BLACKSBURG — When Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock and interim head football coach Philip Montgomery on Tuesday gave their first extended comments since the Hokies dismissed Brent Pry, it was clear they will be taking separate paths over the next several weeks.
Babcock, who did not take questions at Tuesday’s press conference, focused his comments on how he and other top officials at Virginia Tech are going to try to salvage the future of the university’s athletic program — especially football.
Montgomery, a member of the Hokies’ coaching staff for seven months, has been tasked with salvaging the season for a team that is off to its worst start since the 1980s.
Montgomery, who spent eight seasons as the head coach at Tulsa, acknowledged on Tuesday that seeing your boss get fired and trying to salvage a season that has had a year’s worth of disappointments in just three weeks can look overwhelming from afar. He said his plan is to take on what is in his control. That starts with the team.
“Our focus really has to be on the players right now,” said Montgomery, who is under contract through the 2026 season. “We have got a group of young men that have poured in a ton of work, they have been molded together and their world has been rocked a little bit right here.
“Our job as a coaching staff is going to be to continue to pour into them, provide them leadership, provide them guidance and provide them a plan in a direction to continue to go do what we need to finish up this season the right way.”
David Teel: It wasn’t that the Hokies lost under Brent Pry. It was how they lost.
The salvage project begins on Saturday with a noon kickoff at Lane Stadium against Championship Subdivision and Southern Conference member Wofford, which shares an 0-3 record, but lost those games to South Carolina State, Richmond and Mercer by a combined six points. The Hokies have been outscored by 67 points during the same stretch.
Despite that recent past, Montgomery does have sort of a clean slate to work with. All three losses so far for Virginia Tech were against nonconference opponents, meaning that the Hokies still have a full slate of ACC games awaiting, and he believes that means something to this team, which he said are collectively willing to hit the reset button.
There’s a lot to reset. Offensively, Virginia Tech scored just two touchdowns in its first 10 quarters. On defense, the Hokies got off to a respectable start in their 24-11 loss to South Carolina and its elusive quarterback LaNorris Sellers, but has since hit several low points, highlighted by Vanderbilt and Old Dominion scoring nine unanswered touchdowns over a four-quarter stretch.
Babcock, when formally introducing Montgomery to the press, touted his past experience and believes he can avoid the distractions that can come with a sudden promotion no one expected as recently as three weeks ago.
“He knows how to lead,” Babcock said. “As you can imagine, it’s a tough situation for him when the head coach who hired you is dismissed, and you’re processing the disappointment of that and an uncertain future ahead. And within a matter of an hour, he’s then tasked with leading the program, speaking to the team, keeping this group together for the remainder of the season and now doing weekly media sessions.”
New Virginia Tech interim head coach Philip Montgomery said he plans to continue calling the offense, although he said more input from other members of the offensive staff will be taken. (Virginia Tech Athletics)
In Montgomery, the Hokies have a Texas native with seven years coaching at the high school level before landing his first college job as a quarterbacks and running backs coach for Art Briles at Houston. He followed Briles to Baylor, where he worked as the offensive coordinator until being hired by Tulsa as head coach in 2015.
The Golden Hurricane lost 55-52 in the Independence Bowl to Virginia Tech, which also happened to be the last game for Hall of Fame Hokies coach Frank Beamer. He was there until Tulsa decided to part ways with him after 2022. His overall record was 43-55, with four bowl appearances.
“I think more than anything else, with every experience you have an opportunity to grow,” he said. “You talk about all the different factors that went into that … and you get an opportunity to say: “Hey, I really like this. I didn’t like that.”
Montgomery indicated on Tuesday that he plans to continue calling the offense, although he said more input from other members of the offensive staff will be taken now that he has other duties.
Montgomery said that since Sunday, the team has talked a great deal about these issues — both amongst themselves and with their position coaches and they are still willing to do the work needed to find some success.
“We’ve got nine games left,” Montgomery said. “We got a chance to go write an unbelievable story, but it’s going to take all of us to do that.”
