The First Bank & Trust Friday Q&A: Assistant Coaches, And Brent Pry As Defensive Coordinator

50 Comments

1. 

   Arch72Hokie December 26, 2025 at 9:29 AM

   Elijah Brooks = Big loss
2. 

   HoustonHokie December 14, 2025 at 10:26 AM

   Chris, regarding giving, last spring I ceased giving my annual $100K donation to the Hokie Scholarship Fund (though retained my 6 club seats of the the last 20 years or so). Mostly because of dissatisfaction with the athletic department (and football and basketball performance). Since that time I have not received a text, email or phone call from anyone at the Hokie Club. Something like -what happened to you this past year?! While my ego doesn’t need the communication, would you support an organization with that level of fund raising acumen?
   1. 

      budztheman December 14, 2025 at 2:34 PM

      What a sobering post Houston! With all the positive news coming out of Blacksburg lately, many of us long-time Hokies have lived through similar examples of gross negligence from Tech’s athletic administration. While James Franklin may very well prove transformational for Tech football, there’s still a long road ahead to rebuild trust and heal a lot of wounded Hokies.
3. 

   vvhokie December 14, 2025 at 7:45 AM

   CC, Your main complaint during the Pry era was that he couldn’t field good LBs. How can our LB play improve with him coaching this position?
4. 

   ombandit December 14, 2025 at 7:02 AM

   I get that Wake’s DC did a good job this season, but look at how weak the ACC was. He certainly did better than DC’s at Clemson & FSU but look at who those other 4 schools played. Certainly better offensive talent on their opponents than weak sauce ACC. “WF defense finished ahead of the likes of Ole Miss, USC, Tennessee, Penn State, Clemson, Florida State.”
5. 

   DoubleHokie December 13, 2025 at 11:30 AM

   Thanks for the insights on how best to think about donations. VT remains amazingly quiet about football fundraising - if there’s an active campaign to capitalize on the CJF hire I must have missed it.
   1. 

      TexasHokie89 December 14, 2025 at 1:02 PM

      I received some email about a commemorative CJF item. I bought it for $100. Totally agree with the comments on fund raising. I’ve got to imagine that this will get fixed.
6. 

   OhioHokie74 December 13, 2025 at 10:25 AM

   Comparing a team's performance to their "talent level" is an interesting idea. Talent level is very fuzzy in nature. Recruiting rankings are heavily influenced by which team(s) recruited them. When a highly regarded team like PSU recruits a player, he is going to have a higher rating than when the player is being recruited by North Carolina A&T and William & Mary regardless of how much actual talent the player turns out to have. The insignificant gap between where PSU ranked in nebulous recruiting rankings with where they ranked on the field suggests that Pry's PSU staff developed defensive talent on about the same level as other top-20 programs. If there was a large gap I would be concerned.
7. 

   middletennhokie December 13, 2025 at 10:15 AM

   Thanks Chris! Do you have any insight regarding JC Price? Not being retained, or just ready to hang it up? I would be very disappointed if it's the former and not the latter. I thought he did a nice job of developing the D line.
8. 

   TreySmith14 December 12, 2025 at 8:43 PM

   Am I off base, or is this crew being selective about who gets left out? Perhaps that's how Franklin plans to operate, which is fine, but the disconnect is evident. I’m not complaining, but the insights here feel speculative and lack depth.
9. 

   133856Hokie December 12, 2025 at 8:02 PM

   I think Chris Coleman needs to find another job.
   1. 

      hokiehowl December 12, 2025 at 9:50 PM

      ?
      1. 

         middletennhokie December 13, 2025 at 10:16 AM

         ?????
   2. 

      VicDrit December 12, 2025 at 10:28 PM

      Highly disagree!!
   3. 

      bcmatt24 December 12, 2025 at 11:41 PM

      Not sure we know where you’re coming from my friend.
   4. 

      LMK December 13, 2025 at 1:33 AM

      I think Chris does a great job and is a big part of TSL and to make a statement like that is where are your facts. Chris thanks for all you do and I think you should get a big raise
   5. 

      TDVick December 13, 2025 at 2:19 AM

      OC or DC?
   6. 

      MaroonMark December 15, 2025 at 11:41 PM

      i don't think Will is ready to retire yet
10. 

    SarahVTHokie24 December 12, 2025 at 7:45 PM

    I was not for James Franklin as head coach. But I'm ok with the recruiting class he brought in. Obviously, the flips wouldn't have happened without him. But his choices of OC and DC make me uncomfortable. Meanwhile, PSU was able to get Campbell.
11. 

    Mamajc December 12, 2025 at 7:45 PM

    Hope you are wrong about JC
12. 

    proudhokie2001 December 12, 2025 at 5:38 PM

    when you have top 20 talent and you field a top 20 defense you are exactly where you should be. When Bama was #1 in talent, they won the natty. this is a key point, many good coaches in top 20 are capable of winning a natty with the right talent.
    1. 

       Baltimore Hokie December 12, 2025 at 8:28 PM

       But when you have top 30 talent yet field a top 10 defense, you are Bud Foster.
13. 

    jagerhokie December 12, 2025 at 5:28 PM

    Chambers (lb ) said he was ecstatic to have Pry back …thats a good sign ?
    1. 

       HokieSpartan December 12, 2025 at 7:14 PM

       I don’t think we can expect them to say they aren’t happy about it, even if that’s the truth.
       1. 

          133951Hokie December 12, 2025 at 9:09 PM

          Yes, but they could say nothing!
14. 

    Born a Hokie December 12, 2025 at 4:35 PM

    Regarding players quitting, all it takes are a couple, and then the entire unit shuts down. If the Defensive line suddenly stops rushing the QB, then he has day to pass. Same result if the DBs quit. Rushing the ball becomes easier if one DL and one LB quit. Defense only works if all 11 players and the coaches are on the same page and are motivated. My guess is that when Pavia started doing Pavia things, a couple discouraged players quit. When that happened the whole thing snowballed. Even Pry looked defeated (probably because he knew it was the end). Players feed off that and there you go. I sincerely hope and think it's true most of the bad elements are gone. We sucked the rest of the year, but they didn't quit again.
15. 

    Tailgate Guru December 12, 2025 at 4:25 PM

    So we are keeping three offensive coaches from the prior staff. We are hiring the prior head coach to lead the defense. It sounds like any improvement in Tech football will necessarily be predicated on improving the talent level, because a lot about development and Xs and Os is going to stay the same. Not sure if that is a recipe for the kind of success folks think we are trying to buy.
    1. 

       hokiehowl December 12, 2025 at 9:53 PM

       Talent level may be more important than coaching
16. 

    Hokie MCPO December 12, 2025 at 3:08 PM

    bourbonstreet must have used a translator app to ask his question.
    1. 

       westsidehokie December 12, 2025 at 4:13 PM

       Now that’s funny.
    2. 

       reconhokie December 12, 2025 at 4:21 PM

       Translator app = Chris
    3. 

       MDHokie79 December 12, 2025 at 4:23 PM

       +1!
       1. 

          The Big Cat December 12, 2025 at 6:39 PM

          +2. I can understand his question for some strange reason. ?
    4. 

       hokiehowl December 12, 2025 at 9:54 PM

       he does not seem himself. I hope he feels better soon
17. 

    khakiblue December 12, 2025 at 2:53 PM

    Better hoope Tech ends up with good defensive talent or better.
    1. 

       Novahokie`99 December 12, 2025 at 8:34 PM

       Yeah - no kidding. That’s the point of this whole exercise. We’ve found that it’s impossible to find another Beamer - who could do more with less - so we’re at least going to get someone in here who can bring talent so we can do fine with more. If we can raise our talent level to be above the ACC mean - which isn’t hard - we’ll win plenty of games. Again, Franklin has a .681 winning percentage over 15 years of coaching. Our winning percentage over the last 10 years can’t be much above .500.
       1. 

          grg December 13, 2025 at 8:53 AM

          IMHO Beamer had outstanding talent. Kudos to him and staff for finding overlooked studs or developing them but either way his teams had considerably more individual overall talent than last few years.
       2. 

          vt_atown December 15, 2025 at 12:03 PM

          Last 10 years is exactly .500...63 wins v 63 losses. And that stretch includes Fuente's first two seasons which were 19-8. Without those two years is .444 with a 44-55 record.
18. 

    Spartacusjones December 12, 2025 at 2:48 PM

    I think the "new man" comment is supported by the failure to retain Coach Cheetah and Xavier Adibi. Indications are that Price and Prioleau will not be retained either. There haven't been any leaks on Quin's status that I've seen yet. It's looking like maybe a clean sweep on defense. I've also noted that Pry has not updated his Twitter profile to reflect a resumed affiliation with Virginia Tech. Your analysis of Pry's performance as DC at PSU strongly suggests we need to pray for great success in recruiting talented players on the defensive side of the ball.
    1. 

       N2VT2 December 12, 2025 at 7:22 PM

       Just like Bud depended on Stiney, Wills, and Cav to recruit players for him. Bud was by no means a great recruiter, but was an excellent developer, especially when he had Cav, Wiles, and Gray as position coaches. And when Cav was in the booth, he had a tremendous asset; you have to give some of the credit for adjustments to Cav.
       1. 

          Novahokie`99 December 12, 2025 at 8:35 PM

          Yes!
       2. 

          JC in FC December 16, 2025 at 8:27 AM

          100% agree.
19. 

    Bruin324 December 12, 2025 at 2:41 PM

    One thing that QCP and others later realized is that 2020 was such a cluster for everyone, but especially for the B1G, that it really shouldn't be considered when talking about "averages." (Plus, as someone mentioned, Micah Parsons opted out of the season.) So if you take 2020 out, Pry's average DF+ jumps up to 13, which is much better than the PSU average of 16.3. Plus, you can see that he had 3 out of the 5 years (no 2020) where he coached above the talent level (and 1 where he was equal) so I think that if you take 2020 out, Pry looks a LOT better as a DC.
20. 

    VT Trainman December 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM

    Thank you for the analysis especially the last question on Pry and his numbers at Penn St. How does strength of schedule factor into these numbers? I feel that Penn State was facing much stronger offenses during the Pry era. If that is true, does that mean that his ranking of 16 is actually higher than if they would have played Wake Forest's schedule? I guess I would like to see QCP do an analysis of Pry's defensive rankings each year vs the average offensive ranks that he faced. Perhaps it all works its way out through the course of a season and it is not relevant. I don't know.
    1. 

       VT Trainman December 12, 2025 at 2:53 PM

       Or I could just not be lazy and look up how to calculate F+ which I just did and found out that it adjusts for opponents' strength. I did recalculate the F+ rankings that QCP gave us and threw out the 2020 ranking of 36 due to the weirdness of the season and that it is a complete outlier from the other 5 data points. That takes the F+ average during Pry's tenure to 12.96.
21. 

    GusDaMan December 12, 2025 at 2:28 PM

    I'll throw out my usual caveat when looking at performance over time: 2020 should never count for anything. so if you remove Pry's 2020 season from the calculation his average was 13.0. Doesn't change much WRT the overall point, but paints a slightly different picture of coaching slightly BETTER than his talent, not slightly WORSE than his talent.
    1. 

       VT Trainman December 12, 2025 at 2:55 PM

       Dang I just posted that above. Laziness strikes me again. Well done Gus. I agree. No statistics from 2020 should be counted towards anything. I remember waiting to find out who was going to play each week and who was exposed to COVID. I appreciate them trying to have a season but it was weird.
22. 

    HOKIEFROY December 12, 2025 at 2:26 PM

    I think that Pry like Franklin has something to prove. He still has Bud and I think he will make a couple of DC think group trips.
23. 

    VAHokie89 December 12, 2025 at 2:11 PM

    Doesn't a DC also have to be a good cop/bad coop. And wouldn't there be some bad cop situations right in terms of evaluating and communicating with players about "maybe you should transfer."' Other thought about the portal. Even though it does not open til later, wouldn't you want coaches in place to (a) recruit before it opens and (b) hit the ground running?
    1. 

       79EEHOKIE December 12, 2025 at 5:24 PM

       I imagine Franklin’s analysts are up and running full speed, so I don’t know that the coaches wouldn’t have a lot of data to go off of day 1.