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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 31, 2016

Pat Narduzzi

Greensboro, North Carolina

COACH NARDUZZI: Great to be here with you. I'm fired up that September is finally here. It's been a long time since we got to strap it up, tie our shoelaces, get out on the field.

We've had a really, really good camp. We stayed healthy. Our strength coaches have done a tremendous job of I guess conditioning our guys during the summer, getting them to this point. Our trainers, couldn't say enough about the job they did. I'm really excited about the health that we go into this opener with against a very good football team, Villanova. 11 times in the playoffs, national champions in 2009. Andy Talley is a tremendous football coach. Had knowledge of playing against him as a player when I was at Rhode Island, also coaching against him. So I know we're going against a well-coached team that is going to give us the best shot they possibly can.

Two-time National Coach of the Year in Andy Talley. We'll have our work cut out for us. Our football team is ready. Should be a great battle Saturday afternoon at 1:30.

Q. What can you say about Ford, how he's come through the ranks as a wide receiver, what he looked like in the fall, and as a leader of that position going into the 2016 season?
COACH NARDUZZI: Dontez is one of our cow bells out there at the wideout position. He's a big, tall, physical receiver that's got great ball skills. We're looking forward to him making some big catches.

We've done a really good job, our offensive coordinator, has done a great job with our offense, our ability to throw the ball. Even though we got most of the same wideouts and same quarterback, I think our passing game has taken a nice turn here since spring ball and into the fall.

Dontez, again, is a tremendous player that we're counting on to make successful big plays for us this season.

Q. As far as Conner, out of any story that you've gone through as a coach or have been connected with, have you ever seen a fight and a response to a fight like this?
COACH NARDUZZI: Never. I don't know how many people really have. Maybe there's a handful out there. At the collegiate level to have a kid that has the heart he does, the fight that he has. As he told me eight months ago, Coach, I'm going to tell a story, it's going to be a great story. His story continues. It will continue when he runs out of that tunnel Saturday at 1:30 and takes his first snap.

He's a special kid and a special player. We expect big things from him as well. I've been very, very impressed with his fall camp here, the way he's attacked it. I don't think he's lost a step.

Q. Obviously there's so much surrounding this game in terms of James. Next week when you're looking at the Penn State matchup, a huge thing there. How do you condense all of the stuff outside of Villanova down and make sure that the focus is squarely on the task at hand?
COACH NARDUZZI: We've got one job. Right now we're 0-0. We're trying to be 1-0. The focus is on Villanova. I'm not sure what you're talking about the next week. We got one game to play against Villanova. Our kids I believe are locked in. We'll find out Saturday about 4:30 how locked in they were.

We know we got a good football team coming in. They've taken the last three BCS teams to the wire, with UConn, Syracuse and BC. If they can't see that, then we're going to have a problem on Saturday.

Q. Jordan Whitehead is a second-year player. Obviously performed at a high level. Can you talk about the difference a year makes. Can he step that level up a level higher?
COACH NARDUZZI: It's always hard to match the expectations. A year ago he exceeded all expectations. Now he's Rookie of the Year, he did a ton of things both offensively and defensively. You look at the improvement he's made in the off-season strength-wise, speed-wise. I think he's a better football player. You still have to have the opportunities to go out and make those impact plays. You have to make plays.

The expectations are high. I don't know if they're any -- they're no higher than they were a year ago. We expect him to go out and play within the framework of the defense. Sometimes you make those plays, sometimes you don't. When your ceiling is high, it's hard to see that major improvement.

I don't see a major improvement on the field from Jordan, nor should I. He was an exceptional player last year, he played fast. A lot of things we worked on with Jordan were little things he was showing to quarterback, trying to really work on his disguise. I think last year he was just worried about doing his job.

We've really tried to correct where his eyes are, just disguising his eyes. Everybody talks about eye control. Last year he had eye control, almost too good. I think quarterbacks could lock down what he was going to do. This year we've tried to make sure he'll be a dummy a little bit.

Q. Is it still in your plans to play him on both sides of the ball? Does his role even expand?
COACH NARDUZZI: I don't know. Probably not going to tell you today on the phone. It's part of the game plan, something I guess you'll see Saturday afternoon.

Q. Two years ago James Conner never really took a play off. He was in there and carried the ball a phenomenal number of times. Last year you developed Qadree Ollison. You have other good runners. How will you divide the time in the backfield? I assume you'll have to rely on Conner the way he was relied on. How will you divide the time in the backfield?
COACH NARDUZZI: It's funny, we do have a good stable of tailbacks back there. We'll find out on game day. A year ago Ollison walked into that game, didn't even think he was going to play in the game. In the second half, Qadree, you're playing. He was like, What? He had no idea going into the game that he'd even get in. We do have about four tailbacks, really five tailbacks, that can line up and I think help us win football games.

But the first guy is James Conner. We're going to give him the rock and let him go. We're going to give him his rest when we need to so we can keep a fresh tailback back there. Hard to manage those guys. You have a lot of egos. But I think we have a lot of selfless players that understand the team concept.

We all want to win in the end. We're going to give those guys their shots. Some guys will be hot, some guys maybe won't be so hot on game day. Everyone has their ups and downs. We'll find the right mix and get the right guys the football.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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