When the Virginia Tech football team took a 10-point lead into halftime at Lane Stadium on Saturday night in their home opener, head coach Brent Pry knew it might have been more.
The Hokies led 20-10 and reached the red zone on four of their first five drives, but only managed two field goals and two touchdowns. Despite surrendering only 10 points, they struggled to contain the Commodores, with the exception of two turnovers.
You just had the feeling that once Vanderbilt and quarterback Diego Pavia had the ball to start the second half, adjustments would be made and the game would become more competitive. It didn’t work out that way, as the Commodores dominated, outscoring the Hokies 34-0 in what was a terrible 30 minutes of football from Virginia Tech. It didn’t matter that they went for field goals instead of touchdowns in the first half of a 44-20 loss. Following the game, Pry was asked if he felt any pressure about his job security.
Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry responds to a question about his job security
The fans is beyond frustrated, and at his post-game news conference, Tim Thomas of The Tech Lunch Pail questioned the fourth-year head coach whether he felt pressured about his job after yet another loss.
“I am not. “I tell the players to ignore the noise,” Pry explained. “I realized that a long time ago. The expectation here is to win. I am not pleased with where we are right now. Not from a winning standpoint. But I like this team. We’ll regroup, and there’s still plenty of season remaining. “I’m still excited about what we can accomplish.”
It was an important question to ask, and Thomas did. As for the answer, I’m not sure what else he was going to say, but there’s no denying that the seat is quite hot right now. How could it not be? I’ve written it before, and I’ll keep to it. He won’t be fired this week, but he has a very fascinating and difficult non-conference game against Old Dominion at home next weekend. After another setback for the Monarchs, things become interesting.