Brent Pry shares message to players after ACC’s Week 0 struggles

The ACC had college football’s spotlight in Week 0, with the season’s opening game being a conference showdown between Florida State and Georgia Tech. A few hours later, SMU played its first game as an ACC member against Nevada. While the Yellow Jackets had a great Saturday, the other two looked sluggish and head into Week 1 with a few questions.

14 other ACC teams are set to be in action this weekend, maybe having an opportunity to learn a lesson. Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry certainly sent a message to his team, relaying that preseason hype does no matter.

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Florida State was viewed as the favorite to win the ACC, while SMU was considered the newcomer who could make a lot of noise. Both were maybe brought back down to reality, something Pry wants to avoid.

“It just reinforced our message that the preseason hype, preseason predictions — they really don’t mean anything,” Pry said. “It’s just noise. It really can’t affect the way we practice, we way we work, the way we trust the process. We got to remain humble, we got to remain hungry.”

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Virginia Tech will begin their season against Vanderbilt, an SEC foe. Even if not too many people are high on the Commodores this season, it’s an opportunity for the Hokies to make a statement on the road. If accomplished, expectations will only grow as the season treks on.

People such as ESPN’s Pat McAfee have hyped up what Virginia Tech can do in 2024, maybe winning the ACC and representing the conference in the College Football Playoff. It’s certainly unfamiliar territory for the program after going through a rough stretch the past few years.

Even so, Pry is not paying attention to what anyone is saying, wanting to focus on what’s ahead of Virginia Tech.

“Pat McAfee talks about us winning the league and in the same breath, he’s talking about Florida State in the playoffs,” Pry said. “And then there is an upset. It’s just too early to talk about all those things, to worry about those things. We get to control what we can control and for the most part, our guys have done a good job about that.”