Pry's Checklist Revealed Unsustainable Situation
The strategic evaluation that led to this week's dismissal of two Virginia Tech football coaches
“I think it’s important to understand that the job description isn’t just what you see on the field,” Pry said. “There’s recruiting, there’s relationships, there’s player development, there’s player production. All of it is very important. And when I evaluate coaches and staff members, the entire job description is part of that. Where are we meeting standards? Where are we not? And when not enough of those boxes are being checked, there’s a concerning issue.”
-Brent Pry, December 13, 2024 Press Conference
Brent Pry shared the above illuminating quote in a veiled reference to Ron Crook and the reasons why he was let go this week, but it also holds true for Chris Marve.
While the two coaches are very different, the root causes for each man’s dismissal are quite similar.
Namely, they struggled in recruiting, determining player positions, and allotting playing time.
To flesh this out, I thought it would be instructive to work through the framework by which the decisions were made, as laid out by Pry.
Christ Marve - Defensive Coordinator
What you saw on the field - an underachieving unit that, despite generally playing well in the first half of games, continually blew second half leads
Recruiting - Low Marks
Marve’s biggest recruiting failure was middle linebacker, where he was too often forced to play guys who were better suited to other positions (e.g., Alan Tisdale, Jaden Keller, Jayden McDonald). Aycen Stevens, the one true middle linebacker that Marve signed, ended up moving to defensive end. He got Sam Brumfield out of the portal, who was solid, if unspectacular, at mike in 2024.
Relationships - High Marks
By all reports, Marve is a highly intelligence “player’s coach”. There were no issues here.
Player Development - Neutral
Some may disagree here, but the eye test can be deceiving. Many of Marve’s linebackers improved year-over-year, and for those that didn’t, it was usually more a case of a guy trying to play a position to which he was ill-suited.
Guys who showed solid improvement under Marve’s tutelage include Dax Hollifield (2022), Jayden McDonald (2023), Jaden Keller (2024), and Caleb Woodson (2024).
Key players who did not improve during the Marve era include Alan Tisdale (2023), Keli Lawson (2023-24), and Sam Brumfield (2024). Tisdale and Lawson demonstrated notable declines, while Brumfield had already reached his ceiling before arriving at Virginia Tech.
Player Production - Low Marks
Outside of Dax Hollifield in 2022, inside linebacker play under Marve was middling at best, and atrocious at worst. It was a limiting factor in what he could do with the defense as its coordinator.
Verdict - Good Coach, Good Tactician, Bad Manager
Much of the criticism toward Marve has been about his supposed inability to adjust to what opposing offenses were throwing at him.
I do not find such an argument persuasive.
The Hokies won plenty of games in a blowout fashion, and Marve seemingly had no problem making adjustments to those opposing offenses.
Rather, it was Marve’s personnel choices that limited his adjustment options. Good teams were able to attack Tech’s weaknesses at middle linebacker and strong safety, forcing Marve to schematically cover up those deficiencies.
The result was that players at other positions were stressed beyond what they could handle.
Tech’s 2024 corners were good, but not great. Neither Strong nor Delane could truly lock down his side of the field. And when forced to play press man coverage every down, it was not a question of if there would be a lapse that led to a big play, but when.
Against Rutgers, Marve had to pick his poison. He the chose play-action rollout pass to the tight end over letting Kyle Monangai run wild. To Rutgers’ credit, they called that roll-out play over and over and over.
There, as so often during his tenure as the Hokies defensive coordinator, the sin lay not in the tactical decision, but rather in the personnel management that put Marve in a position of choosing between sub-optimal tactical options.
Ron Crook
What you saw on the field - a unit that improved from poor in 2022 (under Joe Rudolph) to average in 2023 to good in 2024 (the last two years under Crook)
Recruiting - Low Marks
Crook was responsible for the 2024 and 2025 offensive line classes (plus one portal acquisition prior to the start of the 2023 season), which had the following ratings according to 247Sports:
2023 - OT Clayton Frady (Transfer, 86)
2024 - OT Aidan Lynch (High School, 87); IOL Tommy Ricard (HS, 87); OT Web Davidson (HS, 85); OT Montavious Cunningham (T, 87)
2025 - IOL Nathaniel Wright (HS, 88); IOL Carter Stallard (HS, 87)
There is nothing particularly wrong with the high school recruits. Four out of the five were rated 87 or 88.
The problem is that there just were not enough of them. And that would be fine if Crook had shown any prowess in the portal.
However, that was not the case. Frady and Cunningham arrived as finished products, neither of which was competitive at the power conference level.
In fact, the portal acquisitions were so bad that they call into question Crook’s ability to evaluate talent.
Relationships - Low Marks
Chris Coleman over at TechSideline detailed the issues that led to mistrust between Crook and his players. I have nothing to add on this point.
Player Development - High Marks
Crook’s players showed solid development, both as individuals and as a unit.
The entire offensive line returned in 2024, and the year-over-year changes in each player’s PFF grades makes for a great apples-to-apples comparison.
It is important to keep in mind that nearly everything else was held constant. Same backfield, same receivers, same offensive coordinator, same position coaches.
In addition to the solid gains made by the starters, for first time in three years, the Hokies were able to rotate in some bench guys.
Crook had his weaknesses, but coaching was not one of them.
Player Production - High Marks
The 2024 offensive line was a good unit, one that paved the way for a great rushing attack and a solid passing game.
This season’s offense was the best since the 2016 unit led by Jerod Evans.
Considering that 247Sports did not rate any of this year’s offensive line starters higher than an 86 coming out of high school, I think we have to tip our collective hat to Crook.
Not only was he the best offensive line coach the Hokies could have gotten on the eve of spring practice in 2023, but he was arguably the best fit in the short-term, period.
Crook lived up to his reputation of turning low-talent offensive lines in serviceable units. In Tech’s case, he turned average talent into a good product.
Crook has never been a long-term solution, and he wasn’t going to be this time around either. But he put in two good years of work in Blacksburg.
One could argue that he should have been one-and-done, but keeping Crook was critical to the Hokies’ chances of winning eight to nine games in 2024.
The hope was that such success would make Tech a more attractive destination, compensating for Crook’s lack of recruiting prowess.
That did not work out, and now the Hokies are behind the eight-ball from a numbers perspective along the offensive line.
Verdict - Good Coach, Ok Tactician, Bad Manager
Crook’s simplified techniques help him get the most out of his players, but the limits of his teachings often became clear against better competition.
In the current environment, in which the number of on-field coaches has increased significantly, Crook is probably better suited to an assistant offensive line coaching role.
His sweet spot is probably the G5 level, but even there, he does not have the recruiting chops to be a long-term solution as the primary offensive line coach.
A few words on Dwight Galt
After the Duke game, I wrote about how the offensive scheme with Drones at quarterback is predicated on too many high impact collisions, which leads to key players getting injured.
However, you will also recall that I wrote all season about hidden injuries - guys who just magically disappeared (with little publicity) despite not suffering an obvious injury during a game.
There were a number of such suspected injuries on defense, especially early in the year.
I kept waiting to hear about surgery and rehab, but for the most part those reports did not come. Apparently, many were of the nagging, slow-to-heal nature.
When Pry, in his Friday press conference, talked about too many players not being in good shape to start the year, I suspect at least some of the suspected injuries I noted were a result of such conditioning issues.