One big wild card in college football in 2026 is Virginia Tech. Coming off a 3-9 season in 2025 that saw head coach Brent Pry fired, he was replaced by his former boss at Penn State, James Franklin, after he was fired last October in State College.
There is nowhere to go but up for the Hokies in Year 1 under Franklin, and there will be improvement; it's just a matter of how much improvement there will be. On Tuesday, the ACC dropped the preseason poll for the upcoming season, and if there is one thing that it taught us, it's that it is a complete waste of time. Stanford, picked to finish in the basement, had one vote to win the conference. Florida State, picked to finish 11th, got three votes to win the conference.
On Wednesday, the 2026 All-ACC Preseason teams were announced, and you had to look far and wide to find a Hokies player on it. However, if you looked hard enough, you found one.
Virginia Tech DL Kemari Copeland named to All-ACC Preseason Team for 2026
Kemari Copeland, who begins his third season with the Hokies along the defensive line at tackle, was named to the All-ACC Preseason Team for the upcoming season. Copeland, who began his college career at Army and Iowa Western Community College, has been making headlines this summer, and not just because he attended ACC Media Days with a couple of teammates and Franklin earlier this month.
Copeland broke the all-time squat record in 2024 at Virginia Tech, and last week, he set a bench press record at 510 pounds.
Copeland stuck things out in Blacksburg last fall and winter after Pry was fired. He was part of key retention from Franklin after he arrived and the dismal 2025 season ended. Copeland explained what it meant to him to have Pry back on Franklin's staff as the defensive coordinator after being fired three months earlier as the head coach.
It's not surprising that there was only one Hokies player on the All-ACC Preseason Team, but that is just the way Virginia Tech likes it, flying under the radar entering 2026.
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