Virginia Tech has announced the hiring of Pierson Prioleau as safeties coach. He has been promoted from his former role of Director of Player Development – Defense.
Prioleau played safety for the Hokies from 1995 through 1998 before being drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1999. He went on to play for 12 years in the NFL, with stops in San Francisco, Buffalo, Washington, Jacksonville and New Orleans before retiring after the 2010 season. He won a Super Bowl ring with the Saints in 2009.
Prioleau has served as Virginia Tech’s Director of Player Development – Defense since 2019 when Justin Hamilton was elevated from that role to that of a full-time coach. Prioleau’s son PJ is currently a walk-on wide receiver with the Virginia Tech football team.
For all stories on Pry’s coaching staff hires, click here.
Brent Pry’s Staff
With Prioleau’s hiring, Virginia Tech’s coaching staff is now almost complete. Pry has a budget of $5.5M for the Hokies’ ten full-time assistant coaches. Here are the coaches, broken down by position, and their previous salaries.
OC/TE: Tyler Bowen (not officially announced)
QB/PGC: Brad Glenn; $260,000
RB/ST: Stu Holt; $390,000
WR: ?
OL/RGC: Unannounced, but heavily rumored to be Wisconsin’s Joe Rudolph
DL/AHC: J.C. Price; $275,000
DC/LB: Chris Marve; $500,000
OLB/NB: Shawn Quinn; $90,000*
CB: Derek Jones; $500,000
S: Pierson Prioleau; $85,000
*Quinn did not have a contract at Savannah State and was a yearly employee.
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So what has happened with Ryan Smith?
He gone
I like the outreach to the ex Hokie player community, important to get back to our dna
Except we had a Zoom call with 180 players and nobody even bothered to tell Mike Vick about it…watched the 757 Vick Show the other day and he just shook his head and said he was hurt they didn’t contact him. I’m sure they will reach out to him but WHAT THE HELL…how does that happen??? It’s not like he wasn’t on the call because he was too busy…he literally didn’t know it happened until they mentioned it on the show. W…T….F!
HtH: you might want to check out the more accurate story (read posts on Subscriber Board) of how the Athletic Dept tried to get MV7 on the line 4 times and basically his phone/screening system denied access all 4 times.
please do a better job of reading/researching the entire story before you go spreading half-the-story, worst-case clips, or exaggerated speculations (like the major news networks do). they have to sell “proverbial newspapers.” as Hokies we are bound by: Virginia Tech’s core values:
Brotherhood, Honor,
Leadership, Sacrifice,
Service, Loyalty,
Duty, and Ut Prosim.
Facts matter…well, at least they used to.
Hey it was on the interweb, it must be true……coz I heard it on a Podcast or maybe Twitter, which is the bestest source ever
My guess is Pry and MV have spoken to each other since this happened. Internally, Pry should have been told MV’s phone service was blocking their calls. He would have found another way to contact him. From MV side, MV was reacting “in the moment” without knowing his service was the primary issue. My guess is the next time 757 show is on, he will clear it up.
Yes Sir! Congrats PP!
Go PP!
Hope Joe Rudolph hire goes through. WISC known for tough running game and Pry had to play against them so he knows.
Gawd if we could develop an OL and running game like dem Badgers it would be great! No shortage of big corn-fed HS boys up there, though, to turn into road graders.
Hiring Rudolph would completely upend the salary structure noted above. They have to be higher.
The salaries listed above are what they were getting paid in old jobs, not new VT salaries.
i certainly hope those were “”old, old” pay scales.” $90,000?! $85,000?!
one has to pay to have and retain quality coaches. those two salaries are paltry,
below entry level at perennially competitive P5 schools.
CBP will get it corrected; i’m sure.
No need to hope. The article clearly states those are the “previous salaries.”
Getting Joe Rudolph would be worth an out of balance salary structure. And if his peers can’t recognize that his experience and demonstrated performance warrants making more than them, then too bad. I’ve been doing my job for 40 years and I’m relatively highly compensated. If some young buck gets hired into my job family and thinks he ought to be making what I’m making right off the bat, he should have his head examined.
Hope he can sell the program and relate to 15-16-17 years old.
Word is he did a great job of coaching at Radford High. Seemed to get the most out of the players.
Is he the one that the Radford coach was raving about or was that another ex Hokie?
Didn’t Pierson have one of the top vertical jumps ever in VY history?
Is vertical leap a prerequisite for coaching safeties?
Yes, something like 45-46-47 inches I think
Only 85,000 as safeties coach. Seems low but not sure how that position is paid at other P5 schools.
That’s his previous salary as stated above
thank you. People on here can’t read.
🤣
Seriously!
Yea, must be incentive-laden, totally don’t get that…
Those are previous salaries, so that was his DPD-D number. I assume the new salaries have not been released yet.
Like all assistant coaches hires, 33% chance a great hire, 33% average hire & 33% bad hire. Hope it’s the 1st one. Hopefully, pro experience will prove a good selling point.
The SEC and BIG hires and fires and hies again because they have best pool of proven assistant coaches- battle tested.
It’s all about personality fit with head coach in the big leagues.
I guarantee Rudolph will be the best OL coach since Frank’s prime provided he and Pry and Bowen agree upon schemes and the conditioning coach.
An exceptional move. It’s refreshing to see how this staff has been molded from so many energetic sources.
The more HOKIES on Pry’s staff the merrier. Great HOKIE and assume there’s a nice pay raise for the Prioleau family on its way. Congrats PP!
Love this hire! PP is one of the great all time HOKIES!