Virginia Tech football head coach Brent Pry and offensive line coach Ron Crook joined Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop on Thursday’s edition of Tech Talk Live to recap the Boston College win and preview Saturday’s clash with Georgia Tech (12 p.m. ET, ACC Network).
Brent Pry
How are you doing?
Doing well. Just came over from practice. Not sure how some of these folks beat me here from practice. They took a deodorant shower and I took a real shower I guess.
Thursday nights in Lane Stadium are special, aren’t they?
Man, it was rocking. If you were there, thank you, unbelievable environment. Our players and coaches are so fortunate to have a fanbase like we have. It was electric in Lane Stadium on Thursday night and on national TV.
You guys played a fantastic first half in all facets. It was 28-0 at the half.
Yeah, that’s pretty good stuff right there.
Then what happened?
That’s what everybody wants to know. … I want to give Boston College credit for fighting back, they’re a well-coached team. Coach O’Brien’s done a great job for a lot of years. I knew they wouldn’t go away quietly. A good testament for our guys too, it got to 28-21 and it really could have slipped away there. We were hurting ourselves with penalties and turnovers in the red zone. We got it squared away and tightened it up.
Is it better to face that adversity than for it to be 42-7?
There were lessons learned. The defense stepped up and swung the momentum. A few plays later we were in the end zone and all the sudden we’re comfortable again. The guys are resilient because we’ve been through things like that, unfortunately. We’ve seen adversity, we talk about it a lot and the guys have grown. The staff coached and the players played through it and came out on top.
What can you say about Antwaun Powell-Ryland?
He’s got a great skill set. He works at his craft. The goal at every position is to master your craft, and he’s awful close. He’s improved his run game and he has a real knack for pass rush. He’s elevated the whole room in terms of mentality and development. Credit to him and Coach [J.C.] Price. When you get sacks, it isn’t usually one man. There will usually be two or three up there pressing the pocket. APR is certainly good at winning those one-on-one battles. Every time Bruce Smith comes to a game, he has a 4 sack performance. We’re fortunate that he can play on either side of the line. We’ve just started doing that with Burgos, that will help him long term.
How important is it to have guys like Michael Vick and Bruce Smith coming back?
I love that they want to be there, that speaks volumes. Our players know all too well who those guys are. Believe me, those top recruits we had on the sidelines got marched right up to those guys.
How about the Bhayshul “Tugboat” Tuten?
He’s playing really well, elite. Everybody sees what he does when he touches the ball, but he’s fantastic off the ball too. Pass pro and catching the ball out of the backfield like he did with that touchdown. He’s doing everything very well. He can run by you, break a tackle, and make you miss. He’s tough too, played with a knee brace and still turned out 100 yard games.
How is his health?
First of all, you have some guys who, in today’s game, don’t want to play if they aren’t 100%. They don’t want to put bad film out. You get none of that from Bhayshul, never gave us a doubt that he wasn’t going to play. He went out there with that rugged brace on and got the job done. When that brace comes off, you see what he really is.
How about the blocking from the tight ends to compliment the offensive line?
We have an unselfish group. Everybody wants to block for whoever the ball carrier is. It’s not just the line.Kyron Drones looks to be showing even more improvement. He had one of his best games on Thursday night.
He was very efficient and, for the most part, made good decisions. There’s constantly reads and things that nobody but him sees. He makes his reads and goes through progressions very well. Coach [Tyler] Bowen has done a very good job with his development week to week.What was the weekend's recruiting vibe like after a big national TV win?
We got a lot of momentum from that. The sellout, the orange effect, the win with Mike and Bruce present. There are a lot of people in the Commonwealth talking about Virginia Tech. We had 10 coaches out and we were with a bunch of the top players in the state. Wins like that on national TV and with a sellout crowd isn’t something you can get everywhere; there are only a handful of places that provide that.When you’re recruiting the transfer portal, what sticks out about guys?
It’s three things: Do they fit a need, is there production and do they fit our locker room. We’ve done well, that’s a massive piece to recruiting nowadays. The staff has done a great job at making sure we recruit the right guys.With APR coming home and having success, that’ll bode well with some of those kids who are unhappy wherever they’re at.
You got it. He went elsewhere and was unsuccessful and then he comes here and in back-to-back years he’s been very productive. I feel like Kelvin Gilliam is on the same trend. He’s having a lot of success at defensive tackle.How have you and the staff managed the four-game redshirt rule?
We’re excited to get some of these guys going. Some are further along than others and will help on special teams and some will get PT at their position. We have a talented group that is redshirting. They’ve worked their butts off on scout team. I’m anxious to get some of them out there for these last four weeks.Is it difficult getting the kids to buy into redshirting?
There are hard discussions. Guys deciding to redshirt and not finish out the season with their team. We certainly are proud of the culture and relationships in our program to not have to deal with that in our program.How was the offensive line?
We kept [Donovan] Ezeiraku in check. One of the best sack artists in the league, plays hard, he’s productive, he had me nervous. Our guys really neutralized him. That’s because of what the offensive line did. That was a key to success.How big are the takeaways to the success of the defense?
Swinging those possessions, especially down in the red zone are gigantic. Coach [Chris] Marve and the guys work on some kind of takeaway circuit every day. You get what you invest in and we’re starting to get payback for it. We have a group that chases the ball and we are always ready to go when the ball is loose.
What stands out about this Georgia Tech team to you?
They’re well-coached, physical, good fronts on both sides of the ball. They’re tough. They play well together, they’ve given up very few sacks all season. They’ve got momentum right now and they’re very similar to us. Had some good looks going into the season and they’ve lost to some good folks. Losses at Syracuse and at Louisville and then against Notre Dame.Haynes King may not play but there’s not much of a difference between him and Zach Pyron, who you played a few years ago.
They’re both big, 6-3, 215-220, dual-threat guys. They don’t have to change their offense based on who’s in there. Obviously, Zach Pyron has come into Lane and conducted a comeback win. If he’s the trigger man, he’ll be confident and will expect to win.What stands out about their run game?
They have a great front. Maybe the best scheme we’ve seen all year with what they do. They attack the inside. They run a lot of counters in different ways. That tailback is a good player, he can make you miss, go around you, he’s strong out of the backfield. They also stay on schedule and keep the ball out of the other team's hands. We like to get our offense as many possessions as we can because we know how well we can score points. They play a ball control type of game. They’re confident and play hard even when they’re behind. They had a chance against Notre Dame late. We’ve got our hands full.Georgia Tech is No. 1 in sacks allowed and the Hokies have the nation’s sack leader. What does a guy like APR need to do to find success against this line?
Play the run game on first and second down, get them to third-and-long where we can pin our ears back and rush that QB. When it’s third-and-3, third-and-4, third-and-5, they can run, throw, play action, you can’t tee off. We need to keep them behind the sticks.Any good homecoming memories that you can tell on the radio?
I’ve always been involved in the game. That’s the biggest piece, the game. I love how many people come back to come to homecoming. You have so many people coming into town as soon as today. There is just a buzz around campus and around town. Homecoming is to get everybody back to pour into this stadium.This Georgia Tech team is aggressive with going for it on fourth down.
We are too. They stay on schedule and they’re aggressive on the plus side of the field. You get across the 50 and I tell Tyler that he has two, so if it’s third-and-7, he knows he’s just gotta get half of it, fourth-and-3 we’re gonna go for it. Good ball control.How about the group of interns you have here tonight?
I’m glad they came through. We have our athletic training student interns and our video student interns. Big shoutout to them. We couldn’t do what we do without them. We have a group of 60-70 interns, we couldn’t run our program without them. Some of them don’t make a penny for what they do and some of them make a little bit but we try to take care of them where we can. They are as much a part of what we do as anybody else. They’re passionate, they’re loyal, they pour into this thing every single day while they juggle class and everything else. I appreciate them.What does the next few days look like for the team?
We have our fast Friday, today was no sweat Thursday. We’ll get about an hour worth of run and gun work. Everybody will have their catapults on so the sports science group can make sure we’re getting up to speed. Then we check into the hotel, have our walkthroughs and our meetings. The difference this week is that it’s going to come fast on Saturday with a noon kickoff. When we wake up, we always go on a team walk. On Saturday, we will be strolling the grounds of the Inn at Virginia Tech at about 7:30. We’ll come in and get a walkthrough and then have our pregame meal.Do you have a bunch of recruits coming in?
We do, we had to cap it two days ago. We have 100 on the list. People are pulling their hair out trying to figure out how they’ll manage these guys.You said the offensive line may have the best practice habits of any group on the team.
Ron [Crook] and Brent [Davis] have a circuit system of fundamental techniques that they roll through every day. That’s a big reason we’ve gotten better. We play together, we have good footwork and hat placement. We aren’t perfect, but we have gotten so much better. When you look at the holes that Bhayshul got to run through, you and I could have run through those holes. Not for 90 or 80, but we would have had 10.
Ron Crook
Thank you for coming out tonight.
Glad to be here. I come out just about every week just to watch it. It’s great to be a part of it.How much has the game changed since you played in the 80s?
Playing at West Liberty and playing at Virginia Tech is a world of difference. Everything about the sport is different, the approach, the formations, the recruiting, everything is different from even when I started coaching.Talk us through your coaching journey to get here to Virginia Tech.
I’ve got a lot of tags on my luggage. I started as a student assistant at West Liberty and worked to be a grad assistant at Cincinnati for a year before being at Clarion University in Pennsylvania for three years, Glenville State College, back down to West Virginia for two, West Virginia Tech, back to West Liberty, then to the University of Illinois, then to Harvard, Stanford, West Virginia for four, Cincinnati for five, South Dakota for one, and now I’m here.Talk about some of the bowl games you went to with Cincinnati and Stanford.
Those teams weren’t very good until I got there, then we became good. Going to the Rose Bowl was a unique and awesome thing. The people working with the bowl games are great. The playoffs was even another step up. They were very appreciative.What’s your offensive line room like?
They love playing football together and they have a lot of fun together. When I first got here, I would have them in the O-line room 15 minutes before meetings to let them hang out because those kids are fun to be around and they love being around each other. They care about each other and each other's success.How is the depth?
The thing is, because these guys enjoy playing and playing together so much, their development has come along really nicely. You see more and more guys on the field for more and more plays. It gives me a lot of pride. We talk about it a lot about how it has to be more important to us than it is to our opponents.How does that rushing record feel for the offensive line?
They take a lot of pride in the success of the rushing attack. Our goal every week is to get a picture of all our quarterbacks as a reminder to keep them on their feet and a picture of all our running backs to remind them that our job is to get them to the end zone. Everything that we go over boils down to that.How about the game Xavier Chaplain played?
That was really cool. I’ve never been a part of an offensive linemen getting a player of the week award. He’s really done good at focusing into the little details of every play in the playbook. Parker Clements has taken it upon himself to be a mentor to Xavier. He’s been his partner all throughout his career. He’s been able to take that and advance quite a bit.What exactly does the bigger rotation entail?
It gives our guys a chance to be fresh. If we can do that for five, six, seven games with 10 plays saved on the starters per game, that’s a game's worth of snaps to be fresher towards the end and stay healthy at a position where nobody is ever truly healthy when you get to Week 10, Week 11. The rotational pieces have earned their roles.Have you ever had another situation of brothers playing together?
Never at the same unit. It’s fun watching those guys push each other every play. Kaden [Moore] is a great big brother with the way he watches over and pushes Braelin and it’s a very cool dynamic to watch.