Projecting how Virginia Tech can improve in the 2024 season, further

ESPN’s David Hale Full Interview with Andy Staples | Mini ACC Preview, Discussion | 15.05.24

One of the trendiest teams in the ACC a few months away from the season is Virginia Tech. Trainer Brent Pry turned things around in the back half of 2023, going 6-3 after starting the year with three losses in four games. That includes a bowl win for the first time since 2016.

Momentum seems to be on their side, and when looking at the schedule, there are plenty of winnable games for Virginia Tech. The ESPNs David Hale he’s hesitant to count some of them as chalk just yet, based on last season’s early blunders. But if the Hokies perform as we expect, the wins are certainly there for the taking.

“Their schedule is pretty adaptable this year,” Hale said on Wednesday’s episode of Andy Staples On3. “It’s hard to say that when you lose games like that Marshall and The Old Dominion before – this does not necessarily mean that the program should be easy. But this should be a much more manageable schedule if they play this level of football.”

Clemson and Miami are the only big-name ACC schools on the schedule with the last game on the road. As of State of Florida and Louisville — two losses from last year — are avoided.

Off the schedule, Virginia Tech’s reliance is on offense. Quarterback Kyron drones returned for another season after hitting his stride. Some of the best weapons return to Blacksburg, and it has Pry, a defensive head coach as excited about any offense he’s ever been.

“They have some real weapons that they feel comfortable using now,” Hale said. “You talk to Pry, he says, ‘Going back to my days at Penn State, I can’t remember an offense that I was this excited about. I hope we don’t give up 30 a game, but I think we could win and still win football games.

Brent Pry is a better fit culturally than the head coaches at Virginia Tech

When Justin Fuente took over for Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech looked fine. His first season produced 10 wins and the next nine. However, two of the next three were losses, and had he not been fired midseason in 2021, the Hokies could have finished below .500 under his watch.

Even Pry got off to a rough start to his tenure, going 3-8 in 2022 and then going 1-3 to start 2023. Things have since turned around for Virginia Tech, and Hale attributes the short-term success to Pry being a better culture fit for the program.

The results will have to continue to emerge, but Hale is confident that Pry will work long-term, which Staples believes is necessary in college football.

“I think it’s another example of a situation where fit matters,” Hale said. “Fry is a Virginia Tech guy who knows the area, knows the recruiting, knows the high school coaches, understands the community dynamics there.

“I like Justin Fuente quite a bit, but it was just a bad cultural fit there almost from the beginning. With Fuente, several different factions in the administration. Some were Fuente boys and some were not. I think Fry has a personality, a history and a vision that everyone is rowing in the same direction now.”