Brent Pry on the ropes | Can Virginia Tech afford to buy out another football coach?

Virginia Tech’s 0-2 start, and the way the second loss played out last night – Vanderbilt trailed 20-10 at halftime, and won 44-20, holding the Hokies to 21 total yards in the second half – has Tech fans burning down the interwebs calling for the head of coach Brent Pry.

Pry is now 16-23 two games into his fourth season as the head coach, at a program where the glory days of Frank Beamer feel like they almost didn’t happen, they’re so long ago.

Pry replaced Beamer’s successor, Justin Fuente, who was let go with two games to go in the 2021 season following a six-year tenure that saw his teams compile a 43-31 record.

Fuente’s first two teams, in 2016 and 2017, went 10-4 and 9-4; his last four were a cumulative 24-23.

If 24-23 over a four-year stretch is enough to get you a pink slip down Blacksburg way, 16-23 plus whatever happens the rest of the way in 2025 is certainly next man up territory.

A key issue here is, can Tech afford to buy out the remainder of Pry’s contract?

Pry’s total compensation, according to the copy of the contract that I got back from a FOIA request earlier this year, will be at $4.75 million for the 2025 season, and increases to $5 million per year for the 2026 and 2027 seasons.

Per the details of his contract, if Pry were to be fired after the 2025 season, he would be due 70 percent of the value of his total compensation for 2026, so, $3.5 million, and 50 percent of the total compensation for 2027, so, $2.5 million.

That’s pretty AD-friendly, if you ask me – $6 million.

Pry’s deal is set to expire on Dec. 1, 2027.

Tech AD Whit Babcock made a well-known presentation to the school’s Board of Visitors last month detailing how dramatically far behind the athletics department is relative to its Power 4 peers – roughly, per his presentation, $60 million behind, annually.

A fair question on top of that one would be – should the AD who flubbed the final years of the Beamer era, hired Fuente, which didn’t work out, and then hired Pry, which seems to be on the verge of not working out, be the guy to hire yet another football coach?

Circle Oct. 11 on your calendars here. The Hokies play at Georgia Tech on that date, and then head into a bye week, with the next game on the schedule not until Friday, Oct. 24, at home against Cal.

Tech has winnable games with ODU and Wofford the next two weeks, ahead of a Sept. 27 road trip to NC State, and another winnable home game with Wake Forest on Oct. 4.

A slip-up in any of the ODU, Wofford or Wake games that puts the Hokies at 2-4 heading into the bye could have Pry – and maybe even Babcock? – contacting a moving company come Oct. 12.