Virginia Tech coach James Franklin is concentrating on Brent Pry to be his defensive coordinator in what can be one of the uncommon teaching hires in faculty soccer historical past, sources instructed CBS Sports activities’ Matt Zenitz and Richard Johnson.
Pry was a very long time Franklin assistant at Penn State and Vanderbilt earlier than being employed at Virginia Tech as the top coach in 2022. Nevertheless, Pry was fired after an 0-3 begin to the 2025 season. There aren’t many (if any) examples of a coach being fired one season and returning to the identical faculty in a unique capability within the subsequent, however with greater than a decade of expertise as a coordinator below Franklin, it makes this a very distinctive state of affairs.
Hiring Pry would probably garner a combined response in Blacksburg from followers, however although he is solely been on the job for a couple of weeks, Franklin has already earned some good thing about the doubt with the Virginia Tech trustworthy. Regardless of not having a training workers employed round him, Franklin hit the bottom working and turned Virginia Tech’s recruiting class from being one of many worst within the ACC to the twenty second finest within the nation — and a top-five class within the convention.
Franklin’s work flipping almost each Penn State commit and bringing in different high quality expertise on signing day gave the Hokies their finest recruiting class in additional than a decade, and that has certainly given followers motive to imagine in his imaginative and prescient — even when which means bringing again the coach they simply fired. Pry’s defenses at Penn State had been one of many strengths of the workforce, and whereas he did not have a lot success as a head coach, he is a superb defensive coordinator.
If he does return to VT as a coordinator, it ought to go higher than his first stint in Blacksburg. Pry getting focus his full efforts and vitality on the defensive aspect of the ball whereas Franklin runs the present has a robust monitor document of success.
