Philip Montgomery
Philip Montgomery went 46–59 as a head coach, 2015–2025, at Tulsa and Virginia Tech. Share
- Record
- 46–59 career
- Seasons
- 9
- Schools
- 2
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Dec 21, 1971
- Alma mater
- Tarleton State 1995
- Best season
- 2016 10–3
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Tulsa | 6–7 | 4th | Independence Bowl L | ||
| 2016 | Tulsa | 10–3 | 2nd | Miami Beach Bowl W | ||
| 2017 | Tulsa | 2–10 | 6th | |||
| 2018 | Tulsa | 3–9 | T–5th | |||
| 2019 | Tulsa | 4–8 | T–5th | |||
| 2020 | Tulsa | 6–3 | T–1st | Armed Forces Bowl L | ||
| 2021 | Tulsa | 7–6 | T–3rd | Myrtle Beach Bowl W | ||
| 2022 | Tulsa | 5–7 | T–8th | |||
| 2023–24: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2025 | Virginia Tech interim, remainder of season | 3–6 | T–13th | |||
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.
Players he coached
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 24 | 2–22 | 8% |
| Against top-10 teams | 5 | 0–5 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 7 | 0–7 | 0% |
| Conference games | 70 | 30–40 | 43% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 4 | 2–2 | 50% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 44 | 21–23 | 48% |
| At home | 50 | 27–23 | 54% |
| On the road | 51 | 17–34 | 33% |
| At neutral sites | 4 | 2–2 | 50% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 44 | 31–13 | 70% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 61 | 15–46 | 25% |
His own 105 games on file, 2015–2025, 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ken Niumatalolo 2015–2022 | 1–7 | Navy | 8 | |
| Willie Fritz 2016–2022 | 3–4 | Tulane | 7 | |
| Mike Norvell 2016–2025 | 1–4 | Memphis, Florida State | 5 | |
| Sonny Dykes 2018–2021 | 3–1 | SMU | 4 | |
| Chad Morris 2015–2018 | 2–2 | SMU, Arkansas | 4 | |
| Mike Gundy 2017–2021 | 0–4 | Oklahoma State | 4 | |
| Luke Fickell 2019–2022 | 0–4 | Cincinnati | 4 | |
| Dana Holgorsen 2019–2022 | 1–2 | Houston | 3 | |
| Tom Herman 2015–2018 | 0–3 | Houston, Texas | 3 |
Philip Montgomery’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 |
|---|---|---|
| SMUseries | 8 | 5–3 |
| Tulaneseries | 8 | 4–4 |
| Navyseries | 8 | 1–7 |
| Memphisseries | 7 | 2–5 |
| Houstonseries | 7 | 2–5 |
| Cincinnatiseries | 6 | 1–5 |
| South Floridaseries | 5 | 3–2 |
| UCFseries | 4 | 4–0 |
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Tarleton State | Student assistant | |
| 1995 | Celeste HS (TX) high school | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks and running backs coach | |
| 1996 | Stephenville JR HS (TX) high school | Quarterbacks and running backs coach | |
| 1997–2001 | Stephenville HS (TX) high school | Quarterbacks and running backs coach | |
| 2002 | Denton HS (TX) high school | Offensive coordinator | |
| 2003–06 | Houston | Quarterbacks and running backs coach | |
| 2007 | Houston | Co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks and running backs coach | |
| 2008–11 | Baylor | Co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks and running backs coach | |
| 2012–14 | Baylor | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2015–22 | Tulsa | Head coach | |
| 2023 | Auburn | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2024 | Birmingham Stallions UFL | Co-offensive coordinator | |
| 2025 | Virginia Tech | Offensive coordinator | |
| 2025 | Virginia Tech | Interim head coach | |
| 2026–present | Mississippi State | Assistant head coach and wide receivers coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Art BrilesStephenville HS (TX), Houston, Baylor
- Chris ThurmondHouston
- Hugh FreezeAuburn
- Skip HoltzBirmingham Stallions
- Brent PryVirginia Tech
- Jeff LebbyMississippi State
Assistants who became head coaches
- Sterlin GilbertMcNeese
- J.C. PriceVirginia Tech
- Shawn QuinnSavannah State
Worked under (6)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Art Briles | Stephenville HS (TX) high school | 1997–99 | Quarterbacks and running backs coach | |
| Art Briles | Houston | 2003–07 | 2003–06: quarterbacks and running backs coach; 2007: co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks and running backs coach | |
| Chris Thurmond | Houston | 2007 | Co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks and running backs coach | |
| Art Briles | Baylor | 2008–14 | 2008–11: co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks and running backs coach; 2012–14: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Hugh Freeze | Auburn | 2023 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Skip Holtz | Birmingham Stallions pro | 2024 | Co-offensive coordinator | |
| Brent Pry | Virginia Tech | 2025 | Offensive coordinator | |
| Jeff Lebby | Mississippi State | 2026 | Assistant head coach and wide receivers coach |
Coached under him, later head coaches (3)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sterlin Gilbert | Tulsa, 2015: co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | McNeese | |
| J.C. Price | Virginia Tech, 2025: associate head coach and defensive line coach | Virginia Tech | |
| Shawn Quinn | Virginia Tech, 2025: outside linebackers coach | Savannah State |
Other assistants under him (8)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Bill Young | Tulsa, 2015–18: defensive coordinator and defensive line coach | |
| Brian Norwood | Tulsa, 2015–17: assistant head coach, co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| Joe Gillespie | Tulsa, 2015–18: linebackers coach; 2019–21: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Matt Mattox | Tulsa, 2015: co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach | |
| Luke Olson | Tulsa, 2022: defensive coordinator | |
| Derek Jones | Virginia Tech, 2025: cornerbacks coach | |
| Sam Siefkes | Virginia Tech, 2025: defensive coordinator | |
| Xavier Adibi | Virginia Tech, 2025: associate linebackers coach |
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
Montgomery’s teams went for it on 22% of fourth downs and on 36% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 46% of plays and took 22.2 seconds a play, 2015–2022.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 13 g | 26 of 119 22% | 32% | 49% | 19.6 | +0.15 | |
| 2016 13 g | 16 of 104 15% | 28% | 42% | 20.3 | +0.11 | |
| 2017 12 g | 23 of 100 23% | 32% | 36% | 22.1 | +0.07 | |
| 2018 12 g | 31 of 104 30% | 49% | 40% | 22.4 | −0.03 | |
| 2019 12 g | 23 of 108 21% | 42% | 51% | 22.8 | +0.02 | |
| 2020 9 g | 17 of 74 23% | 34% | 49% | 23.0 | +0.01 | |
| 2021 11 g | 17 of 88 19% | 33% | 46% | 24.3 | 0.00 | |
| 2022 12 g | 18 of 97 19% | 41% | 55% | 24.3 | +0.08 | |
| All 94 g | 171 of 794 22% | 36% | 46% | 22.2 | +0.05 |
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.