Will update when articles are published. For now, embedded box score
Final from Virginia Tech football's spring game: White 21, Maroon 12.Maroon team appeared to have most of the #Hokies' starters, and E. Grunkemeyer and his tight ends connected seven times. However, the White team, led by B. Baker and K. Ryan, scored the lone second-half TDs. pic.twitter.com/LMea4Lp62N— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) April 18, 2026
For those who were able to watch it, let those of us who couldn't know what you thought about the game.
Adding
James Franklin press conference
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Comments
The worst stat was definitely the 33.3% success rate for the parachutists 😂
and that guy had problems at the end with his canopy collapsing as he entered the stadium.
Yeah that gave us all anxiety I think
I think the success rate was actually lower than that. The one guy who made it onto the field clearly didn't make it like he planned. He definitely went into a free fall for a bit to make sure he landed on the field, and still slid in on his butt.
Damn...this video shows how hard that guy hit the scoreboard. You watch pieces of the E and C at the top explode away from his impact.
Looks like he got too low and flattened out coming into the stadium and the wind just threw him backwards.
Dang, I knew he had busted out the plastic from the letters but didnt realize he had hit that hard. I was too busy looking at the VT-flag parachutist and wondering if he was going to clear enough to get into the stadium or not. Anybody hear/see where he ended up landing? I looked at that area later and looked like a ton of concrete, asphalt, and metal fences so I can't imagine he had a good time either.
Looked like the VT flag landed out in the practice field. Or at least, he was in the process of going down there when my attention got rapidly turned to the scoreboard.
Another angle I saw shows him hit the scoreboard and the next line in the song playing in the stadium was "This is how legends are made". I really hope this is not an omen.
Fortunately he's a badass... he should probable be awarded his third purple heart.
Two pieces of great news from Andy Bitter
My takeaways from the game itself are that Overton (RB), Reynolds (TE), and Gosnell (TE) are going to be among our main guys.
Overton really had a nice spurt on that one series. Felt like he took them 50 yards down the field in like 3 plays very quickly.
Kinda OT, but saw rumors that Indiana was trying to poach Gosnell. I feel like that's a compliment.
Ever since I first followed the Hokies in the 60s, the drumbeat pre-season was always that this year, we're gonna get those tight ends involved, dadgummit! Just hasn't usually been the case through the decades. I've always wanted to see the tight ends as primary targets, not just decoys or safety valves, and have admired teams that seem to do that successfully. Looks like this fall I might get my wish. Just like the run game sets up the pass game, the tight ends being heavily involved will set up the wide receivers. Big guys with good hands, tough to tackle, ten yards a pop...what's not to like?
Remember when we moved Greg Booooone to TE and he was going to change the game? Then we threw him like 4 passes?
Remember when he ran the Wild Turkey set?
He threw more passes than we threw to him
I remember that fateful Thursday nigh in October 2007 when Sam Wheeler was WIDE OPEN in the EZ to give VT a second TD on the night, but Sean Glennon did not see him (in the middle of the freaking field, just inside what would have been the right hash if memory serves me correct).... Would have been nice to see some TE action on that play...
I still have my Jeff King 90 jersey. One of my few splurges at the bookstore as a student.
Apparently while waiting for the second fire platform ladder to setup the corps of cadets working the game, VTPD, grounds crew and VT rescue folks started to pile up football tackling props to try and create and emergency "landing pad".
can confirm - I was under the scoreboard watching the rescue operation and they were indeed finding all the pads they could and tossing up on the fence and down on the ground below. Thankfully, in the end, they were not needed. It was a tense time
So who else looked good? Howd the o line look?
General question, are we getting a French breakdown?
From my untrained eye, it appeared we were helping out the OL by rolling the QB's who then did a decent job of finding open receivers.
Several throws were low or behind receivers, but assume that summer work on timing will improve that.
Running up the middle seemed to be a challenge, but found room on the edges.
Grunkemeyer is by far the least mobile of our QB's, but he did run when given an opening.
By watching 2 of the INT's it's obvious he can throw to a space where the route is supposed to be.
Yep. Gathering thoughts. I was in the south end zone.
Will we get your review of the parachute incident as well?
No. That was a surreal and terrifying moment. People were around chattering, videoing, and talking about how the first responders weren't doing their job rights. Meanwhile, I really thought I was going to see someone die. I kept putting my head down so if the parachute ripped, I didn't see it. That really threw me for a loop, and I was pretty sedated once the game started.
Guys who performed above my expectations: Tyser Denmark, Jeff Exinor, Eric Mensah, Daniel Jennings, Bryan Baker
Guys who underwhelmed me: Elhadj Fall and Randy Adirka, the starting wide receiver group, the defensive end group minus Jennings and Hillson, the offensive line.
One thing that really jumped out- Franklin didn't play a lot of the true freshmen. The only ones I noticed on the field were Polydor, Richardson, Tyrell Grant, and Matt Lamah. None of the freshmen OL played as best as I could tell, and neither did Terry Wiggins. John Paul Oats and Messiah Mickens were listed as out.
I sat and prayed. It could have been horrible
I was also praying because like French, I also thought we were all going to watch him fall to his death. I don't think the coverage has done a very good job of describing how scary it was.
From my vantage point in west, in looked like the parachute was mostly covering/hitched to almost all of the E, all of the C, and almost all of the H in TECH. By the time they got to him, it looked like between gusts of wind and maybe some rips in the parachute, that he was hanging on by just the tip left corner of the H.
And I didn't keep an official timer running, but I think they finally got to him at about 3:30. That would put him at about 35 minutes of hanging up there.
Every new gust of wind up at the top of the video board gave me more fear.
Im very grateful for all the work that the first responders put into to rescuing him.
the gust of wind are no joke, my dad would go to games in the 50s and VT would play cover 0 because there were maybe 1 or 2 QBs in the nation that could throw the long ball in the wind. The end zones seats have really neutered the wind on the field but that doesn't impact people above the stadium. Im glad everyone was mostly okay.
random thoughts...
some of the lines looked entangled on the letters
wonder how much communication there was with whomever it was that went up inside the scoreboard? could they secure him from inside?
having not been there in a gazillion years, I didn't realize he wasn't hanging directly over the stands...that there is a driveway at the base of the scoreboard...good for rescue, bad for impact
very fortunate he was in as good as shape as he was after hitting the board. if it could have been any worse, having a dying/dead person hanging there for 45 minutes would have been it
upon reflection, I think he realized he wasn't going to make it to the field, much less clear the stands. and tried the last second turn
I'm going to assume that cutting loose from the flag early wasn't an option. it looked pretty obvious he was in trouble for quite a bit.
wonder if FAA/NTSB will do a follow up, an interview would be fascinating
guessing Franklin may nix future similar opens...stick with the flyovers
odds on someone getting a VT football jersey #12 with the name "Bucket" on it? Fireman, you up for that?
Talking to some people it sounds like there was a lot of confusion about how to effect a rescue. Yes he could have been accessed from inside the scoreboard I know some rescue personally went up there but unsure if people familiar with how to make large access through the panels were in there with them. VT facilities has/ had a 125 working lift that could have been used instead of first trying the 75 foot straight stick or waiting for the 100 foot platform to be dispatched. Remember Blacksburg fire and VT rescue are all volunteer , which means you have to wait for people to staff up units that weren't already working the event. A lot of the volunteers not on duty actually ran the 3.2 earlier that day and many were at the game as spectators.
Incidents like this show that public safety and emergency management training, planning and written response for ANY kind of incident is very important.
Made Good Morning America
From what Franklin said in his press conference, it seems like the TEs played well and this boards expectations about higher tight end usage was well founded. But he also mentioned that the WRs didn't play so well and weren't very productive. That doesn't alleviate the concerns many of us had about the WR room when Franklin retained Mines.
Yeah... We all know Mines can recruit, but the development of that room has been underwhelming at best. I guess we will see how things pan out this Fall.
Fully agree that we haven't had a WR break out or meaningfully improve for a 4 year cycle. Mines recruits 4 stars that stay buried on the roster, and then turns-over the top 4 through the portal every year. Seems like our best WR will be the transfer from Duke this year. Very poor development and lack of fundamentals in that room.
I'm struggling to think about who our best example of development from a WR is since boykin and coale graduated. A few names come to mind but the top WRs we had all came in and immediately played well (Ford, Phillips, Turner, Robinson, Lane, Jennings). Sure those guys improved with time but I don't recall a lot of big leaps in their play. And I really can't remember us taking a young WR and turning him into a great player, or even a good one. And i'm going back 15 years here. Marcus Davis had a solid senior season but still felt like he was a bit disappointing based on expectations. Someone provide a name that proves me wrong, please haha
Kaleb Smith. Walk-on to #1 WR picked up by ND in the portal to be one of their top targets.
Willie Byrn was pretty good too.
Cam phillips went from roughly a 40 catch 500 yard player into roughly 70/1000 by his senior year. Definitely stepped up big time and i remember that leap between his sophomore and junior years being pretty impressive -- especially in a bigger role in Fuente's first year
How much was that because Ford was on the otherside of the field from home those first 3 years? I think Aaron moorhead got Ford and Phillips ready to play really quick. He did a great job early on, and i think there was a ton of development their first couple of years that was hard to see in stats.
He made that jump while Ford and Bucky were on the field w him in 2016
Yeah Cam is a good one, you're right. He was certainly good as a true freshman but he did certainly get better. Sadly, he graduated like 9 years ago haha
so he is still eligible!
Eh sort of agree. He hasn't developed the highly rated high school guys, but Kaleb Smith took a huge step forward in the one year under Mines, Stephen Gosnell was an afterthought transfer but improved every year and is now in the NFL, and though felton didn't improve from 23 to 24, he came to VT as an athlete masquerading as a bad football player.
I can appreciate this take. I think I look at the room as a whole and see a few things that don't scream "development". Could some of that be related to OL & QB play? Could some of that have been related to the scheme? Likely. I hope my assessment of his ability to develop the quality recruits he brings in is proven to be wrong.
To be fair... the passing game as a whole was underwhelming at best for the entire Pry era - passing, route running, catching, run blocking... all of it was mid, and no group was good enough to elevate another group. It was just a non-stop vicious cycle.
Wonder how much of that had to do with Holmon Wiggins being poached by Bama. Doubt they take him if he is a sub-par WR coach. He has, by far, had the most success of Fuente's assistants.
Not sure I follow... Wiggins left VT 3 years before Pry was hired? Now he's the OC at TAMU.
My mistake. I misread that as the Fuente era, not the Pry era.
Wiggins is probably the last competent WR coach VT has had in terms of teaching the actual position. Before that it was probably Moorehead.
I think that's unfair. First of all, Ford/Cam/Bucky were the only productive guys Wiggins had at VT, and they were all 4 star recruits. They also had better passers, better pass blocking, and a better designed passing game than any receiver had in the Pry era.
We also have to remember than Jaylin Lane was a 3-star transfer (88). Ayden Green is poised for a great year (we'll see if takes the step).
Wiggins is obviously a tremendous coach (as evidenced by his rapid ascension), but he also had a lot of help from the players and coaches around him. Can't say the same about Mines.
I'm willing to give Mines the benefit of the doubt based on your last paragraph. We'll see if they can start to bring in more 4 star WRs for Mines to work with with a competent surrounding staff.
Also, since the only WR coach between Mines and Wiggins is Jafar Williams, that's probably negatively skewing my opinion.
Zohn Burden?
This is Zohn Burgundy?
Burden was only WR coach in 2015, the year before Wiggins and then got shifted to RB coach when Fuente arrived. He had Ford, Phillips, and Hodges, all on their second years. He also benefitted from working with probably the best passing game architect at VT in Scot Loeffler so I don't know if you have enough evidence to say he was a good WR coach.
Ok, I didn't remember he was our WR coach for such a short time.
They didn't attempt to stretch the field besides the INT and the diving absurd catch down the seam by Reynolds. Was that a lack of separation or by design? Not sure.
From the sounds of it...I'm guessing six wins and military bowl is the ceiling.
No one recorded this thing to put on Youtube afterwards??
Sorry, I meant the whole spring game.
ah, my bad!
hahaha.
I hear a guerrilla cinemetographer may have gotten some clips. He is an a shrewd negotiator, but I will try to incorporate his work. Sneaky bloke.
Chanz Wiggins looked the part had had a great catch on a ball behind him.
That catch was sick. I never did get a good look at how he scored later though
That is some quote!
Do you think Whit is trying to figure out how to kindly ask him to pay for the damage...I mean money is tight in every athletic department /s
If I'm not mistaken, the board is being replaced this summer anyway.
The skydiver might bill us for helping with the demolition work.
We have insurance on that. It'll pay the diver and we'll get repair money, then we'll take the board down.
Thankfully, he did not have to worry about Germans shooting him like the guy at St. Mere Eglise. For those not familiar with the story:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steele_(paratrooper)
Thanks for sharing. Interesting story.
I need me that spring game break down pleaseeee....
Man hit jumbotron
Team plays football
Massive speculation until August
also: https://www.thekeyplay.com/virginia-tech-football/2026/04/25957/hope-spr...
Man reads posted article
A man is no one.
Well, to be fair, one is no man either.
Does that include the new E and C?
Sure looks like it. If they rented the man lift, about half that cost is likely just for the man lift.
Yeah, a lift high enough to rach the top of the board but also narrow enough to fit down that narrow lane.