BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Virginia Tech fired football coach Brent Pry on Sunday after the program stumbled to its first 0-3 start since 1987.
The school announced the move a day after the Hokies fell behind 31-0 on the way to a 45-26 home loss to Old Dominion.
In a statement, school president Tim Sands said the change was "necessary” due to on-field results described as “not acceptable” as Pry reached his fourth season. That included giving up 65 unanswered points over more than 70 minutes of game action during last week's home loss to Vanderbilt and into Saturday night's loss to ODU, which beat Pry's Hokies in his coaching debut in 2022 and again in what became his finale.
“Blacksburg will always hold a special place in our hearts,” Pry said in his own statement. “We leave with wonderful memories and lifelong friendships, and we will forever be cheering for the Hokies.”
Offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery will serve as interim coach, while Sands pointed to a need to “develop a financial, organizational and leadership plan that will rapidly position (the program) to be competitive with the best" in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“The new framework for college sports will be fully established for next season, so this is the time to make a major move,” Sands said.
This is Virginia Tech's first 0-3 start since the first year of Frank Beamer’s 29-year run that put the Hokies on the map nationally, notably with a trip to the national championship game behind star freshman quarterback Michael Vick in 1999 among Beamer’s 23 bowl appearances.
Beamer’s run ended in 2015 and the Hokies played for the ACC title a year later, but otherwise the program has struggled for traction and hasn’t cracked the AP Top 25 poll in four years.
The school hired Pry in 2021 after eight seasons as the defensive coordinator at Penn State. But the former Virginia Tech graduate assistant under Beamer went 16-24 with the Hokies, including 10-13 in league play.
He signed a six-year, $27.5 million contract at the time of his hiring. He is making $4.75 million this season and the school would owe Pry a roughly $6 million buyout.
There already had been at least some pressure building on Pry after the Hokies went 0-5 in one-possession games in 2024 despite leading in the fourth quarter by a touchdown in three and being tied in another with 4 1/2 minutes left. That had Pry pushing the plan of building a “more mentally and physically tough” team to finish better.
Instead, the Hokies avoided the problem entirely by losing by bigger margins.
The 24-11 loss to now-No. 11 South Carolina in Atlanta to open the season was an understandable stumble against a touted Southeastern Conference opponent. But the next two games were catastrophes, coming on their own home field.
First came last weekend’s 44-20 loss to Vanderbilt in their home opener, with the Commodores outscoring the Hokies 34-0 after halftime in an embarrassing finish. Things got much worse against Old Dominion, which led 28-0 by halftime in a performance devoid of defensive stops or sustained offensive drives — a combination that had fans booing heavily and flocking early to the Lane Stadium exits.
By the time Virginia Tech finally scored a third-quarter touchdown, the Hokies had gone nearly nearly five full quarters without managing a point.
Athletic director Whit Babcock hired Pry in part to follow Beamer’s philosophy of recruiting in-state prospects, a strategy that worked well during Beamer’s long and successful run. But only three of the Hokies’ starting 22 players in the Vanderbilt game were from Virginia. Overall, just six of the starters were high school players recruited by Pry, with the remainders arriving as transfers.
Virginia Tech went just 1-12 under Pry in games decided by one-possession margins, while the Hokies haven’t beaten a Power Four team in a nonconference game since 2017 — a run of 15 consecutive losses with the Vanderbilt loss.
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