Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry and men’s basketball coach Mike Young joined Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop on Tech Talk Live Thursday night. Pry and the Hokies have a big game Saturday at Duke (8 p.m. ET, ACC Network) while Young’s crew travels down to Florida next week for the Fort Myers Tip-Off.
Brent Pry
How was the open week for you and your team?
It was good. We needed it. We’ve got some guys that have been banged up and they’re certainly feeling better. I don’t know if we’ll get everybody back, but we’ve got a bunch of guys feeling better and had some developmental squad scrimmages, some of those guys got a bunch of good work and live work. Tackling, so it was good. Good couple weeks.
You were on the recruiting trail too. How’d that go?
Yeah, we went out for two days. All 10 assistants, myself, mostly in the footprint, mostly in Virginia, but Thursday and Friday we were out and about. Seeing our commitments, seeing some 2026 guys and there are still some 2025s we’re working on that aren’t committed yet.
Has the current state of college athletics changed high school recruiting?
That part’s still the same. You’re going out there, you’re going to go see these guys that you’ve got interest in, you want to watch them play, they want to see you be there. We happen to be there on a senior night and moms and dads are crying. It’s just a big deal so it’s nice we can be part of it.
When you have recruits here for a game, what kind of feel do you get from those guys about how they’re feeling, and does your result change anything?
You don’t get a feel for it post-game because you’re all about your team, but over the course of the week, you’re going to follow up with those guys, you’re going to talk with them and they have wins and losses too. Most of them understand you’re not going to win them all, you want to, and that’s the reality with football. We don’t shy away from that. We lose a game and we’re going to recruit them just as hard that week as we do when we win the game. The idea is you get to know these guys over ninth grade, 10th grade, we have a relationship with them and they know what you’re about and whether you win or lose, that’s a constant.
What’s your program’s mentality when it comes to the early and late signing periods?
Right now, that late signing period… you might sign one or two there, but everyone’s going to pretty much wrap it up on Dec. 4 from a high school standpoint. You may have a couple of guys that can afford to wait and take some visits in January, but most of your prospects are going to ink on the fourth.
How big is the class going to be and what are your biggest needs?
We’ll sign somewhere between 18 and 20 at the high school level, which is a good number for us, where we want to be, and then we’ll have five to eight transfer spots based on attrition and potential guys that may leave the program. That could grow, but right now, that looks like where we’ll be.
You have to recruit your own team nowadays too. What’s that like?
Everybody’s doing that, I would think. We try to be proactive. We’re not going to shy away from the fact that there’s other teams recruiting our players, there were last year, there’ll be this year, there’ll be next year. Most guys in most locker rooms right now, in some way, shape or form, 60 to 70 percent of them have had thoughts about the transfer portal. Whether they’re not playing enough, they’re not making enough money, whatever the case is, they’ve got a lot of people reaching out to them. Teammates from high school, it’s not the coaches sometimes, it’s agents, it’s players on that particular team, those folks are reaching out. We want to be proactive, we’re very transparent with our guys. We bring them in, we talk through it. ‘What are the concerns? What do you like, what don’t you like?’ You have to do that these days.
How will the scholarship limit changing impact your program?
Everybody’s taking a different philosophy. From what I understand, the SEC right now is going to have 85 on scholarship. We’re still somewhere between 90 and 95, what we’re working with, what we’re thinking about. But I’ve heard teams might be at 105, but not many of them. We will still have a walk-on program at Virginia Tech. Too important to who we are, what we’re about, to our history. It’s going to be more competitive, there’s not going to be as many spots, and unfortunately, some of these guys that we would like to continue to on with, we’re not going to have the opportunity to. Guys who have been in the program for a couple years. When you go from 120 to 105 as your roster limit, you’ve got 15 guys you’ve got to separate from, and that’s unfortunate, that’s the bad part of the rule for sure. But we’re going to do our best to help anybody that wants to continue to play to find that next spot like we always do, where they can have a good experience, go finish out their college football career.
What’s the thinking behind the SEC staying at 85?
I think they’re going to find a way to supplement the other guys on the roster, whether that’s through some type of NIL or revenue sharing. Everybody’s still trying to figure this thing out. It’s literally day-to-day, and this thing can change with the wind. Everyone’s banking on this April 7 settlement, that this thing’s going to happen, and there’s some things that could flare up that could change that, to be quite honest. But that’s what we’re working towards. Whit Babcock’s been awesome, Dr. [Tim] Sands, there’s a ton of support and work being poured into what this needs to look like for Virginia Tech football.
How much are you involved with those topics during the season?
About every day. That’s part of the job right now.
The redshirt matrix has to be a mini nightmare. Who are some of the guys that we might see over the next two weeks that haven’t played yet?
I think Keylen Adams at wide receiver. Coach [Fontel] Mines has repped him a lot with the varsity the back half of the season, you could see him sprinkle in there. Josh Clarke at corner. There’s a couple of guys like that who will at least show up on special teams and help us there with some depth and work into the rotation, but a couple of them will have a chance at their position, and Keylen and Josh probably jump out first.
What did the open week look like?
We backed off a lot of guys. Some of those veterans that have been out there getting a lot of snaps, we shut them down, did some jog-throughs with those guys, got them healthy. It’s not just the wear and tear on their legs, it’s the banging, it’s the shoulder pads. And then there’s a bunch of guys that need to work, whether it’s the developmental guys or those second-team guys that don’t play enough snaps. We got them better.When you went back and looked at the Clemson game, what was the most disappointing part about that?
Honestly, we dropped too many balls. That jumps out. There are a couple of things, but we’ve been a group that’s caught the ball well and had eight drops in that game, and a couple of them were critical in a tight game that you’re talking about a series or two where you can extend drives and convert third downs. Just not typical of our guys. There were seven at the receiver position, one at tight end and those guys took ownership, had a great couple of weeks to make sure that doesn’t get us again.You guys couldn’t really run the ball like you wanted to in that game, especially with Bhayshul Tuten banged up.
Yeah, when Kyron [Drones] is not healthy and Bhayshul’s not healthy, your two horses that can really do it, and that’s not to take away from the other guys, but they’re our guys for a reason. They’re both tough as heck and both wanted to play and gave it their best effort. I wish they were 100 percent, that certainly would make a difference, but it is what it is at this point in the season.That opens up reps for some of the guys behind them like Collin Schlee and Jeremiah Coney.
It certainly does. Running back is a little bit… with Malachi Thomas out right now and P.J. Prioleau out, Coney, who started the year as the fourth-team running back, has an awesome opportunity to back up Bhayshul, and then Tyler Mason, a true freshman who started out the year on scout team, and all of a sudden he’s over there the last couple of weeks with the varsity. He’s really improved, he’s gotten much better. Coach [Elijah] Brooks has done a good job with those young guys and if their name is called, they’ll be ready.With critical guys banged up, do you have to have multiple game plans?
It’s not the game plan itself; there’s a couple of plays that maybe you like more with Kyron than with Schlee, and there’s a couple of plays you like more with Schlee, and the same thing with Bhayshul and the rest of the group. There’s a couple of run plays that Bhayshul does really well that the other guys maybe that’s not their deal. They’ve got some other stuff. So you plan for that, you know what you like with what guys in the game, so [Tyler Bowen], he’ll do a good job there.Not having those two guys makes it difficult to stay on schedule.
It’s hard. You look around the country and not many people have a high percentage on third-and-7-plus. You’re going to struggle. When the defense knows you’ve got to throw the football and they can pin their ears back and chance up coverage patterns and they don’t have to worry about you mixing in a run, that’s a bad place to be and that’s where we were against Clemson, and that’s not to take away from those guys. They’ve got a stout D-line. They’ve got a good group right there. Obviously, Coach [Dabo] Swinney does a good job. If we can stay on schedule a little bit more, if we caught a few of those dropped balls, all of a sudden the drive’s extended and you don’t know, does it end in a field goal? Do you get in the red zone and you’re trying to score a touchdown? That thing was kind of nip-and-tuck for a while and we did the things we needed to do to hang in there — we played good defense in the first half, we blocked the field goal and ran it back. You’ve got a chance right there. We’re ultra-competitive in the game with a pretty good football team to give us a chance.What’s going through your mind when you block the field goal and Quentin Reddish returns it for a touchdown?
It came right to him, and the coaching point is when it’s that easy and it’s that clear, just run with it. Quentin as a freshman did a great job. Fielded the ball well, pretty good ball security, got to the outside which is a safe place to go, we had a couple of good blocks. He’s a talented guy. Really excited about Quentin.And he’s going to wear No. 25 this week.
He is, yeah. First true freshman since Tucker Holloway in 2022. Really good job by Quentin.You mentioned Tucker, he’s been hurt. Can you give us an update on him?
He actually got in full pads this week. He’s not cleared for contact, but an outstanding young man. We’re going to take him on the trip [to Duke], he’s going to be part of the travel party, be on the sideline with us. Excited about his future. He’s all in, he’s a team guy. Obviously, going to contribute at wide receiver and we know what he can do as a punt returner. He’s a culture driver in that locker room. Can’t say enough good things about Tucker. So happy that he’s back playing football, he loves it. He’s out there every day working his butt to get back so we’re going to take him on this trip and make sure he’s out there with us.You have a group of analytics, creatives, operations and student assistants in attendance tonight.
We couldn’t do it without this group. When you talk about operations, creative media, analytics, which is where the game’s going, all of these interns, these student assistants, most of them are just devoting their time and their work for nothing. It’s unbelievable. The commitment, we couldn’t do what we do without them. I’m so appreciative of all of them, thank you very much. It’s awesome. And maybe they get a taste for it, they get a flare for it and this is what they want to do. This kind of the career they enter, whether it’s with football or something in athletics, so it’s a two-way street. It’s good for them, good for us, great for college football.Who’s behind managing and organizing that group?
It depends on the department. There are some interns in recruiting, there are some in strength and conditioning, sports science, nutrition, in operations, in creative. So that department head spearheads that up, but everybody’s part of it. We’re one big crew, one big family, everybody’s role’s important and I’m very appreciative of that group.What are some of these analytics these guys do that cross your desk?
Well, you’re always trying to figure out, ‘OK, what are they doing on first-and-10 against four down [linemen]? What are they doing against three down?’ Not everything can be done back there by the five coaches. You’ve got to have some helping hands, and this analytics crew, they can do it much quicker than I could. They know how to put the equation together and sort things and filter things. It may take me two hours to do that, takes them five minutes.
How cool is it for Aeneas Peebles to go back to Duke?
He’s a great story. It epitomizes college football today. He’s awesome. He’s a super mature guy, very smart, he loved his time at Duke, he’s loved his time with us. It’s just where college football is. He wanted a new opportunity, something different. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his experience at Duke; he wanted something different, so I’m happy for him, I’m excited for him. He’s fired up to play against a couple of his old teammates. For guys like that, they get to that point in their career and most of their friends have graduated. When he was leaving, they were leaving, but still, it’s big for him. We had a bunch of media reach out to talk to him this week and I said, ‘Hey, are you comfortable doing this? Because it could be awkward.’ And he’s like, ‘Coach, I’m good.’ We talked about some things and he’s in a great place with it and I’m very proud of him and the year he’s had and I want him to have a great game on Saturday night.Duke is one of the best teams in the country in creating turnovers. What does that group do so well?
First of all, they’ve got 12 fumbles and 11 interceptions and I would say this: When you recover 12 fumbles, that means the other teams are putting the ball loose, putting it on the ground, coughing it up. And that was the message to our guys: ‘The way you negate that, it’s such a big positive for them, is protect the ball. Don’t give them the opportunity.’ They run to the ball well, and when defenses run to the ball well, things happen around the ball. So if something’s coughed up, you have a chance to gain possession. They’re going to do that, they’re going to run to the ball, but we’ve got to protect it and that’s been the message for two weeks, to be honest. You want to negate one of their best strengths? Protect the football, don’t put it on the ground.What about their offense and their big quarterback in Maalik Murphy (6-5, 230)?
I think one of the things about their quarterback, he’s gotten better as the season’s gone on. He’s a transfer from out west and he’s a big guy, he’s got a really strong arm. When he gets in rhythm and he can stay on time, he’s one of the better ones in the league. He’s got a great group of receivers. To me, these guys are underrated. They’ve had a heck of a year, they make great catches, run good routes, lot of timing stuff. They’ve done a good job with that group.He's not really a mobile quarterback. Does that change the defense’s approach at all?
It does. I mean, you’re not going to pay as much attention to it, but I have seen some runs — a touchdown run against, I believe, NC State. He put his foot in the ground, got north-south, it was impressive. He’s a big-bodied guy that when he wants to, he’s hard to tackle. So that would be a game plan adjustment.What a year Antwaun Powell-Ryland has had. He’s up for almost every award.
I’m so proud of him. Very thankful and happy he was here the last two years. He’s been a great teammate, he’s been very productive, he’s Virginia, he’s a homegrown guy and these last couple of weeks, for him to really play his best games would be impactful for us.Duke has some good linebackers. What’s it going to take to open up some holes?
We’ve got to have some misdirection. We’ve got to make great reads at the quarterback position. We’ve got to block well, sustain blocks. Those linebackers are good players. They fit well, they do a nice job, they’re experienced, so mixing up those run plays, making them defend a couple different things, that’s going to be important.A bunch of your players got invitations to some of those postseason games.
Proud of those guys. I think it’s well deserved and is a great opportunity for them to go showcase their skill set in front of a bunch of NFL guys. We’ve had a really good number of NFL scouts at our practices each and every day, taking a look at these guys, the older guys, the younger guys. And when you get your program up and running, that’s what should happen.When guys are weighing going to the NFL or coming back, what do you typically tell them?
Well, it’s not what I tell them. We get all of the information from NFL scouts, from all the folks that make the decisions. ‘Where are you going to be drafted, third or fourth round?’ It’s not what these guys on social media are saying, it’s what are the guys saying, the general manager in-house, the scouts that have been there all year long. We’ve got a guy from the Dallas Cowboys, I think he’s been there every single week of the season. So he knows our team very well, he knows these guys, and what are they saying? Where are you at with them? The other piece that’s a big factor is how many corners are coming out in the draft? How many linebackers are coming out in the draft? How many wideouts? What does it look like? What does the competition look like? And then what are your weaknesses? What are they saying? Can you come back and is it really something you can improve on? Can you be better? Like APR did. He had some things they were concerned about and I think he’s come back and answered a lot of those questions, so that’s what you have to hope for. You just give them all of the information — our player, his family, his agent — so that they can make the most informed decision for them.There are a lot of ties to Duke for the staff. Derek Jones coached down there. Zohn Burden, who was at Virginia Tech, is now there.
When you’re in it long enough, everything’s interconnected.Duke only has 14 touchbacks on kickoffs this year. Is that an area maybe you could take advantage of?
We hope so. We want opportunities to return the ball and sometimes, like with our guy, Kyle [Lowe], you go into a game against us and say, ‘You may get one, and if you get one, make the most of it.’ We’re excited about the guys we got, that we’re putting back there and we want to get them an opportunity. We work on it every week, devote a bunch of time to it so when that opportunity comes, we can make the most of it.How good has Peter Moore been flipping the field for you?
He’s one of the best in the business. You have to work pretty hard to show me a punter that’s had a better year than him. He’s been clutch. In big moments, in pressure situations, he’s done really well. And he’s a third-year captain. That tells you what the team thinks about him.What do the next couple of days look like for your team?
We’ll have our fast Friday tomorrow, some meetings. Our fast Fridays, we try to get everybody to 85 percent of max speed. Just get a sweat going, open it up. A couple of meetings, we get on the bus, we’ll bus down to Duke, not a bad ride and we’ll have dinner tomorrow night, a couple of personal shares, a couple of guys are going to get up in front of the team, guys whose eligibility is up, kind of share their story, and when you have a late kickoff like we do Saturday, you’re going to do a walkthrough, you’re going to have some film, you’re going to spend some time answering those last questions and working out those final wrinkles to make sure the guys are in a good place to go execute and play well.
Mike Young
That was a tough one Wednesday night against Jacksonville, kind of a tail of two halves.
You go in up 10 and think you’re in pretty good shape, but the critical importance of the first four minutes of both halves, to get started on both ends and set a tone and you pop them in the mouth there and get up 14, 16 and maybe you walk home. Unfortunately, we had a couple of ballhandling miscues and they got a couple shots in the basket, and you can’t let a team like that hang around and you find yourself in a spot, and we were and they had a kid play really well, [Robert] McCray, number 13. As I said after the game, I applaud Jacksonville, take nothing away from their effort, those kids played hard and they played better than we did.McCray was the ASUN Conference Preseason Player of the Year, but Zimi Nwokeji was the tough one, he went off for 19 points and nine rebounds.
Probably shouldn’t let that happen. He does one thing really well, he catches it and shoots it. We’ve never had a problem with that kind of guy, every team has a couple. You have to make that person put the ball on the floor to get to his shot, you can’t let him catch it and shoot it, you have to get to his body with the tips of your fingers up and ready to contest a shot without fouling. We gave him a three in front of their bench on an out-of-bounds under play which, we had been very, very good through the years [at defending], we’re struggling a little bit in that area. Tobi [Lawal] got his head knocked off. That was a big basket for them. You can’t let that kind of player, and he’s a good player now, don’t take anything away from him, but you can’t let a player like that come in and touch you up as he did.Tobi didn’t start playing basketball until he was 16 and is still a work in progress, but he has so much talent.
He does, and I think of Jaden Schutt, I think of [Brandon] Rechsteiner, I think of Jaydon Young. Those guys have been in our program — Schutt at Duke for two years — but there’s a stark difference in watching it and doing it, and the more plays they see, the more comfortable they get, and as you go along, let’s hope that the learning curve is quick. But you see an action, yeah, we’re going to go under that, we’re going to chase that one and so on. You’re asking them to guard things at 100 mph and it’s so new to them. To your point about Tobi, he is an incredibly talented person, but every day, every game, there are a couple of instances where he’s just unfamiliar with that circumstance. He rolled out of a ball screen last night and turned the wrong way, we threw it the direction he was supposed to go. Just little things that we’ve got to continue to harp on and continue to coach better.You started Tyler Johnson, the freshman, for the first time. What did you like about the lineup with him starting?
Good. I just thought a bigger body on McCray was needed. I thought Jaydon Young had good moments on McCray. Tyler Johnson’s going to be very, very good, I thought was quite good in our first four, had some good moments last night, took a quick shot down in the short corner in the second half, but again, you just don’t see many true freshmen playing a lot of minutes in this day and age. As much as I like him, another young man that needs a little more time in the smokehouse, he needs to see more plays and he will as we continue to evolve as a team.You were outscored 45-25 in the second half. Does that leave you more concerned with the offense, defense or somewhere in between?
You know, I told my old buddy Mark Berman after the game, we’ve got a ways to go here on all of it. Our special teams is not where it should be, our offense is not nearly what we’ve come to expect around here, the passing, the cutting, the screening. We’re not a very good screening team right now. We’re capable, we’re going to get there but we’ve got work to do, needless to say.Jacksonville really focused on going inside and getting points in the paint in the second half.
Yeah, we weren’t going to trap the post, as we did against Winthrop, and Winthrop’s post player is a lot better than the kids we saw last night. Fellas, you can’t allow the ball to come into the post from the top of the floor. If it comes in from the top of the floor, that’s not a lot of support you can give that person. Spend an inordinate amount of time in that footwork and keeping the ball out of there. If it comes in from the side, then you can help from here, you can trap from here, but if it comes in from the top, you’re one-on-one and buckle it up and bow your neck and contest that thing and go rebound it. But they made a conscious effort, needless to say, in the second half to go at us in there and it won’t be the last time we see it. We’ve got to get better.