The job that Brent Key's successor takes as Virginia Tech's next head coach will not be the same job Key left behind.
For starters, Virginia Tech's leadership has now formally approved what AD Whit Babcock proposed last month, infusing the Hokies' athletics department with nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in new money through the end of the decade.
Also, the next Head Hokie will not expect to have full autonomy over the program he will lead. Speaking with reporters on Friday, Babcock indicated Virginia Tech will likely split authority between its head coach and general manager.
Babcock pointed to Ole Miss as a possible model for the head coach/GM relationship.
— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) October 3, 2025
Says Lane Kiffin and GM Billy Glasscock are close to 50/50 in power. (Whether that's true might be up for debate, but ...)
Thinks that could be how #Hokies go with this setup.
Ole Miss isn't the example to use there, but the point remains. There are "strong" GM models like Stanford, where Andrew Luck is the head of the football program and the head coach reports to him. There are "weak" GM models, like Ohio State, Texas and Ole Miss, where the general manager, ahem, manages an ever-growing personnel department, but his authority is similar to the head strength coach, and the offensive and defensive coordinators -- responsible for their respective divisions of the operation, but the buck stops with the head coach. And then there's the chord Virginia Tech will apparently attempt to strike. Oklahoma successfully runs a similar structure (so far), where head coach Brent Venables and GM Jim Nagy both report to executive advisor Randall Stephenson.
Elsewhere, Virginia Tech announced its search will be led by an 8-member search committee.
“This committee represents the spirit and strength of Virginia Tech athletics and Hokie Nation at the highest level,” VT president Tim Sands said. “I am confident in their ability to identify a coach who can lead our football program with passion and integrity, inspire our student-athletes to excel and position the Hokies to deliver the sustained success that our university community and fans expect and deserve.”
Legendary defensive coordinator Bud Foster, former Hokies quarterback and NFL head coach Bruce Arians, and former Hokies wideout Eddie Royal will lead the "football wing" of the football head coaching search. They'll be joined by two Board of Visitors members (one of whom was the Secretary of the Army, the other runs an HVAC company), one former Visitor, and two distinguished businesswomen with ties to Virginia Tech.