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BLACKSBURG — With today’s spring football game at Lane Stadium, Virginia Tech wraps up its second year of spring ball under head coach Brent Pry, a period that he believes has been predictably more productive than Year 1.
Pry said last week that he was encouraged with the overall energy he’s seen from his players and likes how intensity continues to increase in the past several workouts.
“I think it has been serious the whole time, but I’ll say this: This is where some real good evaluation comes,” Pry said. “You’re getting into some real substantial practices and a lot of ... scrimmage reps. You get to really see some guys play and evaluate them.”
Virginia Tech fans will get a chance to do some evaluating of their own today when the spring game kicks off at 3 p.m.
The format for the contest should look traditional for at least the first half. The Hokies plan to play two 12-minute quarters with regular clock stoppages. In the second half, the plan is to use a running clock, and there could be some situational scripts played out.
Many decisions, including who will be the Hokies’ starting quarterback when they line up on Sept. 2 against Old Dominion, will be delayed most likely until some point during fall camp. There are plenty of reasons for that, including several additions and subtractions in the QB room.
Last year’s starting quarterback, Grant Wells, is in an open competition with Baylor transfer Kyron Drones as well as true freshman Pop Watson, redshirt freshman Devin Farrell and redshirt sophomore Tahj Bullock among others.
The quarterback room is also where the most significant coaching change has been made. When last year’s quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator, Brad Glenn, left to become the offensive coordinator at Cincinnati, Pry added those responsibilities to offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen, who had been overseeing the tight ends in 2022. The change has been positive, Pry believes.
“I would say [Grant] is definitely more confident and making better reads,” Pry said. “If you remember, he had a pretty good spring last year. He threw the ball well — and he’s still doing that. I think he and Kyron are competing well.”
Pry, however, also wanted to focus more on some macro-type issues that hampered the Hokies in last year’s 3-8 season.
Prior to the start of spring drills, he named a top priority for each of Virginia Tech’s units that he wanted to see change.
For the offense, Pry said the Hokies must become more successful in running the ball. Last season, Virginia Tech ranked 13th of the 14 ACC schools in total rushing yards, average yards per carry and rushing yards per game.
As a believer that a productive offensive attack starts with a running game — whether a team is running a West Coast, spread or pro-set style — Pry was often frustrated with the Hokies’ lack of results when it tried to run the football.
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“We have to be able to run the football,” Pry said before spring practices began. “There was a lot of time spent during this offseason watching those cut-ups and trying to figure out what we need to do better. Is it schematic, is it technique, is it fundamentals?”
The Hokies also added an offensive consultant midway through the spring with some unique skills. Former Army offensive coordinator Brent Davis has been working with the offense, presumably focusing on the running part of Virginia Tech’s attack.
On defense, producing a better pass rush is at the top of the to-do list. The Hokies sacked opposing quarterbacks just 23 times — again ranking 13th out of 14 in the ACC. The lack of a pass rush put additional pressure on Virginia Tech’s secondary, which ranked 11th in pass defense and managed a conference-worst four interceptions the entire season.
Pry said during the winter that both the defensive line and linebackers were given some hand-to-hand combat training from an outside consultant. The defensive staff hopes this will lead to a more aggressive presence on the field.
And on special teams, Pry believes his long snappers need to become more consistent. He said while there did not appear to be issues at first glance, there was evidence once the special teams video was broken down that snaps that were just off a little tended to cause timing problems for both place-kicking and punting.
Today’s spring games
* Virginia, 2 p.m. (ACC Network)
* Virginia Tech, 3 p.m. (ACC Network Extra)