Brent Pry
Brent Pry went 16–24 as a head coach, 2022–2025, at Virginia Tech. Share
- Record
- 16–24 career
- Seasons
- 4
- Schools
- 1
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Apr 1, 1970
- Alma mater
- Buffalo 1993
- Best season
- 2023 7–6
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Virginia Tech | 3–8 | T–6th | |||
| 2023 | Virginia Tech | 7–6 | T–4th | Military Bowl W | ||
| 2024 | Virginia Tech | 6–7 | 8th | Duke’s Mayo Bowl L | ||
| 2025 | Virginia Tech coached three of 12 games | 0–3 |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 7 | 1–6 | 14% |
| Against top-10 teams | 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 10 | 6–4 | 60% |
| Conference games | 23 | 10–13 | 43% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 2 | 1–1 | 50% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 13 | 1–12 | 8% |
| At home | 19 | 10–9 | 53% |
| On the road | 18 | 5–13 | 28% |
| At neutral sites | 3 | 1–2 | 33% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 18 | 11–7 | 61% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 22 | 5–17 | 23% |
His own 40 games on file, 2022–2025, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky Rahne 2022–2025 | 2–2 | Old Dominion | 4 |
Brent Pry’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Old Dominionseries | 4 | 2–2 |
| Boston Collegeseries | 3 | 3–0 |
| Virginiaseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Georgia Techseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Syracuseseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Pittsburghseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Marshallseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Dukeseries | 2 | 0–2 |
How he was hired
- Hired by Virginia Tech for the 2022 season from Penn State, where he was defensive coordinator. He had a prior connection to the school.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Buffalo | Student coach | |
| 1993–94 | East Stroudsburg | Outside linebackers and defensive backs coach | |
| 1995–97 | Virginia Tech | Graduate assistant | |
| 1998–99 | Western Carolina | Defensive line coach | |
| 2000–01 | Western Carolina | Defensive backs and special teams coach | |
| 2002–06 | Louisiana–Lafayette | Assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2007–09 | Memphis | Defensive line coach | |
| 2010 | Georgia Southern | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| 2011–13 | Vanderbilt | Assistant head coach, co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2014–15 | Penn State | Assistant head coach, co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2016–21 | Penn State | Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2022–25 | Virginia Tech | Head coach | |
| 2026–present | Virginia Tech | Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Frank BeamerVirginia Tech
- Bill BleilWestern Carolina
- Rickey BustleLouisiana
- Tommy WestMemphis
- Jeff MonkenGeorgia Southern
- James FranklinVanderbilt, Penn State, Virginia Tech
Assistants who became head coaches
- J.C. PriceVirginia Tech
- Joe RudolphPittsburgh
- Shawn QuinnSavannah State
- Gunter BrewerNortheast Mississippi
- Philip MontgomeryTulsa, Virginia Tech
Worked under (6)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frank Beamer | Virginia Tech | 1995–97 | Graduate assistant | |
| Bill Bleil | Western Carolina | 1998–2001 | 1998–99: defensive line coach; 2000–01: defensive backs and special teams coach | |
| Rickey Bustle | Louisiana | 2002–06 | Assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Tommy West | Memphis | 2007–09 | Defensive line coach | |
| Jeff Monken | Georgia Southern | 2010 | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| James Franklin | Vanderbilt | 2011–13 | Assistant head coach, co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| James Franklin | Penn State | 2014–21 | 2014–15: assistant head coach, co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach; 2016–21: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| James Franklin | Virginia Tech | 2026 | Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach |
Coached under him, later head coaches (5)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| J.C. Price | Virginia Tech, 2022–25: associate head coach and defensive line coach | Virginia Tech | |
| Joe Rudolph | Virginia Tech, 2022: offensive line coach | Pittsburgh | |
| Shawn Quinn | Virginia Tech, 2022–25: outside linebackers coach | Savannah State | |
| Gunter Brewer | Virginia Tech, 2024: director of high school relations | Northeast Mississippi | |
| Philip Montgomery | Virginia Tech, 2025: offensive coordinator | Tulsa, Virginia Tech |
Other assistants under him (7)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Brad Glenn | Virginia Tech, 2022: passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Chris Marve | Virginia Tech, 2022–24: defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach | |
| Derek Jones | Virginia Tech, 2022–25: cornerbacks coach | |
| Kyshoen Jarrett | Virginia Tech, 2022: graduate assistant | |
| Tyler Bowen | Virginia Tech, 2022: offensive coordinator and tight ends coach; 2023–24: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Xavier Adibi | Virginia Tech, 2022–23: defensive analyst; 2024–25: associate linebackers coach | |
| Sam Siefkes | Virginia Tech, 2025: defensive coordinator |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
How he coached
Pry’s teams went for it on 20% of fourth downs and on 40% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 47% of plays and took 26.6 seconds a play, 2022–2024.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 11 g | 13 of 97 13% | 23% | 52% | 25.3 | −0.09 | |
| 2023 13 g | 26 of 110 24% | 43% | 45% | 27.4 | +0.04 | |
| 2024 13 g | 21 of 98 21% | 48% | 45% | 26.8 | 0.00 | |
| All 37 g | 60 of 305 20% | 40% | 47% | 26.6 | −0.02 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.