Virginia Tech is in desperate need of a breakthrough season after falling well short of expectations in 2024. The offseason brought about some opportunities for change amid some staff shakeup, and this week the program announced one of the most significant additions with the hire of Philip Montgomery as offensive coordinator.
Montgomery arrives with an established reputation as an offensive mind thanks to his rise in the industry that included offensive coordinator stops at Houston and Baylor where he helped coach up game-changing quarterbacks like Robert Griffin III, Bryce Petty and Case Keenum. He took over as head coach at Tulsa in 2015 and led the Golden Hurricane to four bowl games in eight years and the program’s first-ever appearance in the AAC Championship Game in 2020. He spent the 2023 season working with Hugh Freeze at Auburn and then 2024 as co-offensive coordinator for the Birmingham Stallions in the UFL.
Now, with his return to high-level college football, Montgomery will look to be a spark for an offense that has all the pieces to be successful yet found itself with middling results last season.
It all starts with Kyron Drones
The most important piece of this equation, and the one that makes Montgomery’s track record notable, is what’s in store for Kyron Drones’ third year as Virginia Tech’s starting QB. Drones has long shown the physical skill set to be among the most impactful dual-threat quarterbacks in the country, but it wasn’t until after his transfer from Baylor to Virginia Tech in 2023 that things started to come together for the Houston native.
Drones had 17 passing touchdowns to just three interceptions and was second among all ACC quarterbacks with 818 rushing yards on the season. After being named the Military Bowl MVP and reaffirming his commitment to Virginia Tech instead of opting for a transfer portal bidding war, buzz was high around the Hokies’ outlook for 2024. Miami, Clemson and Florida State took up a lot of the oxygen in terms of preseason expectations, but when the topic of “ACC dark horse” came up last July, it was a popular pick to point to Drones and Virginia Tech as a team that could be a major factor in the conference.
So when a preseason conference dark horse finishes tied for 8th in the league and loses a bowl game to finish 6-7, there will be some significant reviews of what went wrong. That’s where Pry is hoping that Montgomery can level up the offense just enough to put the Hokies back where they want to be among their peers in the ACC and national conversation.
And “just enough” is a significant qualifier because Virginia Tech was really, really close to a much better season than 6-7 will indicate.
Bad breaks played a part in 2024 disappointment
Virginia Tech had two road losses in overtime (Vanderbilt and Syracuse), two three-point losses (Rutgers and Duke) and wound up on the wrong end of one of the most stunning early season video reviews when an apparent game-winning Hail Mary was overturned at Miami.
Virginia Tech finished 6-7, but quite literally a handful of plays could have had the Hokies flirting with a double-digit win season. And they accomplished all of this without having Drones 100% healthy (he missed four games due to injury) and with an offense that fell well short of expectations in terms of production. No power conference team with a potential NFL Draft pick at quarterback should be finishing 12th in their conference and 88th nationally in total offense, and with just 367.8 yards per game, that’s exactly where Virginia Tech stood at the end of the season.
When Brent Pry is reviewing the season that was and finding all of the ways those one-score games could have been flipped in the other direction, generating more explosiveness from an offense that did not take a step forward despite multiple returning starters was an obvious place to start.
What’s expected out of Montgomery?
It’s not lost on any Virginia Tech fan that when Pry announced the addition of Montgomery he cited the importance of a coach that “will help us maximize our talent and put our players in the best position to succeed.”
There is no gray area regarding what Virginia Tech wants out of Montgomery. The program — Pry specifically — is looking for an offensive coordinator that can squeeze every bit of production out of the group’s potential. Frank Beamer built Virginia Tech football by winning at the margins and coaching up teams that could maximize their talent. The failure to continue that practice is, in part, what’s led to the demise of the Hokies’ standing in the national scene.
From 1995-2011, Virginia Tech finished ranked in the AP Top 25 poll in 15 of 17 seasons with seven top-10 finishes and seven conference championships in that span (four in the ACC, three in the Big East). In the 13 seasons since, Virginia Tech has finished ranked just twice, and the closest the Hokies have come to competing for an ACC title is a runner-up finish in 2016, the season after Beamer retired and Justin Fuente was hired.
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Pry was given a bit of a pass during his 3-8 campaign in Year 1 due to a horrendous roster situation he inherited. He proceeded to win some support with how the Hokies got hot late in 2023 with Drones and the offense putting up big numbers in the back half of the schedule. Now, after a disappointing series of close losses in 2024, we have reached an inflection point for the Brent Pry era in Blacksburg. It’s Year 4, and he has yet to deliver more than six wins in the regular season or a conference finish better than T-4th.
Montgomery’s hiring is a statement of intent and acknowledgement of the importance packed into the season ahead. Virginia Tech has to maximize its talent in all three phases of the game, but especially on offense with a quarterback who many believe has a future playing on Sundays. He brings a coaching profile of innovation and explosiveness, and now he’ll look to instill that as part of Virginia Tech’s offensive identity in a make-or-break season in Blacksburg.
