Brent Pry details how Virginia Tech is preparing for Marshall

While Marshall isn’t an unfamiliar non-conference opponent for Virginia Tech, the Thundering Herd will be bringing a new look offense to Lane Stadium this Saturday. And that means some intensive film prep for Hokies head coach Brent Pry.

And his focus will go well beyond just what Marshall put on tape in Week 1 with the Air Raid scheme being run by new offensive coordinator Seth Doege. Pry, speaking with reporters during the week, explained that he’ll go back and look at Doege’s previous work to get a gist of what Virginia Tech will need to defend.

CLICK HERE to go to PrizePicks and use code ON3 to receive a guaranteed $50 once you play $5 in lineups!

“So you’re looking at, obviously, what they did in Week 1 but also where the play caller came from and what is background is,” Pry said. “Which, he’s a Graham Harrell guy. Was at Purdue with Graham and so we’ve looked at a lot of that film, as well.” 

And as Pry has started to look at what Marshall might do, he’s noticed a few things.

Namely, he expects a heavy diet of RPOs.

“You’re back into that RPO world,” Pry said. “It feels like every run they have has a slant or a hitch on it, there’s something there. So that’s back on the table, something we have to be good at.”

Facing Marshall is particularly meaningful to Pry

Virginia Tech is completing its home-and-home series with Marshall this weekend in Blacksburg, Virginia. Last year, the Hokies made the trip to Huntington, West Virginia, and to a Marshall campus that has a special place in the heart of Pry.

Pry spent the early years of his life there, as his father Jim played on the 1971 Marshall team, helping rebuild a program and community in the aftermath of the tragic plane crash that took 75 lives the year before, including those of 37 members of the Thundering Herd football team.

Not only did Jim play at Marshall, but he also began his coaching career with the Thundering Herd.

“It means a ton,” Pry said this week, when explaining the personal significance of facing Marshall. “I spent a couple years there in married student housing. My folks got married at 18 and had me, and that’s kind of where it all started.

“Marshall’s very near and dear to my father, just his experience going there, why he chose Marshall, being on the ‘young Thundering Herd.’ Taking him to that game last year, he walked around campus, and he walked around town, and it was emotional for him. So it means a ton.”

Brent brought up how two of the Southern Airways Flight 932 victims on that fateful November day in 1970 were Virginia Tech alums: Frank Loria and Rick Tolley.

Loria, then a DBs coach for Marshall, shared the Hokies’ defensive backfield with Frank Beamer in the 1960s. And Tolley, Marshall’s head coach at the time, played center for Virginia Tech from 1958-61.

“We got to go be 1-0 and win this game,” Pry said, “but, man, there’s a lot of layers that are emotional about Marshall and for myself, my family, for this team, for this school. I got a lot of respect for Marshall.”