Virginia Tech is close to reaching an agreement to bring back Brent Pry as the program’s defensive coordinator under new head coach James Franklin, sources confirm to Sports Illustrated. The deal has not yet been finalized.
Virginia Tech is close to reaching an agreement to bring back Brent Pry as the school’s defensive coordinator under James Franklin, sources confirm to @SINow.
The deal has not yet been finalized. @mzenitz And @RJ_cfb were the first to report.
–Mike McDaniel (@MikeMcDanielSI) December 7, 2025
CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz and Richard Johnson were first to report that Virginia Tech was targeting Pry to fill one of the most important positions on Franklin’s staff.
Pry was fired as head coach of Virginia Tech in September, just three games into his fourth season on the job. He left Franklin’s staff at Penn State to take the head coaching job at Blacksburg in 2022.
In addition to serving as Franklin’s defensive coordinator at Penn State, Pry had also served as Franklin’s defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt.
The two men have a long-standing friendship that goes hand in hand with their professional relationship, as evidenced by Franklin’s emotional introductory press conference at Virginia Tech when he paid tribute to Pry.
Pry went 16-24 as head coach at Virginia Tech, but created several strong defenses at Penn State. His relationship with existing players on Virginia Tech’s defense could prove key to holding the team together during a transition period with the new coaching staff.
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