The Biggest Decision James Franklin Got Right Against Maryland
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Fourth-and-1 at the Maryland 46 with 3:00 left and Virginia Tech up nine. One snap earlier, quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer had thrown to tight end Luke Reynolds on third-and-2 and come up a yard short.
Head coach James Franklin left the offense on the field. Grunkemeyer rolled right and went back to Reynolds, who caught it, turned, and backpedaled past the marker. The replay booth let the first down stand. Maryland had no timeouts left, so the Hokies ran one more play, took three knees, and left College Park with a 35-26 win.
Why the decision mattered
It was Virginia Tech's first win over a nonconference Power Four opponent since 2017, and it ended Maryland's 20-game nonconference winning streak, the longest in FBS. Reynolds caught all 12 passes thrown his way. Grunkemeyer threw for 314 yards. Those were performances. The best decision of the night was the one that ended it.
Two weeks earlier, on the opening drive against VMI, Franklin went for it on fourth-and-1 at his own 49. Running back Marcellous Hawkins Jr. got the yard, and running back Jeffrey Overton Jr. ran 50 yards for a touchdown on the next snap. That call was about as cheap as fourth-down calls get: an FCS opponent, a scoreless first quarter, and a game the Hokies won by 70.
Saturday's version came five yards farther downfield. By no means was this decision cheap.
Maryland quarterback Malik Washington had just led back-to-back touchdown drives of 81 and 80 yards. On the second, he converted a third-and-20 from his own 10 with a 43-yard throw to wide receiver Na'eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding. The Terrapins scored touchdowns on all four of their trips inside the 20, and Washington finished 30-of-43 for 359 yards and three touchdowns. Franklin opened his postgame news conference by praising him.
"He's one of the better quarterbacks in the country," Franklin said.
He didn't need to say it. The fourth-down call made clear he wanted Washington on the sideline.
Here's what Franklin was weighing. Convert, and it's over, because Maryland has no timeouts left to stop the clock. Fail, and Maryland takes over at its own 46, needing two scores and an onside kick in under three minutes. Punt, and Maryland needs the same two scores and the same onside kick, just from farther back.
Franklin also had the night's evidence on his side. Virginia Tech had faced third- or fourth-and-1 five times before that snap and converted all five. Its previous two possessions had ended in punts, but when it needed a yard, it had gotten one.
Franklin was already in that position earlier in the game.
With Virginia Tech up 27-14 early in the third quarter, the Hokies faced the same down, same distance, same yard line. Hawkins picked up 3 yards. The drive went 11 plays and 67 yards, and ended with Overton's 2-yard touchdown run.
Franklin isn't going for everything, either. He punted on fourth-and-2 from his own 43 late in the third quarter and on fourth-and-4 from the Maryland 47 in the fourth. He went for it on both fourth-and-1s and converted both. Maryland went 0-for-1.
"Those third- and fourth-down conversions were big," Franklin said.
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James Duncan serves as a staff writer for Virginia Tech On SI, covering football, men’s and women’s basketball and recruiting. He is a 2026 Virginia Tech graduate, having majored in Sports Media and Analytics with a minor in Professional and Technical Writing. Duncan previously covered the Washington Commanders as a reporter for The Lead, where he reported on the team throughout an offseason.