"I didn't wanna lose what we had gained" Virginia Tech Head Coach Brent Pry Talks Phillip Montgomery Hire As OC
Early Monday morning, Virginia Tech announced the hiring of offensive coordinator Phillip Montgomery. The former Tulsa head coach was pipped away from the UFL champions, the Birmingham Stallions, where Montgomery was co-offensive coordinator.
"He checked the most boxes for what we're looking for to continue to move, not just our offense, but our program forward," said head Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry.
"He's a veteran offensive coach. He has a proven track record of developing quarterbacks. He's a proven play caller. He's had numerous really successful seasons, statistically and with wins as a play-caller."
Montgomery previously held the offensive coordinator position at Baylor where "in 12 games in 2014, Baylor's 581.3 yards per game and 48.8 points led the nation. The Bears also led the nation in total offense in 2013 (618.8 ypg) and ranked second in both 2012 (572.2) and 2011 (587.1). Baylor’s passing attack ranked among the top five in the country each of those years." According to a Tech press release.
Before Baylor, Montgomery worked under Art Briles at Houston, following Briles to Baylor when Briles took the Baylor head coach gig in 2008.
Montgomery was then hired as Tulsa's head coach in 2015, where he compiled a 43-53 overall record before his departure in 2022.
The former QB was then brought on to the Auburn Tigers under first-year head coach Hugh Freeze as offensive coordinator, however, Montgomery's tenure was cut short as he was let go by Auburn after just one year.
When Tech announced the hiring of defensive coordinator Sam Siefkes, Pry hammered in Siefkes ability to play in multiple defensive strategies, citing that Siefkes was forced to play in both a 4-3, and 3-4 defense during his time in the FCS.
Pry echoed similar sentiments over Montgomery's offensive style. While coaching offenses at both Houston and Baylor, Montgomery used a high-flying, fast-tempo offense. After his hiring at Tulsa, Montgomery slowed down his offenses, with Pry calling his style at Tech to be "varied."
“A big part of the interview is talking about assimilation and the personnel we have with where we're at as an offense right now. Where do you pick up? What do we do differently? What do we eliminate.? How do we use the players in our program? And we went through some of them specifically, obviously starting with Kyron. And you know, obviously, his answer to those questions was what I needed to hear... What I wanted to hear."
Towards the end of Monday's conference, multiple times, Pry stated that there would be more changes with the offense; while he said these would be "100-level" changes, not necessarily massively affecting the day-to-day effectiveness of the team, there would be change to come.
However, one ear-perking moment of the press conference arose when Pry disclosed an hour-long conversation on the phone between Montgomery and newly hired offensive line coach Matt Moore.
"You know, a lot of discussion, dialogue, even before we interviewed Phillip in person, he and Matt spent an hour and a half on the phone talking through things, protection, run game...You know, that was important to me."
Additional Links:
Virginia Tech Football: Grading the Hokies’ Hire of Phillip Montgomery as Offensive Coordinator
Virginia Tech Baseball: Hokies Start the Season With a Series Win
Virginia Tech Football: Hokies Officially Name Phillip Montgomery as Their New Offensive Coordinator
