BLACKSBURG — The last few days on the practice fields outside of Lane Stadium have been therapeutic for the Virginia Tech football team. The players have felt the pop of pads hitting a teammate or a blocking sled. A blaring whistle signals the beginning of a new practice period.
Those sensations came to life for the players and coaches throughout the initial practices after Brent Pry’s firing on Sunday. The practice periods served as an outlet for the players to unleash their emotions and for the coaches to get their minds off not having their head coach leading the charge.
“Their world got shocked and our world got shocked, and so you’ve got to deal with the emotional part of it,” interim coach Philip Montgomery said after Wednesday’s practice. “… I think the best thing for us was to get back on the practice field, have an opportunity to come out here and work, put our focus and all that energy and emotion into what we love to do, which is play this game.”
The Hokies (0-3) went through their traditional Sunday practice not long after Pry’s firing, and Montgomery began putting his stamp on practice and game week preparation throughout the week as Virginia Tech hosts Wofford on Saturday (noon on ACC Network Extra/ESPN Plus).
The contest against the FCS opponent has given the Hokies something to look forward to after a whirlwind weekend ended with a coaching change after three weeks into the season.
In a way, running into Lane Stadium on Saturday could be a way for the team to begin getting back to normal after an abnormal weekend.
“I hope it is for everybody. I hope everyone’s looking forward to that,” special teams coordinator Stu Holt said Wednesday. “We’ve got the best fans in the country. We have the best environment in the country. I love our home games here. I love everything about our football experience here. As far as gameday, you couldn’t ask for anything better. I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t be therapeutic for everyone.”
Montgomery and Holt both spoke highly of the players and how the captains and leaders on the team are focused on bringing energy and urgency to each practice. Montgomery added the effort hasn’t lacked through the three losses and he mentioned the attention to detail was present throughout practices on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I thought they’ve reacted really well to it,” Montgomery said. “Obviously, there’s still a lot of emotion involved. With that being said, they’ve worked extremely hard, they’ve come prepared every day, they’ve shown up on time, and they’ve got a lot of juice and energy about what’s going on right now. So we’ve got to continue that part of it.”
“Our message has been this: we’ve got nine games left, we’ve got a chance to go write an unbelievable story, but it’s going to take all of us to do that,” Virginia Tech interim coach Philip Montgomery said.
Montgomery stressed Tuesday that he wanted the players on this season’s roster to “write an unbelievable story” over the next nine games. The Hokies conclude nonconference play against the Terriers (0-3) before opening ACC play on Sept. 27 at North Carolina State.
The interim coach’s message can focus on how Tech can contend for the ACC title since it hasn’t played a league game yet.
“I think they want to go and I think they would like to represent Coach Pry in a really positive way,” Holt said. “I think that everyone would like to do that. As Coach Montgomery said, the best way to represent Coach Pry is to go have success and go win. That’s what this thing is about. So yeah, we’re very much looking forward to it.”
Montgomery was selected to be an interim coach because of his eight seasons as head coach at Tulsa (2015-22). Two other coaches on staff — J.C. Price and Shawn Quinn — have college head coaching experience, but Montgomery’s ability to lead a team after a slow start factored into him being selected to guide the Hokies for the rest of this season.
Was he ready to lead a program again after being hired seven months ago as offensive coordinator?
“That’s a tough question because that’s not where my mindset was,” Montgomery said of putting his head coaching hat back on. “For this situation to turn over in a matter of (snaps fingers), it seemed like 10 minutes, then all of a sudden you’re just trying to deal with everything that went on and then you’ve got to kind of switch your mindset and then you’ve got to think about what’s right for these players, what’s right for these young men, what’s right for our staff and how we can hold them all together and continue to move forward.”
Montgomery’s focus has been on getting the Hokies turned around after a slow start to the season.
“I think he’s really positive, and we are too. We’re all positive,” Holt said. “We all want what’s best for these guys and we want to finish strong. We’re all professionals at this, so we want to be professional, we want to act professional. We love Virginia Tech and we want Virginia Tech to success, so we want these guys to have the very best experience they can have.”
Damien Sordelett (540) 981-3124
damien.sordelett@roanoke.com
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