It's Time For Virginia Tech To End the Brent Pry Era and Make a Change Immediately

Virginia Tech has reached levels beneath rock bottom that may be deemed 'Hokie Stone' bottom moving forward after being outscored by Old Dominion 28-0 in the first half and losing 45-26 to ODU of all teams. That type of loss should never happen at home let alone to a team like Old Dominion.

That leaves Pry with a 16-24 record including 10-21 against Power 4 opponents plus three losses to Group of 5 opponents, the worst record for a VT coach since Charlie Coffey went 12-20-1 from 1971-73. That level of performance can never be accepted in Blacksburg.

What's clear after tonight is that the Brent Pry era must end immediately, regardless of the timing for a seemingly inevitable change in athletic leadership this fall.

Let's look at how we got to this point.

The Brent Pry era started out with optimism of a return to the old ways that made Virginia Tech great with a modern approach and a recruiter in Pry who knew how to get the talent to Blacksburg that the Hokies needed after Justin Fuente's late tenure issues.

There was reason for optimism after Pry's second season as the Hokies made a four-win improvement after an early season QB change with a revitalized roster that had five future 2025 NFL Draft picks. That led to an offseason full of the most hype around the Hokies that Tech could on the verge of returning to national relevance.

Instead, a nightmarish collapse over the following one and a quarter seasons has begun that has brought Virginia Tech to its greatest low in at least a few decades.

Tech's coaching was a big part of the problem last year as the Hokies had the talent, but were unable to deliver with a 6-7 record including an 0-5 record in one-score games that epitomized a multitude of program failures. The list of damning indictments on Brent Pry is long from a rushed timeout at Miami that allowed them to get three crucial points to the double numbers on special teams twice (once not caught) to blowing a massive lead at Syracuse and that's just the very tip of the iceberg.

After the season, Pry had his chance to pull the levers that a hot seat coach gets to pull, firing one of his coordinator, his offensive line coach, and the strength coach while having to replace his other coordinator later on when Tyler Bowen left to be a position coach at Ohio State. He also made a massive roster overhaul that led to 30 transfers and over 50 new players coming into the program.

In college football, most coaches get one chance to show that they learned from early mistakes and can fix things when they start off poorly. Pry has pulled that lever with the only place left to look after that being the head coach himself.

Pry felt that his changes would make the difference and enable VT to turn things around, but instead things have gone more awry.

A competitive loss to South Carolina was not a big deal but the last two weeks have exposed that the Brent Pry era must come to an end.

To be outscored 34-0 in the second half against Vanderbilt was a new low for Virginia Tech Football in recent memory. That second half was a complete collapse with it always being embarrassing when you have fewer yards at home than your opponent has points in a half.

However, tonight's absolutely tail-whooping by Old Dominion may lead to the term 'rock bottom' being changed to 'Hokie Stone bottom'. VT was outscored 28-0 in the first half by Old Dominion, being outgained by over 200 yards during that half. In no world should VT ever be whopped that badly by most teams let alone OLD DOMINION, as they were tonight in their 45-26 defeat to the Monarchs.

This is the type of deep embarrassment that changes perceptions and risks alienating fans if nothing is done immediately to show that leadership actually cares.

This is the lowest that Virginia Tech Football has been in a very long time and definitely the lowest they've been in the Big East/ACC era.

Pry's tenure will be defined by a litany of basic errors from hiring coordinators with zero Power 4 coordinating experience to start his tenure to having a former offensive lineman who had never coached quarterbacks coach quarterbacks for multiple years to being slow to recognize the issues in his program like at OL coach and a first strength coach who trainers around the region had concerns about from the start.

In a portal era where readiness and speed are needed, Tech was slow to make their changes last offseason, waiting 12 days after the end of the season to fire their defensive coordinator and OL coach. During that time and the search that followed, VT lost multiple important starters including CB Mansoor Delane, LT Xavier Chaplin, and C Braelin Moore.

Chaplin and Moore both committed to other schools before VT even had Matt Moore in place despite the fact that Moore was available after WVU's staff was fired. Sam Siefkes wasn't in place till mid January after Chris Marve's departure in part because VT made a bizarre decision to think they could somehow land Ohio State's DC Jim Knowles. Unsurprisingly, he went to Penn State while Siefkes came on board after most of the stronger winter transfer portal cycle had happened, not having time to to bring in defensive guys that were fits to what he wanted to do.

The list of errors and failures is extremely long but is summarized with a record of 16-24 including 1-12 in one-score games, 10-21 against Power 4 opponents, and three losses to Group of 5 opponents including a 2-2 record against Old Dominion.

Brent Pry is a nice guy and I appreciate the interactions I've had with him over the years. However, it's clear that Pry is in over his head when it comes to being a head coach on Saturdays in the fall.

This can no longer go on. Yes, Virginia Tech will need a new athletic director to make the next hire, with no one in house having the equity to be the one to run a search prior to that. But Tech can't wait till then to make this change.

Virginia Tech fans deserve better for loyalty that has gone unrewarded for way too long. Former players and coaches deserve better than to watch the program they built up reach rock bottoms that no one has ever seen for the Hokies in the modern era (Big East and ACC) of VT Football. Look at the pain of guys like former VT WR and current ACC Network analyst Eddie Royal calling the ODU performance "unacceptable" and former QB Sean Glennon saying he feels that there's layer of Hokie Stone underneath rock bottom.

Virginia Tech used to mean something great about college football. It used to be the representation of passion and blue collar football delivering excellent results and developing players to the highest levels. It used to mean a feared program that teams dreaded seeing on the schedule especially when they had to travel to Lane Stadium. It used to be a team that would be physically tougher, that would make you pay for your mistakes especially on defense and special teams. It used to mean offenses with dynamic quarterbacks and powerful rushing attacks that wore opponents down.

Outside of Tech having great fan support and an excellent entrance, none of that remains true now. The fact that Virginia Tech has reached this low means that massive, radical changes have to happen now to begin a rebuild that must succeed in this critical moment in the history of college football where the risk of being left behind in a schism is growing, with the past few seasons being a major reason for that.

It's time for Virginia Tech to end the Brent Pry era now and try something else before the Hokies next take the field against Wofford. The time for a head coaching change is right now. Failure to make any sort of change will have many wondering if Virginia Tech's overall leadership really cares about their football program and whether they should care much about it going forward.