2025 VT Football Notebook: What Comes Next?

Saturday night, fireworks shot from the top of a mostly empty Lane Stadium after each of the Hokies' four garbage time scores against ODU. Those scores resulted in a scoreboard that does not accurately reflect the beatdown that occurred. I could spend pages writing about all the errors and poor decisions that led to the 45-26 final. However, the details of the game are inconsequential compared to the questions surrounding the future of the program and who will lead it. 

I’ve been a part of a couple of splatterings, as CFB Analyst Josh Pate calls them. My sophomore year of college, my team lost 84-14 to our biggest rival. It was a lifeless effort filled with turnovers and penalties. At that moment, the locker room knew it was over. There were no speeches, no players-only meetings, just silence and dejection. The coaches finished out the season, and even won the final game, and even won it, but the writing was on the wall. Our coaching staff was fired after a disappointing 5-5 season.

Saturday night in Blacksburg had a very similar feel. After a first-quarter fumble by the Monarchs, they dominated the evening, scoring on their next four drives. The Hokies had no response on either side of the ball. An onslaught of mistakes turned this loss from bad to an all-time embarrassing one. The Hokies had 12 penalties for over 100 yards. Kyron Drones gave the ball away twice, once on a fumble inside the 5-yard line, and again on a deep ball that was picked. Drones also had an opportunity to pick up a first down with his feet, but slid short of the line. The team was down double digits, desperately needing a spark, and the leader of the offense slid with nobody around him. The Hokies did not just lose this game; they did so in a sloppy, embarrassing fashion that signals a team that appears to have given up. 

The biggest positive of the night was seeing how much Hokie Nation still supports this team. It was not a sellout like last week, but after the last 30 minutes against Vandy, that was expected. Hokie Nation showed up, and the students were out in full force, but they were let down by their favorite team. 

Those fans are understandably furious. Boos began to erupt before the ball was even kicked Saturday night when Brent Pry was introduced. The jeers, chants, and boos only got louder even as the crowd got smaller. The noise around this program and Pry’s future with it has only grown louder as the weeks pass and losses begin to stack up. Coach Pry understands the frustrations and said the Hokies let the fans down. The players are also feeling the heat and hearing the noise, but say they still believe in Pry and where this program is headed.

Despite the September struggles, Pry still believes in the strides the program has made and believes the roster is more talented than when he took over. 

I don’t know what’s going to happen for Pry and the rest of this program in the coming days and weeks. It is clear that the wholesale changes some fans are clamoring for come with complications. 

What I do know is that these fans deserve better. Hokie Nation is filled with the best fans in the country. They show up and support this team, even if they are not rewarded on the field. So no matter who is at the helm of this program, Virginia Tech needs to give some hope back to the fans who give their time, money, and heart to the program every Saturday.