It is no secret that the 2025 season is a rather big one for Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry. Just 12 months ago, the Hokies were a national darling for not only being a dark horse for the new 12-team College Football Playoff, but also in the ACC. Oh, how times have changed just a year later.
The 2024 season, Pry’s third in Blacksburg, was supposed to be the one where the Hokies were back and became a national brand again. Loaded with retention and portal additions, Virginia Tech stumbled through the season to an extremely disappointing 6-6 season, again. It began with an overtime loss at Vanderbilt in the season opener and ended with needing to beat Virginia on Thanksgiving Weekend to just become bowl-eligible. Not what many, if any, fans even envisioned when the season began.
The outlook of the program changed big time after the season, and Pry fired three assistant coaches, including defensive coordinator Chris Marve and offensive line coach Ron Crook. In February, offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen bolted for Ohio State as the offensive line coach. With three new key coaches, this puts even more pressure on Pry for 2025.
Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry tumbles in the latest coaches ranking
CBS Sports and 247Sports released their coaching rankings for the 2025 season, and Pry came in at No. 64 out of just 68 power conference head coaches. That is a tumble of 13 spots in just one year. Should anyone be surprised?
"Brent Pry: Things feel headed in the wrong direction in Blacksburg. Nobody minded much when Pry went 3-8, but expectations rose after the Hokies rode a strong finish to a 7-6 record in 2023. They followed it up last year with an uninspiring 6-7 mark, and there's a bit of heat on Pry's seat entering 2025."
Pry’s tenure has been one with mixed results. On one hand, he has been able to recruit within the state of Virginia, and he has also done a good job of bringing home transfers from the Commonwealth to continue their careers. On the other hand, his record is what it is, and the failures in one-score games are just mind-boggling.
There are just two ACC coaches below on the list, Tony Elliott of Virignia at No. 65 and Frank Reich of Stanford at No. 67, and he hasn’t even coached an ACC game yet. It feels like a record better than 6-6 is needed this season for job security, and with the Hokies' tougher schedule, that seems like a tall task. The perception that the program is stuck spinning its tires is being noticed outside of Blacksburg, and that's not good.