Virginia Tech football head coach Brent Pry and defensive tackle Kelvin Gilliam joined Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop on Tech Talk Live on Thursday. The Hokies dropped their opening game to South Carolina in Atlanta but are back in Blacksburg this weekend and host Vanderbilt under the lights at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night (ACC Network).
Brent Pry
Coach, how are you?
We’re doing good, man. Hustled right off the practice field and took the time to take a shower tonight.
Smelling much better than last week.
It was a good day. Good week. Short week. Here we are already. The guys are amped up.
You talked about using the model that you did against Miami. Another short week, but the guys have played well.
You have to get the balance right between how much you work them to get ready and prepare for the schemes, but at the same time, they’ve got to get back right. The thing you lose is your off day for the coaches and the players. Normally, Monday is that day where the players are doing school or doing some recovery stuff. The coaches are in the staff rooms all day breaking down the opponents. You lose that on a six-day week.
We got home at about midnight on Sunday night, we were there at 8 a.m. Monday morning. It was treated like a Sunday, and then the next day was a Tuesday. Monday didn’t exist. We modify practices, we don’t bang them as much, we don’t have them out there as long. I’m constantly asking the older guys how they’re feeling. We’re in a pretty good place. Yesterday they worked through it, and it wasn’t easy. Today they felt a little better, today was a no sweat day. A big day of recovery. They were in the weight room and they were rolling out, sitting in the hot tubs, the cold tubs, all the contrast to get those bodies back right.
Frank Beamer always said the biggest improvement was between Week 1 and Week 2. Do you believe that?
I do, I think it’s critical. You learn a lot about your team in Week 1. When you play a team like South Carolina, it’s a big test, so we did learn a lot. Good and bad. We have a chance to make a ton of corrections and identify some things where you’ve got to grow and be better going into Week 2. That was the plan of attack when we met with the team on Monday afternoon, ‘These are the things we need to improve on to be the team we need to be.’ Not in Week 4 or 5, Saturday night in Lane Stadium.
Talk about the player-led meeting and how that came about.
We have great leadership. I can’t talk much about a player-led meeting because I wasn’t in there, Mike.
Did you see a difference?
We got [Kelvin Gilliam] coming in here tonight to jump on the radio. He’s one of the better leaders I’ve been around. Not just of the defense, of the entire team. They came to me asking if they could get five minutes before we got going. I told him that it was your team, not my team. Whatever you need, I’ll give it to you. We’ll work it out, we’ll change the schedule, we’ll bump the times. They had a good meeting, got some things hashed out that may have crept in after a tough loss. They had a good talk.
What stood out to you about the film?
Just a couple of plays. Are there things all over the film that we can do better? There always is. There’s a couple of plays that made a difference in the game. For me, it’s about what we can correct, what was in our control. Not South Carolina, what didn’t we do well enough that we can control? That’s what we have to attack and do a better job with. There were too many things that we control and didn’t do well enough.
You had only four penalties in the game but three of them were crucial.
Big time. We put all those penalties on the board in front of the team. We talked about what they mean. And the fact that you don’t know when it’s going to be a critical penalty. Maybe it’s a minor penalty, no big deal. But maybe it’s the penalty that costs us the game, or a first down or a touchdown. Attention to detail everywhere. It’s one of our five fundamentals. We kind of bore into that a little more this week and how important that is.
What did you see when you broke down that South Carolina punt return?
My gut told me to take a delay of game to give those coverage guys a little more time. I didn’t do it, I should’ve. They did a nice job, they doubled two of our gunners, inside and outside, they had them two-on-one. We didn’t beat the vice, which we work on. Those guys that were one-on-one that had just covered really well, didn’t cover so well. You’ve got to beat them and get in front of them so they can’t come back and put pain on you. We didn’t do that.
And as well as Nick [Veltsistas] kicked the whole game, that one didn’t have the hang time. That’s the one that returners really like. It was a combination of several things that led to it being an opportunity for them. I liked our chances at 10-8 in the fourth. We were being stingy on defense, driving the field, just not scoring touchdowns. At that point, 10-8, field goal wins the game. Even a six-point game with nine minutes left. A lot to learn from. The big thing is whether or not we’ve grown as a team from that loss to Saturday night at 7:30.
What did you think of the play of Dylan Stewart?
He’s everything that he’s hyped to be. Good player.
Did you think the guys did a good job on LaNorris Sellers, all-in-all?
I think our defensive game plan was a good one. He’s a good player, and you saw it. When he breaks out of there, which we didn’t let him do much, that was a part of the plan to keep him bottled up and in the pocket. When he got out of there, he’s hard to wrestle down. He’s a big guy, has good speed, better than people realize. I think he made some good plays in the game, but his impact on the game wasn’t enough to pull away. The big tall wideout, that’s what he does. He’s a world-class sprinter. We kept the roof on him most of the night, but he got away from us on one. That was big. I thought the defensive plan and the way the kids played, we were in pretty good shape. We’ve got to be stingy. If you’re stingy on defense, you have a chance to win anything.
What did you think of the play of Caleb Woodson with all of the noise around him?
We have high expectations for Caleb. He’s experienced, he’s fast, he’s long, he’s tough, his game is strong. He’s got all the traits. I think he still has room for improvement there. He played a good game, made some nice plays for us. He’s an impact player on our defense. I know when he watched that film, knowing Caleb, there’s areas we’ve got to grow.
What did you see out of the defensive line and how deep it was?
That was a good group coming out of the ball game. We invested hard there, we recruited hard there to make sure we have the depth we need. I wish I could say the same thing about our offensive line. You want your fronts to have depth and experience. We’ve done that on the D-line, we’ve got to do the same offensively. We have a couple guys banged up right now that we need to get healthy to help our depth over there. I like what the first five is about. But that D-line, when you can roll guys and keep them fresh and play 11-12 guys, you know your war horses are going to be at their best in the fourth quarter.
Do y’all pay much attention to Pro Football Focus player grades? How did y’all feel that the offensive line did as a whole playing every snap?
Honestly, no to PFF. We shoot graphics out and all of that, but I don’t pay any mind to it. No offense, but a lot of those guys never played football. The thing for me is, when I watched, I thought they played pretty good in game. I thought Kyron [Drones] had a little more pressure on him. That number six, he’s a first rounder, in my opinion. I’ve coached a lot of first rounders, he’s one of them. He’s long, he played the run better than I thought he would. Kyron felt that pressure more than I realized. He did a good job managing it, to be honest. To give up only two sacks with how much they were there. The guy on the other side is an NFL player too. I thought the offensive line, for their first game together, the five of them under Coach [Matt] Moore, against a really good front, on a big stage, I thought their first outing was pretty good.
What did you think overall of Kyron’s performance?
He did some good things, and he certainly did some things that he wants to do better and we want him to do better, need him to. This guy has worked his tail off. He’s a seasoned quarterback. When he makes a mistake now, he absolutely knows it in the moment, which is a good sign. Guys got to help him, got to protect a little better, get open more often, catch balls that are thrown, and we’ve got to make contested catches. That’s part of being a good receiver group.I think those couple of throws to Benji [Gosnell] down the stretch, we had a chance to score, had our timeouts, you can kick the ball and then have a chance to get the stop. I’m a big believer, you get both hands on the ball, you should catch it, I don’t care where it’s at. My high school football coach always said that. Our wideouts made some great plays, but you’ve got to catch those ones. You never know which one will be the difference. You extend the drive, go get some points. When it’s so close for so long, every play counts.
They made some unbelievable catches. That one from Ayden Greene that came back on a penalty, I know that’ll drive you nuts.
We’re going to continue to throw the ball down the field. We’ve got guys that will go make plays. We got Donavon [Greene] and Ayden, then you look at the catch that Isaiah Spencer made. That was a one-handed catch down the sideline. We’ve got guys that can make some plays, got to make sure they get enough opportunities.
A 7:30 p.m. kick in Lane Stadium against Vanderbilt. It’s a sold out crowd, it’ll be a special environment.
That was the message to the team at the end of practice, the opportunity they have. Every time they step onto that field and step out of the tunnel. It’s one of the more special places in college football. And [the fans] help make it that way, so thank you. They have to understand. In our indoor facility, which is where we have our Thursday practice, you look across that wall in there and there’s these giant pictorials starting with Bruce Smith and Cornell Brown and Corey Moore and Kam Chancellor and Tyrod [Taylor] and the Edmunds brothers. It’s just a wall of the legacy that these guys have left. I reminded them, ‘You go down into that stadium, that’s where these guys made their name. They’re all-conference, they’re NFL guys, they played in conference championship games.’ It’s an unbelievable opportunity.
Do you ever get used to leading the team out there to 70,000? What’s that feeling like?
You never get used to it. It’s still amazing every time. You try to calm yourself down, no big deal, I’ve done this. As soon as you start running, it’s crazy.
Just don’t trip, right?
That’s what you worry about. Somebody running up my back. Down in Atlanta they had that smoke machine and nobody could see anything. That happened to [Brent] Venables at Oklahoma, he got trampled and was in a sling. Need to be safe running out the tunnel, don’t need smoke. We got everything we need at Worsham Field, Lane Stadium.
What did you think about Mercedes-Benz Stadium?
Those NFL stadiums are just different. I think, for our players, it was big time. Had a big turnout, we appreciate our fans for the trip. Personally, for me, I’d rather play in Lane Stadium.
Could you ever get eight home games?
We’re trying. You got a neutral site, seven home, four away, that’s not bad.
One of the most-watched games of the week, and we’re now in a place where that matters. Viewership has to be in the back of your mind when you’re scheduling teams now.
Scheduling is like an algebra formula. You want strength of schedule, a winnable schedule, you want viewership, all of it. It takes a couple of staff guys, a bunch of meetings and a bunch of phone calls to build out a schedule that makes sense. This year, we’re pretty fortunate. We’ve got some potentially high-viewership games on the schedule. I tell those guys all the time, the ones in charge of this, if we win, people will watch. Louisville wins and we win, people are going to watch. Virginia wins and we win, people are going to watch. You’ve got to win games.
What did you think about the rushing attack? And can you give us an update on Terion Stewart?
I saw bright spots in the run game. I thought we blocked pretty well against a pretty good defense. There was some good signs there. I thought Marcellous Hawkins had a good game. I gave him a B-. I told him that there were some tackles he needed to break. Now, we’re all spoiled by Bhayshul [Tuten], but you’ve got to come out of one or two more of those to turn it into an explosive run. With Stewart, I think we’ll get some snaps out of him on Saturday. He’s had a good week, he’s a different-style back, he’s a guy that has made a living on breaking tackles. He’s not going to run a 4.3 and 70 yards, but he’s a good back. I thought P.J. [Prioleau] had some things he did well. Coach [Elijah] Brooks has a good stable there. We’ve got to make sure we use those guys in the right way at the right time. Getting Terion in the mix will help.
How are things looking on the injury front?
We came out of the game pretty healthy. We haven’t lost anybody. Because of the short week, we’ve got some guys pushing through some bumps and bruises, but we’re in pretty good shape coming out of Week 1. Some teams lost a starter coming out of Week 1, so we’re in pretty good shape.
Some people have noted the difference now with Jarrett Ferguson.
These guys are in pretty good shape, no question. Jarrett’s done a great job. Your offseason training is critical, so it wasn’t just the summer. It was in the winter and the spring, too. Everyday he and I meet about three quarters through practice and talk about if we need to run them. He’s got them in a good place. We also have more depth. At most positions, we have more guys. We can sustain and play a bunch of reps. We’ve got some good, young guys that you’ll start seeing out there too.
Were you out there when they did the tribute to Coach Beamer?
Unfortunately, I wasn’t. I wish I had been. There’s nobody more deserving. I saw he had a South Carolina shirt on, but he had a little VT pin, I would’ve done the same thing. It was awesome. He texted me after the game. He’s always very supportive.
Who’s in the No. 25 jersey this week?
It’s hard not to give it to John Love. Three field goals in the opener, one from 56. We’ve got a real gem there.
He is solid, isn’t he?
If he’s not a strong candidate down the stretch for placekicker of the year across college football, I’ll be very surprised. He’s consistent, his leg is stronger, he’s everything you need in a placekicker.
What do you see from Diego Pavia in his second season at Vanderbilt?
He’s a little different from a skill set as LaNorris Sellers, but he presents the same problems. He can do a lot of things with his feet, he can throw the football, you’d love to keep him in the pocket. You’ve got to get these guys behind the sticks, they’re very good when they stay on schedule. He’s a gamer. He’s a confident guy, he’s carrying that team on his back, much like he did last year. I was looking at the film, and I don’t want to take anything away from him, but we didn’t play very good. We’ve got to make it more challenging for him and his offense this year.
How about Eli Stowers?
He is a major matchup problem. He is a bona fide NFL guy, he’s a handful. Linebackers and safeties have been working hard all week to cover that guy.
Who’s been him in practice?
We’ve got a couple guys. Cole Reemsnyder’s done it. Tall guy who can run. He’s hard to emulate. He’s a former quarterback, so he’s a smart guy, nifty, he gets it. I think he and the quarterback have really good chemistry together.
Did Vanderbilt show much on film that you were able to take away?
No, they were very vanilla. Their starters came out at halftime, they were sipping pina coladas when we were getting ready to kickoff. They’ve got a headstart on us. It’s fortunate that we played them last year. They’ll have some nuances, but we know what we’ll get for the most part.
How did you feel about your defensive backs?
I thought we did a nice job against a group that has hurt some people throwing the football. I hate that the last one happened, the big one. We had a breakdown over the top. Caleb Brown has got to be better. The safety has to be better too. I thought that, for a bunch of new faces, they played pretty well.
How many prospects are coming in for this game?
We’ve got a house full. We had to cap it and tell some guys that they have to come in the next week or two. We’ve got some 26s, some commitments, we’ve got some that aren’t committed anywhere yet, we have a couple that are committed elsewhere as well. There’s the 27 class too, we’re working on that. I know they’re going to love the atmosphere, the environment. It’s about getting our coaches around them enough that when they leave here, they’ll say that they didn’t get treated any better than they did at Virginia Tech.
Kelvin Gilliam
KG, how are you?
Thank you for having me, doing great.
How good was it to get suited up and playing in a big-time game?
It’s amazing. That game set the stage for itself. NFL stadium, SEC opponent, you can’t ask for better to kickoff the season. We were excited to play, but still didn’t get the job done.
Walk us through your high school recruitment and why you ended up back in Virginia.
Tech was a part of my top five out of high school. It was VT, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Penn State. It all came down to where did I want to play early. I spent three incredible years at Oklahoma, but at some point it was time for me to leave. It took one official visit to make the right decision.
How cool was it to come back home where your family and friends can come out to games?
Coach [J.C.] Price was at Marshall and Pry was at Penn State when I was getting recruited. They offered me on the same day coming out of high school. Coach Price was asking if I was coming to Marshall and I did the little, “Yeah I will.” Coming out, they were great. When I came here, I didn’t realize how many people from Highland Springs were here. Ali [Jennings], [Takye] Heath, [Darius] Taylor, they were little guys when I came. It’s a full-circle moment for me. Those guys knew me when I was a high schooler.
Walk us through the players-only meeting.
When I first got here, guys respected me. That was a huge complement for me. Anybody can listen to you, but when you’ve got the respect from the locker room, it was a full circle. When you talk about the player-led meeting, it was actually put together on the plane back from Atlanta. Me, Copeland, Greene and Kyron Drones, we knew we needed to do something fast, especially with this game coming up. Ayden was texting Coach Pry asking if we can do this. I believe the meeting was 15 minutes before the actual team meeting. We got all the leaders in there talking to the team. We can say all of this, but it’s just lip service if we don’t take action. We had a great week of practice and we’re ready to instill what we took from that meeting.
Did you think that things were a little bit off coming back?
No. Going into this game, we had the fight, we had the energy, we had the brotherhood. Now we need guys to actually do their job. One of the coaches said that you can’t be a mindless beast out there. You have to have the fundamentals, and that’s one of the things I instilled this week, do your job. Earlier today, I went and told the defense, ‘What if you had a game where your name wasn’t called, you didn’t get that recognition, but you still did your job so well and everybody knows that. How would you feel after the game?’ They agreed. That’s the whole deal. The big plays will come, but you have to do it within the framework of the defense and doing your job.
What were you seeing on that safety?
Coach Siefkes does a great job of emphasizing that every situation is different on that field. They were coming out and they were backed up. We had to make sure not to jump offsides because that would ruin the whole thing. The whole thing about it, Sellers being a young quarterback, him being back there and holding onto the ball. We decided we had to go get this guy. Came with a big play and a huge momentum changer. I was more excited for Emmett [Laws] than I was for me.
