James Franklin reportedly targeting an unprecedented hire at Virginia Tech

When Virginia Tech fired Brent Pry following a brutal Week 3 loss at home to Old Dominion, it ended a rough tenure at Virginia Tech. Ask any Hokies fan, and they like Brent Pry. He poured his heart and soul into it, but it just wasn't meant to be.

A month after Pry was fired, James Franklin was fired at Penn State, Pry's former employer, as the defensive coordinator under Franklin. As soon as Franklin hit the open market for coaches, Virginia Tech's search committee jumped at the chance to hire him. Nearly six weeks after he was fired in State College, Franklin was named the next head coach in Blacksburg, replacing Pry.

When he was introduced to the media, Franklin didn't hide the admiration that he had for Pry. He got emotional talking about him and what he meant to him and what his father meant to him. There was a lot of history between James Franklin and Brent Pry and his father that Franklin cherished.

James Franklin reportedly targeting Brent Pry as his defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech

Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reported late Saturday night that Franklin is targeting Pry to be his defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech in a wild turn of events. This would likely be the first time that a coach was fired at a school, only to return a few months later to accept another position at the same school as an assistant coach.

Pry struggled in a number of areas at Virginia Tech during his four years. You can point to a number of reasons as to why he went 16-24, but what you can't deny is the success he had under Franklin at Penn State as his defensive coordinator. With that said, it would be a little awkward for Pry to be hired as the DC at Virginia Tech and walk back into the locker room with some of the players who played for him. We'll see what happens, but where there's smoke, there's usually fire.