The 2 Virginia Tech Position Groups That Look Completely Different From Last Season
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BLACKSBURG, Va. — Virginia Tech's roster will look much different when the Hokies take the field for fall camp than it did just one year ago. An offseason defined by the transfer portal, recruiting and coaching changes has reshaped nearly every corner of the roster, but a handful of position groups have undergone especially dramatic transformations. While there are changes across the board, no two units have experienced a bigger facelift than the wide receivers and defensive line heading into the 2026 season.
Wide Receiver
The wide receiver room enters fall camp with plenty of intrigue after seeing significant turnover from a year ago. Virginia Tech lost several contributors from last season's team, leaving behind a group that will rely heavily on transfers and younger players to produce immediately.
The team spent 2025 tallying nearly 2,000 receiving yards as a unit; the Hokies return just 1,110 yards, but 332 of those yards come from tight ends and running backs. Receivers return 778 yards as a unit, where 716 of them hail from Ayden Greene and Takye Heath. The other 62 all come from Snook Peterkin.
The Hokies brought in four receivers in the 2026 transfer portal class, with Que'Sean Brown headlining the group and expected to be neck and neck with Ayden Greene for the team's leading receiver. The Hokies also bring in Marlion Jackson — who was featured in an article I wrote yesterday. Jackson could add more depth on the boundary as a primarily jump-ball receiver. He profiles quite similarly to Isaiah Spencer from the 2025 team.
Jeff Exinor and Tyseer Denmark were the other two additions. Since those two are both very young and inexperienced in a pretty deep room, I don't envision that they see much time on the field in 2026.
Keylan Adams and Chanz Wiggings are both recievers who didn't see the field in 2025 due to injury, so they will be a pair of new additions to the 2026 two-deep depth chart.
Defensive Line
Defensively, No position groups have seen more change than the defensive line.
The Hokies totaled just 19 sacks in 2025, with the defensive line responsible for 15 of them. From that group on the defensive line, 10 of those sacks return, with eight of them coming from the interior. That interior has seen some continuity, returning everybody who tallied a sack other than Kelvin Gilliam.
The only player on the edge who returns to Virginia Tech with a single career sack is Jason Abbey, who has 2.5. Samuel Okunlola comes in from Colorado with eight career sacks. Nobody else among the team's edge rushers has ever recorded a sack. Curtis Jones Jr. is the only one you could consider, but the Hokies list him as a linebacker. He has just one career sack.
The Hokies have a total of 11 new faces among 16 edge rushers on the roster, making it a room with arguably the biggest turnover from 2025.
Roster turnover has become the norm in the modern era of college football, especially with the transfer portal creating yearly opportunities for programs to reshape their teams. Virginia Tech is no exception. While nearly every position room looks different entering the 2026 season, the changes at wide receiver and along the defensive line stand above the rest.
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Joshua Poslusny - who goes by Poz - is a Radford University sophomore in the School of Communication. He graduated from Ocean Springs High School in Mississippi in 2024. He has previously done work for The Tech Lunch Pail, Tech Sideline, and Sons of Saturday, among others. He specializes in baseball coverage, which he has been doing for the last year. He also has experience covering football, basketball, and softball.