Virginia Tech Football's Post-Portal Review, Part 1: Quarterbacks

Virginia Tech football's 2026 transfer portal class is complete. The Hokies landed a total of 26 prospects from the portal, including two quarterbacks. Today, I'll go through each of the five quarterbacks that are currently on Virginia Tech's roster:

Setting the table:

Before getting into any individual quarterback, it's important to note the age of the collective unit as a whole: all five quarterbacks have at least three years of eligibility. Moreover, redshirt sophomore — and expected starter — Ethan Grunkemeyer is the only non-freshman (true or redshirt) on Virginia Tech's quarterbacks corps. It's a ug unit, with Grunkemeyer being the only one of the five to log any official snaps at the collegiate level. As such, all statistics (except for Grunkemeyer's) will be pulled from high school ball.

Ethan Grunkemeyer:

Grunkemeyer will likely be the starting quarterback for the Hokies' season opener vs. VMI on Sept. 5, and there's a good reason why. Grunkemeyer started the final seven games of the 2025 campaign for Penn State once starter Drew Allar went down. Across the season as a whole, Grukemeyer completed 123 of 178 (69.1%) passes for 1,339 passing yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions.

Moreover, in his final four games of the season, Grunkemeyer threw for 777 passing yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions. When given time, Grunkemeyer is pinpoint; his career completion percentage of 68.9% would rank first by a clear margin over Virginia Tech's single-season or full career completion percentage record.

He's limited beyond the pocket, however, having been held to -46 net rushing yards on 35 carries. However, for an adept pocket passer, he's in the ideal mold of what Virginia Tech would be looking for if it decides to structure its offense around a pocket-passer archetype.

Bryce Baker:

As a prospect, Baker was rated by 247Sports as a four-star recruit with an overall rating of 93. He was ranked at No. 155 in the Class of 2025, the No. 12 quarterback in the class and No. 5 in North Carolina.

Baker committed to the University of North Carolina but did not see any game action and redshirted. Baker officially committed to Virginia Tech on Jan. 10; he was rated as the No. 446 player in the transfer portal class and the No. 27 quarterback.

As a senior at East Forsyth High School, Baker completed 228 of his 305 (74.8%) passes for 40 touchdowns, while putting up 536 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns.

Baker put up extremely strong high school numbers and could be worth monitoring if Grunkemeyer is unavailable.

A.J. Brand:

Brand projects in the runner mold of Virginia Tech football; as a high school player, Brand logged 11,889 otal yars and 151 total touchdowns in high school, being named 2024's South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year. As a senior, Brand completed 183 of 254 (72%) passing attempts for 2,600 yards and 30 touchdowns, adding 2,029 rushing yards and 27 rushing touchdowns on 183 carries.

Brand profiles as an athletic but raw prospect whose collegiate ceiling is unknown because he hasn't logged any collegiate snaps yet, beyond the spring game. In that contest, Brand and Kelden Ryan, who I'll talk about next, combined for 22 yards on 11 attempts and three sacks.

Kelden Ryan:

Ryan came out of high school ranked as a three-star prospect; he was assessed an overall rating of 87. Ryan was slotted in as the No. 55 quarterback in the Class of 2025 and the No. 167 overall prospect in Texas.

In his senior season, Ryan threw for 25 touchdowns and 2,353 passing yards, while rushing for 924 yards and 14 rushing touchdowns. Ryan, a Fort Worth, Texas native led his school, DeSoto High School, to an 11-2 record and to the state quarterfinals that year.

Of note: on his HokieSports page, it was stated that Ryan chose Virginia Tech "based on the campus atmosphere and culture, the hominess provided by the coaching staff and the football program’s history of producing talented players, especially dynamic quarterbacks."

I would expect Ryan to suit up as the third-string quarterback this season, ahead of Brand and Troy Huhn while sitting behind Grunkemeyer and Baker. With a new quarterbacks coach incoming in Danny O'Brien, Grunkemeyer likely takes a further edge there, leaving what's essentially a four-way fight for the backup spot. I believe that Baker wins that fight and Ryan settles in as third in line.

Troy Huhn:

Huhn, a three-star quarterback from Mission Hills, California, committed to Virginia Tech hours after fellow signal-caller Cole Bergeron decommitted from the Hokies. Huhn was rated as a three-star prospect on 247Sports with an overall rating of 89; he was ranked as the No. 21 quarterback in the Class of 2026 and the No. 37 overall prospect in the state of California.

Huhn projects as more of a pocket passer; 247Sports director of scouting Andrew Ivins remarked in his scouting report on Huhn that the quarterback "evokes confidence in the pocket with his sturdy base and can be efficient on designed rollouts, but doesn't offer a ton of improv skills and can make ill-advised decisions when the pressure mounts."

Virginia Tech isn't new to a quarterback that can shine in the pocket when given time but that's vulnerable when it breaks down. Last year's second-stringer William "Pop" Watson III is a good example here, albeit Watson is much more of a runner than Huhn. Watson lit up Virginia for 254 yards in 2024's regular season finale, but struggled in the two games that bookended that slate, taking 12 combined sacks at the hands of Duke and Minnesota.

As it stands, Huhn isn't likely to log any snaps in Year 1 at Virginia Tech, but that's OK. This year, in terms of development, will be crucial, however, as Huhn acclimates to the college game.