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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 19, 2014Frank BeamerFRANK BEAMER: I think Wake Forest is a dangerous football team. I think the way you look at the history here this season, they played a lot of close ballgames. Louisville, it was a 10‑point game; BC about six, 23‑17 I think it was; Clemson seven with seven minutes to go. You look at that along with some of the other games, and they're dangerous and certainly have our respect as we go to there. I think they play very well at home, and I think that's‑‑ going down there, again, and playing, we need to get ready to play a really good football game. That's the thing we're stressing right now is let's improve as a Virginia Tech football team and get better ourselves. We need to as we've got a team that certainly is very capable of playing against us here this week. Questions? Q. I wanted to ask you about the two veteran corners that Wake plays. You mentioned them Monday. How good are they and how important are they to that defense? FRANK BEAMER: Well, I think they're very good. You can go a lot of places and you won't find two better corners than these guys. They're active, they're athletic, they're experienced, they're older guys, and I think any time you put a team together and you've got two corners that you feel great about, that's a heck of a start in building a defense. I think it's an active defense. You look at them overall and I think they're very active, and I think it all starts with those two corners. Q. Willie Byrn didn't catch a pass for you last game. He played his fewest snaps of the season. Why is Willie's role reduced and what do you see him for going forward? FRANK BEAMER: I don't think Willie's role is reduced. We call plays and groupings, and whoever is open, we get him the ball. We don't look to make sure this guy gets the catch or that guy gets the catch. That's not the way we do it. We try to throw to the open guy. Q. Looking back on the Duke game, Duke has only scored 16 or less twice this season, versus your team and Miami. To go into your defense and what you saw from them and some of those guys that stepped up and really had a good effort against a good team. FRANK BEAMER: Yeah, I was very, very proud of our defense.  I thought we really played well against a really good offense. You sit over there on the sideline and look at that offensive line come off the ball and you look at those running backs sitting up in there, and I mean, they're athletic, coached well, and you know, you understand why they've been able to score so many points. We were fortunate enough, we got them behind a little bit, I think played 1st down very well, and was able to bring some pressure after that, and that's important. They've done a great job of staying with the chains, even with the chains all year long, and they're tough. I give our defense credit. We had to play well to come out against Duke like we did. Q. And then as far as on the offensive side, your tight end, a young tight end in Bucky Hodges, and just his growth and his development this season and what he's meant to the offense and what type of target he's been for Brewer. FRANK BEAMER: Yeah, you know, I think he's getting better and better. Out there yesterday in practice, I mean, he went up and caught a couple balls just as easy as can be, and then you realize how tall he is and how fast he is. He's getting better all the time. Early in the year, you know, he wasn't as smooth as he is right now, and you put that with Ford and Phillips on the outside and some of those other wide receivers, you stand back, and then Malleck out there running routes with Hodges, you kind of look forward to seeing these guys continue to develop because there's not many balls that are hitting the ground in practice, and I think the quarterbacks are throwing it good and then the guys are catching it. That's a good thing to see. Q. I know at times this year you've had a hard time getting the running game going. Can you talk about the impact that J.C. Coleman had Saturday and what he gave you and what he might give you going forward? FRANK BEAMER: Yeah, you know, we've had more injuries to running backs than I can ever, ever remember, and J.C. there, his role was limited going into the game, but you're just very proud. The guy hung in there, never complained, and kept working hard, and then when he got his opportunity he sure came through. You know, he ran some tough yardage. I mean, there at the end, he was picking up some tough yardage, and all he needed was a little bit of a gap, a little bit of a hole, and he was shooting up through there with a lot of speed. Yeah, I was proud of him. We're going to need him going down the stretch here, and got to figure out who else we can put in there, but he's certainly going to be critical to us going down the stretch here. Q. And the other guy I wanted to ask about, in addition to Hodges, the other guy that was really effective seemed to be Isaiah Ford. He made one or two really impressive catches. Can you talk about his development as a freshman receiver and how he's come along this year? FRANK BEAMER: Yeah, he made some great catches. You know, we've played, between he and Phillips, that's probably as talented two freshman wide receivers as we've ever had around here. Both of them, I was talking to our coaching staff here just a few minutes ago about you watch those two guys and they're both very athletic, both very talented, both catch the ball easy. I mean, they make the game look easy. You know, we're fortunate to have two guys like that and for them to be freshmen, and both of them have meant a lot to this football team. Q. Frank, you got a really nice game from Nicholas, eight tackles, a couple of sacks, pressured the quarterback. Was that his best game of the season? FRANK BEAMER: It probably was, from a stat standpoint probably, but he's been exceptional. He's an exceptionally talented guy. We're trying to get a little more weight on him and have got more weight on him, but he packs a punch. When you look at him, he won't scare you, but when you start playing against him, it's hard to block him, and he's got more power than you think he would have, and he certainly has got a lot of speed. You know, he's just really a special player in my opinion. Q. The preseason guide had him listed at about 224. Is that about what he runs? FRANK BEAMER: Yeah, he may be a little bit more, probably 230. That's not going to scare a lot of folks, but you line up against him and he gets a little scary, though. Q. What is he, 6'6"? FRANK BEAMER: He's not quite 6'6". 6'4" maybe, 6'4?", in there. Q. He uses that to his advantage, obviously? FRANK BEAMER: Yeah he's got such a long stride and it's a quick stride from the get‑go. He's off and running, and that first and second step is really an advantage for him. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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