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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 21, 2016

Justin Fuente

Greensboro, North Carolina

JUSTIN FUENTE: Pleased with our team last week. We played pretty well against a really tough and physical Boston College team. We have a tremendous challenge ahead of us this week with East Carolina coming in. They've had success against Virginia Tech and the ACC in their last several matchups. Very well-coached, very talented football team, and we'll have to prepare really well and ultimately play really well to give ourselves a chance to win this one.

Q. With so much of East Carolina's offense seemingly predicated on yards after catch, how would you evaluate your, through three games, Tech's tackling in space?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, that's a good question. Obviously the first and third game I would say it was pretty good. The second game against Tennessee, they tend to spread you out a little more and put you in a little bit more space, which is kind of what we're going to be dealing with this week. It's a little hard to give a blanket statement just because of the different styles of offenses that we've played against, but at times -- usually your tackling is a function of being in good position. When you get out of position, you're in bad body position or you're a half a step late, you're having to lay out to try and make a tackle is usually when you tend to miss them.

But at times I like the way we've tackled in the open field and in space, and at times it's needed a little work.

Q. Is that a particular strength of Chuck Clark's, tackling in space?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, I hope so. I've seen him in my time around him through spring and the fall, obviously we don't do a lot of live tackling during a game week, but through some of our scrimmage situations, he seems to have a knack for getting guys on the ground. Hopefully that will continue.

Q. Jerrod was talking about the different defensive looks that ECU can give. Give us an overview of what challenges they might present.
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, they're very athletic. That's the first thing that jumps off the film at you. They can really run at all their spots. They like to move up front. They give you a few different looks. They're not nearly -- they're not the kind of screw-your-cleats-into-the-ground type of defense. They're much more of a movement-oriented speed defense.

Q. We had a chance to talk to Coach Shibest this week. You obviously have a designated coach/coordinator for special teams. Why do you take that approach, and why does that help in game-week preparation?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, it's been my experience that that's the best way to do it. There is a lot of nuances and skill development that goes into special teams. Obviously we all know it's much more than just the kicker and the punter. But there are a lot of fundamentals that have to be taught, and I feel like James is an expert in those fundamentals. He does a great job game planning it and getting it taught to our kids. That's kind of how it's been everywhere I've been in terms of having somebody be in charge of it, and I've chosen to keep it that way.

Q. Just what can you say about going up against East Carolina, their wide receivers, Jones, almost 200 yards receiving most recently. What you can say about his play and on film.
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, obviously he's a gifted athlete. He seems to have great savvy in terms of being able to settle in zone coverage and also defeat man coverage, in terms of attacking leverage and doing the little things that create separation. He's obviously sure-handed.

But he's not the only guy they've got over there. They've got plenty of good weapons that I think, just from looking at the film, I believe they have confidence in all of their guys.

It's quite a task to take those guys on.

Q. And then as far as the American athletic, obviously you coached there recently, just what you can say about the level of talent that the conference has and just the respect that you have about being in the conference and then going up against the conference in this game.
JUSTIN FUENTE: Sure. In my opinion it's underrated on a national level in terms of quality of play. The last couple years I think you've seen it get even better. I think part of that is because they've gotten really good quarterback play, which is not just East Carolina but everybody in that league in terms of -- you think about Houston, obviously, and Temple last year knocking off Penn State and taking Notre Dame to the wire with PJ walker. They've gotten really good quarterback play. Memphis last year had good quarterback play. It's kind of given them a -- I don't want to say a leg up, but it's allowed them to compete at a pretty high level.

When you look at what they've done non-conference wise the last couple years, it speaks volumes about the quality of play in that league, at least amongst the top handful of teams, and East Carolina is certainly in that group.

Q. You're about a month into your first games with Virginia Tech and obviously you scored a bunch of points last week. I'm just curious, what do you see offensively? Are there things as far as the process of implementing things, are you comfortable with where you're at, or are there things maybe later in the year as the year progresses you still want to implement and get into the Virginia Tech program?
JUSTIN FUENTE: You know, we're still a work in progress. I mean, each week is so different when you talk about the types of teams you're going to play against, what other teams' defensive strengths and weaknesses are. It causes you to change a little bit from week to week. We're still figuring out how to adapt our personnel to those changes that need to be made on a week-to-week basis, who can handle those changes, who can't handle those changes. We're still kind of learning each other in terms of that mindset.

But I'm optimistic that we're getting better and we're continuing to figure out those skill sets and see what guys can handle.

Q. The past few meetings, Virginia Tech and ECU, you obviously weren't directly connected. Have you looked back a lot at the past two seasons and what ECU was able to do against those teams, or have you not worried so much because those were past meetings?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, I mean, the final results we're obviously aware of. It's a little different deal. There's some new staffs involved in terms of schematics. But obviously our defensive staff has some familiarity with their personnel. Our offensive staff not as much. We didn't play them when we were at Memphis except for the very first year we were there. That's been some time ago, I think 2012 if I'm not mistaken.

So I mean, we haven't taken a large look at those things, but we're certainly aware of what happened.

Q. We've heard Jerod mention a couple times this week getting a chance to go over with the staff the throw that he made to Isaiah in double coverage for that impressive touchdown against the Eagles. Obviously you guys liked the result of that, but as you've been reviewing that with him on film, where would you really ideally like to see him go with a throw like that? What has been your advice about expected outcomes in that sort of situation, the long touchdown being excepted?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, they were in man free coverage, and the safety was cheating Isaiah like he had much of the game, so we can't force those things, as much as we want to make sure Isaiah gets involved in the game plan. There are other capable players out there, as well. I think just making sure we trust our fundamentals and understand what we're trying to accomplish with each play is paramount to the quarterback position. That doesn't mean that all the results are going to be negative or that all the results are going to be positive when you do go where you're supposed to go, but making sure we're conscious of where we should be going with the ball is the most important teaching point.

Q. Jack Click got some playing time against Boston College. Is the plan to redshirt Josh Jackson this year or are you taking a wait-and-see approach to that particular slot?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Yeah, that's a good question. We are still kind of trying to wait and see what happens. We can't predict the future in terms of how the season is going to play out. He's continuing to get reps with the first team or with the varies at this group I guess you should say. He's not been moved to scout team. He's still one of three guys getting the reps. We just don't want to burn his red-shirt in those types of situations. I would hate to look back at the end of the year and make it all the way through healthy but have burned his red-shirt in those types of deals. So we're trying to manage it. Eventually we'll get to the point in the year where we feel like there's no way we should play him unless something crazy happens, but right now we're just trying to manage it week to week.

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