When the dust settled on a very disappointing 6-6 2024 season, there just had to be changes made for the Virginia Tech football team. In early December, head coach Brent Pry announced that he had fired defensive coordinator Chris Marve and offensive line coach Ron Crook. Then, in February, offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen surprised a lot of people when he left Blacksburg to become the offensive line coach at Ohio State.
In the end, Pry had to fill three big coaching openings on his staff for the 2025 season and he settled on Sam Siefkes as his defensive coordinator, Philip Montgomery as his offensive coordinator and Matt Moore as his new offensive line coach. All three have big turnarounds they have to lead in the fall, which begs the question, which hire is the most important one?
Which Virginia Tech football coaching hire is the biggest for Brent Pry going into 2025?
The case can be made for each new hire as to which one is the biggest one, but in the end, it has to be Moore. He is literally rebuilding the offensive line as when Bob Schick hit the portal last month meaning that all the starters from last fall have either transfered or are onto the NFL. Not ideal.
Moore has brought some of his offensive linemen from West Virginia, but the one player who stands to benefot the most from Moore's hiring is quarterback Kyron Drones, who is looking to return healthy in 2025 after missing four of the final games last year with injuries and having his spring practices cut short with a medical procedure.
The numbers back up how important the hire of Moore, who comes with a good reputation, is for Drones. In his 11 wins in Blacksburg, Drones has a QBR of 75.6 and has thrown 29 touchdown passes with a completion rate of 63.8% and six turnovers. He has been sacked 15 times in those games. In his nine losses, he has a QBR of 47.3 and completed just 56% of his passes with 10 touchdown passes, 20 sacks, and 11 turnovers.
Those splits are eye-opening. The last two years, blocking in front of Drones, Collin Schlee, Pop Watson or even Grant Wells was an issue as evident by all the injuries they suffered. If Virginia Tech hopes to rebound this fall, then better play along the offensive line is a must and the hiring of Moore hopefully allows that to happen.