The Virginia Tech Friday Q&A: Roster Management, Talent Comparison, And More

Brent Pry
We’ll soon learn more about Brent Pry’s roster management preferences. (Ivan Morozov)

1) When discussing his philosophy on running a program Pry mentioned that he and his staff would “manage and develop our roster” as one of his bullet points. You’ve talked a lot about the development aspect lately. What are your thoughts about the management side of that statement? – flatlander

Chris Coleman: My mind goes to a couple of things…

First, managing the roster in terms of how many players are at each position. In other words, let’s not have a roster of 57 scholarship running backs anymore. It’s all about positional balance. Identify your target number of scholarship players for each position, and try your hardest to hit that mark. Because there is so much attrition these days, it’s going to be tough to hit all of your targets each year, but an effort should be made to be as close as possible.

As an example, one thing to keep an eye on his how many linebackers the Hokies target and sign. Assuming Pry brings his Penn State scheme with him, he will run a base 4-3 package rather than Tech’s traditional 4-2-5. That means three traditional linebackers are on the field more times than not. At PSU in 2021, those three linebacker spots were filled by the following players…

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