8 Inside Hokie Sports Instead of following the lead of his mentors, Frank Beamer and Bud Foster, this time Pry will be leading the charge as the head coach of Virginia Tech. “I think it’s a good opportunity to walk in that stadium and lead this team, this organization and represent this university,” Pry said. “That’s exciting to me. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, really.” Pry spent three years in Blacksburg from 1995 to 1997 as a graduate assistant, where he got to learn under the wings of Beamer and Foster before his long journey to becoming a head coach. “My wife would get on me because I didn’t have an interest in being a head coach strong enough to go after a job, but this place was different,” Pry said. “I knew for certain out of the gate as soon as this [job] opened up that it’s something that fit me and that I’d be excited about and would be great for my family.” When Pry was interviewing for the Hokies head coaching vacancy, he wanted to stay true to himself and take a “this is me” approach. “If this isn’t what they’re looking for, that’s okay,” Pry said. “This is how I would do it and what’s important to me.” Luckily for Pry and the Hokies, the important values lined up. Now, Pry wants to take the same approach in recruiting. He wants to make sure that recruits and their families truly know what it’s like to come to Virginia Tech and be part of the football program. And if it’s not for them? That’s okay. “We want people that want to be here,” Pry said. “I knew I wanted to be here, and I wanted to make sure the administration understood that.” At Penn State, Pry had an immense amount of success recruiting in Virginia and he knows the caliber of football that is being played in high schools around the Commonwealth. “We need to flip this roster,” he said. “Right now, there are more kids from out of state than in state. There’s plenty of good players in this state that are going other places. “[Penn State] is going to come down and get a guy or two, but we’ve got to be in more of those battles. That’s going to take time. We have to put the work in.” Luckily for Pry, there have been things that he hasn’t had to learn at Virginia Tech thanks to his past experience. He already has relationships with people in the area and coaches in the state, which he said has made his transition to Blacksburg much easier. “It’s not like it was one year,” Pry said about his prior stint with the Hokies. “It was three years, and it was with Coach Beamer and his staff that were here for such a long time.” Pry still credits a lot of the things he’s learned and his mentality for the coach he is today back to Beamer, Foster and the other defensive coaches that he worked with day in and out. When Pry looks back on his time in Blacksburg, one memory serves as a catalyst of what was to come for the Hokies—Virginia Tech’s home victory over Miami in 1995. The Hokies had a rough start to the season falling to both Boston College and Cincinnati with a nationally-ranked Hurricanes team coming to Lane Stadium on the horizon. “We just out-physicaled them and outplayed them,” Pry said. THE CHARGE Continued from page 7 The Pry Family (L to R): Colby, Madeline, Catherine, Brent and Amy.
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