Following an embarrassing loss to Old Dominion yesterday, Virginia Tech has officially made the decision that it's time to part ways with head coach Brent Pry.
Pete Thamel was first to share the news, and others had reported the same before Virginia Tech's formal announcement.
Pry, in his first head coaching job, was 16-24 overall leading the Hokies, and was off to an 0-3 start to the season.
Their losses came at the hands of a top 15 South Carolina squad in the season opener, followed by a 44-20 loss to Vanderbilt before losing 45-26 yesterday in a game that was never close to Old Dominion.
Pry's contract calls for him to be paid $6 million as part of his buyout.
After a 3-8 initial campaign taking over after the departure of Justin Fuente in 2022, Pry led the Hokies to back-to-back bowl games with 7-6 and 6-7 finishes the past two seasons.
A veteran defensive play caller at the college level, Pry earned the opportunity in Blacksburg after a stellar stint as James Franklin's offensive coordinator at both Vanderbilt and Penn State. He spent six seasons as the Nittany Lions defensive coordinator before leaving to become Penn State's head coach.
Previous coaching stops as a play caller include a season at Georgia Southern, and a handful of seasons at Louisiana Lafayette, along with stops as a defensive assistant at Memphis, Western Carolina, and East Stroudsburg in addition to a graduate assistant job early in his coaching career with the Hokies.
Ironically, Pry's fate was sealed by a fellow James Franklin assistant on the opposite sideline, as Ricky Rahne worked with Pry and Franklin at both Vanderbilt and Penn State.
While an interim head coach has not yet been officially named, the staff currently has a veteran college head coach in staff in offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery, who spent time as the head coach at Tulsa for a handful of seasons.
With just three games in the books, the Hokies will have the opportunity to redshirt some players, and a 30-day transfer portal window will open tomorrow for players.
In addition to that, the timing for the move also makes some sense as the schedule sets up over the next few weeks. Virginia Tech is set to take on Wofford this weekend in a matchup against an FCS program.
They go on the road at NC State the next weekend before returning home for homecoming with a matchup against Wake Forest and then hit the road for a red-hot Georgia Tech squad that just knocked off Clemson.
After multiple presentations by athletic director Whit Babcock sharing that the Hokies need investments in the range of $200 million to be competitive again, President Tim Sands has shared that VT Board will work alongside Babcock to "develop a financial, organizational, and leadership plan," this month, noting that "this is the time to make a major move" on that front.
Pry's dismissal will mark the second head coaching change of the weekend, as UCLA recently announced the decision to dismiss head coach DeShaun Foster.
The decisions could very well be an indication of an active cycle to come. Last season the first Power Conference move was was Mack Brown at North Carolina in late November. Here we are in the second week of September, just three weeks into the start of the season, and we already have two Power Four head coaching changes.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.