Virginia Tech's Recruiting Class Ranks Top-25 At End of Early Signing Day

The Hokies are in the midst of their strongest recruiting class in recent memory.

Nov 19, 2025; Blacksburg, Va.; Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin speaks at the press conference at Cassell Coliseum. | Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

Though the end of Early Signing Day is here, the period will last for two more days. But the Hokies are rolling. Since the hiring of James Franklin, Virginia Tech football has boosted its recruiting class to 23 recruits and has officially signed all but one. The lone one not to, tight end Isaiah Pina, stated on his X (formerly Twitter) account that he will move forward with signing with the team in February.

"We grew up with a Virginia Tech that was kickin' butt and taking names," Franklin said on ESPN. "This is gonna be the type of class and the type of young men that are gonna help us restore that."

“We grew up with a Virginia Tech that was kickin’ butt and taking names, and this is gonna be the type of class and the type of young men that are gonna help us restore that.” 🏆

With James Franklin at the helm, Virginia Tech Football now has the No. 23 recruiting class in the… pic.twitter.com/0dwFrsQOJw

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) December 3, 2025

Of those 23 recruits: six are in ESPN's Top 300 list: wide receiver Davion "FatRat" Brown, running back Messiah Mickens, quarterback Troy Huhn, offensive tackle Thomas Wilder, tight end Pierce Petersohn and offensive guard Benjamin Eziuka. All but one — Wilder — flipped over from Penn State following the announcement on Nov. 17 that Franklin would be the team's next head whistle.

During the team's press conference held this afternoon, Franklin remarked that the squad will continue to emphasize the importance of building in the trenches, both in this recruiting cycle and future ones.

"We're always going to emphasize up front the O-line and the D-line," Franklin said. "Those are positions that it takes time to develop. If you fall behind in those areas, it's hard to get caught up. I learned that lesson the hard way when I got the Penn State job. I think there was four or five scholarship offensive linemen in the entire program.

"So, I learned that lesson the hard way and that's something we'll always make sure we do a great job of recruiting. And then I think you also saw that we took a tremendous amount of pride in the state of Virginia. That will always be the case. It's got to start at home with the high school players, with the high school coaches. Obviously, we got to do a great job in the region, and we got to be able to go national as well. But if you don't take care of your own backyard, it's hard to do any of those other things. So, it starts here at home. Everybody talks about the 757 when you talk about recruiting the state of Virginia, but it's really the entire state and we got tremendous respect for the entire state of Virginia, and we will treat it as a priority. So, happy to answer questions and again just overall very, very pleased with all the hard work that we put in this to put Virginia Tech in the best chance to be successful moving forward."

Franklin isn't satisfied, however. For him, this recruiting class represents the foundation, a stepping stone to a bigger, brighter and better future.

"This is a really good foundation to start from," Franklin said. "But we have much higher expectations than just the top-25 [recruiting class]."

The signing period extends through Friday, Dec. 5. In the meantime, we at Virginia Tech On SI will have you covered with the latest recruiting news surrounding Virginia Tech football.