Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry talks the importance of bringing back the lunch pail

Since the Virginia Tech Hokies named Brent Pry the head football coach back in December, how many times have you heard Pry deemed as a perfect cultural fit in Blacksburg? Regardless of how many times you hear it, believe it.

The latest instance of Pry being deemed a perfect fit occurred this week when it was revealed the Hokies would be bringing the “lunch pail” back in 2022.

Not familiar? Well, you’ve probably never seen a Virginia Tech football game. The lunch pail tradition left when defensive coordinator Bud Foster retired at the end of the 2020 season.

Pry, a defensive coach who spent three seasons under Foster as a graduate assistant with the Hokies in the mid-1990s, understands Virginia Tech’s traditions, particularly the lunch pail.

On Tuesday, Pry spoke to the media and discussed bringing back the lunch pail.

“It’s just meant so much to me over the years,” Pry said per hokiesports.com.

“It’s part of the fabric of this place. In my mind, it’s something that’s initiated defensively. Its main home is on the defensive side of the ball, but I want that mindset for our entire football team. It was absolutely going to be part of us doing this. We’ve done something similar, not necessarily with a Lunch Pail, but we’ve carried that reference and what it meant in other ways. Over the course of my career, on the defensive side of the ball, so it naturally made its way back.”

The Hokies open the season Friday night in Norfolk against the ODU Monarchs. Pry and the Hokies will bring back the lunch pail in the home opener against the Boston College Eagles on Saturday, Sept. 10.