One stat Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry must turn around quickly in 2024

Going into the 2024 season, one of the bigger darlings around college football was Virginia Tech with all the retainment they had and with the transfer portal additions they got. Factor in all the returning offensive production, things were setting up nicely for the Hokies.

One game into his third year as head coach in Blacksburg, Pry is five games below .500 at 10-15 after the stunning overtime loss to Vanderbilt last Saturday in Nashville. Are the Commodores the cream of the crop in the SEC? No, in fact, they were picked to finish in last place this season in the conference again, despite getting one vote in the preseason poll to win it. Are they as bad as they have been in the past? Through one week the answer is no and just maybe they are turning the corner under Clark Lea.

On the flip side, Virginia Tech was expected to take the next step in 2024 and so far, instead of taking a step forward, they have taken a rather big step back against Vanderbilt. There is still plenty of time for the Hokies to continue to take a step forward this season, but if they are going to do that, they are going to need to improve drastically in one area.

Brent Pry needs to quickly turnaround on stat 

Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated wrote that Whit Babcock is on the verge of whiffing on a second straight head coach since Frank Beamer retired. Justin Fuente was not the answer for four years after the legendary coach and now is close to whiffing for a second straight time. I think it’s too early to call Pry’s tenure a whiff after the way things turned around last season over the final two months, but if this is going to be a year where progress is made and the next step is taken, this one stat needs to be quickly fixed.

Pry has yet to win a game against power conference schools which finish the season with a winning record. Now there is time and several opportunities for him to accomplish this in 2024 with the first chance coming against Rutgers on Sept. 21 at home.

There is a lot of time to turn things around and do it quickly beginning with Marshall this weekend and then Old Dominion on Sept. 14, but one way to turn things around would be to beat a power conference team with a winning record, something that would quiet the noise around the program quickly. One bold prediction for the remainder of the season, Pry will beat multiple teams that will finish with a winning record from power conferences in 2024.