Everything From Head Coach Brent Pry at Virginia Tech Media Day
Virginia Tech's Media Day was earlier today and Brent Pry led off the press conference. Brent Pry had much to say about new NCAA rules, the beginning of phase four, and a somber note to Virginia Tech fans. Here's everything Pry had to say:
Coach Pry: Happy phase four!
On a somber note, I want to send our thoughts and prayers to the Hopewell High School football program. I'm not sure how many of you are aware, but there was a tragedy yesterday involving one of their young football players. I can't imagine what that team, their coaches, the players, the high school, and the community are going through. Our thoughts and prayers are with Coach Ricky Herby and his team, his football family.
I'd like to congratulate our 11 Hokies who participated or are participating in the Olympics. Outstanding and very cool. I'm very proud.
A couple of other notes: We've made some adjustments to the titles within our football staff due to new NCAA rules. This allows former analysts to coach. We've made adjustments with our graduate assistants, the six analysts in the program, as well as Gunner Brewer. It's an opportunity to enhance the men that can coach on the field and help develop our players. We've got a good group that is very deserving and impactful for our program. We spent some time researching what other people had done—about 10 or 12 schools have made an adjustment with this new rule—and I think where we settled is best for our staff, team, and program. I'm excited about that.
I'm also excited about phase four and being in camp. We've already experienced many elements of camp: the adversity, the development, the excitement, the big plays, the mistakes, and the improvements. Roles are growing, and some guys who maybe weren't factoring in all of a sudden have a chance. Fine-tuning is crucial; we tell the guys all the time it's about mastering your craft and truly understanding your position. That's a big piece of preseason camp to me, as well as learning our systems and being very comfortable in our offense, defense, and kicking game. We've got five practices down and finished mini camp number two today. We have arguably our toughest practice on the docket for this afternoon.
Also, I want to mention Fan Day here in Beamer-Lawson Indoor Facility on Sunday. It's always a great turnout and is open to the public. I encourage everybody to come out and meet our players—all of them except our freshmen, whom we keep at bay for a bit. Our freshmen will be out there, but anyways, Fan Day on the 11th is another chance to interact with our players and coaches. All these guys that have taken on new titles will be out there as well. We've got a couple of sellouts already, which is fantastic and a credit to our fan base. We're very close on a couple of others. Fan Day is awesome; our players get excited about it. It's a way for our fans to get to know our football team better. I'll take some questions at this time.
Q: Brent, when you look at your wide receiver room compared to when you first got here, it kind of feels like night and day in terms of numbers and talent. Has that been rebuilt quicker than you thought? What has that process been like?
Coach Pry: I'll say this: I think we've done very well, but it also wasn't in a very good place, so there was nowhere to go but up. I think Coach Mind and the offensive staff put an emphasis there. We needed to improve dramatically and were able to make great strides, maybe a little better than I thought. We've been able to do it through high school recruiting, the transfer portal, and development—all three phases. I don't know that you normally get all that. We've hit where we needed to hit in that room. We've been able to retain coaches and added Cam Phillips and Gunner Brewer. The stars are aligning for a pretty good group.
Q: When you're targeting receivers through recruiting, is there a skill you prioritize more than others?
Coach Pry: There are certain non-negotiables we look for: character, work ethic, and some god-given abilities. But it's also need-based. What do we need in the room? What complements what's already there? For a lot of years as a linebacker coach, it wasn't just a set; we might need to get a little bigger, faster, more aggressive, more physical, or smarter in this class. It's the chemistry of your room that you evaluate and then make decisions based on what's out there and what makes sense from a footprint perspective. With Jay Lane, knowing so much about him through his father and his coaching experiences, it just made too much sense and fit a need. A lot goes into it.
Q: Brent, you bring up being a linebacker's coach. How much competition have you seen through these first five practices, and how much longer before finding the rotation?
Coach Pry: We've got some guys that have separated themselves: JK, Sam, Keli, McDonald, and Caleb Woodson. You've got five guys battling to be in the two-deep. It's a good group with not much drop-off. Caleb still has a bit of a learning curve and doesn't have the reps the others do. Kelly's playing some inside and outside at the star position. We're going to move those guys around to create depth. I'm excited about the group. Coach Marv and Coach Adbi have done a great job. We'll be in a better place at the linebacker position.
Q: How do you formulate a recruiting plan for linebackers?
Coach Pry: I think it’s the same question that Andy asked about the wide receiver room— I don’t know that there’s an ideal, unless you’re going to give me three Micah Parsons. I’ll take that. It's about who complements the room and what's the need. Until you get a guy in your program, particularly a high school player, and see him work day-to-day, you can't truly identify his strong traits, liabilities, and best position. I think we’re in a good place in that room.
Q: Brent, when you first became a coordinator, how long did it take to get your legs calling the defense during a game? Now that Chris is in his second full season, how much progress do you expect from him?
Coach Pry: Chris has grown tremendously. Very proud of what he's done as our defensive coordinator. That head start two years ago against Liberty helped him sink his teeth into it. Chris prepared like he was going to call the game every week in year one, which was great preparation. He's making decisions on his own right now and is in a good place. We had a top 20 defense to finish; I want to see us start strong and have a complete year. Let’s see where that gets us.
Q: Brent, we talked in Charlotte about the expectations, the hype, and the pats on the back. How are the guys responding and handling that position?
Coach Pry: They're not paying much mind to it, to be quite honest. We've dealt with it in team meetings, emphasizing it's not important. It's great to have confidence—we deserve and earned that—but remaining humble and hungry is essential. We've got a group doing both right now.
Q: Do you have older guys leading the way on that, are there a couple of guys who step to the forefront?
Coach Pry: Yes, several on each side of the ball. We're fortunate that way. With all the retention, it was a tough decision on who to take to media day. The captain situation will be very interesting; so many guys are deserving and have the respect of their teammates and coaches. Just looking through our Hokie Huddle Leadership Group, there’s so many great candidates. I think it’s just hard to mention a couple of guys across the board. Even Peter Moore, with his experience and leadership, is a two-time captain. We're in good shape that way. We’ll see during camp, captains emerge as guys step up and lead during tough times, those guys get my vote.
Q: Coach, everyone's made a lot of the guys coming back. For every kid that makes a decision, there’s a different reason why he’d make that decision, but as you talk to them after they made their decision— were there one or two common themes for why they decided to give the program one more year?
Coach Pry: That’s a good question. Every situation was different, for the young man, the family, the opportunities. Two common threads: They wanted to play together and believed in one another, enjoying each other’s company. Second, they believed in our process and culture, thinking we could be a really good football team and do some exciting things. Those were the driving forces.
Q: We’ve talked a lot about the progress you’ve made from year-one to year-three, I’m just curious if you could go back to your year-one self and give yourself some advice Brent, what would you tell your year-one self if you could go back?
Coach Pry: Don't make hasty decisions, especially as a first-time head coach. Trust your instinct, spent a lot of years doing that and kind of got away from that at times, and trust the folks around you. We have a fantastic, very trusted, knowledgeable staff. You can't do it all as the head coach, there’s a lot of things that come across my desk, certain items that require the head coach and other things that you’ve got a great quality staff that can take a bunch on.
Q: "Coach, you got Ali Jennings back after only playing one game. Does it feel like he's almost a new transfer addition again, given how little you got to have him on the field last year? And what have you seen from him making this recovery and integrating back in?"
Coach Pry: "First of all, he's got such a big personality that, no, it's not like he just joined us. He's been fully invested. He's been with us a while. I wouldn't say that. I think we're all excited to see a complete year out of Ali, what he's really capable of. He's one of those guys that you come out to practice and you go, 'Okay, good guy, good player, solid guy.' And you go out and watch him on Saturdays, and that's kind of been his career. He outperforms how he plays on game day over practice, which is, to me, kind of rare. But I'm excited for him more than anything. I know he can impact our program, our wide receiver room. He's an older guy, a six-year guy that has a lot of experience and a unique skill set. So I'm excited about him, certainly going to help us."
Q: "Brent, how many players do you have in camp and have you started to game plan for the probable 105 limit of next year and how you'll dole out scholarships? Would you consider partial? Do you want to fully fund? All those things."
Coach Pry: "Yeah, so we have 120 in camp, and I supported the 105, as did most coaches in our league, not all of them, but we have the support and a commitment to be at 105, which initially seems like the right thing. I struggle with losing a walk-on program at Virginia Tech. I know what it's meant to this program, to so many, but at the same time, you don't want to give up a competitive advantage. If you have an opportunity to scholarship 105 players, seems like the right thing to do. But we're still working through it. We've got a fantastic commitment from Witt, from Dr. Sands. Everybody's pouring into this thing to align Virginia Tech where we need to be. And so we've got some decisions to make down the road. Things are going to look different. You're taking, if the number is 105, and you've got 20 more scholarships that you disperse, where do you put them? You put another one at safety, two at D-Line, one at receiver. What do you do in the specialist room? Where normally you have three or four on scholarship, but you have eight or nine in the room, and you rely heavily on walk-ons. What do you do with the walk-ons in the program? How many of them make the cut? How many of them move on? So there are challenges presented going from 120 to 105. And we can't just put them over here on the side till postseason. We are having some of those conversations now."
"I think it will. I think you'll see more transfers. Our philosophy's not going to change. We're going to go to transfer portal where we need to for the right guys. But I think for some folks, for a lot of programs, they're looking at it as an opportunity to reach out their transfer portal and sign a bunch of guys. It's going to be interesting."
Q: "Brent, at the top, you mentioned the staff title changes. Does that do anything on the practice? Does that change any way you guys operate? And what is that like to have the opportunity to reward a lot of those people who've been with you guys from day one?"
Coach Pry: "Yeah, those guys have been limited in what they can do. It's been challenging, talented coaches that want to help these guys and can help these guys. And so to take the handcuffs off, and there's a couple of them, I had to walk around the first couple days of practice and say, 'Hey, man, you can use your voice now. You don't have to talk under your breath. You can coach your butt off, let's go.' And you got a good group, good team of guys. And I'm excited. It's great for them. I didn't want to just give titles out just to give titles. It didn't make sense. We've kind of teared this thing out where guys have an opportunity for growth and promotion within our program. They don't have to take a job just to take a job. They can stay here at Virginia Tech and continue to develop and help us."
Q: "I know a lot of people talk about the returners on offense and defense, but that third side of the ball, to have just about everybody in that specialist room back, what is that like going into fall camp where everything's kind of settled for the most part?"
Coach Pry: "Yeah, I don't think that's been talked about enough. The combination of John Love, Kyle Lowe, and Peter Moore. You've got a snapper in Christian Eppling that snapped all of our field goal PATs and did it all in the military bowl in a rainy, tough game to have him back. So I feel good about where we're at. I don't think we've taken that for granted, not as coaches."
Q: "Brent, a year ago, a lot of ACC coaches expressed their concern, some frustration over tampering, guys who were not in the portal being coaxed into the portal. When I asked a lot of them in Charlotte this year, they seemed almost like they're over it, like resigned to this is the way it is. You've got to figure out how to navigate it. How prevalent is that and do you have solutions? What are your thoughts on that topic?"
Coach Pry: "I mean, I don't think it's anything you can worry about too much. You have to trust the culture and the foundation you have, the relationships you have. I know our guys, that people were reaching out to some of them. I know that. It's more about their opportunity with us, the relationship with us, than it is about who's sniffing around. Some staffs are going to do that. We don't. I don't allow it. It's not right. It's already hard enough on these guys trying to make decisions. For us, it's about the guys on our team and protecting that and cultivating that."
Q: "As a guy who has the long background with your family in coaching, your career in coaching, does it bother you that coaches don't police themselves or that you guys as a fraternity can't just bury that issue by saying, 'We're not going to do it the way you say that here'?"
Coach Pry: "That's been college football for as long as I know it. It's never a level playing field. You do it the way you believe is right, and you trust it's going to work that way. And I got plenty of examples where it does."
Q: "Your top two backs, you had about a two to one carry ratio between those two with Bayshaw and Malachi. Is that about where you want that in terms of workload that those guys take, especially when you consider Kyran, the runs that he gets, either designed or not?"
Coach Pry: "I think that's a fair number, but I'm never going to pigeonhole us to that. I'll never do that to Tebow or to Coach Brooks. Each game's going to be a little bit different. That's part of being a good coach. You go into a game with a game plan and an idea. We talk about reps and rotations every Saturday morning, but it doesn't always end up that way. Things happen, you make decisions in-game that are in the best interest to win the game. Obviously, we have a very talented back in Bhayshul. I think he can handle more snaps than that. But I like the compliment that Malachi brings. So I think we're fortunate that way. But you may have a blueprint that you're looking to. We normally do, but there's just too much that happens in a game that can affect the rotation and how you want to play guys."
Q: "I really thought he was slow. I thought he's more like a 4-6, 4-7 guy. You didn't think that was funny?"
Coach Pry: "You know what? I'll tell you this. He's a very well-rounded back. I don't know that I knew he could do everything as well as he does it. He can pass pro, he's got nice hands, he can run away from people. He can run through tackles, he can make you miss. To me, he's a complete back. He learns it well, he's smart, he goes about his business like a pro. I would say I probably thought he'd be a little bit more raw as a running back coming in than what we got. And he got better as the year went, to be quite honest."
Q: "Sam Brumfield was a big transfer addition for you guys this off-season. What have you seen in him integrating into that Mike linebacker role, given all that entails both what he does personally and then organizing the defense, getting all the run fits right?"
Coach Pry: "He's got tremendous hustle. I love his demeanor and his hustle. He's got great body position. He flies around. One of our better workers. He's loud. He's proud. He communicates very well. He's still learning the system. There's a lot happening right now for him. So he's fully invested. I'm super excited about him. He's a great young man. You feel like when you're around Sam that he's been with us for two or three years."
Q: "With the momentum that you had at the end of last season and having some of your guys back, did the off-season seem longer? Is it like it's going to take forever to get to the Vanderbilt game for you guys right now?"
Coach Pry: "I don't think so. We were in the winter phase and that's all we kind of thought about and worried about. You just kind of go through the cycles. I don't think anybody was looking too far ahead. You pour so much into each phase that it's hard to think about much else, to be honest. I don't feel like the timing was any different. We're creatures of habit as coaches, especially, but players as well.
"Everybody's just kind of going about their business and making sure we do what we need to do, you know, whether it's practice six, whether it's phase two, whether it's Skelly, whether it's, you know, that's the process and that's what keeps you kind of focused and mainstreamed and worrying about the right things. You trust the process. And we got a group of coaches and players that do that.
Moderator: Let's go out to Zoom for a couple. On Zoom, please introduce yourself with your name and outlet, please. And we'll start with Sam.
Q: Coach Pry, Sam Jesse, Sons of Saturday. You mentioned your first fall camp at Virginia Tech, there were some good players, but you needed more of them. And then last fall camp, you said a bit of the same thing, the roster had gotten better, but you still needed more. In year three, with positive recruiting in the transfer portal, do you feel like this roster is a little bit closer to what you need to compete at the highest level and closer to what you saw as a coach at Penn State?
Coach Pry: Yeah, certainly we're in a better place. Talent, experience, there's just more guys on our team that we know more about. We know what to expect at practice. We know what to expect in ball games. It doesn't mean they'll play perfect, but there's just more guys we know a lot about. And there's a lot of positive traits in our team. From talent, from skill, from experience, from aptitude, there's just a lot of positive things. Now, we still have to put it all together. We have to execute. We have to stay healthy. And there's a whole other group of intangibles that need to happen for us to be that, you know, the team that can maximize our roster.
Q: And you mentioned part of fall camp is so much focusing internally on your program, but that game against Vanderbilt is going to come up here pretty soon. At what point do you and the coaching staff start to implement some game plan for Vanderbilt, especially considering they'll have a new quarterback and some new offensive scheme this year?
Coach Pry: Yeah, we've already done that. We've started to just segment out, you know, a period or two in practices. We were doing that a little bit in this summer, you know, nothing too crazy, but to start to get the guys a feel for it, to work through it as coaches, what looks good, what doesn't look good. You know, obviously, anytime week one, when you've got a new play caller, particularly for our defense, it can be tricky, you know, figuring out exactly who they're going to be, what you're going to see, and so some extra time is spent there.
Moderator: Any final questions on Zoom? All right, Travis.
Q: Brent, with Collin Schlee getting in late because of the semesters at UCLA, how much did you see Pop grow over the off season? And is he pushing for that number two role?
Coach Pry: Yeah, I think Pop grew a bunch. He really did. He had a good spring, good summer. You know, he's got a little nagging injury right now that he's frustrated with. But he's growing up like you expect them to do. He's learning the system, he's learning, you know, working through some weaknesses and showing improvement. You know, I'm excited about him. And, you know, Colin's been here a short time, but has already made a really good impression on me, on the staff, and I believe, on our players.
Q: You mentioned the late season defensive improvement of 2023. Your Penn State defenses were almost always stout against the run. In your mind, what are the keys to absolutely being a better run-stopping defense?
Coach Pry: Yeah, again, we're a single-gap group, so there's more onus for everybody to be where they need to be, to be in the right gap, ripping and running. That's linebackers, that's secondary kids. That's our front guys, not patching out of the gap too quickly. And it was a combination of a lot of things that we just weren't playing together. We weren't playing, you know, all 11. And sometimes it takes going through that, recognizing it, seeing it on film, understanding how it hurts us for guys to really believe that. That, you know, you be where you need to be, the plays will come to you. 95% of the time, that's it. You don't have to force a play. You know, play within the framework of the defense, and the plays will come. You know, trust your teammates, plays will come. And I think that's where we grew the most at the midpoint.
I appreciate everybody. Let's have a good year.
RJ Schafer joined the On SI team in 2024, contributing to the coverage of Major League Baseball, Collegiate Basketball, and Collegiate Football at https://www.si.com/college/virginiatech/. Prior to this, RJ built a strong portfolio covering Georgia Tech and the Tigers for the Bleav Network. With a solid background in sports journalism, RJ has conducted interviews with both collegiate and professional athletes, enhancing the depth and authenticity of his reporting. RJ's extensive experience in the sports industry has equipped him with a keen understanding of the dynamics and intricacies of both collegiate and professional sports. His work is focused on providing insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage, making him a trusted voice in the sports community.