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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 8, 2014Mike LondonCOACH LONDON: This week is being dedicated to getting guys healed up. It's dedicated to kind of re‑looking at ourselves in terms of self‑scouting and having some opportunities to even develop some younger players. Sometimes they don't get the looks or the coaching or the teaching they need during the course of the year because you're concerned about preparing your depth. But we have two open weeks during the season and we'll use a day or two of practice to also get those guys coached up. We do play Duke, not this Saturday, next Saturday, on the road. Looking forward to that challenge, and as I said, we'll just use this week to get us to be a better football team. I'll take any questions now. Q. Six games into this season, what do you think the biggest difference is in your offense from a year ago? Is it the wide receivers? The quarterbacks? What do you think is the key to the improvement? COACH LONDON: The biggest thing is that‑‑ most of what I've been talking about is the continuity factor and understanding the skills, the technique, the scheme itself, the terminology, and you've got guys that are older that are performing what's being asked. And more than anything else, you see better execution. You see a lot better performance, and you see better production. When you look back at trying to put these systems and schemes in, there were some issues we had because of lack of mastering those skills or techniques. This year, with older guys, and as I said before, just the consistency of a message, we've been able to perform much better. Q. Kevin Parks' rushing attack, just wanted to go into what you see from him, what you've taken away from him in these first few games of the season and how you're moving forward with him being a leader in the backfield. COACH LONDON: Well, as we know, Kevin is one of our best leaders on the football field and off the field. Had an opportunity to really showcase and show his talent as far as him being able to run explosive plays, being able to break tackles, be able to drag defenders. He had a breakout game, a career game. Kevin, as I said, I've always characterized him as being a selfless guy, not caring who gets the carries or who gets the touches if the teams wins. This past game was one of those games that he took it upon himself, and his number was called a number of times to deliver. So moving forward, we're always going to try to put the team with our best players in position in order to perform. We'll practice some things this week to get things shored up. But I can't speak about how much of a phenomenal person Kevin Parks is on the field but even off the field and as a leader. Q. Quin Blanding is putting up remarkable numbers for a freshman. What brings him to the table that makes him so effective at such a young age? COACH LONDON: Quin is a very mature guy. He's a guy that is a guy that people rally around, and his whole mind‑set is he wants to be the best at whatever he does. Having the opportunity to have Anthony Harris play next to him and communicate with him is something that's been a direct benefit towards Quin's development. Having Coach Tenuta and Mike Archer being his position coach, two guys that have been veterans and have taught and coached a lot of good football players, along with Quinn's talent has put him in a position where he is, I believe, in the Top‑10 in the ACC in tackling. A lot of things we do, we are a pressure defense so a lot of opportunities will be afforded to safeties, and he's put himself in position. He's listened to coaching. He has a ways to go in terms of getting better. But he soaks up everything that he's taught and he remembers things, and it's refreshing to have a true freshman, particularly on the back end, playing the secondary, using his talents, using the coaching that he's being taught, knowing that off the field, he handles his business. It's refreshing to have that type of young man and he's performing. So that's been the most positive thing for us thus far is to see a Quin that's performing because he helps the football team. Q. I know the schedule is what it is and you've got to make the best of it, but is it awkward to have a bye week when you're playing so well coming off two pretty impressive wins? COACH LONDON: You know, you can debate win, where, is it before a rival game, is it conference game. It lies where it did for us, and what it's allowed us to do is get guys healthy, like Greyson Lambert and Mike Moore and other guys that are on the team that having gone through the midway point of the season, football is a physical game. You get nicked up and you get things that need to be taken care of. But it allows us at this point to stay hungry and stay humble. Nothing's been accomplished at this point. Our guys are looking forward to the next opportunity to play in a game but we all know that we have to get better at what we're doing. So we'll take this bye and it kind of sits right where it probably suits us best now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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