As fall camp opens, the 2022 Virginia Tech football team is transitioning from the Justin Fuente era to the Brent Pry era. As they do this, the team faces the same struggles of many who undergo a coaching change. But hope springs eternal in the breasts of most Hokie fans, and here are five reasons to be optimistic for the upcoming season…
1. Coach Pry Gets It
The son of a college football coach, Brent Pry spent much of his childhood and adolescence in West Virginia and Southwest Virginia. He grew up in the backyard of Virginia Tech! Pry attended high school in Lexington, Virginia, a Hokie stone’s throw from Blacksburg. He was a graduate assistant for Tech from 1995-97, cutting his teeth on Bud Foster’s staff. The guy knows the culture and embraces it.
Unlike the previous regime, who just wasn’t a fit with the Hokie culture, Pry goes out of his way to include alumni and fans in the program. The spring game hosted former players who had not been back to Blacksburg in SIX YEARS. Practices have been open to the public and media. Recently, alumni such as Eddie Royal have visited the practices to speak with to the players. Pry himself has been highly visible, appearing at school events (he participated in the annual Cadet-Civilian snowball fight on the drill field), attending other sporting events, and being a guest on local podcasts (he recently appeared on Techsideline and Sons of Saturday). He knows what it means to be a Hokie.
Pry’s feelings about the spring game reveal a lot about his Hokie connections. After finding out that the game was scheduled on April 16, the anniversary of the tragic shooting, Pry was upset. He wanted his players to remember and memorialize the fallen Hokies, so he had them participate in the 3.2 for 32 Run for Remembrance that morning. Instead of running though, the players lined the part of the course that went inside Lane Stadium. They high-fived the runners as they came out of the tunnel and onto the field. Pry and a few others were in front of Burruss Hall, giving high-fives to the participants as they crossed the finish line. What an exhilarating moment for those runners!
Pry is a Hokie and he is bringing the culture back to the program. To top it off, Pry has been an exceptional defensive coordinator for years. How can Tech fans not be excited about him?
2. The Quarterback Play Should Improve
It’s no secret to Hokie fans that Virginia Tech hired Justin Fuente on the hopes that he would bring a potent offense to a program that struggled to score points in the last few seasons under legendary coach Frank Beamer (the Hokies averaged just over 25 points per game in Beamer’s final four years). Hokie Nation expected Fuente, the supposed “quarterback whisperer,” to develop Hokie signal-callers and light up the scoreboard. Although the Hokies scored 30 or more points per game in five of Fuente’s six seasons, they did it with five different starting quarterbacks. Other than Jerod Evans, there was no consistency to the position, and the QB carousel and behind the scenes tension in the quarterback room sent players to the portal and helped bring the Fuente era down.
This year, Pry has brought in two experienced quarterback transfers who can stretch the field. Grant Wells, underrated in his athleticism, throws a good deep ball and has three years of eligibility. In two seasons as a starter at Marshall, he threw for over 5600 yards and 34 touchdowns. In comparison, Hokie quarterbacks threw for a combined 4400 yards and 30 TDs in the same span.
Jason Brown, a graduate student, played at South Carolina last year and led the Gamecocks to wins over Florida and Auburn. He is an experienced signal caller who has 36 career TD passes under his belt. After the spring game, Wells seems to have the upper hand as the potential starter, and he should give the Hokies two consecutive seasons as their quarterback, maybe three. The Hokies haven’t had a player complete two full seasons as the starting QB since the Beamer era. It’s time to reverse that trend.
3. Virginia Tech should have a sense of identity and consistency
When Justin Fuente was hired, Hokie Nation was excited to have an offensive minded coach with the expectation of more passing and more scoring. Now that the Fuente experiment has failed, it is clear that the Hokie brand is more of a defensive minded game with toughness in the trenches and a strong running game. It seems that Brent Pry wants to return to that identity. Although it is not the sexy approach, it is the identity of Virginia Tech football.
Look no further than Pry’s recruiting to see that he intends to return to that identity. In the 2022 class, which was largely Fuente’s group, Pry managed to keep most of the commits. He even added a few of his own, namely flipping OL Brody Meadows from UVa to VT and adding OL Hunter Mclain. The class had ten interior linemen in the group, not including the three tight ends and one edge rusher. So far this year, Pry has secured 17 commitments, with five of those players being guys with their hands in the dirt. He is building his program to get back to its roots!
4. There is a lot to like in the staff that Pry has assembled
Whenever there is a coaching change, fans tend to get excited about the new hires just because the previous staff probably wore out its welcome. Also, the new staff looks promising on paper, especially in areas where the previous staff was deficient. Pry’s new hires are no exception. In all fairness to Fuente, Pry has a lot more resources available. However, the new staff seems to be a better fit with the culture and is generating excitement in the program. While Hokie fans want the best from all coaches, there are three particular individuals that I expect to bring immediate results. They are Offensive Coordinator Tyler Bowen, Offensive Line coach Joe Rudolph, and Strength and Conditioning Coordinator Dwight Galt IV.
Offensive Coordinator and Tight Ends Coach Tyler Bowen
Tyler Bowen comes to Virginia Tech from the NFL, where he spent the year as the tight ends coach for the Jaguars. There he gained experience with the NFL’s preference for utilizing tight ends in the passing game. Bowen did just that at Penn State, developing Pat Freiermuth into a second round NFL draft pick.
Bowen also has a history of coordinating offenses that have strong running games. He put up gaudy numbers as the interim OC for Penn State in the 2020 Cotton Bowl. At Fordham, he coordinated a rushing attack that led its league and was among the best in FCS. There are clearly plenty of reasons for Hokie tight ends and running backs to be excited. After years of underutilization, the offensive staff at Tech seems poised to incorporate the tight ends as regular weapons. And the running backs will return to their roles as the team’s primary ball carriers.
Offensive Line coach and Run Game Coordinator Joe Rudolph
This is my favorite hire. Not just because he resembles Bud Foster, but because he was previously at Wisconsin. I mean, the Wisconsin offensive line coach? Now at Tech working with our linemen? Just the idea of having an offensive line like Wisconsin’s sends tingles down my spine. In seven years at Wisconsin, Rudolph produced five first team All Americans and was in charge of one of the nations best rushing attacks. That is exactly what Virginia Tech needs! Rudolph is very much a hands-on teacher who emphasizes technique. The linemen in the program are very pleased with their new coach so far. He has a lot of returning experience on this line – let’s hope he can develop depth quickly. I’m betting that he does.
Senior Director of Strength and Conditioning Dwight Galt IV
Dwight Galt IV is helping to build Pry’s culture by generating enthusiasm in the weight room. Players like him and they are buying in. Just look at younger guys like redshirt freshmen Jaden Keller and Jack Hollifield who have transformed their bodies in just one year. Keller weighed 195 lbs. in high school and is now up to 223 as a linebacker. Lineman Hollifield was 225 as a senior and is now up to 300. Others have raved about the change in workouts and nutritional programs.
Galt has a lot of experience in his young career, serving in a similar role – and as one of the players’ favorites – at Old Dominion. Prior to that he was on the strength and conditioning staff at Penn State. There he helped three PSU players finish in the top five of every category in the 2018 NFL Combine, marking the first time one school accomplished that feat. The excitement he is generating inside the Virginia Tech program should no doubt extend to the fans!
5. The Schedule is, well, an ACC Coastal schedule
Fortunately for Pry and Company, the Hokies play in the ACC Coastal, where anything can and will happen. The division has not seen a repeat winner since the Hokies did it in 2007 and 2008. In fact, prior to the 2020 Covid season where the divisions were removed, a different team won the Coastal for seven consecutive seasons! All seven members of the division won it! To bring more optimism to Hokie fans, their schedule just isn’t difficult. There are no trips to Tuscaloosa or Athens, they don’t play at the Big House or the ‘Shoe. They will probably struggle against Pitt at Heinz Field, where they always seem to play poorly, and again on a Thursday night against a North Carolina State team that should compete with Clemson for the Atlantic division. But tough as they are, those two games are winnable.
Breaking down the schedule, there are essentially five “should wins” and three “probable losses.” Virginia Tech plays non-conference games against Old Dominion, Wofford, and Liberty, as well as divisional games against Duke and Georgia Tech. In all five of those games, Tech should have better players on their roster. Anything can happen in these games – just ask Justin Fuente about his previous losses to ODU and Liberty – so the Hokies need to show up and play their best. If they do, these should be wins.
Conversely, Virginia Tech will likely struggle at Pitt and NC State as well as home versus a potent Miami offense. While those teams are not national powers and stealing one game isn’t an outrageous idea, they are better teams at this point and will be tough games to win. If Tech drops these three but wins the other five, they will only need one more win for bowl eligibility. And when the remaining teams are all expected to be at or near .500, that’s not asking much of the Hokies.
Their remaining four games are their home opener against Boston College, a Thursday night home game against West Virginia, on the road at North Carolina, and home versus Virginia. These are the 50-50 games, the toss ups, where on paper and in expectation, the teams are closely matched. Tech just needs one win in these games to go bowling. If they win half of the 50-50 games, they will be above .500. If they over-perform, 8-9 wins is completely possible. The schedule is clearly favorable for the Hokies, and that should get their fans excited. Especially if they can take down UVa YET AGAIN!
So as the summer wind fades and the temperatures cool down, Virginia Tech football fans have five solid reasons to heat up for the upcoming season. It’s time to start jumping!
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