On Wednesday night, Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry joined Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop on Tech Talk Live at McClain’s at First & Main. The trio discussed the upcoming game against Old Dominion, relationships with ODU coaches, Friday’s gameplan and other topics.
This season, Tech Talk Live will air on Thursdays at 7 p.m. ET across the Virginia Tech Sports Network. On weeks with conflicts, such as the game vs. West Virginia on Sept. 22, the show will air on Wednesday.
Brent Pry
How fired up and excited are you for your first game as head coach?
We're tired of beating on each other. It's time to get out there and play somebody else. The guys are excited, the staff’s excited. A lot goes into the first game, and we get a true evaluation of where we're at. You can think this and think that in practice, but until you get out there and you line up against somebody else, that's when you really know.Do you get tired of talking about the game, you just want to go play?
I love talking about Virginia Tech and love talking about our team. The lead up to the first game, it always drags a little bit. You come out at camp, the players start classes and you're still in this in-between mode. It's been good this week to ramp it up and really focus on Old Dominion. The first game on the road is challenging for a new staff – just logistics of the travel party, itinerary, what it looks like, the buses the plane, and “what do you expect, coach? What do you want it to be?” It's a lot going into this week.Have you kept it straight this whole week with the Old Dominion game being on a Friday?
It gets confusing. We're trying to train like today was a Thursday practice and tomorrow's Friday, and I know that sounds crazy to everybody else. But today's Thursday. If you think it's something else, then you're not really a fan. It's challenging, but you want everybody having a process. They need you to wake up this morning and say “okay, it's Thursday. Let's go. What do we do on Thursday game week?”Are the players’ legs going to be nice and fresh?
I hope so. We did a kind of long walk through today, and we'll pick it up a little bit tomorrow. No contact, we call it a Fast Friday. Get a little sweat. Get the muscles going. It's been a good week.What does the pre-game schedule look like?
We'll do some meetings in the morning with the non-travel guys. We have 123 guys on the roster and only 80 of them go to Old Dominion with us. The rest of those guys will lift at 6:30 a.m. with the strength staff and they'll have breakfast. Our travel team will come in and have breakfast, and then the travel team will have a team meeting for about 20 minutes.We're going to talk about the expectations for the game again, a little bit of review. Then defensively and offensively, they get 20 minutes and then we get out on the field. Helmets, pads, cleats. We call it Fast Friday; we hope that everybody gets six or seven full speed reps. That's about it. It's some things covered, some situations. We give them an hour to shower and then we load up get on the buses and head to Roanoke.
What kind of information did you get from your staff members who were at Old Dominion?
You talk to those guys, and it's been a whole offseason. Just like we've changed, we've grown, we've developed, they're basing things on what they saw at the end of last season. It's still helpful, it certainly is. But you know, it's a new year, it's a new season.
How different is this game with all the connections between you and Old Dominion staff?
I have mixed emotions. I love those guys. Some of them were GAs for me and really worked, invested, and were loyal. I want to see them do well. I want to see Ricky [Rahne] do well, just not this week.
How did the extended install that started last week go? How did the guys retain that information?
It was good having a bonus week to prepare these guys. There’s no way around that, that's a good thing. We did a bonus Tuesday, a bonus Wednesday and a bonus Thursday. This week, when you do it for the second time, just the process, the plan, the way the schedule goes, we're very familiar with it. We're able to focus more on Old Dominion and the snaps we want to get out each period.
This is your 31st year as a football coach, first year as a head coach. Is it harder than you expected?
I've got a great staff, great assistants, we have said yes to everything. We've taken on a lot and the team, the staff, have just been unbelievable in making things go, the preparation, planning, schedules. They've been awesome. That's made it a little bit easier for me.
Has it been tough to navigate being a coordinator now you're the man in charge?
I've kind of had one foot in the defensive staff room and one foot in Coach Beamer’s office. It's gone well. There are challenges, but Mike Hazel does a great job leading all the operations and off-the-field activities. It’s certainly a different job than I've had for 31 years. I’m loving it.
Have you thought about what it’ll be like and what you'll say to the guys as they're getting ready to go out for game one of this year?
I don't like to think too far ahead. The narrative, where your team is, where your staff is, you think about those things every day. What's necessary, what direction do we need to go, or what concerns you, and how do you need to steer this thing? I think about that every day. That'll be one of those things Friday night that I'm thinking about in the locker room, when I visit with the captains, making sure our mindset is right, that I'm saying the things that need to be said to that group.
How do you, Tyler Bowen, and Brad Glenn decide on the terminology for plays?
Offensively, I left that up to Tyler, Brad, and Joe [Rudolph]. Those guys are veterans and they've all been coordinators. I didn't want to muddy that situation up, I trust those guys. Defensively, the terminology was mostly mine, but there's still things that Chris [Marve] brought to the table and I had to learn some new things from a terminology standpoint. I think the most important thing is that you make the decisions early and then you run with it over and over with our players so that they have a good understanding.What’s the process behind what they’re signaling and how the signals get to the play caller?
Signaling these days, everybody's poaching signals, stealing signals, and you better have a foolproof system. We have three or four signalers on each side of ball. We've got our signal boards. We're constantly changing signalers and making sure people defend us honestly. That's a big part of it. That operation is an important piece.What are your biggest concerns on offense and defense?
In general, there's going to be adversity in this game. There's going to be some things that don't go our way. I want to make sure we handle that the right way, that we can work through it, adjust through it, and come out the other side better. There's no secret that we lack depth in some areas. We're going to continue to develop players week by week.If you get hurt at the wrong position, you're forced to play a guy that's just not ready. Sometimes you can hide that and get through a game and sometimes you can’t, so let's stay healthy. Let's play hard, control the ball, and play good defense.
Do you believe how you adjust at halftime is a key to the game?
That's a big piece of it. Coach [Chris] Marve and I've talked, Coach Bowen and I've talked, everybody's involved all week in scripting, making the decisions, the conversations about “what if they do this and how do we handle that?” There are some coordinators out there that isolate themselves in their office, they generate the scripts and pump it out, and the rest of the guys are like, “okay, we'll do it.” I've always believed that everybody's involved, including the grad assistants and analysts, everybody's working at it so everybody's on the same page.
When we need to make an adjustment, whether it's in the second quarter or at halftime, if everybody's ready to do that, the inputs better. People are on the same page. You can get to things more quickly. Sometimes you talk to the kids leading up to the game, “well, if they do this and this, we might want to go to this, and if they stopped doing that, we'll probably start checking this,” so you give them a preempt to what could happen.
What stands out to you as you dissect Old Dominion?
Those guys make you defend the whole field. They spread you out. They utilize their tight ends. They've got an athletic tight end, Zach Kuntz, that myself, Tyler Bowen, and Ricky Rahne all had a big hand in recruiting. He was a five-star guy out of Central Pennsylvania and ended up at Old Dominion. He had a nice year last year, he can run great, good ball skills, smart, heavy player. Their quarterback is very accurate, strong arm, can make all the throws.
They keep it balanced, they have a good tailback, they got a nice running game. I have a lot of respect for their line coach; he was a GA for us at Penn State. Very good coach, Stanford guy. They've had three years putting this team together so they're a good running machine. They know what they’re doing, and they've had these kids for a couple years.
How about the other side of the ball, the Old Dominion defense?
Their defensive coordinator is one of the better guys in the business. He cut his teeth at Kansas State, spent time at West Virginia. Kevin Smith was another grad assistant for me that did an unbelievable job for a couple years at Penn State. He's on that side of the ball with a good group of coaches. Anytime you return ten guys, seven guys, that's a positive. You have experience, you have guys that are battle tested.
They have a nice edge rusher, number nine, he can get off on the ball and create problems, so it's going to be interesting. When I think about what Coach Rahne has done with the team this offseason, I know what that looks like. I know what the expectations were, how hard they went, and how hard they competed. This group will be improved.
How are you going to force ODU QB Hayden Wolff out of the pocket?
First of all, you have to pressure him, you have to get there, you have to hit him. You want to wreck the decision maker, and that's the quarterback, that's the play caller, they're a check with me group. Try and see what you're in, change the play, you have to wreck the decision maker.
We do a good job of changing up coverage patterns. We always have and that'll be part of it. We have to get after the guy, we can't let them become those guys that have good arms and are accurate, if you if you give them time, they're going to put the ball in the right place.
You’ve said your biggest nightmare as a defensive coordinator was when the other team could run the football. Is that going to be a big part of the plan?
I can't let them do that. We have to make everybody one-dimensional. We’re going to crowd the line of scrimmage. You're going to see a bunch of guys up there seven, eight yards from the line every snap.
Do you rely on the captains and leaders of the team when facing adversity in a game?
The captains are critical. It's not just up to coaches, really good teams are player led. We got a great group of captains; those seven guys, I met with them today and talked about the culture of our team, where they're at, what this game looks like. When adversity hits, which it will, those guys have to step up and I think they will. To have that group of guys is comforting, a group of guys that are battle tested, smart, high character, and invested. They're going to lead this football team.How much of the game are you predicting, as you know the coaching staff on the other side?
It's a cat and mouse game because you sit there and say, “well, he knows we do this so what's he going to do? I know they do this and he likes this, so does he do it or not?” I think until we get out there and we get a couple series under our belt… But I will say this – you have to be who you are. What you practiced all spring, all winter, all summer, all camp. You can't just go change things because of who you're playing. You have to be who you need to be.Do you instruct Grant Wells on what to do as opposing players are coming towards him, or do you let him just be himself?
We're going to let him play. He’s an athletic guy and he's been a starter for two years. It'd be different if he was a first-time starter, if he wasn't very athletic, you'd going to have to coach him up and make sure he manages the game the right way. I have a lot of faith in him, navigating pressure and doing things. We put a lot of pressure on him all camp, him and Jason [Brown] both move around, find a lane, step up, and throw a ball. I think that's one of his strengths.Is there a bit of familiarity there too as Grant Wells played Old Dominion last year with Marshall?
There’s a lot of ties, a lot of storylines. Grant’s a vet. Obviously, the game against those guys last year, he's looked at that, he studied it. He knows what type of defense they play.You’ve had ACC officials at scrimmages. Are there any significant rule changes fans should be looking out for?
No, nothing significant. I was informed that we don't have ACC officials at this game. We've got Sun Belt officials so I'm not familiar with those guys. I was in that league a long time ago. We try and surround the team in practice with as many opportunities to be refereed as we can get so that they're used to playing within those parameters and know what to expect from the officials. That's been good having those guys in practice.Since the 2020 FBS season and Rahne’s takeover, Old Dominion has been on the rise:
They've done a really good job. They're excited about joining Sun Belt, that’s a boost up for them in where they want to go with the program and they’re a first-class operation. I haven't talked to the team about what happened a couple of years ago over there, and I'm not going to as they've talked about it plenty. This is a group that certainly can line up and play good enough football to beat you, they've got weapons in the right places and they're well coached. Every week you got to line up and get your A game going.You brought the lunch pail back and put it in Chamarri Conner’s locker, so who gets the 25 jersey?
Obviously, we wanted to honor that, that was easy. The Lunch Pail was on my mind the whole way. When I got here and learned about what they had done with the number 25, obviously I wanted to continue something honoring Coach Beamer and emphasizing special teams, which is so important to the game. We put together an awesome highlight, we got a bunch of clips of Coach Beamer, and we showed it to the team today. The kids enjoyed seeing Coach out there making some plays and then we got into some modern stuff, kick blocks, some big plays on teams. We channeled it down to naming the member of our team that would wear number 25.Each week, we’re going to do that on Thursdays, let the team know. It’s not necessarily the Special Teams Player of the Week, which we’ll announce on Sunday. It could be the guy that blocks a kick, returns a kick, great punts, great kicks. It could be the guy that eliminated their best special teams player. It could be the guy that made a couple of really smart plays on special teams that kept us from getting hurt. Sometimes it might be the unsung hero, sometimes it might be the conference player of the week. We're excited about it. We announced it to the to the team today, our safety Ny’Quee Hawkins from Orange, N.J. has the honor of wearing number 25 against Old Dominion.
On continuing the tradition of having a cadet travel with the team:
We wanted to do that. I've been out to see the Corps a bunch and I want them to come see our football team. We haven't done that yet, we're going to. It's part of the fabric around here. To have a cadet travel with us to away games means a lot to me, the staff, and is going to mean a lot to our football team.On Tuesday, you mentioned Dwight Galt, strength and conditioning coach, was your pull-back guy:
That's a big job and he's got help. Jarrett Ferguson, big time fullback that has some defensive tackle qualities about him. Nobody wants to mess with Ferguson. We have our [other] strength coach K.J. Florence and he’s like Buck 70 soaking wet. He’s going to be responsible for making sure the kicker stays back. That's his job.Is the tradition of the flag bearers important to you?
We want to honor that. I think it's a great tradition, that's a start to the game and it's an honor to carry those flags. We're making a big deal out of it, just like number 25. We're going to announce it in our Thursday team meeting, have a nice graphic, and talk about what it means. It's like an honorary captain for us and we're going to pick three of them.We did that today. We named Josh Fuga, defensive tackle, Johnny Jordan, center, and Justin Pollock, our long snapper. Those guys will be carrying the flag out onto the field for us against Old Dominion. It was great for those guys, great for our team, and they're very deserving.
How has the process of recruiting been going?
There are guys in this 2023 class that we would love to see coming to Virginia Tech. We got to work on it, we got to build these relationships. I keep saying that, but that's where it's at. I get hired and there's guys that had been other places – Penn State, South Carolina, and North Carolina three or four times and had never been to Blacksburg. We have to fix that we have to work at it. We’re quite a bit ahead with class of 2024 and 2025, more than we were with 2023. We're in a little better position, we know more about guys.
There's nobody that should know more about the players in our state than us. That has to be true every year. There's going to be guys, even in Virginia Tech's best year recruiting, that go other places. That's going to happen, it happened to us at Penn State. We couldn't always keep the best players in our own state but we're going to work at it. What's important to me is that we get the right players, that the ones we take are the right ones for Tech, for development, for talent, for character. You can't worry about the ones you don't get, make sure that the guys you do get you're excited about.
The bus to Norfolk got here on Wednesday; hopefully everything is on it:
Stewart Carter, our equipment manager, I'd say he was pulling his hair out but he's basically bald. He was flipping out today. Everything was happening at once and you can't count on anything being delivered when it's supposed to be. Travel shirts, travel gear, and all those things. Everybody's battling it. He's a longtime Allman Brothers guy with me, so I told him to put some Allman Brothers on and chill out, get working.
Do you want to be able to return the kickoff or fair catch it?
I want us to be smart there. We also want to be aggressive with everything we do. Offense, defense, special teams, the way we call games, I want us to be aggressive. That's our mindset. That's who we want to be. To tell Keshawn King, our most explosive player, to fair catch it every time, I struggle with that. He's going to get the green light sometimes, and once he feels good about, we give the go call. Let's see what he can do. He's the most dangerous guy on the field with the ball.
Are you going to have a conversation with Rahne before the game?
“How your wife, how's your kids? How's the tailgate?” Small talk. “You lost some weight.” He’ll say to me, “You gained some weight.”
Do you have any game day superstitions, any routines?
Not really. I like to drink coffee, I'll have a cup of coffee. As much as I love music, I don't really listen to it pregame. I like to stay relaxed. I'll put college football on, I want to watch that. I like hanging out with the staff, I love sitting in our lockers waiting on kickoff with the other defensive coaches and watching games. By that point, the hay is in the barn and you're making sure everybody's got a good mindset, feels good, feels relaxed, and let's go [have] a perfect game.
What is your ideal game time?
I don't know, I haven't thought about that much. We've had to do it all. One thing I do know, I don’t like Friday nights. I'd rather see high school games and be out there supporting those guys. We always played Saturday games in the Big 10. The Thursday games I remember very well and I'm looking forward to that. When you have an early kickoff, that's different for your players, you're trying like crazy to get them into mindset. I think we have one down the road coming up at 11 or something like that, and all of a sudden, the guys are having their pregame meal at 7 a.m.