Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry is already feeling the heat after an 0-2 start to the 2025 season, capped by a 44-20 Week 2 home loss to Vanderbilt. The Commodores outscored the Hokies 34-0 in the second half alone, and with five minutes remaining, the stadium was largely empty — a rare sight for Lane Stadium. The season opened with a disappointing loss to South Carolina, led by Shane Beamer, the beloved son of former Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer.
Experts on CBS Sports’ College Football Insiders podcast said the combination of poor results and high expectations has put Pry squarely on the hot seat. Brandon Marcello noted that Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock publicly set the bar for the program before the season, telling the board of trustees that the Hokies need to start winning more games — roughly nine per season — in order to secure a larger share of the ACC’s new unequal revenue-distribution system.
“If he’s saying that publicly and kind of setting the stage and the expectation and you’re seeing this, it seems like the writing is on the wall and that it’s just almost a matter of time for Brent Pry to be out the door unless he starts going on a very, very big run here this season,” Marcello said.
Virginia Tech’s struggles have been apparent for some time. The Hokies hired Pry in November 2021 to replace Justin Fuente and faced a rough debut season in 2022, finishing 3-8 overall with just one win against ACC competition. He rebounded in 2023 with a 7-6 record, but last year’s 6-7 finish with a bowl loss indicated the program had yet to fully stabilize.
Across three seasons, Pry compiled a 16-23 record, with a 10-13 mark in ACC play, and the 0-2 start in 2025 intensified scrutiny on whether the Hokies are headed in the right direction.
“It’s just trending in a way that — I don’t want to say it’s inevitable, but again, talking to people around the industry, it keeps coming up again and again and again that Virginia Tech might get pushed into having to do something here,” John Talty said.
The shadow of Fuente’s tenure still looms over Pry. The Hokies went 43-31 overall in six seasons with Fuente, who won at least eight games three times, while Pry has yet to win more than seven in a season. Fuente was fired before the end of the 2021 campaign after the team started 5-5, leaving Pry to inherit a program with high expectations but lingering inconsistencies.
“Brent Pry better pile up some wins as the season goes along, because that is a job a lot of people are watching,” Chris Hummer said.
There is at least a potential silver lining for Pry and the Hokies. Outside of Florida State and Miami, the ACC hasn’t looked particularly strong through the first two weeks of the season, and losing to a pair of SEC opponents to open the year isn’t necessarily a death knell.
That means Virginia Tech still has an opportunity to string together wins and build momentum before facing the ACC’s top programs in back-to-back weeks come mid-November. How Pry navigates this upcoming stretch could determine whether the Hokies salvage their season — and whether he remains at the helm beyond 2025.
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