I'm going to just throw anything I see in here and I'll definitely breakdown the 11am Pry speech. I hope to get the individual interviews broken down this evening, but feel free to add anything y'all see from media days in the comments.
I haven't seen a full video from teams' podium time, unfortunately. It looks like the ACCN is just posting snippets to their YouTube channel. SI has what looks to be a transcript of Pry's time on the podium here and I took some interesting snippets from that.
Update: hokiesports came through.
- Short and sweet opening remarks, thanks fans and admin and touches on selling out 5 of 6 last season. Says we have great momentum and the guys are invested. Looking forward to what the team can do this year.
- Touches on the team culture a few times, bringing up that players and coaches have spurned other opportunities to be able to play for each other. Brings up that when he asks players if they like it at Tech almost everyone says they love it. Big contributing factor to our returning production.
- I don't want to read too much into this, but it's the first time I remember Pry saying the team is paying attention to details and has the right mentality without the caveat of still having to coach "football 101". If that's true and those remarks don't come back during camp, then I think Pry is truly expecting a step forward this year.
- Proud of the WR room, went from one of the weakest to one of the strongest units on the team from preseason 2023 to now.
- Coaching staff treating DMV like home turf. "It makes too much sense for us." Cites the ease of a trip to Bburg, the talent, and the relationships to our staff.
- "This is a place where you should expect to compete for the playoffs and expect to compete for a championship. That's who Tech is." π€β¬οΈ
- Biggest win of the off-season was that nobody came off the gas.
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Comments
LFG!!
We're so close. Between being <40 days from kickoff and CFB25 being released I'm getting excited again.
Pry must have brought our new uniform with him. See they switched it out in the ACC Kickoff video.
Thanks for posting. Great stuff!
For all of the talk about player development, improvement etc, I think Coach Pry is growing into the head whistle role as well.
Stop the run. Stay healthy. Be better on OL. = Win
That is the formula.
I think the staff worked really hard to stop the run this offseason. The question for me isn't the DL, I think that group will be solid, at least the starting group, rather it is the LBs and safeties. We've discussed run fits for what seems like years now - a pervasive issue. But even if they aren't 100%, I really need to see more downhill play out of those two groups. We are so freaking passive, and have been for some time. Probably the most disappointing part of the Pry era to me.
I do think the OL will be better simply based off of the track record of our OL coach. Is that wishful thinking? Possibly. But even if they are a touch better, we have a really solid duo (Tuten and Drones) on the ground, which could mitigate some of those struggles a bit.
Love the confidence from Pry, as always. Looks like he's having fun.
I've been listening to the various interviews while driving. Lots of consistent interviews from everyone on our side. So, they've either been coached up, or everyone is actually on the same page.
Another note: Strong and APR were entirely different people behind the podium and the desk. They were soooo much more comfortable sounding doing the desk interview.
I like some of our reporters, but I think even Bitter would openly say that podium/press conferences are an almost complete waste of time these days. They would much rather get small/less formal interview settings and players are way better at it too
It's interesting the guy from the Liberty U radio station called VT the flagship football team of the state. I would have thought everyone at Liberty would have said that about themselves.
It's also a little bit bizarre that 90.9 The Light would send press down to the ACC media days. I've never listened to the station, but it's Christian music, Liberty news and Liberty sports. They don't have any games against ACC members this year.
Maybe their asses are still chapped from last year's comments. But yes, bizarre that they would send someone to ACC mania days.
Here's a dump of all the other videos hokiesports uploaded from yesterday.
I see Cam Phillips had some influence on Drones' suit. He looks real sharp in that maroon suit.
I like that the suits were selected and custom-fitted for the event. Pry and his staff do the little things and attention to detail well.
Lmfao.
via GIPHY
Soooo.... This is borderline LOLUVA "doing hard things together" mantra...
What would you give to be able to show this on the typical college campus today and watch the reaction? I know I'd give a whole lot!
I'm a fan of using the hokiebird more prominantly like the lapels