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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 26, 2016

Bobby Petrino

Greensboro, North Carolina

COACH PETRINO: We're coming off a good win against North Carolina State. I felt like we played a very complete game. Our defense did a great job of getting a lot of stops early in the game and turnovers and helping the offense with short fields.

Offensively I thought we came out and threw the ball really well. That was one thing we felt like we needed to do to win the game was to throw the football around and our quarterback and receivers and tight ends and running backs executed that very well and our offensive line did a great job.

We had a very solid performance on special teams. We're looking forward to traveling up to Virginia.

Q. Didn't get a chance to ask you on Monday. Do you have an update on Devonte Fields and his status for this game or the weeks ahead?
COACH PETRINO: He's getting better on a daily basis. We need to go out today and see how it goes today and have a better idea of his availability for the weekend.

Q. Are you calling him, I guess, questionable or doubtful or anything like that?
COACH PETRINO: Just got to see how he continues to heal and get better.

Q. Bronco said on his segment earlier that he thought that Duke had done a smart strategy against you guys. Do you think that they may play a similar kind of slow-down style this week?
COACH PETRINO: He's mentioned it a couple times now, so there's a possibility I would say.

Q. It sounds like some of their players have been talking this week about some of the success they have had against you guys the last couple years, winning one and coming close last year. Bronco wasn't the head coach at that time, but what has Virginia done to kind of pose a challenge for you in those other two games?
COACH PETRINO: Yeah, I haven't heard anything their players are saying. But they are a good football team. They have always been very, very talented and we have had great respect for their players and how they play the game. We lost a close game up there a couple years ago. We made a couple mistakes late, but they played us very, very tough.

And then last year we had a really nice win at home.

Q. With Lamar getting so much of the attention in your program, and deservedly so, no question about that. But is your defense sometimes overlooked for how good it is, and in your opinion, just how good has it been?
COACH PETRINO: You know, I don't know if it gets overlooked. I know that everybody has a tremendous amount of respect for how well we've played defense here in the last three years, and this year, we're doing a great job of stopping the run and giving the offense good field position, putting pressure on the other team's quarterback and creating turnovers.

I think we're a very good defense.

Q. One of the things you do well is stop teams on third down conversions. Just how important is that in the flow of the game and getting your offense right back out there?
COACH PETRINO: Well, it's very important. You know, it's something that we work extremely hard on defensively, is getting stops and offensively, is converting.

I do believe that a lot of our success is from our defense being very good on first down and putting the opposing team behind the sticks a little bit and not putting them in manageable situations.

Q. Being Bowl eligible, that's one thing you got done right away, being Bowl eligible. Is there another step to get to the playoff football thing?
COACH PETRINO: All we're worried about is playing Virginia and I don't think there's anyone on our team that feels good about becoming Bowl eligible. I think we're all just focused on one game at a time and working hard in practice to continue to improve and get better.

Q. Talk about Virginia, what are the three keys for you guys to beat Virginia? Looks to be a warm day in the mountains of Virginia.
COACH PETRINO: Good. We like warm days. That's one thing our players like; the majority of them are from the south and Florida, and they always like those warm days, so that will be very good for us.

We know they are a very good football team. They are getting better as the year goes on; they continue to execute their offense very well. We have got to do a good job of stopping the run on first and ten and second down. They have a running back that's had success against us in the past and is a very good player.

Defensively, their front guys are very, very active and good players.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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