When the Virginia Tech football team entered the 2024 season with high hopes and a dark horse for the new 12-team college football playoff, it was supposed to be the year that the Hokies program was back under former coach Brent Pry. Instead, things went south and quickly, and the season spiraled out of control.
For the second straight year, Virginia Tech had to win on Thanksgiving Weekend against Virginia just to become bowl-eligible. Not many people, even the biggest Virginia Tech haters, would have envisioned that being the case. Instead, they battled through a season that had more downs than ups.
Following the Virginia win and a month before the Duke's Mayo Bowl against Minnesota, Pry fired three assistant coaches. The two biggest named being defensive coordinator Chris Marve and offensive line coach Ron Crook. Marve is now the linebackers coach at Colorado, while Crook, after being out of the game last year, is returning as an offensive line coach.
Ron Crook hired as OL coach at Ohio
Crook was recently hired at Ohio as the new offensive line coach with the Bobcats. First-year head coach John Hauser has hired Crook, and it is an interesting hire, to say the least. Virginia Tech's offensive line in Crook's final two years in Blacksburg struggled, and there were several reasons for that. With over three decades of coaching, Crook had stops with Illinois, Stanford, Cincinnati, and West Virginia before coming to Blacksburg.
This is a desperate hire for Hauser. He hired Colin Johnson as his offensive line coach at Ohio, but he recently left shortly after accepting the assistant offensive line coach position at Michigan State. This is a similar move to former Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen, who bolted for the offensive line coach at Ohio State last February as well.
Good luck to Crook, but any Ohio fans excited about this hire should look back at how this tenure at Virginia Tech ended. Not good.