Four Weeks In: What to Note from Virginia Tech Football So Far

There's a lot of smoke this week: no depth chart, possible opt-outs and an ACC opener that could reshape the Hokies' 2025 season.

Sep 20, 2025; Blacksburg, Va.; Virginia Tech safety Brennan Johnson (15) celebrates as he enters the stadium. | Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

Virginia Tech football is through a quartet of contests and has now wrapped up its nonconference slate. Its ACC portion begins in two days against N.C. State on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. ET (viewing available on the CW Network).

Another day, another practice in Blacksburg 🙂‍↕️#ThisIsHome pic.twitter.com/9MkG3rwrDh

— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) September 24, 2025

So, what's there to note? The changes on the field aren't exactly easy to quantify, due to just how much of an outlier Wofford is. The Terriers (0-4) are an FCS squad that has yet to win, meaning that it's at least two levels below any other squad Tech has faced.

Thus, this impending battle against the Wolfpack in 48 hours' time is a metric both for how Virginia Tech's ACC slate could go this year and whether any more players exit the program. This morning, the Hokies lost their second player to the transfer portal, with reserve receiver/punt returner Tucker Holloway announcing his departure this morning.

Redshirts are only allotted when a player has played four games or less this season (and hasn't already used their redshirt, so some players remain in flux — meanwhile, others, such as Caleb Woodson and Quentin Reddish, still have one more game that they can play before negating the ability to utilize a redshirt. The dynamic of it is an interesting one, but not one that interim head coach Philip Montgomery has alluded to much yet. On Wednesday, the head whistle offered little in the way of updates regarding players who were either sidelined or not in uniform. Outside of the names already known to be dealing with injuries, such as running back Terion Stewart, there was no new clarity on absences, leaving questions still unanswered as to who takes the field Saturday.

"It's an ever-changing, flowing situation right now," Montgomery said. "I think we're in a good spot. I think our team is pretty bought in to where we're at. And so, we'll continue to to have conversations when they come up but we're trying to educate. We're trying to do the right things and every decision we make is about the team and the team moving forward... I'm not going to put any pressure like that on any of our student-athletes [about making a decision]. My encouraging and our coaching staff, we want every one of those guys out there on the field with us. So, we're trying to to hold our team tight and continue to to grow as a football team and as a unit."

Adding to the uncertainty is the absence of an official depth chart. Whether the staff chooses to release one before it becomes mandatory remains to be seen. The lack of clarity extends to the offensive line as well. Montgomery suggested that progress is being made in that unit — much like he did when speaking about Stewart’s recovery — but stopped short of offering any concrete confirmation on Wednesday.

""I think we're trending in the right way," Montgomery said. "Guys are doing some good things this week, but we still got to see where that's going to take us towards the end of the week. I like the way we're trending, but no new availability... Right now, we're still watching. We're observing and we're kind of seeing where it all falls."

Without definitive updates, both the roster picture and position battles — particularly at Holloway's spot — remain clouded, inviting speculation and reading between the lines. Just two days remain now until the Hokies begin their 2025 ACC stretch. Whether it's more fruitful than last year's 4-4 in-conference mark is yet to be determined.