Brent Pry reinforces strong message to his team ahead of Vanderbilt opener

There were only a handful of games last week during Week 0, but boy, did it give a lot of teams some teaching moments. One of those teams that learned something was Virginia Tech and head coach Brent Pry has a simple message for his team.

The preseason hype means nothing once the season begins for real.

One of the teams that has gotten a lot of headlines and been labeled as a dark horse as we enter the season is Virginia Tech. With a lot of retainment and some key transfer portal additions, it is easy to see why the Hokies are a lot of writers and publications darlings entering the season with nearly all of their production coming back.

Two other ACC teams that were spoken about this season as being a team that can be a dark horse or a favorite to win the conference were Florida State and SMU. However, both teams were given eye-opening results in Week 0.

Florida State was stunned in Ireland by Georgia Tech on the game-winning field goal as time expired, putting a major dent into the Seminoles' ACC title and College Football Playoff chances. Later Saturday night, SMU was a four-touchdown favorite over Nevada on the road but needed 16 fourth-quarter points in the final 8:01 to survive for a 29-24 win. 

Virginia Tech is a big favorite, just under two touchdowns currently as this article is being written, and open against SEC foe Vanderbilt who is in a rebuild, but Pry isn’t taking anything for granted with a message to his team.

“It reinforced our message that preseason hype doesn’t mean anything,’’ Pry said at his Tuesday press conference ahead of the opener against the Commodores.

It has been something that Pry has been hammering away to his team, don’t read the hype, and games are won and lost on the field, not off. It’s a message that he’ll likely reinforce multiple times ahead of Saturday’s kick-off in Nashville.