When the Virginia Tech football program hired James Franklin, it was a home run move. When Penn State fired him, he became the top candidate for the Hokies' search committee, and after a month, he was hired to replace former coach Brent Pry.
Franklin was tasked with turning around a program coming off a 3-9 season, but he went right to work getting 27 players out of the Transfer Portal, 12 from his former stop at Penn State, and a talented Class of 2026 recruiting class, where several players were flipped from State College to Blacksburg. It's going to take time for Franklin to get the program up and running, but a way-too-early ACC football power rankings for 2026 says differently.
Virginia Tech lands in top 5 of ACC football power rankings for 2026
Chip Patterson of CBS Sports released an early ACC football power rankings for the 2026 campaign, and surprisingly, he had the Hokies rising quickly as soon as 2026, coming in at No. 5.
"The James Franklin era begins in Blacksburg with plenty of Penn State flavor, as 12 of Virginia Tech's 27-player transfer portal class are former Nittany Lions. Among them are quarterback Ethan Grunkmeyer and tight end Luke Reynolds, who, along with Duke transfer wide receiver Que'Sean Brown, give Hokies fans some reasons to be excited about the offense in 2026. Given Franklin's success recruiting top talent, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Virginia Tech has the fourth-best portal class in the ACC and one that ranks 19th nationally, but the heavy turnover associated with the coaching change might have the Hokies a year away from jumping into that top tier and competing with Miami and others for conference supremacy,'' Patterson wrote.
Fifth, as soon as next year seems a little high, but all Virginia Tech fans would take that. Clearly, Miami is still the team to beat, and SMU will be good again. There are questions as to whether or not Virginia can remain at the top of the conference, but the Hokies coming in fifth is surprising.
Franklin has a young quarterback room and some young transfers, but clearly, there is a message being sent here: Virginia Tech is about to be back under Franklin. Yes, it might take a year or two, but between recruiting and the Transfer Portal, the Hokies are not too far from being a factor in the ACC.