As you know by now, the college sports landscape has changed with NIL and the transfer portal. It's the professional sports version of free agency.
After having a lot of success with retention following the 2023 season, Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry had the opposite happen following a frustrating 6-6 2024 campaign after losing several key players to the portal. Let's not forget about the talent lost to the NFL Draft as well. With all the losses Hokies suffered, Pry and his staff did a nice job of getting talent through the portal for the 2025 season, and how things end up panning out remains to be seen, but College Football 26 gives fans a look at what will be more common in the future.
Eight of the top 13 Virginia Tech players in College Football 26 are transfers
This may come as a surprise to some of you, but in reality, it shouldn't. In College Football 26, eight of the top 13 players for Virginia Tech are transfers. The only top 13-rated players coming back are quarterback Kyron Drones, kicker John Love, defensive tackle Kelvin Gilliam, Jr., tight end Benji Gosnell, and linebacker Caleb Woodson.
Again, this is just a video game we are talking about, but it underscores a dose of reality that the transfer portal is one of the biggest parts of college football, and you could say that it's bigger than high school recruiting. I hate to say it, but how many of the high school commits that schools get will eventually end up in the transfer portal before their careers are over? A lot.
Now this won't have an effect on the field for the Hokies, but if you have or are planning on getting College Football 26, be ready to learn some of the names of the new Hokies before the 2025 season actually starts on the field on Aug. 31 against South Carolina in Atlanta.