Virginia Tech football: Are the Hokies moving forward with John Love as the starting kicker?

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Heading into the 2026 season, there was a lot of excitement surrounding the Virginia Tech Hokies under new head coach James Franklin. Franklin brought in several of his former Penn State players, including quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer and tight end Luke Reynolds.

Virginia Tech also kept its best players from last season, such as Kemari Copeland, Ayden Greene, Kyle Altuner and John Love. Speaking of Love, he’s had a rough start to his final season in Blacksburg. One of the best kickers in college football, Love didn’t miss an extra point in his first four years at Virginia Tech and made 54 of 64 field-goal attempts.

This season, Love missed his first career PAT (it was blocked) in Week 3 at Maryland, but had made his first seven field goals. In the prime-time game against Pitt at Lane Stadium two weeks ago, the Hokies were in position to win. All they needed was Love to bang home a 36-yard field goal.

Easy, right?

Unfortunately, Love hooked it left. There was some confusion about whether it went in, but he barely missed it. After the game, Franklin defended Love, not only as a kicker, but as a person, teammate and leader. He said Love also addressed his teammates, and they all had his back.

In last week’s game at Cal, Love missed a kick in the first half. It was from 55 yards out. Love again hooked it left. While Love clearly has the range for a 55-yard kick, kicks from that distance are not guaranteed. Later in the game, Love would have a chance to redeem himself. Unfortunately, he hooked it again, this time missing one from 39 yards out.

We officially have a problem. Love has lost all of his confidence. Franklin remains firmly behind him, but does that mean he will still be Virginia Tech’s primary kicker?

“For punting as well as kicking, we have to truly have an open competition,” Franklin said. “So those guys feel the pressure in practice every single day. I think that’s going to be really, really important. I think we have some options at kicker. Cole Byrd has done some really nice things, so he’ll get some opportunities to compete in practice.”

While Franklin mentioned Tech’s other kickers, he still plans to allow Love to kick himself out of it.

“Obviously, John is still the guy and will have an opportunity, but also his brother (freshman kicker Will Love),” Franklin said. “There’ll be some competition there. I think obviously when you miss three field goals in a row, and two that we think are makeable high-percentage kicks for John, we’ve got to make sure that we’re looking at every option possible. So, we’ll create some real competition this week.”

The punter position has been a bigger question mark than Love at kicker, with senior Nathan Totten averaging only 41 yards per punt this season. When your defense struggles, a struggling punter can only highlight those issues further.

The Hokies are back in action on Saturday, when they host Georgia Tech at Lane Stadium.

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