A decade ago, Philip Montgomery was in Year 1 as the head coach of Tulsa and competed against Virginia Tech, Frank Beamer, Bud Foster & Co. in an electric Independence Bowl, a 55-52 win for the Hokies that capped off Beamer’s Hall of Fame career.
Fast forward to February when he joined Brent Pry’s staff in Blacksburg as the offensive coordinator. And now, after Pry was dismissed on the heels of an 0-3 start to begin the 2025 season, Montgomery is the Hokies’ interim head coach with nine games remaining, having spent just seven months at Tech.
“It’s been an emotional couple of days,” Montgomery said at Tuesday’s news conference. “What a whirlwind it has been. … I talked to the team the other day. We’ve got nine games left, you’ve got about 12 weeks of that. We’ve got an opportunity right now to write the ending to what this story is going to be. We’ve got some things we’ve got to fix. We’ve got some things we’ve got to change. We’ve got to continue to grow and develop, but that being said, we’ve got a lot of time to get that done.”
In eight years with the Golden Hurricane from 2015-22, he was 43-53 (.448) and reached four bowl games, highlighted by a 10-3 mark in 2016. That came after successful runs at Houston and Baylor as offensive coordinator and before his time with Auburn and the Birmingham Stallions of the UFL, also as offensive coordinator. Most importantly, he’s familiar with the day-to-day operations as the head man, which made him the ideal candidate for the interim role.
He’s one of two former head coaches on the staff, the other being linebackers coach Shawn Quinn, who was 16-6 in three years at Savannah State. There’s also defensive line coach J.C. Price, who served as the interim head coach in 2021 after Justin Fuente’s departure. Montgomery is the most seasoned, though.
“I’ve been in this role, I understand what it takes,” Montgomery said. “I understand how you’re going to get pulled in a lot of different directions, what that does to your time, what that does to the energy that you’ve got to put in certain areas. I think I’m well-suited for that part of it. I’ve got a great staff that’s going to be supporting me in that sense. And those guys, they’re locked in with me. This is not going to be a one-man show; this is going to be a team effort.”
Tuesday will mark the Hokies’ first major practice with Montgomery at the helm, which will provide the players with an opportunity to get back into a normal routine. While they met Sunday for some light work after the 45-26 loss to Old Dominion, the session focused on corrections and shifting the focus to Wofford, whom they’ll face on Saturday at noon ET.
Montgomery expects a slightly different structure to practice — “I’ve got to put some version of myself, my own twist, into what we do,” he said — while making sure the players are comfortable. He plans on adjusting it and Tech’s approach, with tempo and urgency being big factors.
He feels like the team has a solid understanding of the situation, too. He met with the leadership council and the captains to get on the same page and believes, despite the turbulence, the players will stay arm-in-arm as the season moves forward.
“I think Coach Pry has done an unbelievable job of laying a great foundation, and our leadership within that has been really good,” Montgomery said. “… I think we are all on board and on the same wavelength. We understand what this is and what we’ve got to go do.”
As he did when he was the head coach at Tulsa, Montgomery will continue to call offensive plays while handling head coaching duties. There might also be some personnel tweaks, but he doubled down on Kyron Drones being the starting quarterback moving forward.
“Maybe we haven’t lived up to some of the expectations offensively,” Montgomery said. “We’ve got to grow as a group. In my opinion, that doesn’t fall on one person.”
On Tech’s updated depth chart ahead of Wofford, there were three major changes, all on the offensive line. Injured left tackle Johnny Garrett and right guard Montavious Cunningham are no longer listed. Instead, right tackle Tomas Rimac is now at left tackle while redshirt freshmen Tommy Ricard and Aidan Lynch are the top options at right guard and right tackle, respectively.
Cornerback Dante Lovett is also present at the No. 2 cornerback spot, though he officially announced his decision to enter the transfer portal on Tuesday. His intention was previously reported by Pete Nakos of On3 on Monday, indicating there might me more change on the way than the depth chart shows.
Regardless, Montgomery has preached a simple message to his group.
“We’ve got nine games left,” he said. “We’ve got a chance to go write an unbelievable story, but it’s going to take all of us to do that — players, coaches, administration. It’s going to take all of us to go make that happen, and we need you to lock in and jump in and stay committed to what we’re doing and how we’re going to do it. But also understand some things are going to have to change and we’re going to move forward as we work in that direction.”