Everything From Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock At Tuesday's Press Conference

Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock addressed the media on Tuesday, Sept. 16.

Virginia Tech Athletics

Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock spoke to the media during Tuesday's press conference; he did not field questions. Here is the entirety of what he had to say, in a prepared statement:

First statement:

"Thank you guys for coming. I certainly want the focus of today's media session to be on Coach Montgomery and our football team. However, I did want to make some remarks and offer some clarifications regarding our process and strategic direction moving forward since there has been no public comment since our press release on Sunday. First, I want to thank Coach [Brent] Pry, his wife Amy, and his family for their time at Virginia Tech. He was a pleasure to work with. He cared about this place deeply. He represented Virginia Tech with class and improved our recruiting efforts in Virginia and regionally like he said he would when he arrived. He invested in the team culture, cared for his student athletes, connected well with former players, engaged the community and fan base, and was a wonderful teammate to the entire department. We will miss him and wish him well. College sports, especially power four football, is a results-oriented business, and we obviously didn't win enough football games. He handled the end of this chapter with class, and I want to express my appreciation and respect again to he and his family. Secondly, I want to thank Coach Montgomery for agreeing to serve as our interim head coach. As you know, he has been a head coach and an offensive coordinator at multiple Power Four schools, and he knows how to lead. As you can imagine, it's a tough situation for him when the head coach who hired you is dismissed, and you're processing the disappointment of that and an uncertain future ahead. And within a matter of an hour, he's then tasked with leading the program, speaking to the team, keeping this group together for the remainder of the season, and now to doing weekly media sessions with you guys. He will have our full support as will his family."

"And I wanted to express my appreciation and gratitude to him as well. I want to also thank our assistant coaches and football support staff for their continued work and professionalism during these difficult times. I certainly empathize with what they and their families are going through and I look forward to visiting them with them again tomorrow morning. And I especially want to acknowledge our student-athletes for their resilience and commitment to each other. It's been a tough start to the season for them and this week has been disruptive, difficult, and confusing to them, too. I encourage them to continue sticking together and taking pride in their performance. Sports teaches life lessons, and sometimes those lessons can be hard. They're resilient, however, and they are Hokes. I'm confident they will be ready to play and compete versus Wofford, and Hokie Nation will be rooting hard for them this Saturday."

On search process for a new head coach following the firing of Brent Pry:

"I also wanted to offer some clarification and relative transparency on our search process, which is in its preliminary stages. We will have a search committee with some internal staff support behind it. The committee will include members with extensive football experience and insight board of visitors and campus representation and executive leaders. As the AD, I will support and advise the committee during the process. The committee's collective expertise and strength will enable us to make the best decision for the next head coach of the Hokes. This will be a collaborative decision and the committee voices will carry tremendous weight. We are confident our committee will make an outstanding selection. We'll be aligned with our board of visitors and campus leadership and certainly alignment within our committee when identifying our next head coach. As far as the future strategic direction of our department, I want to point back to Dr. [Timothy] Sands's quote from the Sunday press release. The board of VI, this is was in the release."

"The board of visitors are working closely with AD Whit Babcock to develop a financial, organizational, and leadership plan that will rapidly position the Virginia Tech football program to be competitive with the best in the ACC. The new framework for college sports will be fully established for next season, so this is the time to make a major move."

"I want to thank Dr. Sands, Amy Sebring, and her team on campus. Brandon Hall, Ryan McCarthy, and J. Pearson for the work they have put into a proposed plan to be reviewed by the board in the coming weeks, resulting from the presentation they received during the board retreat last month. Due to that timing, the work ongoing, and respecting the chain of command, I will not address any questions today after our after my remarks. That announcement will and should come from the president and board when appropriate. With additional financial support and new resources available to increase traditional and creative athletics revenue generation, I am confident you will soon see a modernized structure built for success in this rapidly changing environment of college athletics more in line with a professional football type organizational structure on the football side of things and from an athletic department standpoint, a structure and organization more in line with corporate business. It has become a $150 [million] to $200 million annual enterprise, after all. I and we will improve, evolve, and adapt to this new landscape successfully. I'm excited for this new era and the forthcoming initiatives and opportunities planned. We truly can make a major move, as Dr. Sands referenced. And finally, I want to acknowledge our fans, donors and alumni. They have been absolutely amazing and they are second to none. They have been doing their part and then some to will us to victories and success. And I sincerely apologize that we haven't stepped up yet and returned the favor with results on the field. The paradigm of college of the college football landscape has obviously changed and we are better positioning ourselves for success to be ahead of the curve rather than chasing behind it. It's up to us to do our part as an administration and an athletic department to aggressively adapt, modernize, and invest to win strategically and to reward this fan base in a manner that they deserve, expect and demand. And we will do that."