staff - which most new hires want with some assistants being retained. Yes, this is an unusual hire. But bravo to Franklin for pulling it off.

Personnel aside, our guys were constantly out of position or taking poor angles.

Do have opinions on the Next AD ??? Or when John B. is leaving ?? Or who is going to be the Sports Manager ?? Those are the Big questions for me ! Carry on...PS ..Pry Hire is Franklin's choice, you know the man that VT gave 8million plus to be the head coach..

Pry was with Franklin for years, so it makes sense. We will probably see other PSU coaches move to Blacksburg as Matt Campbell brings his staff to State College. Part of the carousel.

And it's definitely not common to constantly lose to the only good teams on your schedule and then repeat the same formula hoping for success. Franklin's got a fresh start and VT needs a fresh take. Hiring Pry is anything but that. ** Edited by marcbvtgm at 12/8/2025, 1:12:24 PM

the fact that Pry was a terrible HC but was a good DC at Penn State. The two positions are drastically different. Like it or not, Franklin will probably bring other coaches from Happy Valley who he knows and who he believes can get the job done. That is very common. Just check all the new coaches and note how many bring “their guys” to the new school. PSU had good teams almost every year he was there, so I trust Franklin to assemble the best staff and really not concerned with what people on this board think about his assistant coaching hires.

It means Franklin is going back to the PSU well. It's not commenting on whether being a head coach and a coordinator are two different things (which I agree with). However I think it's open to debate whether Pry was really that good or whether PSU simply had much better talent than most of their opponents. The PSU defense did not drop off one bit when he left. If anything, it got better (until this year's overall crap show). So combine that with me thinking Franklin needs to move on from the past if he wants to...move on from the past, I think it's a dubious decision. Not Marve-bad of a decision mind you, but I'd rather Franklin just move on and move forward. For his sake and VT's. ** Edited by marcbvtgm at 12/8/2025, 5:31:03 PM

Have yet to see how Pry showed he was a good coach here.

Everyone thought Pry did a great job building bridges back into the high school feeders. He did a good job building relationshipd with donors and alumni. He seems to be a personable guy with good energy, a good public persona and is all in on VT. His career as a DC is considered by most as very solid, very experienced, very effective. The real knock on Pry is the failure of the 2024 team. They underperformed their talent level. The 2025 team lacked the quality of personnel to succeed, attributable to multiple factors. No question the buck stops with the big whistle, and he paid the price. In hindsight, Pry had his personal learning curve, but he and the program were undone mostly by staff ineffectiveness, in ways (now) widely acknowledged. He caused that with his personnel decisions and then took too long to figure that out. His second problem was NIL. Football is now pro-lite, and VT was slow to respond. The 2025 team lost a number of quality players on both defense and the OL to other schools. Those lost were demonstrably better than those who were forced to step up. If VT had retained those players, I suspect the W-L would have looked better. His third problem was the lack of a reliable passing game. People can debate whether it was the QB, the protection or the receivers or the route design. My view is all of the above. But wherever you come down on it, the passing game was mediocre. And you can't succeed without a passing game. Watching VT this year, the players were just not as good as their counterparts in too many cases. More individual battles were lost than won. Yes, maybe there were bad angles, or blown coverages, or players out of position, but it is a competive game. A better player makes you look bad at times; other coaches scheme up confusion. I saw many of Bud Foster's championship defenses made to look foolish on occasion. Everybody loses some battles. The key determinant is player quality. Point being, Pry as DC gets to play to his strengths. I am sure he has learned much in the last four years, particularly from his mistakes. Hindsight isn't always 20/20 but for intelligent people it is usually a great teacher. Franklin can take responsibility for the big hat responsibilities, revamping the coaching. Coupled with more NIL money and staff to evaluate, the positive PR from the Franklin hire and early recruiting, VT can very possibly pull off an Indiana type overhaul. Working with and under Franklin, my guess is Pry can be a valuable part of that.

but from your post, it appears not. You might want to go back and look at his body of work while defensive coordinator at Penn State. While not a good head coach. He was obviously a very good defensive coordinator and oh by the way, he has not been the defensive coordinator of Virginia Tech in his four years there. With all the opt outs, injuries and players who left you can’t expect a whole lot from any defense, no matter who the coordinator was. But it wasn’t Pry. ** Edited by SCHokie1103 at 12/8/2025, 11:08:04 AM

Of course. A good coach, however, is good at any level and gets the best out of their players. Pry was in charge and failed to do that.

with it.

It’s as simple as that. Some folks are overthinking this.

Under two different coordinators. ** Edited by marcbvtgm at 12/8/2025, 11:36:52 AM

after Pry left doesn’t mean he wasn’t a good DC lol. That means the DC(s) who replaced him were just as good, including Knowles (ex Ohio State DC who is seen as a top DC in the industry, but difficult to work with). PSU is known for solid defenses and Pry was part of that. If you change jobs and the person who replaces you is just as good, does that mean you did a bad job? Poor logic.

While I agree in the Peter Principle, it's hard to ignore how much of a mess he was as a head coach in almost every facet of the game - including as Sr. Co-Defensive Coordinator in Y1.

clearly have given that role to Franklin.

recruiting. Franklin has his GM.

To think otherwise is ridiculous.

Do you think Franklin will dump Pry if the defense is struggling? I fear not. ** Edited by 40ozDistrict at 12/7/2025, 11:33:09 PM