The transfer portal is les than a week away from opening with many DI players announcing their intentions to enter the portal when it opens on January 2nd while most schools are doing their evaluations and talking with agents behind the scenes on potential transfer targets.
In some cases, there will be transfer targets that James Franklin and his staff, especially those who are coming from Penn State. That will definitely be a situation to monitor, but there are also some other potential transfer targets who played for James Franklin or Virginia Tech before leaving prior to the 2025 season, but could have a reunion with Franklin and/or the Hokies in 2026.
This isn't at all unprecedented for Franklin as there was a reunion that happened last offseason with S King Mack, who started his career at Penn State, transferred to Alabama for one season in 2024, and then returned to Happy Valley last offseason. That moved proved beneficial as Mack had 56 tackles, one interception, and three pass breakups this past regular season while earning a 79.2 PFF grade on the season, likely putting himself on 2027 NFL Draft radars at minimum in the process.
So who could be James Franklin and Virginia Tech's version of King Mack this transfer portal cycle? Here's a look at three reunion transfer candidates who played for either Franklin or VT prior to 2025.
Auburn OT Xavier Chaplin
When Xavier Chaplin left for Auburn, Virginia Tech was still searching for an offensive line coach after being slow moving in making a change from Ron Crook to eventually Matt Moore. Tech's slow-moving search meant Moore didn't even get a chance to try to recruit Chaplin back to VT, though those efforts may have proved futile anyway given how much Auburn spent.
However, a reunion could definitely make more sense this upcoming cycle with Chaplin looking to improve his draft stock after a disappointing 2025 season, Tech needing some offensive line upgrades, and VT having a proven OL coach plus a lot more money to spend.
While Chaplin's 2025 season at Auburn didn't go as well as hoped, it wasn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. His pass blocking was a strength as he earned a 71.1 PFF grade in pass blocking. He had a career-best pass blocking efficiency rate of 97.7%, allowing only 17 total pressures over the course of 482 pass blocking snaps. He also played better as the season went along with three of his top four PFF grades coming in Auburn's final four games against Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and Alabama.
