Interim coach Philip Montgomery hoped that returning to the practice field in the days after Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry’s firing would help the Hokies get back to some sense of normalcy, knowing full well it’s an emotional rollercoaster that can’t fully be leveled out right now.
“Their world got shocked and our world got shocked,” Montgomery said, “and so you’ve got to deal with the emotional part of it.”
To a degree, though, the last couple of days have served almost a therapeutic function for Virginia Tech, which has had what Montgomery called “two really good days” of energetic workouts.
“The attention to detail has been there,” he said. “We’ve got some urgency about us, we’re bouncing around, so I’ve been really pleased with that.”
“But we’ve had good practices leading up to other games,” special teams coordinator Stu Holt noted. “So we’ve got to go do it.”
It remains to be seen how the Hokies (0-3) come out when they host Wofford (0-3) at Lane Stadium on Saturday.
Despite Tech’s horrible start and the drama surrounding the program with Pry’s ouster, it’s a mismatch on paper. Besides a talent disparity between teams playing at different levels, the Terriers have an offense that ranks 115th out of 118 FCS teams, having scored three touchdowns in three games.
Tech has its own issues, however, not the least of which is making sure the team plays better than its last two times out, when Vanderbilt and Old Dominion turned in dominating victories, combining for a 62-0 stretch against the Hokies in the second half of the first game into the first half of the next.
“I want to see us play four quarters,” Montgomery said. ‘The effort has been there. Even last week, as you look at all of it, our guys were battling, they were grinding to the end, but I want to see us play a complete game and I want to see us feed off of each other and learn how to do that together.”
The midseason change is jarring for a couple of reasons. For Montgomery, it’s stepping back into a big whistle position that he held for eight years at Tulsa (2015-22), though it wasn’t a role he envisioned when taking the Hokies’ offensive coordinator role in February.
“For this situation to turn over … it seemed like 10 minutes,” he said. “Then all of a sudden you’re just trying to deal with everything that went on, and then you’ve got to kind of switch your mindset, and then you’ve got to think about what’s right for these players, what’s right for these young men, what’s right for our staff and how we can hold them all together and continue to move forward.”
Adding to the complexity of the situation is the transfer portal. Pry was fired three games in. With the four-game redshirt rule, players who have not yet redshirted can effectively opt out for the rest of the season, preserve an extra year and look to play elsewhere after the season. Junior cornerback Dante Lovett’s already taken that route, going into the portal Wednesday.
Montgomery said he’s addressed the portal issue with the team collectively and in one-on-one meetings, trying to make sure the players are operating with accurate information.
“I think the whole model’s changed,” Holt said. “There’s a business side of things that as coaches, it’s really not part of our day-to-day, but it’s on their mind. So that’s a different piece to it that’s another factor. So yeah, it’s not easy on those guys. There’s a lot to contemplate. They’ve got a lot on their minds.”
Additionally, there are operational changes to take into account. Montgomery called plays from the booth in the first three games. While he’ll retain play-calling duties as the interim coach — something he did when leading Tulsa — he’ll do so from the sideline. That could mean making arrangements to get another set of coaching eyes in the booth.
While the change at the top is a strain on players, it’s jarring for coaches, too. Though an itinerant profession, where changes of scenery take place annually in the carousel and often for assistants as they work their way up the ranks, it doesn’t make Pry’s dismissal easier. After all, they all came to work for him.
Holt, who was part of Pry’s original staff constructed in 2022 and was a graduate assistant at Western Carolina when Pry coached the team’s defensive line from 1998-99, said the goal is to come out and be professionals and represent Virginia Tech as best as they can, since personnel decisions like this are out of their control.
“I just think that it is what it is,” Holt said. “They don’t ask us, man. Nobody’s coming into my office and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think we ought to do here?’ You just stay focused on why you came here.
“You hate that it didn’t work out. You feel like you let Coach Pry down. I’m sure most everyone feels that way. It didn’t turn out like we wanted it. But in the same breath, you’ve got to go to work and you’ve got to show up the next day and you’ve got to be a good example for these guys. So you go to work. All you can do. And you all work to win.”
NOTE: Montgomery said offensive lineman Brody Meadows is likely out for the year. The reserve previously had been in a walking boot but had switched to a scooter Wednesday with a cast on his right foot, suggesting a recent procedure.
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