Virginia Tech football: What tier are the Hokies in for 2026 college football season?
The Hokies in the same tier as Clemson to begin 2026?
The Virginia Tech Hokies experienced a significant offseason in 2025, making several changes that could influence their performance in the 2026 college football season. After firing head coach Brent Pry, they hired James Franklin, who had previously been fired by Penn State. Franklin quickly made an impact by bringing Pry back as defensive coordinator and significantly improving the roster.
ESPN's Bill Connelly recently ranked all 138 FBS teams into tiers, with the Hokies landing in tier 6, labeled as "Probably fine. Maybe good. Possibly mediocre." This tier includes teams ranked between No. 20 and No. 35 in Connelly's preseason SP+, which indicates they are good enough to be taken seriously but not likely to contend for the playoff.
Other teams in this tier are Clemson, Illinois, Missouri, and TCU. One area Virginia Tech needs to address is their defense, which allowed 2.8 points per drive on drives that started on their side of the field last year, the worst rate in the ACC and 128th nationally. The Hokies have the opportunity to start the season well, potentially knocking out Maryland in September and achieving a 3-0 record, which would place them in the 20-35 range, an improvement over recent years.
Written by urgent.news from Yahoo Sports's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
