Virginia Tech's White Team Wins Spring Game 30-21 in First Peek at Hokies Under Franklin

All four of Virginia Tech's quarterbacks saw action, combining for 428 yards through the air.

Virginia Tech Athletics

BLACKSBURG, Va. — After an hour-plus delay, Virginia Tech's white team defeated the maroon team, 30-21, in the Hokies' 2026 spring game Saturday afternoon in Lane Stadium.

"A lot of work to do between now and training camp," Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin said. "But very, very pleased with our 15 days. Very pleased with what we were able to get done today, and very appreciative of the fans and the type of support that we got for our program."

EXIT LIGHT….ENTER NIGHT.#VTSpringGame | #LetsGoHokies pic.twitter.com/ZekVvtg9Lq

— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) April 18, 2026

The game was delayed due to a skydiver careening into the videoboard pre-game. Eventually, the skydiver — Pasha Palanker, a retired U.S. Special Operations Master Sergeant who is a two-time Purple Heart recipient — was extracted via ladder, though the parachute remained on the video scoreboard.

Sixty-two minutes after the game's initial projected start time of 3 p.m. ET, Virginia Tech's spring game got underway.

“Happy that the skydiver is OK,” Franklin said. “… I want to thank all the first responders for how they handled it, too. ... It was an opportunity [for us] to … practice something like that that may come up."

The contest featured a mix of four quarterbacks: Ethan Grunkemeyer and Troy Huhn manned the fort for the maroon team, while Bryce Baker and Kelden Ryan served as the white team's signal-callers.

Baker and Ryan combined for 228 yards on a 24-of-41 rate.

"He's a very, very strong player," Baker said of Ryan. "I think he's just a confident player. Before we went out there today, we were just like, 'We're in this together.' What I see, I'm going to tell you, and what you see, I want you to tell me, and we're just on the same page about that. So us being in the right spirit and alignment to go get this win, I think [it] propelled his play, and he played amazing today."

Grunkemeyer completed 13 of his 17 passes for one touchdown, absorbing one sack and a second-quarter interception. Huhn, serving as the backup to Grunkemeyer, struggled in limited action.

He completed five of his eight passes for 64 passing yards, though he absorbed six sacks. The maroon team did not score in the second half of regulation, yielding 14 points to the white team. After the opening-drive touchdown, the maroon team's final 14 points came about via a field goal in regulation, two points from the mid-contest punt competition and nine from field goals post-regulation.

The two leaders in receiving yards were both tight ends. Reynolds finished with a game-high 69 receiving yards on five receptions for the maroon team, while Ja'Ricous Hairston tacked on 58 receiving yards on four catches for the white team. Virginia Tech's tight ends combined for 205 of the 428 total receiving yards, doing so on 17 receptions.

Last season's WR1, Ayden Greene, finished with 18 receiving yards on three catches. Jeff Exinor and Que'Sean Brown rounded out the wideouts' production for the maroon team with 24 and 22 receiving yards, respectively.

For the white team, Benji Gosnell accrued 34 receiving yards on a team-high five receptions. As aforementioned, Hairston tacked on 58 receiving yards on four receptions — the brunt of which came off a 32-yard pass from Baker. Baker, who transferred from North Carolina after not seeing game action in 2025, finished with 140 passing yards and a touchdown, completing 15 of his 27 passes.

The white team's receiving effort was balanced, with 12 receivers logging catches and five finishing with multiple receptions. Chanz Wiggins finished with 36 receiving yards after missing the entirety of the 2025 season.

Walk-ons Gray Peterson, Brody Jones and Drew Hube all hauled in passes, combining for 26 total yards. The white team finished with 228 receiving yards on 24 catches.

The maroon team quickly cashed in on the game's first opportunity, with Grunkemeyer finding Luke Reynolds open for 17- and 18-yard receptions to move up to the white team's 35-yard line. Four plays later, the maroon squad found the endzone when Grunkemeyer spotted Brown and fired the ball over for a 14-yard reception. Grunkemeyer was 5-for-5 for 66 yards on his first drive.

The white team responded in the second quarter after a 13-play, 47-yard drive that culminated in a 48-yard Will Love field goal.

The maroon team countered in turn with a 27-yard field goal that elevated the game's lead back up to seven. During the intermission between the second and third quarters, Virginia Tech conducted a punting competition, which resulted in two additional points for the maroon team and one for the white team, resulting in a 12-7 margin entering the third quarter of play.

The third and fourth quarters were dominated scoring-wise by the white team, which tallied a pair of receiving touchdowns. In the third quarter, Ryan tossed a 20-yard pass over to Chanz Wiggins to flip the score to 14-12, White. Then, in the final period, the white team elected to go for it on a fourth-and-2 red-zone situation — and Baker found an open Cam Sparks in the endzone to cap off an eight-play, 60-yard drive.

The white team dominated time of possession in the middle two frames, possessing the ball for 16:41 of the 24 available minutes. The white team also went 10-of-18 on third down and 3-of-3 on fourth down. Meanwhile, the maroon squad went just 2-for-8 when operating in third-down situations.

On the defensive side of the ball, cornerback Joshua Clarke (maroon), linebacker Antwone Santiago (maroon) and cornerback Amauri Polydor (white) each finished with a game-high seven tackles. Clarke himself finished with six tackles. He did not play last year after suffering a lower-body injury in 2025 spring ball.

"He hasn't always been the most physical guy," said defensive coordinator Brent Pry. "Coming off of that injury, sometimes you can be bashful. I thought today, I saw him step up and put his pads on people and make a strong tackle."

The defense combined for 10 sacks, led by defensive end Jason Abbey and defensive tackle Eric Mensah at 1.5 apiece for the white team.

“For our defense, obviously, you love 10 sacks,” Franklin said. “For our offense, we’ve got to get that cleaned up. Also, there’s times where I blow the whistle that may not have been a sack, and there may have been a few that would’ve ended up a sack that I didn’t call a sack. So it’s hard to interpret that until we go completely live and get into the season."

Eighteen of the game's 51 points arose from the contest's post-regulation field goal competition. Both teams converted on three field goals, and three touchdowns were scored across the spring game — two by the white team and one by the maroon team.

Virginia Tech football's spring slate is now in the books. The Hokies will next take to the field publicly on Saturday, Sept. 5, in their season opener against VMI.

Franklin remarked between the first quarter and the second quarter that "we're going to shock the world together."

“There’s an excitement right now, and we want to keep that excitement going,” Franklin said. “We have been fortunate to be a part of two turnarounds in two different conferences [at Vanderbilt and Penn State], and we plan on doing that again. And this place knows what it looks like. They’ve done it before."

"... We’re not going to hide from that, and we’re going to need everybody to understand and buy into that for us to go where we want to go.”