Brent Pry reveals why he took Virginia Tech job

New Virginia Tech head football coach Brent Pry explained why he took this position, instead of any of the others he potentially could have taken.

“It’s a special place,” Brent Pry said. “It’s not for everybody, but it was definitely for me. It was for these guys. It’s a genuine place. Didn’t have to pretend to be somebody wasn’t.”

“We’re going to do a great job of recruiting young men and families that identify with Virginia Tech and what’s unique to us. We’ve got a great degree. We’ve got a great relationship with our community. We’ve got unbelievable game day environment. We’re a blue collar outfit. What you see is what you get. We’re relationship-based. This thing was the right time and the right place for me, for my family.”

Brent Pry spent time as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech in the mid-1990s. That was during the Frank Beamer era. He spoke about his time in Blacksburg and spoke about what mattered to him in an administration.

“It was important that what the administration division for where this program needed to go aligned with what I thought,” Brent Pry said. I’ve always been close to this program. I left. I was here in ’95, ’96, and ’97, and I’ve stayed obviously keeping a watchful eye on it. It was important to me the vision and the direction that the administration, that Whit and those guys believed needed happen was aligned with what I thought.”

Brent Pry on the impact of different stops

While his time at Virginia Tech did impact him, Brent Pry also spoke about everything that happened in his career since then. That includes all the different coaches who have had some kind of impact on his career and how he approaches this new job.

“I’ve had the great fortune of working with some unbelievable coaches,” Brent Pry said. “I left Virginia Tech and went to Western Carolina for a run and then went to Louisiana Lafayette with Rickey Bustle, who was a long-time coordinator in Blacksburg. Had the good fortune to work for Tommy West at the University of Memphis. Jeff Monken at Georgia Southern, and then James Franklin.”

“I’ve been around great folks. A bunch of first-year head coaches. Learned a lot. Son of a college football coach, 45 years. So it’s kind of just in your blood. Certain things come easy. I do believe this is my calling, and I’m in the right place.”

Most recently, Brent Pry has been the defensive coordinator at Penn State, under James Franklin. Virginia Tech is his first head coaching role.