CSU player, family get death threats after hit
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Pete Thamel, ESPN
The Colorado State University Police Department and local authorities have looked into threats — including death threats — against Colorado State defensive back Henry Blackburn and his family, athletic director Joe Parker told ESPN on Monday.
Blackburn, a senior from Boulder, delivered an illegal hit on Colorado receiver/corner Travis Hunter in the first half of Saturday’s game that left the two-way star with an undisclosed injury.
The threats against Blackburn and his family began before Colorado’s double-overtime victory ended, as cellphone numbers for both Blackburn and his mother were published on the Internet. Blackburn’s campus address and his family’s home address was also published, Parker told ESPN.
Parker said university and local police have worked in concert to investigate the threats against both Blackburn and his family after they were inundated with threatening phone calls and text messages and were targets of threatening social media posts.
“We’re very concerned about our player’s safety, as Henry and his family have continued to receive these threats,” Parker told ESPN. “Henry never intended to put anyone in harm’s way on the football field. It’s not what we teach or coach. We hope that the irrational vitriol directed at Henry stops immediately.”
Blackburn’s late hit on Hunter went viral on social media Saturday night and became a major talking point. Hunter, one of the breakout stars of the 2023 season, briefly returned to the game after the hit.
He did end up getting evaluated at a local hospital, and coach Deion Sanders said following the game that he’d be out for multiple weeks.
Colorado plays at No. 10 Oregon on Saturday and then hosts No. 5 USC on Sept. 30.
“It’s just sad,” Colorado State coach Jay Norvell said Monday of the threats at his weekly news conference. “It’s sad that that’s the state of the world we live in. It’s a football game. Let’s not make it more than that. We don’t want anybody to get hurt. We don’t coach that kind of football.”
Norvell said he reviewed Blackburn’s hit on Hunter and described it as a “bang-bang play.”
“I reviewed the play,” Norvell said Monday. “It’s a play that happens sometimes. That’s certainly not something that we teach or coach. It happens in football sometimes.”
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Adam Rittenberg
Former Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry, fired by the school in September, is set to return as the Hokies’ defensive coordinator under James Franklin, sources confirmed to ESPN on Sunday.
A highly unusual move in major college football, Pry will rejoin the team he led from 2022 until Sept. 14, when he was fired following an 0-3 start. Pry went 16-24 as Hokies coach with bowl appearances the past two years. Virginia Tech hired Franklin, who was fired as Penn State‘s coach in October, as its new coach Nov. 17.
Before Virginia Tech, Pry served as Franklin’s defensive coordinator at Penn State. He also worked as co-defensive coordinator under Franklin at Vanderbilt from 2011 to 2013.
Franklin became emotional when discussing Pry at his introductory news conference with Virginia Tech, noting that Pry’s father, Jim, had coached Franklin in college at East Stroudsburg.
“I’ve known Brent for over 30 years,” Franklin said. “… I’ve got a ton of respect for Brent and his family. I know he poured his heart and soul into this place. I know this place is better today because of Brent and the commitment that he made.”
CBS first reported Pry as a target for Franklin’s defensive coordinator role. Pry, 55, was a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech under Frank Beamer early in his career.
Virginia Tech owed Pry about $6 million at the time of his dismissal, which is subject to offset if he obtained another coaching job.
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