Tech Talk Live Notes: Brent Pry, Nick Gallo Talk Rutgers And Marshall

On Thursday night, Virginia Tech football head coach Brent Pry and tight end Nick Gallo joined Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop on Tech Talk Live at McClain’s at First & Main to preview Saturday’s game at Marshall (noon ET, ESPN2). They also recapped the loss at Rutgers, which put the Hokies at 1-2 on the year.

Brent Pry

Coach, how are you doing?

Good. Always good to be here with you guys, talking Hokie football, and we’ve got a good crowd tonight, got some of our guys in here, which I love seeing.

How about starting us off with the injury update. I know it’s been so tough. 14 surgeries since the summer, that’s incredible.

That’s a high number. But we’ve got some guys, we’re getting healthier. That’s part of the game. And the thing about it is you can’t worry about what you can’t control. And it creates opportunities for other guys and that’s what we’ve got to do. That’s who we’ve got to be.

Have you had a team that has had this many injuries this early on in the season at that many important positions?

I don’t know that I’ve ever had cause to count it. Brett [Griesemer] and I were discussing that the other day, just how many surgeries there actually were and that’s kind of how the number came out. But we had a good week and a bunch of guys are stepping up and some guys are getting healthy.

Do you think any of it has to do with the fact that the NCAA rules are that you can’t do so much contact in the preseason and then all of a sudden they’re asking you to go out there and play a three-hour game?

It could. That’s one of the reasons Brett and I had the conversation where we’re going to document this and keep track of the injuries that occur once the season starts as opposed to just during preseason camp and being healthy. I mean, the game has changed and the rules are changing. Just trying to do the best for our team and how we prepare these guys.

One of the guys thrust into a starting role is quarterback Kyron Drones. What was your assessment of his first start?

I think we were all pleased with his first start. When you think about that, just going out there for the first time and running the show and making the reach and making the throws, I thought he did a good job. I really did. I think he’s just like I’ve said about him in practice. He gets better all the time. He needs the reps, he needs the experience. And I think each and every opportunity he has to be out there he’s going to improve on.

As a former defensive coordinator, you have to love how Drones ran the ball and opened everything up, right?

Yeah, and we’ve talked about that. I think a quarterback run game, especially when maybe you’re struggling interior and you’re trying to get your run game going, kind of opens things up. When you watch the end zone copy and you see a quarterback just got a chance to pull it and do something with it, it just loosens that defense up a little bit. And I saw some of that on Saturday and that needs to be part of who we are.

I know the quarterback position is still a battle with Drones and Grant Wells, but if it is Kyron at Marshall, do you think he’ll improve a lot with those reps?

Yeah, I think so. He’s gotten a majority of the reps again with the ones, Grant’s gonna be a Saturday morning decision on what he can do and how he can help us. So Kyron’s had a good week and I think there’s no substitute for experience. There’s no substitute for reps. And you don’t have enough time in a week, you don’t have enough time in the spring, you don’t have enough time in the camp to get everybody the reps that you really want to see him get.

With the suspension of Pop Watson, you had to get the other guys, Dylan Wittke and Ben Locklear ready this week.

Yeah, and Dylan did a nice job this week. Him and Pop were kind of neck-and-neck and we made the decision on Pop last week and obviously disappointed in what occurred, but Dylan was ready for the call and he’s had a good week. It’s a lot for true freshmen. But Coach [Tyler] Bowen did a good job, so has coach [Brian] Christ in getting him ready, and the guys are supporting him and he’s an athlete also, he’s a guy that can run the ball. And I think that’s probably one of the things he’s done best this week.

Grant Wells played three seasons at Marshall. I have to imagine he’s going to be fired up to play if he has the opportunity.

Yeah, that’s right. He wants to play in this game and that injury just proved to be a little bit worse than maybe what we thought. As that game [vs. Purdue] went on, it took its toll and then coming out of that thing on Sunday, Monday, it was in a pretty bad spot. I think he’s better than he was last week. He’s got more work this week than he did last week. And for him, it’s a big game, C.J. McCray, Coach [J.C.] Price, all these guys.

There are so many ties between these two schools. You lived in Huntington for a few years, too.

Yeah, I don’t remember much of it. One through five, dirty diapers and little kid bikes and stuff, but my mom tried to fill me in the other day on a bunch of memories and I’m glad she has them because I had none of them.

And your father, Jim Pry, was a quarterback there?

Now that’s a different story. That place means a ton to him. And he actually is landing there tonight. One of our operations guys was picking him up, he’s gonna spend the weekend and be on the sideline with us. I’m excited for him to do that. He was a part of that first team after the crash and that place means a world to him and Coach [Jack] Lengyel means the world to him and I thought it would be awesome that he could be there with us.

You talked about Drones and his running ability. He also had some really nice throws out there Saturday.

I’m probably as guilty as anybody about talking about how well he runs the ball. But Kyron could throw the ball. And I think we saw some good throws and good reads the other day. Like I’ve said in the past, I think there’s some that he’d like to have back, that could be in play a little bit more, give us a chance, but he threw some nice passes on Saturday.

What did you think of his connection with Da’Quan Felton?

Yeah, it was good. We had to emphasize Felton all week with the situation with Ali [Jennings] and with Jaylin Lane. And Tucker [Holloway] has been banged up a little bit, so that there was a bigger role and increased role for Da’Quan Felton and I thought he stepped up and did a nice job.

When you talk about adversity, you guys have had to deal with so much. When you think about the rain delay, the travel issues, injuries. Are you happy with the way the guys have handled it?

Well, I think the thing I’m proud of with the group is we hadn’t talked about that. It is what it is. I’m proud of the way the guys have handled it, yes.

Keli Lawson had 11 tackles at Rutgers. That’s back-to-back games with double-digit tackles. What did you think of his play?

Obviously, he’s improving each week. He’s very active. He can run, he closes the distance. I think the really exciting thing is Keli knows he’s leaving some plays out there. This guy hasn’t reached his potential yet, he’s getting better all the time. But he’s still growing as an inside linebacker. If you remember, when we got the job here, he was a wide receiver. So it’s kind of new to him. In high school, he was a defensive end, wideout type of guy. So all the reads and the fits are new for him. I’m excited about what he’s doing right now, but I’m even more excited about the linebacker that he can be. 

How do you improve your run defense?

I think you look back for three quarters. It was the quarterback that hurt us, we’ve got to be better there. And in the fourth quarter, we just got real lose. We didn’t tackle well, we didn’t hold edges. We just kind of fell apart a little bit. And we’re better than that. And that’s not to take away from Rutgers’ run game, I thought they do a nice job. They’re committed to it, that’s kind of who they are. They had a really nice-sized offensive line. But we certainly can be better than that. We’ve been better at times, and I expect us to be better on Saturday. 

Does some of that come back to fatigue, just in the fourth quarter?

I think depth is always part of it, but guys stepping up and doing what you need to do when you’re tired. We talk about that all the time, you gotta maintain body position and knee bend and good key reads and all those things even when you’re tired. 

What was your assessment of where your run offense was from that Rutgers game? 

I thought it was a step in the right direction. I don’t think anybody’s band played over the way we ran the ball, but I thought it was a step in the right direction. 

Seven penalties, some of them were so untimely.

Yeah, we’ve been good the first two weeks out, penalties weren’t an issue and I think it wasn’t just the penalties. It’s like you said, it was how costly they were in opportune times. And we’re doing our penalty run on Sundays and certainly the guys are regretful of the careless ones, the avoidable ones.

What have you thought of your secondary and where those guys stack up?

I think the guys have done well for what we’ve asked of them, but until we improve our run game, I don’t know that they really are going to be tested. I mean, people don’t have to throw the ball right now. That’s the truth of the matter. So I told the guys the other day, we’ve got to sure up this run defense and make people throw it then we’ll find out how good you are.

Right before the half, you had a bad punt and set Rutgers up at the 50, which led to a score. Things like that are killer, aren’t they?

That’s costly. I mean, you look at the way the game started. A fumble, and then they score on a missed tackle even though we bring a corner fire right into it and should be at TFL and the running back makes a nice play. We just didn’t start fast. We didn’t start well. I didn’t think we were intense. And then you’ve got a touchdown like that where they get the ball at the 50, two-minute situation. And I think there was a PI in that series, but just not good enough right there in a two-minute situation. I think we got them to a third down and ran an aggressive pressure and the quarterback beat us on it. 

Losing the turnover battle is tough to overcome, isn’t it?

Yeah, I showed the team on Tuesday the top eight teams in the country right now in turnover margin. And all of them were still undefeated, 3-0. And we went back through Old Dominion and what we were, Purdue what we were, Rutgers what we were and how important it is. I mean, we’re making a big push right now on the ball. Whether you’ve got it on offense or you need it on defense, we need to be intent on the football.

After you got that game to 21-16, there was no hesitation in going for two.

I thought we were moving the ball well, the best game we’ve had to this point. We were sustaining some drives and feeling like we could move the football, but we weren’t scoring like we needed to. So I felt like let’s get this thing to three and that makes sense for us. And unfortunately Lofton got tied up, they got little pressure off that side. We were trying to get him back out in the flat on the revert motion and a good two-point play, that kind of got stymied.

But you go back and you look at it and you make that two-point conversion, you make that field goal [in the first quarter] to tie it up, I mean, ifs and buts, right, but we’re right there. And that’s what the team understands. We just have to do things better. We have a thin margin of error right now and we’ve got to do more things right to win the football game.

Through three games, you’ve had 16 true freshman or redshirt freshmen play in the game.

Yeah, and that’s gonna continue. I mean, we’ve got to continue to build talent. We’ve got good players on this team, we don’t have enough of them. We’ve got to keep investing in our recruitment and what we’re doing. I like what we’re doing with our freshmen right now. We’ve got to commit to playing them. It’s a long season. I mean, we’re three games into this thing. And it’s a 12-game season and hopefully one more after that. So we’ve got to commit to playing these guys and having a healthy rotation so that they’re getting better week-by-week.

It’s a good freshman class, a lot of them are having to play.

Yeah, there’s a bunch of guys out there who got banged up and some bruises and been hollered at a lot. Bunch of them need to put some weight on.

They also have to deal with academics on top of being an athlete.

We actually had an academic meeting today. A couple of them have 17 and 18 credits, and then taking on playing college football and it’s a lot, but it’s a good group. I’m proud of all of them and it’s good to see them out here tonight.

Marshall is coming off an open week so the team has a little bit more time to prepare for this one.

Yeah, there’s no doubt in my mind knowing [Coach Charles] Huff he scheduled that bye week. Whatever he had to do, he was at that AD’s door saying, “Hey, we need an open date before this one.”

They had a heck of a year last year. 9-4, won at Notre Dame.

Marshall’s always had a nice program. They’ve won a lot of games. They’ve upset folks. And Charles [Huff] is a good football coach. I spent a lot of time with him. And I think the Marshall opportunity was a good one for him and he’s making the most of it. 

You spent time with Huff at Vanderbilt and Penn State. Earlier in the week, he said you guys have a close relationship.

He’s a really good guy. And we had some good times together. We went through a lot between Vanderbilt and Penn State, like Ricky Rahne, just a good friend in this business. I mean, it’s a shame that you have to line up against his guys, but there’s always respect and you’re always pulling for him. Just like with Rick, I mean, you hate having to line up against him, but at the same time, it’s good to see him and to hug on his neck and tell him we’re gonna kick his butt but wish him luck after that. Charles is a good person and I’m pulling for him. I’m pulling for Rick outside of playing us, man. I always want those guys to do well.

Marshall has a really good running back in Raheen Ali.

I’m gonna tell you now, he can make a cut and then he can accelerate. He does a great job. He’s a proven back. Had a great year last year. He’s not just quick, he can make cuts and he’s hard to tackle. I think he’s a pretty competitive guy. We’ve got our hands full with him. He’s absolutely one of the better backs that we’ll see.

Marshall quarterback Cam Fancher is 8-1 as a starter at Marshall.

He’s a dual-threat guy. He can run it. he can spin it. He’s kind of a gamer. He doesn’t get rattled. He can improvise and make plays when they break down or everybody’s covered up. I think they like what they’ve got in him.

They have five receivers that average over 12 yards a catch. Seems like they have some explosive play ability on offense.

Yeah, absolutely. They’ve got a nice offense, they’ve got a nice defense. They’ve got a couple guys that have returned some kicks and they’re doing a nice job.

What do you see when you look at the Marshall defense?

They’ve got a good group. They’ve got a couple of veterans and those guys can tackle or they can run, they play the ball. I think they’re very fast at linebacker, they’re big up front. They were one of the best defenses in the country last year, so they’re not far removed from that.

Marshall was picked to finish fourth in the Sun Belt Conference, but you look at that league, JMU, App State, Coastal Carolina. It’s pretty good stuff there. 

I think it’s a good league. There’s a lot of parity right now and those guys are doing a nice job. I was in that league for five years. There’s a lot of skill, a lot of speed. Marshall’s doing a nice job in that league and they have a competitive schedule.

What’s it going to take to be able to protect the quarterback on Saturday?

Yeah, I think there’s communication. That’s setting the protection the right way, that’s the tight ends in the backs doing their part. It’s sustaining blocks, we can’t just be there for 1001, 1002. We’ve got to finish it, which has been an emphasis for us right now. We’ve gotta straighten a little bit more.

Coach Huff was the lead recruiter at Alabama under Nick Saban. He gets players in up there, doesn’t he?

He does. He’s got a great personality, and I’ll tell you this, I know when we were at Penn State, he had an assist in a bunch of those recruits, just so we’re clear.

Last week, you all were delayed with the engine failure on the plane. A little bit easier this week when you guys can just bus up there?

Don’t jinx us! It’s a three-and-a-half, four-hour trip, a lot can happen. I grew up in West Virginia so I know.

How much easier is it to go on the road now the second time. Do the guys kind of know the routine? 

They do. I think the second trip they’re more comfortable with how we’re going to be and how we travel and what we wear and how we meet and what the schedule is going to look like. I think there’s always comfort in that.

How about having Nick Gallo back with the team in Blacksburg?

I’m gonna tell you now, you talk about your heart aching for somebody who makes the commitment to come back and wants to lead and wants to play and better himself, better the team and before he even gets to play in the first ball game, he has an injury that ends the season. But he’s been awesome, great family. He’s a leader, he’s mature, he’s very valuable to what we’re doing. When those kinds of things happen, that’s where it’s at. Right? It’s with Nick and what he’s going through and, of course, the loss and we miss him and the impact he has as a starter on our offense and experience and all those things, but more so you feel for him.

Who gets the honor of wearing the No. 25 jersey this week?

Will Johnson. Linebacker, I love it, man. It’s competitive. It’s tough on him guys. They all want to wear it, only one can.

What reaction do you get when you announce that?

It’s pretty cool. We go through the flag bearers and then we do 25 at the end and there’s a bunch of clapping and hollering for the guys and we tell them congratulations and then if you get 25, then when the team meetings over you go out to the hallway, you get interviewed, so it’s pretty cool.

Who has the Lunch Pail?

Yeah, Dorian’s [Strong] got it. He’s done a really nice job. I don’t want to take that away because I think he’s played well. He’s covered really well. We put him on Purdue’s best guy. He’s a fast guy and he did a nice job. Nice job again Saturday. But honestly, I told him I said let’s see when we get a group that can really spin the ball and throw it around, obviously what you do there.

Wilfried Pene has come along, hasn’t he?

I’m glad you brought him up. He absolutely has. He’s playing his best football. A guy that has developed in the program, he was raw when he got here, I believe, and just kind of working to get better. He’s battled through some injuries. He’s healthy right now. I’m excited about what Wilfried Pene’s doing.

Do you have more clarity on some of the injuries heading into Saturday?

I think there’s a bunch of guys that we’ll run it through, today was just a walk through, tomorrow, our fast Friday, we get them back up to full speed. We’ll know more after tomorrow’s practice.

The scout team is so important to give you a good look. Is that something that’s been easy or hard when trying to get the best look?

I think that’s always a challenge, right? I need to spend more time over there making sure we’re getting the best out of those guys. And everybody thinks it’s about the varsity group, the first and second team, but that scouting group to the developmental squad is critical. And some of the surgeries we’ve had, it’s affected us that way. Those guys are evaluated every evening when we watch that practice film just like the varsity guys, who’s doing well? We make our Hokie Stone players the week on Sundays and it comes from watching practice and what those guys are doing, so that group has to be really strong. It will be good for us.

It would be nice to see more of Tucker Holloway, he had a nice return the other day.

Yeah, let me tell you. Him and Jaylin Lane, I mean, we’ve got to block it up and we’ve told the other 10 guys on the punt return team, “Hey, just give them a chance to get it started” because we got two of the best, I believe.

How about Kyron’s story about him and his family. That’s a football family. 

I don’t know how his family’s doing it right now. I mean, Florida State and us and just a lot going on. And I can relate a little bit with the football in my family, but it’s an exciting time for them. Good people, good family.

Will you be doing some recruiting this week?

No not this week. I don’t know if you’re aware they cut down the recruiting days. It used to be that you had 42 days in the evaluation period in the fall and they’ve cut it down to 33. So with the Thursday night game and with the open day, we’re going to use the majority of our days during that time. 

Do you have time to follow what’s happening in Colorado and Coach Prime and all that?

Not a whole lot. We’re so tied up with our stuff and we have such a stringent schedule and we don’t get to watch NFL, college football. I did watch that last one because it was on late. You get home and you want to decompress and kick your feet up and watch a little football. Got a chance to see that one which was a good football game. I didn’t make it to the end of it. Obviously, you kind of see what going on and you read some articles, shows up on Twitter or whatever.

You said your dad is coming to the game. Do you have any other family coming to the game on Saturday? 

No, he’s the only one I’m aware of. He’s excited and he’s gonna spend a bunch of time there so I’m glad he’s coming up, it’ll be good. 

How about those freshmen receivers like Ayden Greene and Xayvion Turner-Bradshaw. Guy got his head torn off but he had a nice catch as well.

You gotta get loaded to tear his head off. Ayden’s doing a great job and Xayvion’s a tremendously talented kid. He’s fast, he’s quick. And there’s moments where you go, “Holy cow, this guy can really help us” and he’s just got to keep getting better and growing up and doing things and he wants to, but Ayden’s a true freshman with a great frame, he can run. He approaches it like he’s a senior. I mean, he’s very mature, works at it. And he’s gonna master his craft pretty quick, I believe.

Any final thoughts before Marshall this weekend?

This is a big one. They all are right now for us. And we’ve had a good week of practice. We had a great day today. I’m excited about the opportunity.

Nick Gallo

What was it like being up on the sideline up at Rutgers? 

It was pretty cool. I was at home for about two or three weeks. So getting back with the team and being on the sideline, it was kind of weird. It was definitely weird watching it on TV, not being with the fellas. But it felt really good to be back, a little bit different being on the sideline, but better than being at home.

Take me back to the injury because it was at the last scrimmage. Walk me through it. 

Yeah, so I kind of went out for a catch. Thankfully, I made the catch. I think I was in bounds, but I went up to make the catch and then just kind of came down on just my right leg. Just start to kind of buckle down a little bit. Definitely felt really weird at first. A lot of thoughts were racing through my mind. It was really painful. But then it started to kind of settle back in and I guess your body doesn’t really adjust to it right away. But it was feeling a lot better. Like you said, I was walking around on the sideline after. I felt fine. And then as the night kind of progressed, it started to get more and more swollen. That’s when I kind of knew the next morning I kind of knew something was up. 

As you play college football and play football throughout your career. Obviously, injuries are a part of it. Have you had other injuries throughout your football career? 

Yeah, I had a surgery on my other knee my sophomore year just after the season, just kind of cleaning some stuff up but I broke my leg when I was younger, like you said it’s a part of the game. It never comes at a good time obviously. But I just have to have a good mindset and keep progressing.

You were probably in the best shape of your life at the ACC media days. How much weight have you lost? Is that something that just naturally occurs because you can’t work out, you don’t feel like eating, you can’t do much?

Yeah, I probably lost about 20 pounds. I don’t know if it’s the medicine and you lose a good amount of muscle mass in your leg there. But I’ll be able to build it back up. I’m confident in that.

How cool was it to reunite with the team in Piscataway last week?

Yeah, it was really cool. I was supposed to be with the team Friday night. But they had some trouble with a plane. I live about an hour away from Rutgers. So my family was able to drive me on Saturday morning. And it was just a great feeling to get back with the guys. 

You come from an athletic family. Your brother, Eric, played here under Coach Beamer. The other brother was a tight end at Maryland, PJ. You’re a tight end here. So who’s the best athlete in the family? 

My older sister… or I always go with myself, I’m confident with myself. I think the youngest is the toughest and the most athletic. 

What’s your best memory of coming as a fan here to Blacksburg whenever your brother was playing?

There was a lot. The first time I actually came to Blacksburg was when my oldest brother was playing tight end at Maryland. And our family decided before the year that we were going to go to the Virginia Tech game because how could you not go to Blacksburg, Virginia, see Enter Sandman, the whole deal. And it just so happened that during that year, my older brother Eric, who eventually came here, was offered a scholarship to come to Tech. So my one brother was on the field play and Eric was here getting recruited. Our whole family was here. The Hokies didn’t win, which kind of sucked, but it was a really cool experience.

How can you continue to be involved as a captain now in this new role? 

Yeah, I think that’s really important for me going forward, it’s obviously a huge honor to be named a captain and I definitely don’t take it lightly, even though I still have this injury it’s a big priority for me moving forward to still be super involved with the team. Help out the old guy or young guys as much as I can be around practice, meetings. I scheduled all my treatments and therapy for the morning so that I can be with all the guys in the afternoon so I’m looking forward to that. 

How is school going so far?

Really good, I have one class left which I’m taking this semester. So it’s going really well. I’m excited to graduate.

It may be a little too early, but I gotta ask, Do you have another year in you? 

I’m not really sure. My number one priority right now is to keep improving every day, take care of my health mentally and physically. But eventually sometime down the road, I’ll sit down with my family and friends and come to that decision. 

You know that tight end room better than anybody. What can you tell us about some of those young tight ends, some of those guys who have stepped up so far? What can we expect? 

I think all the guys are doing an extremely good job. They’ve always done a great job, to be honest. I think they’ve always been working and I’ve been trying to help them out as much as possible and it’s kind of cool, even though I’m not out there, to kind of see those guys and all the work that they put in to be able to display that a little bit.

What would you like to be doing 5-10 years from now?

My oldest brother works on Wall Street. I think that’s pretty enticing. I like that competitive, fast-paced environment. So I’ve been up there a couple times to kind of shadow him and get a feel for that. So that would be kind of a dream of mine. 

Has it been tough to deal with the injuries that kept you away from class and from Blacksburg? 

No, I only have that one class and my professor is a great guy. So he’s made sure to set up the PowerPoints for me and it’s been great so far.