Brent Pry was hired as the new Virginia Tech head football coach in December, and ever since he took over the program he’s begun to install his own approach to player and team development. That started with hiring coaches and support staff, but once that process was over, he began evaluating the returning players and their strengths and weaknesses.
One weakness that he identified was that the team had too many players who didn’t “hate to lose.”
“They’re just too willing at times to lose,” a now clean-shaven Pry told the media Wednesday. “To not win the race, to not win the rep. We’ve got to change that. I want them to feel like they’ll do anything and go above and beyond to prepare and to compete to win. That’s got to happen in the winter, that’s got to happen in the spring, that’s got to happen in the summer, that’s got to happen in camp, if you want it to happen on Saturdays.”
“Yeah,” senior linebacker Dax Hollifield said when asked if he agreed with Pry’s assessment. “It gets to a point where you’re .500 year-after-year, that people don’t understand you’ve got to hurt after you lose. You’ve got to do everything you can to get the win. I feel like all those little close, last play of the game, last drive of the game…it really gets at you. Especially for a young guy who has never been shown how to win. I came from a high school program where we won every year. I knew the standards, but some people had never seen that. They don’t know any better, and they just accept it, and you can’t accept losing. You just can’t.”
Senior offensive lineman Silas Dzansi isn’t as long-winded as Hollifield when he does interviews, but he reiterated his fellow senior’s point.
“Everything that we do now is a competition,” Dzansi said. “As far as how we did things in the past, if you lost a rep, it’s okay, you’ll get it back. No, if you lose a rep you should be mad about it.”
Fans like to talk about X’s and O’s, personnel, position changes, play calls, redzone offense, you name it. However, consistently winning football games starts with having the appropriate mentality. Yes, Virginia Tech will install base offensive and defensive schemes this spring, but Pry’s main focus in the winter and this spring is about instilling that “hate to lose” mentality.
“That’s what this first spring is about,” Pry said. “I’m not as concerned about these guys understanding two-minute or certain situations, I want to see these guys compete, hustle, operate with fundamentals, who can tackle, who can make plays after the catch…we’ve got to see what these guys can do.”
With that in mind, Pry designed his offseason program to fit that basic need of the program. He wanted to build a competitive drive and a “hate to lose” mentality that ultimately will be engrained into the culture of Virginia Tech football.
“This winter we tried to create in our agility drills as many situations where the guys were competing to see who would win the drill. It’s just a 4-cone drill, but we’re going to look and see who is winning between a couple of guys, and we’re going to call them out. When I see a freshman that’s not near as talented as a senior, who is super-talented and has a great skillset, when I see that freshman win a rep or two, something’s not right. And we’re going to call him out and we’re going to challenge that senior in that situation.”
Hunger Drills, as they were called, were not just limited to agility drills. Generally they were offense vs. defense in nature, and they were both individual- and team-oriented. The offense and the defense would compete against each other in rope tug-of-war competitions, while individual players went head-to-head in tire pulls, a competition where the goal is simply to win the tire from the opposing player.
It’s a difficult process, but it will show Pry and his coaching staff who they can count on. The drills also gave him and his staff an idea about each player’s athletic ability, and as spring practice unfolds there will be position changes where appropriate.
That type of competitive environment, as well as position changes, will ultimately lead to attrition. That’s something that Pry is willing to accepts as he looks to build the culture of Virginia Tech football.
“I expect a lot of attrition, to be quite honest,” he said. “I think there will be a lot of movement as we get into spring and out of spring. There’s a lot of competition; there’s not room for everybody, to be quite honest. There will be some movement. I expect that. I hope most of it favors us, but I would imagine there will be some that we’re not happy about.
“There will be guys who hit that portal maybe because they don’t like that position change. There’s been conversations [in the past], I’m told, that guys were asked to move, it didn’t happen, and they didn’t want it to happen. But we’re not going to live in that world. This team is first. If we feel like it’s in your best interest, our team’s best interests, for you to reach your potential at another spot, then we’re going to ask you to do that.”
While that type of environment won’t be to the liking of every player, it will also serve as an opportunity for others to show that they fit the new culture, and that they deserve to play. Everyone is operating with a clean slate, and Pry said there is no depth chart right now.
“The other piece that’s providing a lot of energy right now is that it’s a clean slate for everybody,” he said “There’s a lot of guys who feel the opportunity right now, which is real. Guys that can impact this team. That’s what the message has been. You’ve been sitting in the wings, you’ve been in that third or fourth rung, and you don’t feel like you should be…well, show us. This is the time.”
Hollifield expressed the same sentiments as his head coach.
“Regardless of the past, or however you felt in the past, that goes away,” he said. “It’s really been cool to see guys that weren’t really as bought-in before [now be more bought-in]. Everybody has a clean slate, and they just get to really write their story all over again.
Right now, the only obstacle to moving up the depth chart is a player’s own hard work, and many are embracing that challenge. Hollifield mentioned two young players who have stood out to him.
“CJ McCray. He’s been working his tail off. He’s been doing really, really good. He was my rack partner for all of the winter workouts. He’s gotten really, really strong. He’s got really good bend. Also, Wilfried Pene, he works really, really hard. He’s very, very strong. He’s a student of the game. I’m excited to see him develop.”
Virginia Tech must get back to the 85-man scholarship limit by August, and with more freshmen enrolling this summer, they are currently set to be over that limit. Normally it may sound harsh to describe the offseason program as a weeding out process, but that is basically what this offseason amounts to. The strong will survive. Those who hate to lose will remain in the program. Those that are looking for something else will move on.
“We had a very competitive winter,” Pry said. “We did a lot of competitive drills throughout. In the end, I think that’s where we still need to grow. We’ve got to hate losing, and do anything to win. And that’s part of the culture here.”