We’re nearing one month from another season of Virginia Tech football. Depending on which Hokies fan you ask, this could either be a good or a bad thing.
Such has been the state of the Virginia Tech football program as of late. For nearly 15 years, a once nationally relevant brand has been brought to its knees, mired in mind-melting mediocrity. During this stretch, the Hokies have been on the wrong end of many of the most excruciating losses in program history, been the focus of off-the-field scandal, and fallen short of the expectations of Hokies fans everywhere.
Throughout the tumult of the last decade and some change, the one constant of the Virginia Tech football program as a whole has been disappointment. Disappointment with seemingly unending 6-6 or 7-5 season tallies. Disappointment with blowout bowl losses. Disappointment with vastly underperforming while boasting the most talent of any Tech team in years.
For many Hokie faithful, the 2025 season possibly presents yet another year of heartburn. It will be year 4 in the Brent Pry era and will be by far the most important campaign of his tenure to date. To add more uncertainty, Pry this past offseason hired two new coordinators, Sam Siefkes and Phil Montgomery, to help shift the tides in the Hokies’ favor this season. With new leadership and a depleted roster after losing a huge percentage of 2024's production, Pry faces an almost Sisyphean challenge in 2025.
The smooth-talking Lexington, Virginia native has been all Virginia Tech fans could hope for, off the field. Bringing back former players. Embracing fans and traditions. His on-field performances, though, have fallen very short of where may feel this program should be. It’s this dual reality that makes the 2025 season so pivotal, not only for Pry but for the Virginia Tech program as a whole.
The significance of this upcoming season is impossible to overstate. Pry’s tenure thus far has been underwhelming, despite showing some flashes that briefly returned a spark of hope to Hokies fans. In three seasons under Pry, the Hokies hold a paltry 16-21 record. Of these losses, 11 came by one score or less: a shockingly bad statistic to boast as he enters his fourth season. With every loss in 2025–particularly those decided by 8 or fewer points–he’s only further cementing his legacy as the coach who could have been in Blacksburg.
As painful as some of these moments during the last few seasons have been, Pry’s inability to get the job done continues to highlight other, long-standing failures of the program. Virginia Tech hasn’t beaten a non-conference Power 4 opponent since 2017, in that season’s opener against West Virginia at FedEx Field.
Perhaps even worse, the Hokies haven’t defeated a Power 4 opponent at home since 2009, when Tyrod Taylor etched his name in every Hokie’s memory with his miraculous game-winning drive against Nebraska.
As often as the football program likes to tout the “Terror Dome” reputation of Lane Stadium, which formerly sent fear through opponents’ spines, there hasn’t been much evidence to support this claim in a very long time. This metric, above all else, is one that desperately must change this season. Pry will get his shot when Diego Pavia and the Vanderbilt Commodores come to town on September 7, just over a year after the SEC upstarts spoiled the Hokies’ season of destiny, undercutting a roster full of NFL draftees that seemed poised to reach heights unseen in over a decade.
The importance of the 2025 season is best viewed from a macro perspective, taking into account the years of mediocre football under three head coaches, who possibly couldn’t be any more dissimilar. From 2004-11, Virginia Tech won 10 or more games every season, winning three ACC titles and earning numerous BCS bowl berths. Even before this run of excellence, since 1995, when Virginia Tech upset Texas in the Sugar Bowl, the Frank Beamer-led Hokies were known everywhere as a football powerhouse that routinely ranked in the top 10 and was a brand to be reckoned with. In the time since, nearly all of that esteem has been lost under the crushing weight of chronic underachievement.
Now, the overwhelming pressure to return to prominence that has been building for years sits squarely on Brent Pry’s shoulders. There’s almost a palpable sense throughout Hokie fandom that the program is at an inflection point. Pry must reach a respectable win total or face termination. Just how many wins will keep his job is up for debate, but what isn’t debatable is the way in which his coaching staff and his team must perform week in and week out. No more being blown off the ball. No more being outhustled. No more being outschemed. It’s time to deliver on his promises. Media side-stepping won’t save his job this season, and rightfully so.
The stakes are high. The moment is big. Only time will tell if the Hokies’ head coach is up to the task.