James Franklin has slowly been putting together his first coaching staff at Virginia Tech in recent days. He has dipped into his old stop at Penn State to bring some of his assistants to Blacksburg.
He is bringing back, reportedly, Brent Pry to Virginia Tech, and be Franklin's defensive coordinator after he was fired in September after four underperforming years as head coach. Awkward.
There were a couple of coaches from Pry's staff that fans were hoping that Franklin would retain. Derek Jones announced early this week that he was moving on, but things were quiet surrounding a pair of other assistants, offensive line coach Matt Moore and wide receivers coach Fontel Mines.
James Franklin is retaining Fontel Mines and Matt Moore on his Virginia Tech staff
It has been reported that Franklin is retaining Moore, according to Matt Zenitz, who also reported that Franklin is retaining Mines as well. Those are huge retainments for Franklin, to say the least.
Mines has been a major piece of recruiting at Virginia Tech since he has been there. He was Pry's main recruiter, who was able to land some of the recruits that the Hokies got under his tenure. He has also been huge with the development of the wide receiver in Blacksburg. He played a big role in the retainment the program in 2023, with Ali Jennings, Stephen Gosnell, Da'Quan Felton, and Jaylin Lane returning.
As for Moore, the offensive line struggled the last couple of years at Virginia Tech, and despite injuries this season, you could say that the line played better than most thought. Moore came from West Virginia and had to rebuild the line on the fly after all five starters from last year left either through the Transfer Portal or had no eligibility left. Both of these returns are huge for Virginia Tech.