James Franklin has almost completely filled every position on his first Virginia Tech coaching staff. The one remaining full-time position was the safeties coach. The Hokies recently hired Anthony Midget as the cornerbacks coach. The hiring was weeks in the making, but Midget, who was an assistant for the Pittsburgh Steelers, was still coaching up until last week.
Now, it appears VT may finally have the safeties coach vacancy filled. According to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, the Hokies are targeting Nick Perry to fill the role.
The 34-year-old Perry is a native of Prattville, Alabama, and played college football at Alabama under the legendary Nick Saban. Perry appeared in 44 games with the Crimson Tide, spending two years as a starter and recording 121 tackles, including 6.5 for loss, 10 passes defenses, two sacks and one interception.
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Perry would go undrafted in the 2015 NFL Draft, and spent two offseasons on the rosters of the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles. He never appeared in an NFL game. He immediately began his coaching career under Saban at Alabama in 2017 as a graduate assistant. Perry held that role for 2 years before being promoted to defensive analyst.
In total, Perry spent four seasons as a coach/analyst at Alabama before moving to the Atlanta Falcons in 2021 as an assistant defensive backs coach. After being in that position for two seasons, Perry was the assistant wide receivers coach in 2023. After Atlanta’s coaching staff was fired, Perry landed with the Seattle Seahawks in 2024 as a defensive assistant, working under one of the NFL’s top defensive minds, Mike Macdonald. In 2025, Perry served as defensive backs coach at Arkansas.
Perry was a player; he’s young and possesses a nice mix of NFL and college experience. He’s recruited in the SEC and has ties to a region where the Hokies currently do not.
This vacancy lasted so long because Virginia Tech tried to bring UVA legend Anthony Poindexter to Blacksburg. Poindexter coached under Franklin for years. Instead, Poindexter chose Tennessee. The Hokies were also interested in Michigan’s Lamar Morgan once that staff was fired, but that fell through as well. It’s unclear how far along those talks were.
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The Hokies haven’t confirmed Perry’s hiring, nor have they confirmed the other hirings outside of Franklin. Perhaps Franklin wanted the entire staff assembled before the Hokies introduced them.
