Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry sends a message to his returning players

Between the Virginia Tech football team becoming bowl eligible with a 55-17 Thanksgiving weekend loss in Virginia and the Hokeis’ 41-20 Military Bowl victory over Tulane on Dec. 28, the Hokies and head coach Brent Pry got some early and later. Christmas gifts with a ton of retention for the 2024 season.

Quarterback Kyron Drones headlined a number of key players on the 2023 team who announced he was returning to Blacksburg for another season. Running back Bhayshul Tuten and receivers Jaylin Lane, Stephen Gosnell, Ali Jennings and Da’Quan Felton also announced their returns. On the defensive side of the ball, Antwaun Powell-Ryland and his 9.5 sacks heralded his return, as did Dorian Strong and Mansoor Delane in the secondary are just a few examples of the retention Pry achieved.

It’s safe to say Pry was pleased with how things went during spring practice and the annual spring game in April, but the third-year head coach had a message for his returning players before the start of the camp in preparation for the 2024 campaign.

Virginia Tech returns 22 starters from a 7-6 team that won five of its eight ACC games and then a bowl game after a 1-3 start. Pry had a simple message for his team which caused a lot of ink to flow following the last nine games of the season.

“They work hard. I challenge them all to raise their game and find ways to improve. The last thing I said was, ‘Don’t come back to be the same guy.’ Come back to be better and they all do. That’s the key to our success.”

– Brent Pry

His players seem to have understood the message loud and clear. Drones spent time this offseason training with Miami quarterback Cam Ward and Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, while Felton and Jennings also tagged along to work out.

The first message was sent by the players during the winter, when there was a lot of retention, now the message is sent by their coach and it seems that the message is being received by a team that has a lot of enthusiasm around a program that has not been adopted. This has not been the case for several years.