A little over a week ago I wrote this story about Virginia Tech hiring Sam Siefkes as their defensive coordinator, and I really had no issue with the specific choice.
I did have an issue in the way it was all handled, as it kind of made the Hokies look like they weren’t totally in control of the situation and had to scramble around at the last second.
So today, the adventures in Blacksburg continued when it was announced offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen had left the Hokies to become the offensive line coach at Ohio State.
You can look at it a couple of ways. One is that he wasn’t on the firmest of ground in Blacksburg and jumping to a lesser position at the defending national champion meant probably more money and prestige with less pressure.
Another is that the environment at Virginia Tech, coming off a disappointing season, might not be the most stable for any coach these days, so you take the sure thing now instead of gambling on a maybe in the future.
But now the Hokies – who fired their defensive coordinator in December and took a long time to find a relative unknown to take his place – are looking for ANOTHER coordinator. With spring practice not that far off, Brent Pry is backing himself into a bit of a corner where he has to come up with someone good and nationally known, and he has to do it very soon.
It doesn’t look like Pry was expecting this either. Virginian-Pilot sportswriting legend David Teel wrote today that he was talking to Pry just yesterday, and he spoke of “a realigned staff that would allow Bowen to be a “walkaround coordinator” rather than also coaching quarterbacks, as he did the previous two seasons. Moreover, Pry planned to shift Bowen’s recruiting travel duties elsewhere.”
“It doesn’t mean that Tyler can’t be very involved with our quarterbacks,” said Pry, who’s set for a brief vacation in Key West late this week. “But when he needs to be involved somewhere else, he can be. It gives him more time to game plan, to big-picture. Now he’s not stressing out on the road recruiting. You can get somebody else to do that, and he can kind of be the headquarters for the offense, Sam be the headquarters for the defense.”
Now I don’t know about you, but I certainly wouldn’t be talking up a person on staff and their new responsibilities if I knew that when the sun rose the next morning, he’d be on another coaching staff. It kind of suggests to me Pry had no clue Bowen was leaving and his plans were for naught.
I said in last week’s story that when you have a bad season like the last one, it’s important the coaching staff projects an image of “Yeah, that didn’t work, but we know how to fix it and we’re starting that process today.” It’s what makes prospective players AND coaches want to come to your town.
They didn’t seem to do that last week.
They’re not off to a good start doing it this week either.
