College Football Fix: Brent Pry, Virginia Tech Head Coach

We miss college football. Bennett takes the snap and the shotgun throws for the corner.

Brock Bowers one on one. Caught. Touchdown.

He ate him alive. Falls down into the end zone. Six more for Georgia. We can't wait for the 2023 season. Caleb Williams throws the fade in the corner.

Touchdown Trojans. And we're counting down the days to kick off. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? I said no. Are we there yet?

What's wrong with your ears? Here is your college football fix. Only on the Zach Gelb show. 38 days away for Virginia Tech until they kick off its football season up against Old Dominion on September 2nd. Let's head out to the guest line right now. Welcome in the second year head coach of the Hokies.

And that, of course, is Brent Pry. Coach, appreciate the time. How are you? Hey, happy to do it, man. Happy to do it.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. I want to take you back to November of 2021. And you've been in the college game for a long time. You finally get that opportunity to become a head coach. And we know how much Virginia Tech means to you before you became the HC. But what did that moment mean to you when you had a second to just think and gather all your thoughts that you're going to be the head coach of this program?

You know, honestly, before the excitement, it's just, you know, you're you're so blessed and you feel so humbled and fortunate. I mean, I've always revered Virginia Tech and the job that Coach Beamer and his staff did in Blacksburg. So an opportunity to sit at his desk and to take the reins of a program that he built.

Opportunity of a lifetime. When you look back at your days as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech under Frank Beamer, what do you recall from that time? Just the way Coach treated people, you know, from players to staff, people in the community.

That's how this place was built. And, you know, that stands out the most. Just the level of character and care and concern that he and the staff displayed and treated everybody. So your dad was a coach.

He also played at Marshall. Obviously, dad could teach you a lot. But what are the things that you really look back at that dad did really teach you to shape the kind of man and then also football coach at JR right now?

Well, listen, my pop did it for a long time. And obviously you go to Marshall the year after the plane crash, you know, you're going to have a great passion for the game. And what Coach Lingle and that experience meant to him and growing up in West Virginia. And he's a small college coach. He's a high school coach. And, you know, being on the back of those buses and being in practices and the relationships that he had with those players and those coaches and what that meant to him and what it meant to them. You know, I knew there was nothing else I wanted to do.

Awesome stuff. Second year head coach at Virginia Tech Brent Pray here with us on CBS Sports Radio. Clearly you want more wins than what you had last year, but how do you kind of look back year one as a head coach and and what you guys were able to do?

You know, obviously everybody, you know, there's never enough wins unless you're undefeated. And to be honest, you know, we were disappointed, but we were also very proud of the things we were able to accomplish, the perseverance, sticking together, continuing to fight, winning a good game at the end in a team effort. Our culture is in a really good place. And a lot of that has to do with how we handled the adversity from last season.

The guys were very excited heading into the winter. And, you know, that's a testament to the way we came through the fall. When you talk about your culture of your program, how do you describe it? What is the culture right now at Virginia Tech? Yeah, we're a hard working group that's invested in one another. We're team oriented, you know, very selfless, very accountable. We embrace hard conversations. We recognize mentality and how important it is. So, you know, we're doing things the right way.

We're staying the course. We're trusting the process. So, Coach, you know this, it's been in the news around college football, multiple spots, making sure that the culture is run the right way and things aren't going on poorly in the locker room.

Everything that you just said sounds pretty good, but how do you make sure that you know everything that is going on when you have so many kids and make sure that nothing goes the wrong way? Well, let me tell you, one of our fundamentals is communication. And, you know, I've been mentoring these guys from day one that you can't be afraid of tough talk. You can't be afraid or stiff arm hard conversations.

You got to want to have them. There's going to be adversity. There's going to be issues.

There's going to be things that happen. And what's important is that you get it addressed, that you don't bury it, you don't complain about it in the locker room, you see your teammate, you have a talk about it, you see your position coach, you see the head coach. You have the hard conversations necessary to work through it. I mean, most conversations, you know, that are tough, you usually come out better on the other side. It's just, you know, even adults, they have trouble doing that. And we're fostering an environment where, you know, issues and concerns are dealt with.

And they're discussed. And you may not always like the answer coming out the other side, but you're going to feel better about having to talk about it. Talking to Brent Pryor right now, the head coach at Virginia Tech. When you look back at last year, I know we talked about it briefly, but this is, I know you've been in the game forever, but that was your first time being a head coach. Just what did you learn about yourself individually last year? You got to stay confident. You know, you make mistakes and you got to trust people around you and trust the process and stay the course. And, you know, positivity is a great cure for a lot of things. You know, your attitude and approach. And I'm very proud of our staff and our team, the way we persevered and, you know, the foundation's laid.

I'm a believer in our principles and our values. And I think that, you know, investment and sacrifice that everybody's making in those areas, it's beginning to pay off. I remember, coach, when I was at Temple, the first year Matt Rule was there, they only had two wins, but they were a competitive football team. And you saw signs that they were headed in the right direction. The next year after that, they took a jump to six wins. And the year after that, they really did take off.

And eventually, in year four, they won the conference. What kind of growth are you really looking for this year in the jump from year one to year two with your program? Honestly, I think it's about the improvement, right? That it's evident, you know, that we're able to run the ball. That we're able to find open receivers. That we're able to win more one-on-ones and play tighter coverage and, you know, be a more competitive group than we were in 2022. That we look more like the team we need to be. We're not going to be there yet. You know, we're still probably a cycle away from having a chance to be closer to who we need to be to compete in this league. But we're certainly in the right track. And I think we'll see an improved football team.

You know, how many wins or losses that equates to, I don't know. But if we go have the camp that's necessary this August, you know, we should certainly be an improved team. Does right now, does it look totally different from where it was last year to where it is right now?

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of new faces. You know, we turned over the roster pretty good. Couple of coaching changes. Couple of personnel moves. You know, I don't know if it looks completely different, but we've certainly done some things that are pretty aggressive and probably necessary to get the roster right. And to get some things moving a little more quickly in the right direction. And I think we'll find out right away. Because this is no disrespect to Ricky Ronnie. You guys know you're supposed to beat Old Dominion. It didn't go your way last year. But you get them right out of the gate 38 days from now.

I think that'll be a good test right out of the gate to see how much growth there was from a year ago. I have a ton of respect for Ricky. You know, we spent a lot of years together at Vanderbilt and Penn State. And he's doing a great job at Old Dominion. And we'll see where things go. I mean, our concern right now is, you know, just having the best egg on camp we can have so that we're the best football team we can be when we take the field, you know, for the opener. I know you could probably spend a long time on this.

And I know you can't lock it down to one thing. But you discussed your time with Ricky and obviously your time with James Franklin. When you look back at those experiences with Coach Franklin, just what are the things from afar that you really did pull from him and things that you still carry with you today?

Well, absolutely. The thing that comes to mind first is just, you know, James is a great person. Him and his wife fill me in and very close to us and very dear to me. I consider him like a brother. He played quarterback for my dad in college.

He's been like family for a long time. So, you know, just the trust and the relationship is so important to me. But, you know, the ability to recruit at a high level and what that really looks like, you know, I certainly took that from our experience at Vanderbilt and Penn State and what was necessary, you know, to land the right guys, to land the high profile guys, the difference makers, the investment that has to be made in recruiting, the attention to detail in that space.

All of it. You know, James, James does a great job of that. And we did some really good things at both places on the recruiting front. And, you know, it just so happens that that's a big necessary right now at Virginia Tech and winning our state back and being strong in our footprint and recruiting at a very high level like Tech's done in years past. You know, the expectations are high this year for Penn State and you were there from 2014 to 2021. I know football coach Brent Pryor wrapping up with the Virginia Tech second year head coach is all about relationships. I know you had your own job to focus on last year, but how much did you did you see maybe on a Saturday night after game was over, you checking out what Penn State did with with your relationships there? Yeah, like I said, James is near and dear to me as are a bunch of those guys.

We were together a long time. And, you know, so I'm always pulling for those guys. You know, I want success and happiness for them. And I know how much that James has poured into that program.

I know the challenge that it was when we took it over in some ways more challenging than Vanderbilt. So, you know, I'm very happy for the success they're having. They're lining up against the Hokies, they're recruiting against the Hokies.

I'm pulling for them. Well, last thing I'll ask you, I have to end the conversation with food. You played some college football in Buffalo, so we know wings are big at Penn State.

They have the Penn State Creamery and they also have that that wonderful establishment. Are you hungry? What kind of food guy with all these stops that you've been on is coach Brent Pryor? Oh, listen, I'm pretty easy, man. I like some wings and pizza. I like a good steak. I'm a pretty easy guy when it comes to that. You know, my wife's a Cajun, so I like a good etouffee. I like a good gumbo, a little Cajun fried turkey.

So we try a little bit of everything in my house. Well, coach, we appreciate it. Good luck here. You're number two at Virginia Tech. Appreciate you taking a few minutes for us. Hey, man, appreciate what you do.