Multiple National Outlets Name Virginia Tech One Of National Signing Day's Biggest Winners

Virginia Tech rose up the recruiting rankings and finished with one of the best classes in the ACC

Nov 19, 2025; Blacksburg, VA, USA; Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin speaks during the press conference at Cassell Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bishop-Imagn Images | Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

While James Franklin has only been the head coach of Virginia Tech for a couple of weeks, he went right to work to put together one of the best recruiting classes in the ACC.

According to 247Sports, Virginia Tech finished with the No. 23 overall class and the No. 5 class in the ACC, behind Miami, Florida State, North Carolina, and Clemson. That is one of the best ever classes for the Hokies and that is with Franklin not having much time to work on it. Could it be even better next December?

Big Winners

Nov 19, 2025; Blacksburg, VA, USA; Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin (center) speaks as Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands (left) and Athletic Director Whit Babcock (right) looks on at Cassell Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bishop-Imagn Images | Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

There are not many, if any at all, that think Virginia Tech was not one of the big winners of national signing day.

Adam Gorney of Rivals had this to say about the day the Hokies had:

"Meet your new boss, same as your old boss.

Franklin, who got fired by Penn State in mid-October, totally decimated the Nittany Lions’ recruiting class and got 11 prospects to flip to the Hokies as he got set up early in Blacksburg and Penn State is struggling to find a head coach.

Franklin said at his National Signing Day press conference that he wasn’t targeting Penn State’s commit list and that he leaned on relationships he already had but either way it’s some sweet justice for Franklin after getting canned midseason."

Here is what Pro Football Network had to say:

"James Franklin’s hiring as the head coach has been a massive win for Virginia Tech in the 2026 class. The class was ranked as low as No. 121 in the Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Rankings when Franklin was hired last month, but his rapid recruiting efforts propelled the Hokies into the top 25 nationally on signing day.

Franklin continued to poach players from his former team, Penn State, by recruiting 11 Nittany Lions players from the transfer cycle. Besides the Nittany Lions’ flips, the Hokies landed several other four-star prospects, including running back Messiah Mickens."

Meet Expectations?

While it certainly seems like Virginia Tech exceeded expectations, Franklin would not go that far in his signing day press conference:

"Yeah, I don't know. I'm not a big guy on external expectations or goals. And even for myself, right? Because I think sometimes with goal setting and things like that, you have to be very careful. Because I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what the current class looked like. I didn't know what would happen, with kids that we had previous relationships with. Would they be excited about Virginia Tech? Would this be the right fit for them? You just don't know. You just don't know how it's all going to play out. So, for us, we just got on campus, started running a thousand different directions, reaching out to families and kids about coming and checking this place out and visiting at the same time going out to practice and evaluating the current roster. Right now, I'm in the process of meeting with every player on the team. The last three days, we've been doing that, meeting with the staff, evaluating the current staff, also getting ready to obviously hire some external candidates, as well. So, got a lot of work to do in a short period of time. I must look tired and awful because Michael Hazel night told me to go home. I must have looked pretty rough. But just not a lot of hours in the day and not enough manpower right now in the building for all the things that we need to do."

This was a great two weeks for Virginia Tech. Now Franklin can start building out his staff and planning what he is going to do with the roster for next season.