‘Got his swagger back’: Brent Pry back in his element as Virginia Tech defensive coordinator
Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Brent Pry looks on while giving instructions to the linebackers during Tuesday’s practice in Blacksburg.
Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Brent Pry looks on after giving instructions to the linebackers during Tuesday’s practice in Blacksburg.
Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Brent Pry leads the linebackers to their next drill during practice on Aug. 6 in Blacksburg.
Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Brent Pry talks with linebacker Noah Chambers during practice on Aug. 9 in Blacksburg.
BLACKSBURG — The white whistle dangling from the lanyard hasn’t changed. The wardrobe worn on the practice fields looks similar to past summers. There’s plenty of familiarity seeing Brent Pry walking on the Virginia Tech practice fields.
The similarities stop there. There are noticeable differences from being the head coach and shifting back to defensive coordinator. Gone are the days of overseeing both sides of the ball. His whistle gets its own workout in practices. The linebackers listen intently whenever he delivers instruction. Ditto for the defensive linemen and defensive backs.
Pry gets to coach. That’s his calling. No politics. No meetings with the athletics director to go over a myriad of big-picture issues. He gets to design defensive schemes. Study film. Analyze his players’ strengths and weaknesses.
Pry is back in his element. He’ll call defensive plays for the first time since late in the 2022 season when Virginia Tech opens the James Franklin era on Saturday night against VMI. It’s a return to normal for Pry in what was a first-of-its-kind situation with a fired head coach returning to the program in a different role in the span of three months.
“Honestly, it didn’t take long to slide back into a DC mode. Really didn’t. I was surprised, in fact,” Pry revealed. “Honestly, if I had known this quickly it would be this comfortable, I probably would have called it myself last year. Hindsight’s 20/20. You didn’t want to jack things up. Now that I’m back in it, I’m like, I could have done it. It’s good.”
‘Got his swagger back’
Pry was hired as Virginia Tech’s head coach as Justin Fuente’s replacement after the 2021 season because of his body of work as a defensive coordinator under Franklin at Vanderbilt (2011-13) and Penn State (2014-21).
The Nittany Lions had one of the nation’s stingiest defenses under Pry’s watch in 2017 and 2019 (ranked seventh and eighth, respectively, in scoring defense), and the unit led the nation in sacks per game (3.62) in 2018.
The stellar defenses were pivotal pieces in how Franklin built Penn State into a national contender. Pry’s ability to identify his unit’s strengths and find ways to exploit opposing offensive schemes was instrumental in ensuring the Nittany Lions had chances to win on a weekly basis.
The 15 spring practices and training camp at Virginia Tech have allowed Pry to get back into the rhythm that made him one of the nation’s top defensive coordinators.
“You can tell he got his swagger back now, like you can tell he loves coaching defense. You can tell he loves that, like that’s his passion right there,” nickelback Isaiah Brown-Murray said. “He loves coaching. As a head coach, he wasn’t able to coach as much because he had to do all of the other things, but now he’s back on the field coaching and you can tell he’s got his swagger back.”
Pry’s return as defensive coordinator also allowed him to reunite with staff members. He and defensive line coach Sean Spencer worked together for nine seasons at Vanderbilt and Penn State (2011-19). Pry’s stint as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech (1995-97) coincided with safeties coach Anthony Midget’s initial seasons as a player with the Hokies (1996-99).
“It’s been great. Coach Pry is the same guy every single day. Energetic, willing to take ideas and apply it to what we can do to be the best defense we can possibly be,” Midget said. “It’s been good just seeing him back in this element and him just doing what he loves to do — just coaching defense, coordinating, coaching the linebackers and doing a good job with doing that.”
Pry referenced that his return, coupled with the hiring of Spencer, helped keep star players like defensive tackle Kemari Copeland on the roster.
Copeland could have seen if the NFL Draft was an option or tested the transfer portal. But, he said Pry was the only head coach to come see him while he was at Iowa Western Community College, and that helped develop a strong relationship.
“When he left, it kind of hurt. When I seen that he was coming back, it was huge. I had a chance to go to the NFL. He was actually a huge reason I came back,” Copeland said.
“He's had top 10, top five defenses when he was a defensive coordinator. I know that we'll be really good this year.”
The familiarities with coaches like Spencer and Midget have allowed Pry to implement the defensive scheme he wants to utilize.
“Coach Pry is attack, attack, attack, and we’re going to attack guys,” Brown-Murray said. “We’re going to make sure we dictate offenses, we’re not going to dictate us, and this is not a passive defense. We’re very aggressive and we’re going to play that way.”
Handling everything
Aggressive wasn’t the mentality Pry took after he was fired three games into his fourth season as Virginia Tech’s head coach on Sept. 14, 2025.
He elected to take his time finding another job after investing nearly four years to reshape Virginia Tech’s program. He repaired the recruiting pipelines that dried up under Fuente’s watch. He engaged with the fanbase. And excitement came back to Blacksburg after the 2023 season.
But the Hokies stumbled at the end of his tenure. Tech was 1-7 in Pry’s final eight games and was 16-24 overall. An 0-3 start to the 2025 season led to then-athletics director Whit Babcock’s decision to make a coaching change.
“I think that when people make those decisions, I don’t have to agree with them, but when there’s things not going right, I can respect people initiating change,” Pry said. “It’s hard not to argue. It doesn’t mean I agree with it, but I can respect there was a decision made. I’m not one to look back. I don’t like to do that. I've made decisions that I wish I could take back that weren’t the right ones, and I think everybody does that. I’ve got people that I still have a good relationship with, and they’ve been a part of a bad decision on my part.”
He didn’t want to rush back into searching for a job. He and his wife, Amy, picked three things they wanted to do as a couple. They asked their daughters, Madeline and Catherine, to come up with a list of three things they wanted to do.
His daughters wanted to go to the Bahamas, spend Thanksgiving with their cousins in Louisiana and visit their friends who lived in State College, Pennsylvania, during spring break. All three items were checked off.
“What I was so proud of was my daughters came and they were ready to move. They were super supportive. Whatever you and mom decide to do, we’re good,” Pry said. “They’re in high school. When I had a chance to tell them we were going to stay, it was very gratifying. They were willing to do whatever, but I knew in their heart they’d rather be in Blacksburg.”
Pry revealed two of the three things he and his wife picked. The couple spent a week at the family beach house. The big item was renewing their vows in Las Vegas in December.
“At the Little White Chapel with Elvis Presley. We had three other couples with us,” Pry said. “He sang ‘Love Me Tender’ to start it. Then he did a 6-minute ceremony where we’re in the pink Cadillac, then we exchanged vows, and then he sang ‘Viva, Las Vegas,’ and then we were out.”
The options
Pry also revealed he received three serious coaching opportunities as he considered his future. One was as a head coach at a Group of Six program. Two were as defensive coordinators in the Southeastern Conference. One of those coordinator spots “we got pretty far down the road with, to be honest,” he added.
Franklin, whom Pry has known for more than 30 years, also was in the market for a new job at the same time. Franklin was fired from his post at Penn State three weeks after Pry lost his job, and Virginia Tech quickly emerged as a frontrunner for Franklin.
Pry’s father, Jim, was Franklin’s offensive coordinator at East Stroudsburg in the early 1990s, and he provided a valuable piece of advice as Pry weighed whether to take the defensive coordinator job in the SEC or follow Franklin.
“I know that he would have preferred me aligning with James. He was always the guy that said to me growing up in this business, it’s not about where you work, it’s about who you work for and with,” Pry said. “I’ve tried to practice that throughout my career, and I find it to be very true. I’ve had a bad experience or two and it’s been tied back to the people, not the place. He’s always a great resource. Everybody from Bud Foster to Coach (Frank) Beamer, I heard from all those folks. Again, a lot of layers and a lot of conversations and a lot of happenings to get to that place.”
‘Work with good people’
Franklin said he didn’t think returning to Virginia Tech would be an option for Pry. That decision was going to mean testing unchartered waters in bringing a fired head coach back to a program three months after he was dismissed.
Usually years need to pass before reintroducing a coach to a fanbase. Pry’s exit from Virginia Tech was different. Fans respected Pry as a man and wished things could have worked out for him as a coach. They appreciated what he did in reinvigorating the program, and then helping land Franklin as the program’s leader.
It didn’t make initial sense on the surface when he returned as the defensive coordinator. The past relationship with Franklin and Franklin’s trust in Pry allowed the move to work.
“You want to be at a good place with good people. Once you've had some adversity, … those things are magnified,” Franklin said. “I tell the young coaches all the time, it's like, we've got this great environment, this great culture that people like working in.
“But a lot of times, the young people professionally they've never been anywhere or worked with anybody who's difficult, they take it for granted. When they leave and then they go experience it, and then sometimes never get it back the rest of their careers. I think Brent, myself, some of the more veteran coaches, you get that. When you get an opportunity to work with good people, that's an important piece of the puzzle.”
Pry said the deciding factor in his decision to return to Virginia Tech came down to reuniting with Franklin. The two spent so many seasons working together and understood the dynamic.
Pry was going to have to learn the dynamic between head coach and defensive coordinator if he chose to join the SEC program. That meant debating between returning to the program that had recently fired him or charting a new course.
It was an uncharted path he was going to take if he reunited with Franklin at Virginia Tech. And no one, not even the most seasoned of coaches, could relate to the decision Pry had to make.
It had to feel right. And Pry’s return just feels right.
“Because there wasn’t something exactly like this. It was my wife and I working through it,” Pry said. “There was days when we weren’t going to do it. Just kind of played the long game. I think James was doing the same thing. It just worked out. I wasn’t sure that it would, and I’m sure he felt that way, too. And it just worked out. I think he and I are wired the same way. It wasn’t going to work out if it wasn’t the right way and for the right reasons. We would have been OK with that. Both of us. It felt right.”
Damien Sordelett (540) 981-3124
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