@IsaacChildress7 on X
The James Franklin Era at Virginia Tech officially got underway over the weekend with the Hokies’ annual spring football game. But not before a scary moment prior to kickoff.
Following the national anthem, a parachutist carrying the American flag flew into the stadium. However, he missed his mark and wound up slamming into the stadium scoreboard, leaving him dangling well above both the crowd and the game.
Terrifying moment where sky diver gets stuck at Virginia Tech spring game. The individual was rescued by the fire department. pic.twitter.com/h6t4EgaQ9A
— VT Barstool (@BarstoolVTech) April 18, 2026
Several videos from the game showed the parachutist seemingly trying to fly over the scoreboard and land safely outside of the stadium. However, he failed to clear the top of the structure and was sent careening into it at significant speed.
Virginia Tech reporter Andy Bittner noted that the scoreboard itself is not attached to the stadium, so if the parachute had not clung onto the structure, the man could have easily fallen between the two structures and to the ground below.
Thankfully, the Blacksburg fire department was on site and was able to get the parachutist safely to the ground below.
We are grateful to report that the skydiver was safely secured and is currently stable. Our primary focus remains on their well-being. We extend our sincere appreciation to the first responders, event staff, and medical personnel for their swift, coordinated and professional response. – Virginia Tech Athletics
The incident itself, meanwhile, serves as a bad omen for Franklin, who is trying to turn around a Hokies program that has suffered mightily since the retirement of legendary head coach Frank Beamer in 2015.
“It needs to feel big time,” Franklin said of what he’s trying to do at Virginia Tech. “We can’t have two coaches ago’s core values on the wall.”
I’m guessing that feeling “big time” probably doesn’t involve having a parachutist flying into a scoreboard at the spring game. But hey, at least things went better for him than they did for Mike Elko and Texas A&M.