Brent Pry confirms Brian Crist as Virginia Tech quarterbacks coach after Philip Montgomery hire

Brent Pry had no desire to completely rebuild Virginia Tech‘s offensive staff this offseason, but change was certainly needed. Which is why this week’s addition of veteran offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery was so important.

“We didn’t want to reset this whole thing. We’ve got a good foundation laid. There’s obviously areas we need to improve, but I didn’t want to lose what we gained,” Pry said during Monday’s press conference announcing Montgomery’s hiring. “And I think Coach Montgomery appreciates that too. He identified it watching our film and studying those things. We didn’t want to go two steps backwards to get this thing rolling in the right direction and be successful in the Fall.”

One reason Pry didn’t want a complete staffing overhaul was returning co-quarterbacks coach Brian Crist, who is entering his fifth season with the Hokies and played a role in the development of returning starting quarterback Kyron Drones. Crist and Pry were graduate assistants on the 1995 Virginia Tech squad under then-head coach Frank Beamer. Prior to returning to Tech, the Blacksburg native spent five years at Youngstown State as both receivers coach and offensive coordinator.

“(Montgomery) is the offensive coordinator and he’ll obviously be involved heavily in our quarterbacks, but right now Brian Crist is working with the quarterbacks,” Pry added. “There may be some reshuffling at the 100 level, but obviously Coach Montgomery’s experience with quarterbacks was an important piece to the hire.”

Montgomery inherits an offense at Virginia Tech that finished 88th nationally in total offense after averaging 367.8 yards per game last season. The Hokies were also 67th in scoring offense, averaging 28.2 points per game in 2024.

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

The Virginia Tech Hokies have their next offensive coordinator. Veteran coach Philip Montgomery replaces 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,” 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, 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.”

On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this report.