Brent Pry admits Art Briles, Mike Leach influence was enticing to hire Philip Montgomery

The Virginia Tech Hokies have their next offensive coordinator. Head coach Brent Pry has chosen to bring in veteran coach Philip Montgomery to lead the offense in 2025. He is replacing Tyler Bowen, who left to become an offensive assistant with the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Over the course of his career, Montgomery has worked with and been influenced by some important offensive minds, including Art Briles and Mike Leach. That influence ended up becoming important to Pry in the hiring process.

“It was,” Bret Pry said. “Yes, sir. I learned more about it as we went. Coach Montgomery was with Art all the way back in high school in Texas, grew in that package with him, had a heavy influence on it, and then it was nice to see him go to Tulsa and do a few things differently that were right for Tulsa.”

For many years, Montgomery was a Briles assistant, following him from high school to Houston, and eventually to Baylor. While at Baylor, he was the offensive coordinator through 2014 when he left to be the head coach at Tulsa. A difficult program to succeed at, he did take the Golden Hurricanes to four bowls and an AAC Championship Game appearance and finished his time there with a record of 43-53.

Since parting ways with Tulsa after the 2022 season, Philip Montgomery spent 2023 as the offensive coordinator under Hugh Freeze at Auburn and was out of coaching for the 2024 season.

“When you look at the whole body of his work, from start to now, the nuances, the changes, the growth,” Pry said. “Even the experience at Auburn was important in the process for me.”

Philip Montgomery inherits an offense at Virginia Tech that finished 88th in total offense, averaging 367.8 yards per game. The Hokies were also 67th in scoring offense, averaging 28.2 points per game.

Brent Pry explains hire of Philip Montgomery

The hire of Philip Montgomery was an interesting one that made sense for what Brent Pry is hoping to accomplish at Virginia Tech.

“We had some good candidates, but he was the best. He checked the most boxes for what we’re looking for to continue to move not just our offense but our program forward. He’s a veteran offensive coach. He has a proven track record developing quarterbacks, he’s a proven play caller, he’s had numerous really successful seasons, statistically and with wins as a play caller,” Pry said.

“When you look at his time at Houston … [he had] some high powered offenses. Obviously at Baylor with RGIII, a Heisman Trophy winner … multiple quarterbacks there, and a bunch of successful years and a bunch of wins. And then also his time at Tulsa. Offensively, they had a season that seems unbelievable. They had a quarterback with 3,000 yards, two receivers at 1,000, two running backs at 1,000. That’s some high production, but also his experience as a head coach, very valuable to me. I just think we’ve got a true veteran.”