College football analyst rips Justin Fuente for his biggest failure at Virginia Tech

When Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry took over three years ago, he knew that he had a rebuild ahead of him in Blacksburg. The former Penn State defensive coordinator knew that if he was going to turn things around and get the Hokies back on the map nationally, he needed to improve in one area that the previous coach failed in, recruiting within the state of Virginia.

There was once a pipeline between the high school coaches in the Commonwealth and Virginia Tech, but that along with the relationships with the coaches fizzled under Justin Fuente. In fact, Pry helped James Franklin at Penn State come into the state of Virginia and pluck recruits right out from under Fuente and his staff. That did go lost on college football analyst Josh Pate on his podcast.

Josh Pate says Brent Pry is cleaning up Justin Fuente's downfall at Virginia Tech

There's no way around it, the Justin Fuente era in Blacksburg was not good and went downhill fast. What was a downfall of him and his staff was recruiting in the Commonwealth, something that Pry has made a priority.

"There was an effort by Brent Pry and his staff that needed to be started from scratch. The concept of Virginia Tech keeping key talent in Virginia home used to be taken for granted and the previous staff did not maximize that effort, to put it lightly to the point where your Ohio State's able to come into Virginia and take your elite talent and that's Ohio State, that's one thing. South Carolina or Penn State coming in and just plucking guys as they saw fit and Virginia Tech not even put up a fight, they had to hit the reset button essentially on in-state recruiting. This is not Alabama, Virginia Tech is not a nationally recruiting program, but to rebuild the essential backbone of the program, they've to rebuild their in-state recruiting infrastructure. They got the right (people) up there to do it. "

- Josh Pate

If there is ever a perfect time for Pate to bring this up, it's after a very successful month in recruiting in June and with nine in-state commitments so far in the Class of 2025. And to add icing on the cake, they went in and plucked quarterback AJ Brand out of South Carolina away from Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks. Pry is certainly turning things around quickly as he enters Year 3 and it appears that he quickly cleaned up the in-state recruiting, which was a major priority.