It seems very likely that Virginia Tech's next football head coach will have prior head coaching experience including at their previous stop prior to Blacksburg.
Despite that, a current assistant for another team can't be ruled out as the next head coach completely because at the end of the day, it will be about finding the best candidate and it's a committee running the search that may be more open to taking a chance on a first-time head coach instead of Whit Babcock who is on a very hot seat because of that. Just because a guy doesn't have coaching experience doesn't mean he'll struggle like Brent Pry did.
One name I briefly thought about throwing on this list is Ohio State DC Matt Patricia, who is an early frontrunner for the Broyles Award. However, Patricia's struggles with the Detroit Lions combined with his very limited college experience keeps him off this list for this time. However, there will be an NFL presence among the primarily college assistants on this list.
So with that said, let's dive into the coordinators and current assistants who the Hokies could consider for this opening.
Baltimore Ravens OC Todd Monken
It may be surprising to see a NFL name on this list, but Baltimore Ravens OC Todd Monken has extensive college football coaching experience and seems likely to be a name for a few openings including Oklahoma State, where he was a passing game coordinator from 2002-04 before following Les Miles to LSU, and an offensive coordinator in 2011-12 before landing the Southern Miss head coaching job.
Monken has bounced between college and the pros often during his career, but has succeeded wherever he's been at. As the head coach at Southern Miss, Monken turned a program that went 0-12 the year before he arrived to one that went 9-3 in his third season before Monken left to become the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator. He's unique to this list because of his successful head coaching experience.
After a few years as a NFL OC, Monken returned to college as Georgia's offensive coordinator and proved to be a transformative hire for the Bulldogs. Monken elevated UGA's offense immediately and helped Georgia get over the hump to win back-to-back national championships in 2020 and 2021, establishing Georgia as the SEC's new kings.
Since arriving in Baltimore for the 2023 season, he fixed some of the issues that the Baltimore Ravens had offensively despite having a Hall of Fame talent in Lamar Jackson and helped Jackson become a NFL MVP again.
Monken has worked in tons of quality organizations headlined by his time at Georgia and with the Baltimore Ravens, but also with Mike Gundy and Les Miles in two different Oklahoma State stints along with Miles for a couple years at LSU (2005-06) during which the Tigers went 22-4 overall with two top 5 finishes. Monken knows what winning looks like and is a big reason why Georgia established itself as the top SEC power and why the Ravens were able to have a resurgence in recent years.
The challenge with Monken is the potential risk for a delayed timeline for his arrival given that the NFL season won't finish till January, well into the first transfer portal period. VT simply isn't in a spot to afford to wait that long. However, the Ravens are having a rough 2025 after a brutal start against a tough schedule now being compounded by Lamar Jackson being out.
