Halfway through the 2026 season, the Virginia Tech football team sits at 4-2 and is on a two-game losing streak after losses to Pittsburgh and California. This week, the Hokies and first-year head coach James Franklin will host Georgia Tech before a trip to Clemson next weekend to begin the second half of the schedule before a much-needed bye.
Virginia Tech could easily be 6-0 if a few simple things had gone their way. However, you are what your record says you are, and that is 4-2 for the Hokies. Here are three burning questions facing Virginia Tech over the final seven weeks of the season.
3 burning Virginia Tech football questions for the second half of the 2026 season
1. Will Brent Pry get the secondary figured out?
When Franklin brought back Brent Pry to be his defensive coordinator three months after being fired as head coach, it opened a lot of eyes, but the honeymoon is over, and things are coming apart with the secondary. There were signs of cracks in the secondary, but those have been exposed over the last couple of weeks.
Against Pittsburgh and California, they were lit up to the tune of 61 points. They have been flagged way too many times for pass interference, and they have not forced an interception since the season opener against VMI. That includes games against Old Dominion, Maryland, Boston College, Pitt, and Cal. Sooner or later, not forcing turnovers was going to catch up with them, and that has been the case. A leaky secondary is not something you want to have.
2. Will Virginia Tech's special teams improve?
Another reason the Hokies are 4-2 and not 6-0 is because of their special teams. Senior placekicker John Love missed a game-winning chip shot against Pittsburgh in Week 5 and then missed two field goal attempts in Week 6 at Cal in a 25-20 loss. To be fair, his first miss at California was from 55 yards, and that is a less-than-ideal way to send a kicker with low confidence out for his first kick following his miss a week earlier. Another game this season is going to come down to a kick, and will it be Love, Cole Byrd, or Will Love taking the kick?
As for the punting, that has been an under-the-radar mess all season long with Nathan Totten. He has shanked a handful of punts and is averaging just over 40 yards per punt. That isn't going to cut it at any level of football, never mind in the ACC. Both parts of the kicking game need to improve by a lot.
3. What will be Virginia Tech's final win total?
Virginia Tech needs two more wins to become bowl-eligible. Let's be honest, becoming bowl-eligible was a goal in Franklin's first season in Blacksburg, and they are still on pace for that. However, can the Hokies go north of six wins with the remaining schedule? They have home games with Georgia Tech, Stanford, and Virginia, along with road games against Clemson, SMU, and Miami. It's hard to envision them picking up a win on the road with the way they have played the last two weeks, but that's the beauty of college football: things can change from week to week.
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