing defenses to keep up.
That’s where Andrew Henderson comes in. The Penn State transfer played just two games as a freshman in 2025, so there’s barely any film to study.
But at 6-foot-5 and 252 pounds, he followed Franklin and Howle to an offense built to feature tight ends, and even if he opens September as low as fourth on the depth chart, that still leaves plenty of opportunity in a system that can put three tight ends on the field at once.
The stars will get the attention. The surprise contributors may decide how far this rebuild goes.
In Other News...
Virginia Tech Just Gave Fans A Real Reason To Believe
Virginia Techs football outlook got a notable lift this week when the latest 247Sports 2026 Team Talent Composite Database showed the Hokies climbing from No. 40 in 2025 to No. 27 in 2026. Under James Franklin, the roster has added more four-star and three-star recruits, which helped push both the Team Talent Composite score and the average recruit rating in a direction fans have been wanting to see for a while.
For a program trying to turn recruiting momentum into something tangible on the field, that kind of jump matters. It also stands out in a college football landscape where Penn State, one of the teams that often sets the bar in this area, slipped from No. 10 to No. 26 over the same span. The next question for Virginia Tech is the one every good recruiting surge eventually runs into: whether this improved talent base can become the kind of depth and consistency that changes Saturdays in Blacksburg. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Techs New-Look Roster Gets Its First Real Test Under Brent Pry
Saturdays opener against VMI is less about the opponent and more about Virginia Tech getting its first real look at a roster that has been turned over and reshaped under Brent Pry. With a new head coach on the sideline and plenty of new pieces around him, the Hokies are using the opener as a measuring stick for how quickly the rebuild is taking hold and which players are ready to carry bigger roles.
The game should be a manageable one for Virginia Tech, which makes the individual auditions even more important. The spotlight falls on five players whose previous work gives the Hokies reason to watch closely, and a solid showing would help answer some early questions about progress, fit and depth. It is the kind of first step that will not define the season, but it could say plenty about how fast Prys version of the Hokies is taking shape. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Techs Biggest Offensive Concern Might Not Be Ethan Grunkemeyer
Ethan Grunkemeyers arrival from Penn State gives Virginia Tech a clear answer at quarterback heading into the 2026 season, and with new offensive coordinator Ty Howle in place, the Hokies finally have a direction at the games most important spot. Grunkemeyer will have plenty of attention on him as the full-time starter, but the early read around this offense is that the bigger issue is not who throws the ball. It is who reliably catches it and turns plays into consistent production.
Ayden Greene and QueSean Brown are the names to watch in a receiver room that still needs someone to emerge as a dependable week-to-week threat. Virginia Tech has bodies competing for snaps, but depth alone will not solve the problem if the Hokies cannot find steady separation, timing and big-play ability on the perimeter. For all the focus on how Grunkemeyer fits Howles system, the offense may rise or fall on whether the wideouts can finally give him a group he can trust. [Read more 🡒]