Virginia Tech football’s first 0-3 start in 38 years has cost head coach Brent Pry his job after less than four seasons.
ESPN first reported the decision Sunday afternoon, and sources quickly confirmed to The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press. Players were informed during a 1:45 p.m., team meeting, a source said.
First-year offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery, a former head coach at Tulsa, is expected to serve as interim coach for the remainder of the season.
The move comes less than 24 hours after the Hokies’ unsightly 45-26 home loss to Old Dominion on Saturday night. With setbacks to South Carolina, Vanderbilt and ODU, Tech is off to worst start since 1987, when the Hokies dropped the first three games of Frank Beamer’s coaching tenure in Blacksburg.
Tech was 16-24 under Pry, 10-21 versus ACC and other Power Four opponents. Game management errors marred his leadership from the start, a 2022 loss at ODU, and continued through last season with missteps at Miami and Syracuse.
The lone hint of program momentum under Pry occurred when the Hokies closed 2023 with a 5-2 stretch capped by a Military Bowl rout of Tulane.
David Teel: Embarrassing loss to ODU should spell end for Hokies’ Brent Pry
With a vast majority of that roster returning, optimism prevailed in 2024. But a squad that included five players subsequently drafted by the NFL underachieved and finished 6-7, prompting Pry to dismiss defensive coordinator Chris Marve, offensive line coach Ron Crook and strength and conditioning coordinator Dwight Galt.
Pry’s original, six-year contract runs through the 2027 season, and he’s due a buyout of more than $6 million.
Spared for now was 12th-year Hokies athletic director Whit Babcock, who’s 0 for 2 on football coaching hires at Tech.
Justin Fuente, an accomplished head coach at Memphis renowned for offense, succeeded Beamer and immediately guided the Hokies to the 2016 ACC title game, earning league Coach of the Year honors. But the program waned, and Babcock fired Fuente in November 2021 with a 43-31 overall record.
Pry, a former Hokies graduate assistant and Penn State defensive coordinator who lacked head-coaching experience, never approached Fuente’s winning percentage.
As Babcock starkly outlined to Tech’s Board of Visitors last month, football is an essential economic asset for not only Hokies athletics but also southwestern Virginia. And Tech football has been mediocre for more than a decade.
During his appearance with the board, Babcock said athletics needs an annual budget of approximately $200 million, about $50 million more than current spending, to compete in the ACC.
“Our resources don’t meet our expectations,” he told the board.
Two days later, at the close of the board’s three-day session, rector John Rocovich directed board colleagues Ryan McCarthy and J. Pearson to submit a plan for additional financial support to athletics by the end of September.
Virginia Tech was among two Power Four schools to fire its coach Sunday. UCLA dismissed DeShaun Foster after the Bruins started 0-3 in just his second season.
