The Virginia Tech football team is almost halfway through its first spring practices under new coach James Franklin and his staff. This is an important spring for the Hokies with a new staff and a new-look roster.
Just how things end up working out remains to be seen. There was a lot of talent added to the roster, along with some retention from last year. There was some important retention with some key players on both sides of the ball. There are even some position changes happening this spring that are worth keeping an eye on.
Just how good the Hokies are going to be under Franklin remains to be seen. The schedule didn't do the ACC many favors with a tough conference schedule, with another brutal month of November. However, given all the questions that they have, Bill Connelly of ESPN released his SP+ rankings, and you would be very surprised to see where Virginia Tech landed.
Virginia Tech lands higher than thought on ESPN SP+ rankings
Connelly released his first SP+ rankings for the 2026 season. Out of 138 schools, the Hokies came in 32nd on the list. What are the SP+ rankings and what do they mean? Here is how Connelly explains it,
"As a reminder, SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking. Along those same lines, these projections aren't intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the season. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather,'' Connelly wrote.
Truth be told, with all of the turnover with the coaching staff and roster, it is very surprising that Virginia Tech comes in at No. 32. It really is. If you had to guess, you would have guessed that they could have landed in the 50's or 60's. Instead, coming in 32nd is surprising and gives a different outlook going into the fall.
Now, a lot can change, but right now, Connelly is higher on the Hokies than some are. We'll see what happens when he updates his rankings. There is nowhere to go up for Virginia Tech beginning in 2026.