After seven weeks, Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry has found his replacement for Chris Marve as the school's next defensive coordinator. It seemed like it was a long process that likely had more ups and downs that we'll ever know.
In the end, Pry hired Arizona Cardinals linebackers coach Sam Siefkes as the school's next defensive coordinator and he does bring some experience as a DC, but at the FCS level. He has five years of NFL experience between the Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings and he has a big task in front of him in Blacksburg trying to improve the Hokies defense. Here are three thoughts on the hiring by Pry.
1. Patience is needed
Who knows how this hiring will end up playing out in the end, but one thing is for sure, time will tell if Pry got it right. In the end, he needs to have struck gold with the hiring as he enters what feels like a make-or-break season for him in Year 4.
Siefkes comes in with more experience calling a defense than Marve did when he was hired and in the end, that may end up making a difference. The problem is, he has a big job in front of him with turning around a defense that was loaded with talent, but struggled mightly late in games. Patience is going to be needed and let the season play out.
2. Siefkes was likely not the first choice
Seven weeks? It took seven weeks to find Siefkes, which leads me to believe he wasn't the only choice that Virginia Tech considered. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the job was offered to someone else or multiple candidates and Pry got a "thanks, but no thanks.''
Virginia Tech is a storied program and I'm sure Pry had a long list of candidates that were interested in the job, but this feels like a big gamble by Pry. Maybe it would have been easier to promote Shawn Quinn to the job after he held it in the Duke's Mayo Bowl loss to Minnesota. Whatever the case, seven weeks to hire Siefkes raises some eyebrows for sure.
3. Press release from Virginia Tech was interesting
When the hiring was official, Virginia Tech sent out a press release and it was a rather interesting one, to say the least. They had quotes in the release from Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell, former Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, and Arizona coach Jonathan Gannon, all of who had Siefkes work for them. That may be the norm, but it certainly felt like a little much to push the hiring on the fans.
As for Pry, he made it clear that it was a "lengthy and thorough search" for Marve's replacement. I'm sure it was and who knows, maybe he got the hire right. But a seven-week search feels like a rather long search for a DC and it makes you wonder what the opinion is out there about the program.