Less than three months after he was let go as the Virginia Tech head football coach, Brent Pry was hired as the team’s defensive coordinator last week.
Pry, a 1988 Lexington High School graduate, had served as the Hokies’ head coach for a little over three years before he was fired in mid-September after VT started this season 0-3. Since then, Philip Montgomery, VT’s offensive coordinator hired in the offseason by Pry, has served as the Hokies’ interim head coach. The Hokies finished this season 3-9 overall and 2-6 in the Atlantic Coach Conference.
During his tenure as VT’s head coach, Pry’s record was 16-24. The Hokies’ best season under Pry was 2022, his second season, when they went 7-6 and won the Military Bowl. Last year, the Hokies went 6-7, losing in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
Bringing Pry back on staff was James Franklin, who was hired as the Hokies’ head football coach in mid-November, after he was earlier in the season let go as Penn State University’s head coach.
Franklin and Pry, 55, have known each other for more than 30 years, dating back to 1993, when Franklin was a senior quarterback at Division II school East Stroudsburg University, where Pry was in his first season as the outside linebackers and defensive backs coach. Franklin’s offensive coordinator then was Pry’s father, Jim. The older Pry was the offensive coordinator for the Virginia Military Institute football team from 1985 to 1988.
Franklin would go on to coach at several universities before serving as the wide receivers coach for the NFL’s Green Bay Packers in 2005. He was Penn State’s head coach from 2014-25, and Brent Pry worked with Franklin as Penn State’s co-defensive coordinator in 2014 before he was named defensive coordinator in 2016, helping lead the Nittany Lions to the Big Ten championship.
From 2016-20, Penn State ranked in the top 10 in the nation in quarterback hurries, total pressures generated, sacks, passing touchdowns allowed, and fewest rushing yards per attempt. During his career, Pry has been a defensive coach at Western Carolina, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Georgia Southern and Vanderbilt.
