Brent Pry has rounded out his five top defensive assistants by making a promotion as former Hokies DB and Super Bowl champion Pierson Prioleau has been promoted to safeties coach.
We've named @CoachPrioleauVT our safeties coach, following him being on staff since 2019 as director of player development 🙌
— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) December 21, 2021
Prioleau has been on staff at Virginia Tech since 2019 as the Director of Player Development-Defense and was the first assistant to be bumped up when COVID protocols required Tech to do so in 2020. Prioleau also played a major role in helping Tech keep their recruiting class together this cycle and has been on the road plenty of times before.
Prioleau may not have a lot of experience as a collegiate coach, but there's no doubt that he not only knows what it takes having won a Super Bowl and played in the NFL for over a decade, but he also is a brilliant football mind who knows the game as well as anyone I know.
This comes from time I spent in the press box at the 2016 Belk Bowl with Prioleau sitting next to me as he was a pregame analyst for a local radio station's VT pregame show. Prioleau has a great knowledge of the game that showed including with that messy penalty call if you remember during the first half that Prioleau saw right through and pointed out exactly what was incorrect about the officiating.
If you're looking for someone who understands the game of football with great depth across the board, Prioleau is that guy.
He also understands the Virginia Tech culture and what was built in the mid-1990s that transformed VT football into a national power. Having a third coach with ties to that era alongside Brent Pry and J.C. Price should be valuable in trying to pull off a 2020s revival of the mid-1990s that kicked off the greatest era in Virginia Tech football history.
Yes, you could argue that it's a risk for Tech to hire a guy who hasn't been a formal position coach at the FBS to safeties coach especially for a first-time head coach in Brent Pry. However, Pierson Prioleau is the type of person who makes that chance worth it and takes away some of the risk.
