Rebuilding A Program

1:51 And welcome back to the boundary Corner podcast, along with my partners. Brian Siegel. And Jonathan tally, I'm Curtis Wilson and this episode is brought to you by. Dr. Jeremy counts at the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg, if you love this podcast, the Hokies the town of Plattsburgh. Make sure you are supporting Main Street. Pharmacy, when you make your way to town, whether you need prescriptions a tube of toothpaste or just want to stop and say, hello, let Jeremy and his team take care of you. The money, you spend goes towards the thing. You love and support. So next time, you're in Blacksburg head on down to 301 South Main Street, fellas. I don't know if you noticed, but there's some new music in the intro there for this episode.

2:32 This is, yeah, yeah, that's our man. Jason long with a little cover of Midnight Rider. They're not a lie. You know who originally recorded Midnight Rider, right? Midnight? Rado. Pretty sure that's by the Allman Brothers. He got it. Yes, I'm in Brothers. You know who's The big fan of the Allman Brothers, right? I think I know somebody somebody that was talking about playlist a few weeks back. Hey, coach Brent pry. I yeah, so so boundary corn podcast listeners with all that being said, It is an absolute pleasure, to Welcome to the boundary Corner podcast.

3:13 Today, not only is he a big, Allman Brothers fan but he is the head coach of your Virginia Tech. Hokies, welcome coach. Brent fry coach Frey. How you doing? I'ma tell you had me worried for a minute. I was like, okay, I hope they don't think that's Gregg. Allman wasn't bad, but certainly not Gregg Allman here. Be great almond though. Absolutely hard. But I buddy when we told him we thought about having you on he's like I'm going to record it because he's putting out a CD and a few days here, love it.

3:53 He was said he wanted to do the tip of the cap. Not only to the Allman Brothers but to coach Pride because he I buddies down in Roanoke. Tell me his name again. Jason long great will tell him. I appreciate it. We absolutely will Coach Has everything been man? We know you are busy as heck. These last few months here? Yeah, it's been a good good spring. And then, of course, the assistants hit the road recruiting and we've been doing hokey club events around the state which have been well received. And now, we're just got all our guys in for summer, on Sunday night. We had a big team meeting and so they're already rocking and rolling and lifting and running and getting things going. So, Also own into phase 3.

4:41 When you know, you just said the, the tailgate and over last night last night, right. You sure did? Yeah, we had a great. We flew out yesterday. At before lunch, we had a great lunch. With some very important donors and supporters of the program, Mike Vick was in attendance, Kendall, Fuller, and obviously some prominent guys that support the program and that lasted a couple hours and we went over to two silos. As in, you know, had a nice nice time there, met a ton of people, my wife, Amy goes with us to those things and shake a lot of hands, kiss, a lot of babies and share that hokey love.

5:22 Yes sir. Yes sir. Well coach, you already mentioned phase 3 and you know as we kind of wrapping up the spring and everything here, we're about halfway through the calendar year, how do you feel overall phase one, the winter workouts and you as you call them and Phase 2 spring practice. How do you feel It went for the team. Yeah, I'd say I was pleased. Phase one was much more competitive. That's a combination of morning workouts, football sessions weight room a lot of one-on-one reps in agility, cone work. Matt drills, we documented all the Reps and called out winners and the level of compete just rows and rows and rows as we went.

6:05 So, very pleased there. I think our Our pad level, our footwork, things like that improved, as well as the compete level, then Phase 2 Spring ball, you know, that's where guys getting opportunity. That hadn't been in it too deep previously and all the sudden they're inserted and they're getting meaningful reps. And you know, I thought the fundamentals were there, I thought there was growth at each position. I thought there was Improvement. You don't do your whole package in the spring but there was improvement with what? What we did install offensively and defensively. Well, talking about spring.

6:46 Practice a little bit, we know you've been coaching a long, long time. Coach kind of new to head coaching. So, last year being your first year and it's being your second year where there any particular areas of focus that you kind of input it this year or focused on this year more than last year? Yeah, I think this I think you know, it's steals get but it still gets back to identifying the weaknesses. With each guy on your roster and that could be the best player on the team. It could be number 125 but you have to be able to talk to identify those weaknesses and talk to those guys about it and how do we improve on them? You know, that's a big area emphasis and I think in year one it's hard to know enough about each guy. If you hadn't been around up enough, yeah, you know, and that's all on the field.

7:40 That's off the field, that's all of it. So when you have a whole cycle with them and you just feel a little better about what, you know, and you can work on things. Felt like we did a good job. They're much better job, myself and the staff. And then the additional piece is just, you know, really being the best head coach a can be yes, sir definitely has waited half my time back in the defensive room. I was able to spend a bunch of time right here. At this desk, don't head coaching duties the from the so kind of going back to that as well. That was there any things that you kind of scrap from last year now that you're putting more of that head coaching hat on most of the time, if your scrap anything from last year that you did and kind of what led to that if you did.

8:28 Yeah, to be honest, just spit, not spending the time in that defensive room. You know, not feeling like, okay, I got to go back there from 9 to 11 and from from three to four, and just gave my calendar. A lot more freedom to do other things within the program within the community on the University campus just was able to be a better more well-rounded head coach. I feel like that's awesome. I love hearing that I'm just now. Yeah it's definitely nice earring that you know some Beyond a focus On those head coach do. That's definitely something that we like to hear what position group from the spring and in the winter workouts. Do you think kind of exceed your expectation kind of during the course of those two phases.

9:16 Yeah I think the wideouts showed the most Improvement, they had to longest way to go. Well they might have been right last last year but I'll tell you coach mines, has done a fabulous job recruiting and coaching that group. We've had some As develop, Stephen does nail Tucker. Holloway's Avion, Bradshaw. We've recruited some Highschool guys. That were excited about developing Aiden. Green Marcel Baylor, the chi, he's penix, Fitzgerald. I mean, when you talk about the three transfers Felton, Lane, and Jennings, all three of them, have a chance to be in the starting lineup and if not, they're going to be in a serious role.

10:03 Location. So we really helped ourselves are we couldn't separate well enough last year. We didn't catch the ball. Well enough, we weren't fast enough, we didn't have depth so I think we got a chance to have a true six. Maybe seven that we feel really good about catching the ball Route 1 and yards after catch, you know, some of those guys needed, you know, we got to have some guys who make some big-time plays and Big Time moments. That's that's a big step forward from last year with you know, the only Kayla Smith was the the big reliable but you didn't really have a whole lot of consistent output Beyond him. So outside of him, there wasn't much, you know, and he was, he was up and down with his health and you know how many snaps you can play and if he was going to play, but I think we're in a much better place there. I love coach how you just speak.

10:54 So candidly saying that wide receiver group was last last year and how they've taken those tried. That's wonderful to hear and, you know, you mentioned some of those transfers including Jalen Lane, you know, we didn't get to see Jalen, you know, at the spring game because he was a little banged up and those are things that can be unforeseen and there ain't no reason to take any unnecessary risks. This is a spring game, you're wrapping up at face. No reason aggravated Nick but that's certainly impacts the balance of the game and these boys that I had to ask this question because I've talked about it several times on the podcast that make that doesn't mean I got to answer it. It doesn't trip. In this. Now, couple years, do you foresee any change to the spring game format? Given the limitations, you know, we knew Xavier Chaplin was out on that white team this year and that was a big loss for them. How do you see that going forward? Or is that something self-evaluation constantly. Yeah, I think that's an annual evaluation on how you want to do it.

11:56 You know for us right now we still needed four, quarters game Operation game management. The whole team and staff needed that in the stadium. As we get further down the road. If we get to a better place which I hope we will, maybe it can be a little more geared towards just, you know, seeing guys work and little bit more like a scrimmage situation rather than game situation and, you know, get more out of it that way. But also let me tell you when you hit that last practice you don't want to lose anybody. Yes sir you know the haze almost in the barn. There's Going to be a handful of guys, every year that need that game. That need the evaluation, you know, that need to experience. And they're generally not in that line up. There may be a backup guy that surfaced or somebody that was banged up early in Spring.

12:48 And you say, you know what, it's worth the risk, we got to go get him a good day, but I've lost starters in the spring game and other places other years and that's a bad feeling. So, we came out of that thing healthy, which was put a smile on everybody's face. Absolutely. That's a big step towards the summer, right? Nobody's barely injured. It's hard to get better when you're in that training room. Hey gum right? Yeah, definitely. But another one of those required by law questions. Coach, now you're not required by law to answer, but I'm required to ask about the quarterback battle just a little bit, but just touching on it a little bit different. What areas did you see growth with Wells and drones in that Phase 1 & 2?

13:40 Like what areas did each one of those growing more? Yeah I say this great is a he's a better student of the game. He made better choices. Really proud of what coach Bowens at how coach has impacted that room being in there every day. In the relationship, he's built with Grant and Chiron in the young guys. So I think the decision making by Grant and then with Chiron you just saw a guy get better each and every day he just slowly but surely from practice, one to practice 14.

14:23 Look like a different quarterback. I mean you got to opposite ends of the spectrum. You got Wells whose a three-year starter at the college level. Level you got Chiron. Who's never started a game? But has a really, really good skill. Set can spin it. He's 63 nearly 235. He's got could speed one of the stronger guys, on our team. So, you know, both those guys, I thought really showed some some good things this spring, and then the young guy, pop Watson, Dylan Wiki, I thought they both did some good things. I'm pleased with where they're at is fresh.

15:05 Men and Papas able to go out and make a few Splash plays in the spring game, which was good. But quietly Dylan went out and managed his couple of series really well, I didn't have an opportunity to make a play, but man, he made really good decisions. And sometimes, as you said, those lines are patched together and those quarterbacks got, you know, it's a little bit tougher to manage and operate. Yeah, and speaking of Dylan I mean he had that one ball. I think that went off of receivers hands on a deep ball, they're kind of laid the in the spring game. So that was a good chance to see what he could do. Kind of get the ball down field, let's kind of rewind. A little bit though, heading into spring, practice.

15:46 He had to make some changes to the makeup of your offensive staff with Coach Rudolph, coach, Glenn, moving on. How do you feel coach Bowen and Coach hold have adjusted to these changes so far? This offseason yeah it's been great. You know I I'll start Art with Boeing. I my gut wanted him to coach quarterbacks. When we started this thing, you know, a long time ago, Wiki bustle and you guys know Rick. Okay, I'm hired me as a 31-year old coordinator at Louisiana Lafayette. And man, I tell you what, I'd coached a ton of dbe's, I'd coach D line, never coach linebackers and I just said, you know what, I need to do it to be the best coordinator? I can be I need to go do this from the linebacker position and so I had that gut you know that gut feeling and just didn't move on it, you know.

16:35 So Tyler had been a tight end guy and a really good one but, you know, so I'm very pleased, you know, he got more involved in that room. The stretch and then, you know, this winter, this spring seen him in you know the work that's done with those guys. Those quarterbacks at this level they got to live the life every day. They got to be chomping at the bit for the game plan. They got to be in that film room all the time. Now, there's just things that are necessary, be to be a good quarterback in power 5 ball. And you know, and I think Tyler has really he's laid out of a really good plan for those guys. Help me and further process. And so, it's been a good move and thence to hold, he's just a good football coach.

17:23 He's coached running back, she's coached ID, and she's coached him daggone. Good tight ends and so that was easy. He's a really first guy, it was easy to move out to the tight ends and you got good leadership by guy, like Nick Gallo out there who is going to help that transition. And when you're the Special Teams, coordinator you work with all the positions. Yep. Oh, he already. He had relationship with those guys. And that, you know, that was I'm very pleased with the direction that went with the addition of Elijah Brooks who I've known for a long time, what he did at DeMatha on the recruiting, front on the coaching, front on a development piece, all of it.

18:03 And then, you know, seeing them at Maryland, you know, those last three years I was at Penn, State, and coaching against Tim and and recruiting against him and understanding, you know my clock. Locksley and knowing Mike and just how they recruit there. And so it was it was we were fortunate to get Elijah and then Ron crook Ron's a guy didn't know as well but so many people I trust and respect for years and years reached out about Ron and said the right things that are meaningful to me. That made sense for Virginia Tech, that makes sense for Brent pride and make sense for our own line room. So feel great about both those guys Footprint guys, which, you know, you guys hear me.

18:47 Say that all the time. Oh yeah. Plenty of ties. They strengthen our ability to be really good in our footprint. So to me, it was, you know, we were a win-win. Yeah. It sounds like that with Coach Brooks and Coach crook coming in, they were able to hit the ground running and those 15 practices. And clearly, you know, you talk about footprint, you know, from our buddy, Robbie talking about being up in the state of West Virginia and like, Ohio. And I Obviously Elijah that DeMatha connection man. I mean when he came on and we I read his biography and it said he is the winningest coach in the map of History because that's what that's like, because I go back there. And the first thing I thought of somebody you work with, I thought, Billy Hite was that demand the connection for so many years and getting another one, and you're getting the most successful coach. That's big stuff.

19:37 Yeah. Good higher force. And, you know, you got great family and he's been in, he's been in high-powered League. And you know, for four years and it just, you know, you look for certain things, you don't know if you're going to get a guy who's going to check every box. But I tell you, we got awful close for me and then Ron when you talk about Ron and I joke about it. But, you know, there's all these Tiny's programs in the state of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, right? So, you know, he coached at Glanville my mom's a Glanville grad, right? When I was young, we would take trips to Glanville. He coached it at West Virginia. Tech my dad coached at West Virginia Tech.

20:19 You know, he coached at Clarion my dad coached at Clarion, you know, he's from Parkersburg. I mean, we were, we were at Louis County forever for four years. And so there's just all these small College relationships and you know what those places are about, and the products of those places and I know what they did for my dad and what they did for me and you coach at places, like East Stroudsburg and You know, so that meant a lot to me in, you know, in the process and in the evaluation and what we're going to do for us, definitely coach. We talk about those coaches and Coach hires not long after spring, you made hired at most Hokies are very familiar with mr.

21:02 James Johnson Bible Jake. Nobody straight Noble. Jackie, we know, we know he had been in the building a lot or as of late Before that official announcement and his title. And see its title is director of high school relations. Can you speak a little bit more about specifically what his job entails? Or what his role entails? Yeah. So he's just checking higher at that spot. Glenwood fear. Beach, there Glenwood was a head coach in Virginia Beach and then down in Charlotte, and these positions are about building relationships with high school recruits and their families. He's and High School coaches assistance in head.

21:47 It's about these guys diving in and knowing the assistant principal at a school in Charlotte. Well, used to be a coke with them. It's about a guy being from Richmond being from Virginia Beach. Having roots in our footprint particularly in the state of Virginia it's you know neither one of those guys is evaluating film right. Well that's not really what there. They may be sitting in there when we're looking at a guy and I'm sure double Jo get better as time goes, but I know this, he can evaluate athleticism, you know, definitely. But when you talk about people skills and likeable personality and positive energy and all these things that you want, when people visit our program and come into our facility Coach Johnson, has all of that. He's very well throughout stood in the area. He's very Well, respected in this department very well thought of across the Commonwealth. So that was a he was kind of a latecomer to the idea of hey, you know, what do you think coach, would you be interested in this?

22:58 He had, he had a cyst in opportunities at several places at good places, and he's got such a passion for Virginia Tech. He been around our program enough. He sat in many staff meetings, many team. We knew what we were about and he wanted to be part of it, you know which which may be awful proud and excited to get him on board with us. We appreciate you guys coach putting it on there about what that high school relations is because I think a lot of people were thinking, oh, they're filming. They're out there at the games on Friday nights. Looking at these players. Thank you for finally clarifying, that and some house. Let's talk a little bit more about recruiting day. One, never forget it.

23:39 You said we're going to recruit the state of Virginia, 6, I right. 80s from Blacksburg your about 18 months in the year. 10 year, how do you feel your vision is starting to level up with the caliber of players you want to play football in Blacksburg? Yeah, we've uh we've got a really good job. I think investing in the state and in the footprint, you know, it's not always easy for the assistance because they just, you know, they want to go recruit the 10 best linebackers in the country, you know? And so there's been some education and some, you know, some direction and Leadership for me to say, Hey listen, it's instead of you going to Texas to see a guy in flying back and get one visit in a whole day if you recruit the footprint.

24:25 And you go see these four or five guys you know more than likely one or two emerging to develop into a player that we would want. Uh-oh, they've done a good job. Putting in a time, I told a story at that donor luncheon, yesterday, that first December. I was hired, we went in Warwick High School, Mike Vick School, took a picture with the Jersey, you know, and they didn't have me both for sin and seen a Virginia Tech coach and six years. Hmm, that's crazy. - and that's just a different philosophy. I'm not knocking that last punch. But for me, you know, And how we're going to do it, man. I want to be the front runner. There's a prospect that might fix cool. We got all the reason in the world to think, even if he becomes a national recruit everybody in her mother wants, you know man this is Mike's cool guy relationship with Mike Weir in there every year.

25:20 Here we go. No I don't think there should be a good player in the state of Virginia that has a better relationship with anybody with any staff more than ours. They may choose to go somewhere else and they will But the relationship piece we got to win that. Yeah, definitely, definitely. That's that's a that's part of not talking too much about the other bunch of like you said, but that's part of the things that were missing with recruiting and what US fans were kind of frustrated with. So glad to hear you say that coaching. Also, something else you mentioned was the portal. We've seen this offseason to Stronger, use of the portal to feel some spots on the roster. Is it going to be your ' going forward to, you know, use the poor that way, is it still going to be kind of a availability and fit thing.

26:11 Yeah, uh I need and fit you know, where we feel like we need an older guy or did we lose you know that we not do well enough with our freshman class at a particular area that says we might need to go to the portal you know, for a guy or two, you know, do you lose a guy me weave? You know, this roster is really flipped and then we've got, we've got 30 37, new players, 36 new players, you know, since that, since the season ended. Yeah.

26:53 It's but to do that, you know, there's got to be action in the portal, right fortunate. We only had one player hit that thing since we've been here that we didn't want to see go. That was the wide receiver, Caleb Smith. But we feel like in the trade, you know, in a negotiation we were able to get three receivers out of the portal that we feel really good about. So, you're a little bit like a GM these days, you know, we're trying to build your Stir retain your roster and make it as strong as you can. Yeah. And you talk about the guys that left, you know, with Caleb obviously ultimately medically retiring from football, you know.

27:33 You don't know if that was going to necessarily be something that happened to you. Anyway, so the trade-off there is definitely in Virginia Tech's favor. I feel like and yeah, not always work to do. We support and Caleb through the whole thing and whether he chose to return to Tech or move on and my buddies the off. Bunch of coordinator at Notre Dame and we were talking and upfront with one another and it's unfortunate for Caleb. It didn't work out. But you know, my interest, you know, first is Virginia Tech and I feel very good about what we're able to do and that portal to me, right. It's what's scary sometimes guys is you can recruit a high school player for three and four years and get to know everything about him and his family. You might have to make a decision on the prospect in the transfer portal in two or three weeks. Yeah, so doing your homework and calling the high school and calling the former College.

28:28 You'll call them people in the community, you know, crossing your t's and dotting your eyes to make sure this guy not only is the player we need him to be but really more importantly. He's also culturally going to fit with the way we do things. Yeah, you know, we're going along with the transfer portal. Let's talk in a little bit because that's a new step in this whole process as well. You know, we hear on this podcast, you've historically supported the idea of Ni L but came down pretty hard on the NCAA in terms of how it was implemented between kind of punting the responsibility and then kind of slap dashing a loose framework there together to kind of get it going. But my question for you is how his ni L coupled with kind of the lakh sir.

29:12 The transfer portal rules impacted the way you approach recruiting and retaining players and roster management in general. Well, it's all of that, right? It's everything is said, I mean, roster management retention is something that's there all the time. So that's one of the reasons I'm very upfront with our team. One of the reasons that communication is one of our five fundamentals, we have to be able to have hard conversations. Relations with one another, if you're thinking that that you may want another opportunity somewhere that you're going to chase some money or chase a move up the depth chart come in and let's talk about it. Let's make sure you're not basing a decision on something that's not real or misinformation. Let's talk through it.

30:02 Going to same for me. If I've got issues with a guy and I'm thinking, we might need to move on. We're going to talk about it. I told you guys before. We went out for the spring. I told the entire team I said we're over seven scholarships. I said now I can't keep everybody that's in this room. We're also over spots on the roster in general. So whether you're a scholarship player or walk-on player, there's competition all over the place to see who we move forward with and I said it's my job as the head coach to make this most the most competitive roster in the country. That's my job. If I'm not doing that I'm failing everybody in Here, we all want to win a championship, the fans, the administration to staff the families, the players that the Letterman.

30:51 So to do that, the roster has to be as competitive as we can be. I tell him, I told you, I'm bringing somebody into take your job, that's what I'm doing. So you better be on your toes that's as real as it gets understand, is they understand the climate of things? What, what? What's scary is? You know, we had a player he wasn't into Portal and he gets inducements to go to other places. You know, we're able to kind of talk through it. And hey man, do you like it here? First of all? Because I love it here. Well then, let's find a way to make this work, right? Yeah. So, but then, if you, okay, so you wrap it up and January comes along that portal window, closes.

31:37 And you go into Spring ball and everything goes good. And every well, guess what? The poor the window. Oh opens again. Yeah, you know there's people poaching players off other rosters that aren't in the portal. Third party entities. I'm not saying that your coaches in some cases, it is, there's proof out there. There's text message users, you know, but a lot of times its third party people, it's an assistant coach at the high school. You know, somebody trying to maybe make a buck or just kind of steer the boat a little bit. So it's a constant battle. Again just trying to be honest with these guys and where we're at and and I think that's the best policy man, some transparency about things. 100% Goethe.

32:22 I love hearing you had that conversation telling all 125 guys, not just 85, guys, everybody's competing, everybody's competing top to bottom. And I look at the class of twenty three, you had a huge, we had a huge amount enrolled early in the spring semester ahead of time. Tally said it a couple times watching the spring game, I can't you be at a senior prom right now and he's out there getting somebody on the field. Um, How much of a benefit is it getting those guys on campus in January for you as a team? Yeah. It's, you know, anywhere I've been as long as the guys mature enough and ready for college, it's a benefit and most times those are the guys that want to come early.

33:11 They're anxious and they can do the school work to get out early. You know, the guys that are struggling and can or want to play around and have fun all Bring and they're not interested in doing. But you know, when I was at Penn State and had recruited Michael Parsons, He was a defensive end with his hand in the dirt and I knew I wanted to give him a shot at linebacker. Well had he not come into spring and got 15 practices in a ton of meetings. He never could have done it as a freshman. He led our team in tackles but if he hadn't been there early you know we got guys out here, they're get giving themselves a chance to help us because of that. At. So, you know, it's definite benefit, it's not for everybody.

33:54 And certainly not every school allows it. But, you know, we signed 26 high school players, 13 of them from the state of Virginia, sir, but that's important but also the fact that 22 of them won state championships, there was twenty one of them were the captains of their team 800 win percentage for their senior year, just a lot of qualities that screaming. Surety and ability to come early and have a chance to practice. Well in the spring and give themselves a leg up on helping us in the fall. Definitely you hit on a couple of the, you know, recruiting class that you had last year and some of the players and stuff for the end of 22 when you were hired, did the 23 cycle, you talked about being a little bit behind Regional recruiting opponents because Cuz of the relationships that were built for the school.

34:53 Before you got here. Do you feel like this 2024 class is kind of the first class that you're not playing catch-up that you're, you know, kind of out front on some of the, some of the prospects? I don't know if out front because to me if we work recruiting them in ninth grade we're behind. Yeah. And there's some of these guys that hadn't been to Virginia Tech until we started recruiting them as Graders right? You know so we're still going to be behind not as much right. You know certainly which I feel better about but you know a lot of decisions were made on that 23 class on some of those upper tier guys and you know, I feel great about our class but also you want to be able to have a chance with each and every good Prospect in our state to have recruited him from ninth grade on definite you know. And maybe they're not to the Aspect as a ninth, or tenth grader that they become but man, they've come to your Camp. They've seen you in your, in their school. They've been to a game because they got an invitation, like, there's so many things you can do. Yeah, you get a lot.

36:03 Like, sometimes, you get those late bloomers where if you have a relationship in ninth grade, and guys, start turning the corner of 10th grade 11th. Grade year, you're in a good position to kind of close the deal, because you were kind of there there from the get-go. Yeah, let me, let me ask you this though. So, we know that like, there's a ton Factors that play a role in the recruiting process whether it's skiing fit playing time that, you know, programs on the education side of things. You got, n, IL opportunities, kind of, everything's out there. As far as you know, what goes into making decision to play for Virginia Tech. What I'm curious to hear your opinion on is how much does winning football games, make recruiting and retaining players easier for you and your staff. I think winning games is very important, obviously, that's that's the ultimate on the field. That's the ultimate goal.

36:50 Alright. But at the same time, I think the belief And the way we're doing things, I think the belief in how people are treated. I think the belief in the experience is all important to, I'm not going to sit here and say, guys are going to be happy when in three games because they're not, nobody is. But as long as everybody feels like, we're going in the right direction, we're doing the right things, there's improvements. That's that's what I hope for. And I think that's what's really important right now, with where we're at as a program. I love hearing it that way coach. All right, before we get to some more topics with head coach, Brent, pry, we are going to take a quick pause for a message from our digital partners because we take a quick break. We like to tell you about getting your free website report from our digital partner, Grassroots, digital marketing Studio.

37:42 They'll tell you how your website ranks on Google on-site, SEO and social media. No commitment to buy anything. You can get your free report by visiting. Grassroots digital studio.com forward slash free. Read Ash website Dash report. Are you tired of the stress and uncertainty of buying a used truck? Auto stage? Reports.com is here to help autosaved reports. Dot-coms platform provides detailed vehicle. History report to help you make an informed decision for a limited time. Only you can start your 7 day trial for just one dollar and search up to 50 vehicles in one month. Don't miss out on this amazing offer head to autosaved reports.com boundary corner to start your free trial today. Again, go to autosaved reports.com boundary corner to start your free trial today. Big thanks to Auto Sage report.com for sponsoring this. Portion of the episode be sure to visit auto-saves report.com backslash boundary corner to start your 7-Day trial for just one dollar coach you mentioned right before we went in our break, there about three games?

38:42 That was your first time last year as a head coach and didn't have a ton of the top in Talent going into battle each week, but you guys fought every week tooth. And now, I think we all saw that as a fan. But what were some of your big Lessons Learned From that experience? It's and what adjustments are you making, you know, so far to get prepared and being a better position for 2023? Yeah, first of all, just being a full-time head coach is going to help me manage a game manager, weak, man, at your calendar, all those things. But I think the two most important things we learned that we have to reteach and coach in the preseason is we've got to be able to battle through adversity.

39:25 Much quicker early in the year, bad things would happen. We'd get in a slump. It'd take too long to climb out of it once. We overcame it and we started realizing it. Hey just because we were down 14, nothing, nobody panic, just keep playing man, you know? And then as the season went on, we couldn't close out a team, you're up on Georgia, Tech, you're up on NC State. It's, you know, it's a Thursday night, primetime game in Raleigh, and we're kicking the snot out of these guys, and we couldn't close it out. We played not to lose instead of playing to win and so those things, Things are great examples to really good examples that I have to do a better job of as a head coach early on being proactive with situational football definitely. Well you kind of touched on a couple of games. What you just was talking about there but not to put words in your mouth but earlier when we were talking you said last year kind of focusing on the defense you feel like it kind of held you back from being the best head coach? Those games you just mentioned what those a couple other games where you felt like were impacted by that. You kind of being more involved with the defense to be in the whole head coach or the best head coach. I don't know that probably, there was At least a minor impact every week.

40:58 You know that, you know, being that being a DC Under head coach, you know, that was preseason camp that was meetings at was that was everything and I do think it was very valuable, I wouldn't do it. If, you know, I needed my footprint on that defense and not that I don't trust the coaches in that room, but I wasn't hired here because I was a great offensive play caller, you know, I wasn't hired here because of my looks, I wasn't hired here. You know a big piece of it was the Offense, we played over the years and so have I if I wasn't going to get in there and establish that and get a strong foundation in that room, so I feel very good about that but it was time to step away and to see Chris call that game up at Liberty and a great job he did.

41:45 And then to you know, the freedom for me to be involved on offense defense and special teams for 60 minutes was invaluable that much. I do know Talent. Opening difference in that game of not having to be on that defensive headset making adjustments being able to be on the offensive bench being on the offensive headset with Coach bone in the staff. I mean it was just different. It was different and I was I was definitely better that day when you said you weren't hired here because of your looks but some of the women do get a little excited about your big ears. So you might not want to cut that anymore. I don't know. My wife has a love-hate with it man. An long as I keep it a little bit trim. She's good, they're keep going, keep it tight, keep it tight game.

42:32 Let me get gangly. I mean, you talked about the Liberty game a little bit us as a fan, as a fan perspective. Again, we watch this team. We are pinned down with the team, every, every every week watching that Liberty game, it kind of seemed like the team put everything together. I mean, we were fighting. Every like you said, we were fighting every week. We were in most of those games. Either up and not able to hold on with that. Liberty gang was a little bit different. It's like even the commentators you kept hearing them, say this is what Virginia Tech football is supposed to look like defense turning into offense and running the ball to close the game out, like going back and seeing that game kind of did that make you feel kind of where you want to be as a head coach.

43:17 That's not what we played complimentary ball that day. You know. We didn't play Perfect. Yeah, we did. I make big mistakes. We work through things they had moments but we were able to battle back and I thought we did a good job managing the game and all three phases, you know. It's you know to me it's a sign of who we can be but certainly not where we want to be. You know we've got to be better in all areas but it was nice to see that on display you know to put a kind of stamp on. Hey guys listen that's the example. Right? That's the direction.

43:57 That's our to we can be. And then some I tell you what the end of that Liberty game was like the best feeling. And I know it had to be as a coach because when y'all got that ball back out for that, if you force that fourth down stop and any offense went down the field, you had guys blocking their butts off on the outside. You know, got the I think Jalen got the first down and you got to go on Annie. I love that as a football fan when you literally that other team sits there and they have their heads and because they know I can't do anything about that's a good feeling and you know that game a lot happened at the end man. There was a sir. Yeah, the strip's.

44:38 I I mean we Coach Bo and jumped on the headset and said, hey, it was third down. We were in 4-minute mode which I want to roll out and give us a chance to get the first down and close the game and start down. I said, do it? I said but he can't throw the ball and complete. We got to make them burn their time. Out a wide-open receiver or he can't run for the first down. Take the sack, take the sack, they'll burn their time out. The only have one left will punt we pump. We get to strip sack, right? We get the ball back. I'm on the offensive headset. I said, hey guys, the only way they can win the game is that they let us score and push this thing to 0 t. So if they're smart, they're going to try and help us in the end zone.

45:25 So coach him. Running backs up and sure enough, that's what they did. Yeah. And you help ensure staff and players did a great job because they almost tried to help us in the end zone. What just taking a knee? We went down to make sure that clock ran out, like, it was able to awesome. Yeah, I gotta run, man. I got two appointments waiting on me, and you guys have been great. I appreciate it. We appreciate you coach. Thank you. Thank you, coach. We appreciate the time. You have a good night. Listen. Thanks for what you guys do it. Means a lot for Hokies man everywhere. Okay, appreciate you. Appreciate you coach. You have a good low key. And that was Brent price.

46:05 Folks, boys, man. Real 100%. I tell you. You could. It's kind of crazy, like, just looking at how candid he is. You talk with three guys. He's only, you know, we me and Curtis got to shake his hand a couple times. You know, back last year at the at the tailgated at Hardy would. But I mean other than that, he doesn't know who we are, probably right? But he took, he took the time to not only talk to us, but to be very transparent about things that happened. Last year, things about recruiting things about the spring. So, I mean, nothing nothing but great things to say about how coach pry is when he's when he's talking to folks about the program W until he's, you can tell he's genuine and what he's saying and doing. So that's good and trying to bring people around the program with that same same mind and heart. So you know that's We got to see some good stuff happening from that, you know, because of the portal. You got some people who didn't come here and probably would have never come here, unless we got a coach like this and the staff like this and they leave their respective programs and now they're hokey.

47:21 So absolutely. I got my ass real quick question because I was a little nervous a little nervous when you're really nervous when he first popped on like his we what we started chatting with him but I'm It's a within just a couple minutes just how he talks. He just he just so genuine and you just know like why is he such a good recruiter how's he get those messages across some of those we heard in this podcast that a little bit rough because he's real. Yeah I onion goes how to deliver the. I think sometimes it's knowing how to deliver the news. Not necessarily what the news is. Right. Right.

48:01 And so I mean sometimes if Transparent with how you are talking to someone, and you show that, you know, you show that you care about them. But you have to accept the realities of the situation that we're working with here and I think he's able to translate that pretty well in how he approaches those conversations, both with the players and how he interacts with fans and media and things like that. So beautiful. All right. Well boys. That was fun. We again, we thank coach Frey for joining us today for this and that is going to wrap up this episode of The Boundary Corner podcast brought to you by Main Street. Pharmacy, in Blacksburg. I'm Curtis Wilson, I'm Brian Sigler. I'm Jonathan tally.

48:45 Visit our website boundary Corner V t.com to listen to all of our episodes. Also check out the merchandise shop at the boundary corner store, we might have to send Coach something run. If you care, while you're there, don't forget to follow us on Twitter. Facebook, Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube account. Check out last times. Episode to see all the tape break down here. A couple things coach essay about you. Please also podcast Spotify Amazon at the podcast, without our buddy, Jason long playlist. In play us out, check him out on his website. Jason long music.com, where it links you to all his music, Apple Spotify, and YouTube and Facebook pages, June 2nd, And he's got a new EP dropping called other people of children.

49:29 The covers EP where you will find that Midnight Rider song along with a few other ones as well, boys. I was fun. Never third you today, right? Leveling up man, leveling up. Maybe we. Thank you all for listening. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did and let's go. Okay.