Welcome Home our new Offensive Coordinator Philip Montgomery 🦃🔗 https://t.co/LWwaUE6wxA#ThisIsHome | @CoachPMonty pic.twitter.com/VSDudAgYVA— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) February 17, 2025
He went 43-53 over eight years at Tulsa, including a 10-3 season in 2016 and four bowl appearances. He was Robert Griffin's quarterback coach at Baylor and was a Broyles Award finalist in 2013 after Baylor won the Big 12 title.— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) February 17, 2025
An interesting connection with Philip Montgomery: He was the head coach at Tulsa, which played Virginia Tech in 2015 Independence Bowl in Frank Beamer's final game. That was the 55-52 shootout the #Hokies won.— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) February 17, 2025
Would certainly be a very well experienced hire with a proven track record we have been clamoring for.
Not gonna lie. Former head coach who was an elite level OC in his own right is exactly the kind of guy I was hoping we would hire. Checks all the boxes for me.
Comments
It's offical:
I know nothing about this dude or his system. I'm just glad we're not hiring an offensive coordinator that will be learning how to be an offensive coordinator at this level.
Damn... 1000% a better hire (or at least better resume) than Christian Taylor, but this offense won't be as fun to watch.
Having an experience head coach in the room will be good for Pry.
I will talk myself into this hire over the next 24 hours.
Agree here. Taylor I know is well-regarded in coaching circles, but I would have been pretty disappointed if he was the hire. Just not very experienced. This is a very high caliber hire with a lot of experience and former HC experience with could be a benefit to Pry as well. Super pleased with this one.
I'm okay with the hire in terms of hiring someone with quality experience. I'm less okay with the non-football elements of being attached to the Briles Baylor staff, but it's not like we will ever know if he had any direct involvement/awareness or not at this point.
I am dead seriously thinking about writing a book on how winning fucking college football/basketball games clouds/distorts/is illogical to ALL reality. People tolerate Rape, Murder, point shaving, cheating, financial irresponsibility, tax evasion, money laundering, bribery all to see their college team win a game. Briles allowed rapists on his team because beating texas fucking tech on Saturday was more important. Think about that.
If you need help with research and editing, I'll help you.
How far back do you want to go and how deep into politics do you want to go?
Just doing Baylor alone is enough for a book when you start making ties into politics
Would 100% read
Yeah, I'm coming out of my posting semi-retirement to express displeasure at hiring anyone from the Briles staff. I hope that Whit and Pry at least ASKED, and got an answer that actually expressed recognition of the great harm done at Baylor even if Montgomery wasn't personally involved in hushing any sexual assault cases.
Because this (admittedly almost a decade ago) ain't it.
ESPN 2016 article quoting Montgomery
I'm happy you said this.
It's wild how wide reaching the Bryles coaching tree is, despite the fact that he only coached for maybe a decade? We often forget everyone who was there during that tragedy.
My rule for Virginia Tech, coaching hires has always been "don't embarrass me." no Hugh freezes, no art, Briles, etc..
I really hope the board of visitors did their homework here.
Just keep the portal damage minimal in the Spring and then we go from there.
Never heard of this guy, but if he's good by Alum he's good by me
Former OC at Auburn and Baylor and spending 8 years as Tulsa's head coach. Was their coach in the bowl for Beamer's last game, which we won in a shootout
Brings a lot of experience and a proven track record of success as a OC.
Coached rg3 his heisman year
His final two years at Baylor, they finished #1 nationally in total offense, so that's fun
This is the type of hire I expected. Veteran play caller with head coaching experience. With Seifkes on defense I think a steady known quantity was a smart play here.
I'll have what he is smoking.
nice
I don't like it. The game has passed him by, his offenses at Tulsa sucked after a briefly very successful stint at the beginning of his tenure.
This is as someone who loved those Bryce Petty offenses at Baylor. Defenses have adapted to that style. His offense at Auburn two years ago also sucked. While being towards the bottom of the league they still had talent on offense. A good OC would be able to find ways to score even with less talented players than most of the league. His did the opposite, and the low point was only putting up 10 on New Mexico State.
I understand why you don't want to hire Christian Taylor right after Seifkes and put everything on two young guys, but I would've liked that hire a lot better tbh. If we could still grab him for a Co-Oc role I think we should jump at the chance. Otherwise I hope Brent Davis will have a huge say over the style of offense that is run. P Mont could prove valuable as an experienced play caller but style wise I think what he wants to run is outdated and easy to stop (but tbh he might be washed as a play caller as well)
Yeah, this is where I'm at. I don't know where the line between 'retread hire' and 'experienced hire' is, but to me this feels like a midway point between the two. I don't particularly love that.
I feel like I would have been happier with Taylor. If you're not loaded with talent, being innovative seems like the way to go. As far as hiring a guy from the NFL, granted Bowen was a position coach, not an analyst, that's similar to what we did. And Bowen consistently put up a good amount of points behind a weak line.
I think I said this when we were still looking for a DC - we could get a DC from a blue blood that had a top 5 defense, but if they can only be good with a team littered with 4 and 5 star talent, we wouldn't be doing ourselves any favors. We definitely need coordinators who can get the most out of whatever talent we have. Winning should help bring in more talent, but we need to win consistently first.
I mean, ultimately, no matter what I or anyone else on here says, we can be happy or upset at the hires, but on field results is all that matters. We could hate every hire and if they turned around and win 10 games their first season, nobody would give a shit what we thought about the hire initially. If we lose a lot, people won't focus on these hires exactly, it will be, "Pry dug his own grave and now we wait to see who our next HC will be."
"We definitely need coordinators who can get the most out of whatever talent we have"- This is literally what ALL good coordinators do. You don't think Lane Kiffin maximized the talent at Bama? Of course he did. His boss demanded it. BTW Bama and OSU don't use HS recruiting rankings to map their 2-deep. They play the best players. Clemson has played walk on's on defense during this run. Bud Foster coached D Lo Hall as well as he coached Cody Grimm IMO. I don't think there is any such thing as "hes a good OC for mid talent type teams" That literally doesn't make sense to me. Are there OCs out there that excel at "teaching" I guess- so that could map to "less talent". But good coordinators at this level are good- period. They can coach 5 stars and 2 stars better than bad coordinators.
If you have a team of 5 star recruits you can bully a lot of teams, look at the Trent Richardson Bama team, Trent wasn't that good but his line just walked him into the endzone ever time. You could have had a tecmo bowl sized play book and won 10 games. ND's offense this year was to have Riley run behind their line and the mauled a lot of teams doing so.
Those systems work because they can recruit, so I think there are good coordinators that are limited in that they need talent. However, there are schemes that lend themselves to not having the top talent, Lincoln Riley won everywhere will all types of players. Kiffin has too. They benefit from having 5 star players but don't need them because their schemes don't rely on hard to recruit positions. Similarly the triple option made lots of teams struggle because it required sound defensive play, however you didn't need 5* defense to stop it, one good DT with P4 LBs would stop it easily. But lots of teams lack that, just like most teams lacked defenses to stop bama/Richardson or 4 WR sets when the QB can read progressions.
Basically I think there is room for good but not great OCs that rely on schemes that require high level talent vs ones that runs schemes that aren't as reliant on such talent.
Question: How do you maintain the opinion that a good playcaller/ball knower is a good playcaller/ball knower, but also maintain that we need a P4 playcaller, not an FCS/G5 playcaller?
Simple. When a Clemson DE crashes the zone read, it comes a lot fucking faster than a Villanova DE. P4 games move faster for a QB, thus affecting play calling - hot reads etc. This should be self explanatory. I will continue to maintain the gap between the levels of play is bigger than people think. Yeah JMU wins in the subelt now, and Pavia is crafty at Vandy. Doesn't change the fact. Montgomery has seen fast P4 defenses and schemes. That will help him. See Cornelson, Brad for a counter point.
So your argument is that due to increasing speed/physicality/talent level, a coordinator has to develop more situational awareness?
Extrapolating this line of thinking - at lower levels it's more about playing to your advantages, but at higher levels, it's more about playing to your opponent's disadvantages?
Fair summary of your view?
In general sure. My overall point is that its a different ballgame- recruiting, game planning, coaching, calling plays. I feel strongly that if you have worked in that level before, its an advantage vs. not.
Sure.
And that's why they pay you more for that kind of experience or promote you to head coach, as long as you win, can recruit, and are proven.
But people get there from somewhere.
So if you're trying to hire on a budget, because you don't have SEC or B1G money, then you're often faced with someone who doesn't have an optimal record, connections, etc, or someone who shows promise but doesn't have the big time experience.
Hence, the two people who we know Pry interviewed for this job. They both seem very qualified to me.
You are 100% correct. My only concern with the WM guy was his P4 resume- none. He could be the next Bill Walsh, sure. The point is that it is a more accurate prediction of future success and frankly easier hire to go with an experienced P4 guy vs. identifying the next Chad Morris from high school. The later is a much bigger crap shoot. Few would argue that Shibest was Fuente's most competent coach and one of the better recruiters on staff. No coincidence that he was the only one Fu brought with him with P4 coaching experience. It matters.
Been kicking this around in my head ever since the Christian Taylor reports came out and this is a pretty good comment jump in with it --
The Taylor vs Montgomery conversation is definitely "hiring someone based on what you believe they can do" vs "hiring the profile and the resume". In a lot of ways it's also the Siefkes vs Montgomery conversation.
I think older generations definitely look at resumes and profiles to determine whether or not someone is suitable for a job vacancy, while younger generations generally look more for competencies and skill sets that are translatable to a job vacancy.
I don't think reality has it as an either-or, but the conversation around here over the last week or so has definitely pitted the two against each other.
"I think older generations definitely look at resumes and profiles to determine whether or not someone is suitable for a job vacancy, while younger generations generally look more for competencies and skill sets that are translatable to a job vacancy." - perhaps, but not in a vaccum. For VT football - spinning wheels for a decade- you hire someone that knows what the fuck he is doing- hopefully.
I think the point, though, is that determining if someone knows what the fuck they are doing is done different ways
older gen = look at their resume and body of work
younger gen = look at their skills and competencies
edit: FTR, I don't necessarily subscribe to one or the other - I think both have merits and flaws
Fair enough- if we are going new school thinking... he needs to have recruiting skills first and foremost, followed by portaling skills- much the same skillset. If that's new school or Barry Switzer... so be it.
Honestly that's changing, if you look at our staff we have like 19 coaches and only 10 can recruit recruit. Now Montgomery and Siefkes need to be able to close with recruits while on campus, but they aren't necessarily the guys texting and calling and visiting. They can have a lot of support while recruits are visiting. Still got to close but it's different.
I think with college coaching it's even harder. You could argue that Montgomery and Siefkes don't have the resume. Its been a decade since Montgomery was an OC except for the year at auburn which well it's Auburn. Siefkes hasn't called defenses for 4 years and never at the P4 level.
But then if you look at the coaches skills, does being an HC help montgomery? Maybe but has his offensive knowledge decayed. does being a wunderkid for Siefkes help? Maybe, Loeffler couldn't translate his knowledge to people so it was wasted.
You could do this with 90% of coaching hires too. it's such a crap shoot.
Great post/comment. Agreed.
FWIW, his UFL team won the championship in 2024 and Tusla is a difficult place to win.
His stint at Auburn is troublesome.
His Auburn stint was interesting. Either Freeze had an impact on that offense or Freeze was solely focused on recruiting and handed him the keys and he drove it off a cliff. Freeze has a history of finding and firing scapegoats for problems that weren't tied to the fired person.
It's not like Auburn has taken a leap forward post-Montgomery
Idk if the game has passed Montgomery by or not, but the Veer & Shoot that they ran at Baylor is what Tennessee and Ole Miss run right now, and it seems to work pretty well for them.
If you're wary about this hire, just go back and look at those Baylor stats while he was there. I think it's a home run hire.
But, no one is running that offense anymore. It's not as unique as it was a decade ago.
Just like the air raid, the OG Chip Kelley spread, the Gus Malzahn read option/smash... these schemes did so well because they were so unique. As they proliferated through the sport, teams learned how to attack them.
That doesn't mean that these offenses cannot succeed; it just means that the offensive production won't outperform the talent on the roster.
not to be that guy but if no one is running it, doesn't that make it more unique?
He'll be seen as a re-innovator
Would be better to say that it's not en vogue anymore, rather than 'no one runs it' - Dino Babers, Kendall Briles, and Josh Huepel, and Lane Kiffin all run offenses that incorporate a lot of the same principles. But no one (in P4) is running the exact same offense, just like no one in P4 is running a 'pure' air raid (but everyone has their own variation on Mesh, 4 Verts, Y-cross, etc. There's also no one in P4 running the wishbone, but lots of teams running a variation of the triple option.
If Montgomery can bring a modern version of his offense (one that uses tempo strategically, has a good balance, etc), then it can work. But if he comes here and use tempo stubbornly (a la Phil Longo at UNC and Cincy) then it will fail.
I'm also curious how a tempo offense will work with our new DC/Strength Coach... Tempo offense means more snaps/time on field for the defense - will they be fit enough for that? How will that impact Seifkiss's play design and play calls?
Art Briles- one of the worst scum on earth, BTW- is like Gordon Ramsay and Myron Mixon... they show their students - most- of what they know, but not ALL of it. Especially the feel for the game/play call aspect. Art Briles is the master of the "one read" key offense that nobody has exactly replicated. Mike Leech was just as good at it- but his varied a bit. Hopefully we can find something that actually works for us.
Josh Huepel? Lane Kiffin? Ryan Grub? Hell, even Kyle Shanahan is using a lot quick single read plays.
Kiffin's offense is different. Similar but different. Heupel incorporates more inside zone run than Briles. Shannan? sure I suppose.
Jeff Lebby
This is why I hold out hope that Rich Rod will be the biggest failure ever in his return to WVU... that would be glorious. Everyone knows how to defend the zone read now, Richie.
The thing with all of these 'scheme offenses' - the wishbone, the zone read, the air raid, etc - when they're first invented, no one knows how to defend them, so it enables lesser talent to outplay and win against more talented teams/players.
As time goes on and people learn how to stop a given scheme, teams can still use those schemes to great success; the difference is that you can't win consistently with a large talent differential.
RichRod will win 5 games in his first season, 7 in his second, and 8/9 in his third, then rinse and repeat. It will basically be the same as neil brown. WVU has gotten five 4-stars in their last 3 classes. Their ceiling under richrod will be what they can recruit, not what they can scheme.
Great points. And his biggest chip is gone.. "We were left out of the ACC"- nope. Good luck
Those were some of my favorite offenses to watch. I'm sure the record has been broken since then, but I think 2014 Baylor was the fastest tempo offense that had ever existed, and also was one of the most efficient that season.
When he got hired at Tulsa I knew it would be great for the program. And it was. They came on the scene and went 6-6 putting up great offensive numbers, almost beat Tech in Beamer's final game. Then followed it up going 10-3 with one of the best offenses, in a league with some really good ones. Then teams adjusted, offensive efficiency slipped, and his only other good season there 2020 was on the back of a very good defense, winning in spite of a very inefficient offense.
This is an incredible hire in 2015, 16 and 17. In 2025 it's a potential redemption story at best. The last few offenses he called plays for were straight up bad. If he's coming in with some new theory for how a team at our level can have success on offense then sure I can see the idea. If he's coming for us to rely on his knowledge and experience as a coordinator, then I really don't get it, because it doesn't work anymore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vynEhmh3JQ if you want to see him coaching offense
I would have taken that Oline coach with him had we not hited Moore. He actually just got fired from Cal as OC so ACC expierence!
According to the TSL interview, he has become older and wiser and no longer favors the veer and shoot philosophy as it strains the D if you score too fast. He spoke of a vague variable tempo approach.
As a Hokies fan, it's impossible to imagine having the problem of consistently scoring too fast
Varing tempo is good because it still strains the defense
And maybe, for once, they can develop a real 2-minute and 4-minute offenses!
We've had 2 minute offenses in the past. Run 3 plays and punt - 2 minutes off the clock.
Truth hurts...Take your damn leg.
Here's the thing though - fast tempo doesn't seem to be something you can turn on and off at will, unless you are fast tempo by nature and can slow it down on occasion.
Fast tempo offenses become fast tempo offenses through a rigorous practice regimen in which the offense calls the shots, with a major focus on offensive speed, precision and execution. If you do it right, you don't have to set aside time for conditioning, as the very nature of your practice regimen provides all the conditioning you need.
There are stories out there on how Chip Kelly and Art Briles conducted practices that way.
Well, it's probably a good thing that Philip Montgomery was running the offense in those practices conducted by Briles.
Call me crazy but does having an offense that goes three and out every time not strain the defense also? Asking for a friend...
THERE YOU GO WHIT...There you fucking go. An experienced P2/P4 OC, G5 head coach, and QB coach. There you fucking go. An experienced fucking pro OC. Hat Tip. He may suck, but at least he is qualified.
Qualified enough to be whit's in house hire for next head whistle next offseason?
/ducks
if this happens I'm blaming you for speaking it into existence
DC is happy. I'm sold.
Are we sure he's happy?!
Counterpoint - DC is happy. I'm suspicious.
I am happy, and I wasn't asking for too much. I was asking for more than WM's OC though yes- guilty as charged. It reeked of lets find someone from VA- as if that means anything any more. Now at least we have a guy that's done it at the P2 and P4 level. Period.
LOL that's my view on the hire
He may be qualified, but is his wife qualified?
TBH I am kinda sad it wasnt christian taylor... glad to have the search over and somebody coming in, though. Being a real QB coach is nice
Taylor was interesting. And if we weren't trying out an experiment with a DC hire this year, I'd probably prefer him.
But essentially hiring two unproven coordinators after doing the same thing 3 years ago with poor results, seemed a bit like the definition of insanity to me. So I'm happy with the experience level Montgomery brings.
Honestly, doesn't sound like a bad hire - not necessarily a huge name, but has experience with good offenses.
I'm willing to give it a chance.
His time at Baylor was 2008-2014. The game evolves over time; his stats suggest he isn't evolving with it.
The fact that he only spent 1yr as OC at Auburn before ostensibly moving down to Birmingham as co-OC doesn't give me the warm fuzzys either.
Personally, I'd rather have gone with Taylor.
Bingo - this is my primary concern
He was hugh freeze's scape goat/sacrificial lamb, I wouldn't read too much into this.
Same.
He put up 52 on Bud Foster with Tulsa
End result, he is a Hokie now. May his offense's be productive and his coaching of Pry be effective.
Now if we can just get the occasional RGIII visit down to Blacksburg as an "analyst" during our big recruiting weekends...
Best of luck to him. What can you do? Just give him a chance and see what happens. Hoping for an improvement over Bowen. If yes, we have a good hire. If no, we have a bad hire and Pry is probably gone within 2 years. Maybe only 1.
One potential problem area I could see, is he usually likes to go fast (and his more successful offenses have gone fast). That can put a real strain on defenses. With a young coordinator like Seifkes in his first year, that's not an optimal situation. Unless of course we're scoring almost every time we get the ball, but unfortunately most of P Mont's recent offenses have gone quick 3 and out punt.
From what I remember, when his offenses don't go fast, they tend to telegraph what they're going to do and be easy to stop. This was the issue when he gave up play calling duties at Tulsa if I remember correctly.
One possible caveat: he hasn't had a good quarterback since Petty. How much of it is QB and how much is system, I don't know. But maybe a guy like Drones or Pop who is a true dual threat can find success in this system.
I'm interested to know what French thinks and what a film review will yield. This is all just stuff I remember from watching his offenses over the years.
Have seen multiple references from Auburn fans calling him Philip Puntgomery. Which isn't a great nickname to have as an OC
Auburn hasn't been great on offense since they paid Cam Newton to not go to classes there.
Yeah they also cycled through coordinators like they were disposable. We've seen how that can destroy promising looking talent (staring directly at the regression of Parker Clements)
Yup. Same concern.
I like the hire. Plenty of experience and former HC experience is a bonus. If we had gone with Taylor the general consensus would have been too much inexperience, which was the complaint with the last two coordinators. No real excuses now on offense, we have a really good OL coach and proven/experienced OC calling the plays. If the offense still doesn't work, it certainly won't be because of inexperience. Sink or swim time now.
And still zero experience and minimal depth on the OL
Other than a few of the WVU transfers, yeah I agree depth and experience is worrisome. Joe Rudolph leaving when and how he did really screwed our OL immensely.
It's not just when he left, it's also that he refused to use the portal.
The dude can clearly coach OL - just look at that ND line - one could make the argument it was the best OL top to bottom of the last half decade.
Absolutely wild to me that that OL was soooo good and yet when he coached here the OL was soooo bad
Silas Dzansi actively regressed under Rudolph. Absolute bum of a coach.
Clements too.. and he kept it up after Rudolph left
I hear you – the offensive line got worse under him. And he didn't recruit anyone great either.
But, like I said above, this Notre Dame offensive line he coached was not only one of (if not the) best I've seen in the last half decade, but they regularly were able to go eight players deep with minimal drop off. In the portal era, even the best teams struggle to go five or six deep on OL.
It's tough to call him and "absolutely bum of a coach" after the success he had this season.
Its been 20 years since VT had 8-9 legit P4 OL on the same roster. Depth of talent is the issue. We have 4-5 guys and projects like Givens, etc at any given time. ND had 9-10 P5 OL on their roster. Rudolph can spend time actually coaching them technique and calls vs. teaching them how to block someone. Big difference. Same at Whisky- he had many more numbers in terms of actual talent.
I'm telling you, this year, no one in the country had 8 to 9 P4 level linemen. Xavier Chaplin was the second best(?) offensive lineman in the portal so far?
The supply of quality lineman has been distributed wider across the teams. Which makes Joe Rudolph coaching job this past season even more impressive.
Obviously, Notre Dame's back ups were better than Virginia Tech starters. But there are at least 25 other teams that can say the same.
We saw in the NFL season that huge O lines still matter.
ND had 5+ freshman OL listed at Chaplin's size or bigger. That's not the whole story but its a huge factor.
Yeah, I think that's kind of my point. Recognizing that Notre Dame has a significantly better roster than us, it's still insanely impressive how good he made that line. Offensive line isn't a position where players just show up ready out of high school. He clearly developed those guys over 3+ years.
The fact that everyone at Virginia Tech regressed after his time here boggles my mind
He was only at VT one year. Just wasn't long enough to have the necessary effect.
We had a pretty damn good OL in 2020 and a decent one in 2021.
Take a look at 2020's roster:
Darrisaw - Nester - Hoffman - Lecitus Smith - Tenuta
Bench: Brian Hudson, Dzanzi, Zach Hoyt, Tyrell Smith, even Austin Cannon (walk on who played several solid snaps)
Of course we wasted this line with Hooker, Herbert, Blackshear, James Mitchell, Tayvion etc
I remember the last time we hired a guy who got fired after 1 year as the Auburn OC
The end of my college years. I remember that pain all too well.
Neither Grimes nor Leoffler were/are bad coaches. Both were pretty good hires in retrospect. Lefty did as well as fucking Justin Fuente did with much less talent.
Lefty had a brilliant offensive mind - just couldn't teach it to 20-year-olds.
I was going to say "we beat Ohio State!"
I'm kidding around. I liked Lefty. He was almost too advanced for the college game, as least at the time. Total football guy. Remember him bragging to Baby Beams staying up all night to study the 49ers entire run sequence.
I share your overall assessment, DC. This is the most qualified coordinator we've ever had on staff. Let's see if he adjusts and reinvents himself a bit. If so, could be wildly successful.
Be real Leoffler was a bad hire who we all knew wouldn't work out from the jump. That said our skill players were absolute garbage before he got there and he did recruit some solid guys to replace them.
No he didn't and when Fu had the same guys in 2016 that we did in 2015 they popped off. He just couldn't sustain the talent and had a crappy play caller that was later exposed because of that.
Disagree. Fuente- noted QB and offfense guy- ran the QB draw on any 3rd down over 5 yards. Literally give up plays. Sucked. He did OK with Lefty and Beamers players though as you pointed out.
We don't downvote for opinions, and I didn't but I couldn't disagree more. A bad hire from the jump? Nope.
put 5 QB's in the pros plus Nick Florence who had 4300 yards passing his Sr year
he and Freeze weren't on the same page and Freeze wanted more input in the play calling...that's fine. he'll have a free hand here and will succeed or fail on his own
don't know if/how he'll recruit but he has a million contacts in Texas
per Xitter, Kelden Ryan is very happy right now...I suspect the whole QB room is.
edit: I'll add that Siefkes' 3 deep is purportedly one of the ways to combat V&S...so he'll be a good test for PM
Pinged my Auburn friends. They don't think it's fair to judge him based on his one year there. First year with Freeze and a bad QB.
I was in the camp clamoring for somebody with P4 experience, so I'll give kudos to Pry for this one!
But does this also mean we got turned down by a Buffalo Bills defensive analyst lol
To be frank, I would turn us down as well. It seems like he's well thought of and has a good gig with the Bills. The college game is in awful shape right now. Why would he want to come down to this level and deal with recruiting, portal, and NIL when he can enjoy his current job?
Does it?
Couldn't quickly find 2003 data:
Houston:
2004: QB/RB Coach: QB Kevin Kolb 2766 yards, 11 TD, 6 INT; 1450 rushing yards from top RBs, 9 TDs.
2005: QB/RB Coach: QB Kevin Kolb 3258 yards, 19 TD, 15 INT; 1600 rushing yards from top RBs, 17 TDs
2006: QB/RB Coach: QB Kevin Kolb 3809 yards, 30 TD, 4 INT; 2150 rushing yards from top RBs, 24 TDs
2007: Co-OC/QB/RB: QB Case Keenum 2259 yards, 14 TDs, 10 INT, QB Blake Joseph 1324 yards, 9 TD, 4 INT; 2300 rushing yards from top RBs, 22 TDs; 6525 total yards of offense, 56 total touchdowns
Baylor:
2008: Co-OC/QB/RB: QB RG3 2091 passing yards, 15 TD, 3 INT; 1900 rushing yards from top RBs+RG3, 26 TDs 4500 total yards, 45 total TDs
2009: Co-OC/QB/RB: Multiple QBs, 2908 yards, 13 TD, 16 INT, 1222 total rushing yards, 16 TDs
2010: Co-OC/QB/RB: QB RG3, 3501 yards, 22 TD, 8 INT, 2350 rushing yards from top RBs+RG3, 24 TDs
2011: Co-OC/QB/RB: QB RG3 4293 yards, 37 TD, 6 INT, 2850 rushing yards from top RBs+RG3, 36 TDs
2012: OC/QB: QB Nick Florence 4309 yards, 33 TD, 13 INT; 7440 yards of offense, 72 TDs
2013: OC/QB: QB Bryce Petty, 4200 yards, 32 TD, 3 INT; 8044 yards of offense; 82 TDs
2014: OC/QB: QB Bryce Petty, 3855 yards, 29 TD, 7 INT; 7559 yards of offense, 81 TDs
Tulsa:
2015: HC: 6496 total yards of offense, 58 TDs
2016: HC: 6841 total yards of offense, 66 TDs
2017: HC: 5044 total yards of offense, 42 TDs
2018: HC: 4531 total yards of offense, 36 TDs
2019: HC: 5036 total yards of offense, 38 TDs
2020: HC: 3694 total yards of offense, 28 TDs (9 games)
2021: HC: 5750 total yards of offense, 38 TDs
2022: HC: 4942 total yards of offense, 45 TDs
Auburn:
2023: OC/QB: 2109 passing yards, 18 TDs, 13 INT, 4566 total yards of offense, 40 TDs
Birmingham:
2024: OC: 3602 total yards, 31 TDs (10 games)
Looking at those same years for VT:
Stinespring:
2004: 2435 passing yards, 2317 rushing yards, 42 TDs
2005: 2473 passing yards, 2479 rushing yards, 48 TDs
2006: 2363 passing yards, 1474 rushing yards, 35 TDs
2007: 2756 passing yards, 1862 rushing yards, 39 TDs
2008: 1807 passing yards, 2441 rushing yards, 29 TDs
2009: 2391 passing yards, 2706 rushing yards, 46 TDs
2010: 2850 passing yards, 2782 rushing yards, 54 TDs
2011: 3166* passing yards, 2616 rushing yards, 47* TDs (*Danny Coale caught that ball)
2012: 3002 passing yards, 1896 rushing yards, 36 TDs
Loeffler:
2013: 3071 passing yards, 1557 rushing yards, 33 TDs
2014: 2826 passing yards, 1923 rushing yards, 31 TDs
2015: 2936 passing yards, 2070 rushing yards, 43 TDs
Cornelsen:
2016: 3666 passing yards, 2563 rushing yards, 58 TDs
2017: 3113 passing yards, 2254 rushing yards, 40 TDs
2018: 3300 passing yards, 2266 rushing yards, 48 TDs
2019: 2718 passing yards, 2289 rushing yards, 46 TDs
2020: 2207 passing yards, 2641 rushing yards, 40 TDs
2021: 2293 passing yards, 2412 rushing yards, 33 TDs
Bowen:
2022: 2236 passing yards, 1219 rushing yards, 24 TDs
2023: 2621 passing yards, 2467 rushing yards, 43 TDs
2024: 2462 passing yards, 2319 rushing yards, 43 TDs
Can you put this in one sentence that tells me how I should feel about the hire? Or really just good/bad would work for me.
In a straight up comparison, it's really astounding the difference.
In the 21 years of stats, VT surpassed 6000 yards of offense once, while Montgomery-led offenses did so 7 times, including 4 times going over 7000 yards and once of over 8000. In a season by season comparison, Montgomery-led offenses put up 5558.3 yards per season to VT's 4921.
Virginia Tech had 2 years of scoring at least 50 offensive touchdowns. Montgomery did it 8 times, 6 times of at least 60 touchdowns, 4 times of at least 70 touchdowns, and 2 times of 80 touchdowns. His offenses averaged almost 49 TDs per season to our 41.
His 2013 campaign scored 18 more touchdowns than our 2013 and 2014 seasons combined, and he did so with 8044 yards that season to our 9477 over those same two years.
Virginia Tech only ever had more productive years during 2004, 2005, 2009, 2018, 2020, and 2023. I can't really include 2024 because the UFL only has a 10 game season.
Not to be nitpicky, but that is way more than one sentence 🤣
His offenses, on average, have done significantly better than ours.
That's a low bar.
"Better" in this case equates to more yardage. His offenses had a nice run in the 2012-2015 range where they scores a LOT of TDs, but have otherwise put up an average of about 40-50 more yards per game and a similar number of TDs to VTs offenses. Watching decades of Hokie football has made me a fan of offensive efficiency. Complementary football is real. If we can capture more points per possession than the other guys, we win. Be that by offense, defense, TOP, turnovers.
Having said all that, sign me up 7500 yards and 50TDs next season! And Seifkes will look pretty good if he is playing from a double digit lead all season.
Hopefully better means drawing up red zone and 3rd down plays that work and are well executed.
If we get 3/4 of his normal production, it will be close to our record production.
Curious - did he run a hurry-up for all those seasons? I guess what I am trying to ask did he score on a higher percentage of drives, or just have a lot more drives to work with vs the very conservative Frank n Stiney VT?
Experience tells me , he will work with what he has, and it will be the same key players we saw under Bowen (the ones that stay at least). When Fuente got here, he relied heavily on Cam Phillips, Ford, Rogers, etc. And the offense didn't look drastically different. I think you will see familiar faces passing it to familiar faces with a few new wrinkles. Your best players are your best players. So a heavy dose of Gosnell, Ayden Green, etc.
Cool, I like the hire. Time to get to work 👷♂️
TL;DR
I like the hire. I'm sure as mentioned above is his hopeful ability to help with the half-ending scenarios which we botched a few times.
well, this season should be interesting at least. Fresh start on both sides of the ball - not how I'd have drawn it up but ... well, here we are. Let's see what happens.
Winning is at least part of the formula for drawing better players. If he can get us one or more wins than losses in the regular season, we might see more interest from high 3 and 4 Star players which can build momentum.
My Hokie-high optimism wants to buy into that. My realism tells me progress is hardly ever a straight line. NTL, let's go HOKIES!
A good write-up of the style of offense to expect
ACCs already poor production quality is going to cut off every single receiver in those ultra wide sets.
Oh god. In the case he's great and sticks around for awhile the potential of seeing these sets on any broadcast from the carrier dome hurts me.
If he is both (a) great, and (b) sticks around a while, I'll tolerate almost any broadcast.
When I was writing my comment in the OC thread about notable UFL coaches, my eyes lit up when I saw Montgomery. I didn't add him to the list because of his relationship to Baylor/Briles. Hopefully VT did the necessary background check to make sure that it's safe to have this guy representing our university.
On the football side, I'm excited. Taylor may have been fine or innovative, but with all the available names in the OC pool, I think we needed a guy with experience at the highest level. Somebody who wouldn't get scrambled by the circus that can come with a coach on the hot seat or crazy success at a power conference program. Add in HC experience, much like Neal Brown, which can help fill some of Pry's gaps.
The DC coaching pool had a lot of unexciting retreads with mediocre offenses and we have a former DC as HC, so I'm ok going with a younger guy with less experience there. But the OC pool had exciting names all over who had coached great offenses, and I'm glad we hired one of those guys instead of pairing a newbie with a newbie.
I agree with the idea that Montgomery definitely fits what VT and Pry need in this hire. Pry needed a bona fide offensive leader, and Montgomery will be, without question, the top authority on offense.
The enigma is his resume. His best years were so long ago. And it's hard to make of his downward trend of offensive production at Tulsa and Auburn. It's fair to wonder whether he can recapture the success of the Houston, Baylor, and early Tulsa years.
It may not be too fair to grade him on his years at Tulsa as HC. There are a lot of examples of good OCs that are not great HCs. And when they're HC, their offenses are mediocre to bad. When they are rehired somewhere as an OC, they're great again. Joe Moorhead and Chip Kelly are good examples.
The Auburn debacle is also hard to be too critical. Auburn fans seem to suggest that it was a poor fit between Freeze and him, so I'm not sure he was even given a chance to succeed. If Freeze is calling him out because he's not running Freeze's offense, that's clearly not a situation in which Montgomery can succeed.
I do think he's a clear upgrade over Bowen. VT should definitely have better QB play with Montgomery. And with improvements on the OL, continued success in the run game and elite WR recruitment, it's possible VT's offense becomes a formidable force in the ACC. I want to see a 3000 yard passer, 1000 yard receiver, and 1000 yard rusher in a single season. Or 2 receivers over 1500 or two RBs over 1500. I think that is more possible today than 3 weeks ago.
I am a drummer. Ball plays are like drum fills. They have all been played before. All of them. Montgomery didn't forget how to draw up a route tree or design a zone read. Bet on that. He knows that stuff like the back of his hand. What VT needs him to do- what all good OCs can do- is draw up the play your team can execute successfully in that specific situation. Red zone, 2 pt conversions, 3rd and 4 to milk the clock. The best offenses execute in down and distance situations as opposed to just putting up crazy passing numbers. If your QB has a great deep ball and WRs can win 50/50 battles, find the right time to call the 9 route or post corner. If it works on first and 10 in the first quarter, cool. Can you execute it and call it when you have to? That is what Montgomery needs to improve on. Also he needs to be able to move the ball in the first Q- Bowen was awful at this.
this is a big point. After last season I talked myself into keeping Bowen around because he was serviceable as an OC and I thought it was too risky to overhaul the entire staff. IMO Marve was the much larger liability for our team and needed to be shown the door. My frustration with Bowen was the slow starts. He started games slowly. He started seasons slowly. In each season as OC we didn't really find our way offensively until about midway through the season. It was really frustrating, especially this past season, since we looked so strong offensively at the end of 2024. The backslide was kind of shocking.
If Montgomery is essentially the same as Bowen in every single way but that one, getting going early in seasons/games then that will be an improvement. I don't think that's a tremendously difficult bar for him to clear.
Not just the slow start in games. It took him a month each season to figure out how to play offense
I put this in another thread but I'll restate it here.
All systems of offense and defense have to evolve as opponents figure out how to deal with whatever it is you are succeeding with. To that end, I think Montgomery (/Davis/Moore) and Siefkes will be a good beta test for each other...an offense designed to create big plays against a defense designed to contain them.
And for anyone worried about the game passing him by, I remember people saying the exact same thing about Chip Kelly when he was dismissed from UCLA after he failed in the NFL. Good football minds sometimes need to be humbled a bit before they get back to what they are best at. And I would hope Montgomery fits that mold as well.
Its not like we don't have plenty of weapons in a bad ACC to play with. The guy very well could have us playing at an extremely high level very soon just due to competition alone.
People also had to realize that the aces he was calling at Oregon- every play wide open untouched for 30 yards- wouldn't be sustainable. I haven't seen anything like it before or since. Literally every offensive play worked for big yards. Simple handoffs went for TD's etc. That was not going to work forever.
Correction, he was not dismissed from UCLA. He left to take the Ohio State OC position.
Most college football minds still thought he was a fantastic offensive coach, but there was this general fan driven narrative so your overall point still stands.
My bold prediction for the offense this year under Montgomery - I think Kyron Drones is going to have a monster year and develop tremendously into a higher volume and more efficient passer with Montgomery's coaching. Drones hasn't gotten great QB coaching since he's been at Tech and Bowen's extremely slow developing passing scheme did him no favors. A switch to a simpler, quick release and higher volume pass game where Drones can get his confidence back and play without having to think too much I think will do him wonders. I'm excited to see how we integrate some of these air raid/veer and shoot pass concepts with Drones' game.
Yeah hopefully it's more simple for drones he really struggled to see the field at times and then struggled to deliver the ball frequently it was like he never had confidence in what he was doing
Interesting because I see Pop as a poor man's RG3 and thought he might stand to benefit more because he seems like the more accurate passer
I think it is cute that you think a OC who historically has run an offense that depends on quick decisions and accurate passing is going to use Drones.
Pop is the QB next year.
I dunno, the staff and even Montgomery are sure talking like Drones is QB1. I truthfully would like to see what Drones can do with better QB coaching and a simplified pass game with 1-2 reads and more quick routes. Montgomery even offered Drones out of high school so he must see something in him.
Pop is a fan favorite but other than looking good against UVA, he struggled against Duke and again in the bowl game. Makes some exciting plays here and there but I'm just not seeing it.
Drones will function much better with an OL and a pocket.
"Drones will function much better with an OL" - welp we are fucked then.
Talent wise we're definitely in a hole but I don't think it's a stretch to think that the previous OL coaches were doing less with more. That being said expecting drastic improvement in the OL this year is probably not realistic. We're lacking significant depth and experience across the board.
The OL play could be better... totally depends on if the OL coach and OC are on the same page. If they use this year to experiment and be "multiple"- we are screwed. Pick a scheme that you can block and vis versa
Yes, please no more 'multiple'.
I listened to the Pryssr about the Montgomery hire. He says he had Moore talk (at length) about scheme with Monty before hiring him to see if they were on the same page. He even conceded that he should have done a better job with this earlier...
I was glad he acknowledged, even if ever so slightly, the too many cooks issue. The offense has felt so disjointed for so long.
Montgomery also had a great interview on the TSL pod that just dropped this morning. He and Matt Moore have really been working together and talking a lot and he said they come very much from the same philosophies offensively (Moore from the Mike Leach tree and Montgomery who is also from that similar Briles/Leach tree). Should be very similar concepts and approaches so I'm excited to see this fit together.
He was pretty consistent on his responses on TSL and on the Level 7 podcast. He did talk a bit about how the game has adapted to those older schemes, and how he hopes to adapt with it. Pretty much said he can't run those older schemes the way they did before.
Pop just seems like he had such good field awareness. Right now if Drones could improve his accuracy and deep ball, he would be incredible, very high upside immediately. Pop seems to have a higher floor but needs to more bulk to survive a whole season. I suspect Drones will start the season, but if he's not rolling and looking comfortable in the first 4 games, Pop will be getting minutes.
I think Montgomery has run a 2 QB system before expect that.
I can't recall that ever working well outside of Tebow/Leak that one year.
I thought it worked that year for Oklahoma when they had Bell-dozer.
It worked pretty well for the 2007 ACC Champion Virginia Tech Hokies
Glennon, Tyrod season.
The Fu$k Matt Ryan season.
My bold prediction for the offense this year under Montgomery - I think Kyron Drones is going to have a monster year and develop tremendously into a higher volume and more efficient passer with Montgomery's coaching.
I choose to believe this statement.
Montgomery D1 OC - 4 years 2012-2014, 2023
Bowen - 1 year Fordham
Cornelson - 0 years
Loeffler - 2 years - 1 temple, 1 Auburn
Stinesrping - 0 years
Bustle - 0 years
Marshall - 2 years Murray state
Montogomery comes in with a resume aa sole OC at the D1 level matching the last 5 OCs combined
When Montgomery was HC at Tulsa, there was not a person with a title of OC. He was de facto OC at Tulsa too.
Well i can't find Bill Dooley's OC
As someone who was around during the Dooley era, I'm not sure we had an offense beyond Cyrus Lawrence up the middle. It was pretty easy to coordinate.
Wikipedia only list DCs for a few years when Beamer started. I had to find Steve Marshall from Colorados website and he hasn't been there in a decade.
I've always felt kind bad for Cyrus. He could have made a run in the pros if he didn't have 30 trillion carries in college with all the associated wear and tear.
If that doesn't put things in perspective, I don't know what does.
Picking nits, but corny was co-OC and play caller for Memphis in 2015, and OC at Northeastern State from 2009-2011.
Regardless, your point stands.
This was sole OC because calling plays is important and I couldn't tell if they were the man if Co OC, Montgomery was Co-OC for like 4 more years at Baylor.
Northeastern State isn't division 1.
Yea, I heard an interview where Fuente talked about Brad's play calling skills at Memphis (should've been a red flag lmao). Also, the other co-OC went to a job after Memphis where he wasn't allowed to call plays lol.
Missed the D1 part, good catch.
Your point still stands - Monty is far and away the most qualified OC VT has ever hired.
So turns out not ever, I missed Rickey Bustle leaving and coming back (I was like 10 when it happened). Frank hired Gary Tranquill who spent two years as OC at WVU, and 4 years at UVA before we hired him away from Bill Belicheck's staff in Cleveland. He was only at VT for a season leaving for the same position at Mich St. (his buddy Nick Saban got the HC job)
So for one year Rickey Butle left, we had a guy that had been at our two main rivals and had a lot of good expirence include HC at Navy when we hired him.
Bustle was a damn good OC for a "conservative" offense.
oh yeah, Bustle used set up plays really well. you knew some time in the 3rd the FB would get a pass over the middle for a first down because it was set up. I never saw that with Stinesrping, Loeffler, or Cornelson
Yes, the FBs and TEs wouldn't get a lot of touches in that offense but when they did, they often ATE with the chunk gains.
It might have been a simple offense, but it's still the most effective one I've ever seen run at VT (not that that's a high bar). I still miss watching it
"
Whit surprisingly backing up the Brinks Truck for our coordinators
Edit: Turns out to be a little over $1 million a year
Well that certainly comes with some expectations
As well it should.
Right sizing, as it were.
$1.3m per year seems about right for someone with Monty's resume (highs and lows both considered)
Right- a decent salary, but not some ungodly amount in today's world.
So what you're saying is we actually paid a coordinator in appropriate amount based on their experience and history.
We are paying some one in line with the expectations of the job.
I'm saying that 1. We shouldn't throw a parade or gasp at this salary. 2. I applaud Whit for not paying him lateral money when you want an upgrade (definition of insanity).
For reference, the highest paid OC in CFB last year was Mike Denbrock at ND coming in at $2.1M
https://247sports.com/longformarticle/how-the-highest-paid-college-footb...
For some reason, I read that as North Dakota, and was stumped. Then I rationalized that, thinking they'd have to pay a lot to keep a championship-caliber OC from jumping to the P4, and ND wins a lot of Div 1-AA championships. Then I read the article, and felt like an idiot. And then I posted that here, to confirm it for the whole of TSL.
/sigh
TSL?
LBT needs some coffee...clearly
...or there was a bit too much Irish in his coffee this morning. /s
The spreadsheet should know that I don't drink coffee.
You're the reason I use a spreadsheet and not a database!
See? I'm an idiot. ;^)
You're a terrific slouch!
I got PTSD, man. I saw "admired VT from afar" and immediately thought of Fuente, who said exactly the same thing when he was first hired. We all know how that went.
As a VT football fan these days, I'm starting to like them from afar too.
LOL. Well done.
/sees 13 new comments
"Oh shit, did we lose him?"
Don't worry dude he's 1000% committed