Virginia Tech Ranks Near The Top Of The Country In Interesting Statistic Heading Into 2026

Virginia Tech is in the midst of their first spring practice under James Franklin and the second week is underway. As the Hokies continue to build toward the spring game next month, they are working to implement the new transfers and new faces from this year's high school recruiting class, but Virginia Tech has a lot of returning production as well and the latest SP+ numbers bear this out.

Hokies at the top of the ACC

Each spring, ESPN's Bill Connelly releases his returning production numbers and it gives a great snapshot of how much a team is returning on both sides of the ball and at No. 4 in the entire country is Virginia Tech.

How does Connelly calculate transfers in the returning production numbers? Here is how he puts it:

"I mash an incoming player's production from his previous team into the numerator and denominator for his new team. (Because the translation in moving from the lower levels of the sport to the FBS is extremely inconsistent, I give only half-credit for players transferring up from lower divisions.) So, if your quarterback leaves, and you bring in a transfer who was productive elsewhere, that dampens the blow of your QB leaving.

So really, we're talking about returning and incoming production here. I fiddled with the concept of splitting the two for SP+ projections, looking at both separately, but I didn't find an approach that made the projections more accurate. So, we move forward with an approach similar to that of years past."

The Hokies are 4th overall in returning production, ranking 9th in offensive production and 8th in defensive production.

There is a big gap betweem Virginia Tech and the next set of teams in the ACC in terms of returning production. SMU ranks 22nd, Syracuse ranks 27th, Stanford ranks 33rd, and Virginia ranks 36.

Virginia Tech is having to replace their starting quarterback and some depth pieces on offense, but their leading rusher (Marcellous Hawkins), two of their three leading receivers, and offensive line starters coming back and on defense, Kemari Copeland leads the way for the Hokies defense.

Now, returning production numbers don't guarantee winning. Virginia Tech fans will remember that the Hokies ranked near the two of this stat two seasons ago and that team had preseason darkhorse playoff contender expectations, yet they fell short and finished 6-6. This past season, Clemson ranked at the top of the returning production stats, yet they went 7-6.

It is important to note that Virginia Tech is at the top of returning production, but that alone is not going to help them win games under Franklin in his first season.