Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry explains why retention is huge going into 2024

If you build it, they will come. Sometimes you can't build it quickly to get them to come and stay, but that is what Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry is doing. As he begins his third season in Blacksburg, he is speeding up the rebuild with the Hokies and he's doing it the right way, through the transfer portal and creating a culture that players want to be a part of.

After winning five of their final eight regular-season games last season to become bowl-eligible, the news between a rout of Virginia on Thanksgiving Weekend and an impressive Military Bowl victory over Tulane was better than Pry and Virginia Tech fans could have hoped for. A ton of retainment from key players that had an opportunity to leave to the next level or even another school continued to roll in and to put a cherry on top of all of it, some key transfer portal pieces joined the Hokies for the 2024 season.

All of the retainment and transfer portal additions have led to a ton of excitement within the fanbase ahead of the 2024 season in a couple of weeks. Even some national college football writers across the country are catching on to what is being built in Blacksburg. Pry explained on "Marty & McGee" what went into getting all the retention for this season.

Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry opens up about the retention for 2024

Pry spoke on a recent "Marty & McGee" show on the SEC Network, yes, the SEC Network, and explained what went into the decisions of the players to return to Virginia Tech for 2024 instead of going somewhere else or the next level.

We’ve invested in the relationships with these guys, coach to player, but also player to player. The relationships, the brotherhood’s very strong. It was about believing in what we’re doing and having a chance to come back and be excited about the team we could build, but also about playing together again. So, we’re very proud of that. A lot of work went into it. Retention meetings are important, the investment there. The information to these players, their families, whether they’re considering the NFL, they’re considering more money somewhere else, or a change of scenery, we feel very fortunate. And we’re proud of this group; it’s a mature group. They love one another, they love Virginia Tech and they believe potentially this could be a really good year for us.''

This message being sent by the returning players is not only good for 2024, but beyond. In this day and age of college football, getting the number of players to return what the Hokies did is somewhat unheard of because of the transfer portal. This would not have been imaginable a year ago, but now with the coach and staff in place this is ready to bring a once-proud program back to relevance in a big way quickly, Virginia Tech is in its best position in a long time.