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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 25, 2017

Justin Fuente

Greensboro, North Carolina

JUSTIN FUENTE: Pleased to get the win last week. Happy to be back at home playing a very talented and well-coached Duke football team. They're playing great defense. I think the last four games combined between Virginia Tech and Duke, there's one point difference in the combined scores. We're preparing for a tough, hard-fought battle.

Q. Years ago Duke wasn't considered to be a major football power. Since Coach Cutcliffe got there, they've improved tremendously. What do you see about Duke on film?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, I mean, first of all, I would say David's pedigree speaks for itself. I mean, he's won everywhere he's been. He's as fine a football coach as there is in all of America, maybe the most underrated football coach in America. We played Duke when we were just starting out at Memphis, and they had good, solid teams then, and I don't think that those teams, as good as they were, are even close to as good a teams as they have now. When you look at the way they're coached, how fundamentally sound they are, and the type of athletes that they're recruiting now, I mean, they are recruiting better and better athletes, so they've got the perfect recipe to have success. They've got really, really good coaching, sound schemes, and they are getting better and better athletes in there.

Q. There's at least four or five, maybe six teams in the ACC that control their own destiny, and you're one of them. Win out, and you're in. Your players have got to realize that, right?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, we don't talk too much about the long-term here. I have never brought up winning out or anything other than the next game. When we had our bye week. We knew it was right in the middle of the season, and we said we have six more games, all within our division, and we're going to have to take them one at a time. We spend little or no time talking about the big picture and try to focus ourselves weekly on making sure we're ready to play.

Q. It sounds like Jalen Holston had a drastically different high school offense that he was a runner in. How much of an adjustment has it been to the college game and all the other things that go along with college for him?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Yeah, I'd say it's been a significant adjustment, in short. I mean, he was lined up two yards right behind the quarterback and basically took a dive right up the middle. He started getting into protection and route running and releases and different zone steps and different schemes, and it's been different for him.

Now, the good thing is he's another one of those kids that we've talked about; he's a highly intelligent young man. He's picked it up quickly, and he's still refining it, obviously, but I think that added another dimension to his adjustment to college.

Q. Were there moments that you saw maybe the light kind of come on for him a little bit in terms of protections or hitting the right holes or anything at a point this season?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, it's just been a steady improvement. We felt like that he would continue to improve as the season went along. That's why we made the decision to play him early, because we felt like he certainly would keep improving, and he has. I don't know that there's been a singular moment, but there have been a bunch of little moments that you can measure and see that he's getting the hang of things.

Q. Do you see anything that's evident -- Duke won their first four, then they've fallen off and lost four in a row. Any particular things that have gone wrong for them in this stretch?
JUSTIN FUENTE: I don't think there's anything specific. I think they're continuing to play hard. They've run up against a couple pretty talented teams. I mean, watching the crossover film is the first I've seen of Miami and Florida State this year, and those are immensely talented teams. They just had one or two plays I felt like defensively against Pittsburgh where they just missed a gap, and it ended up being a big play. When I watch them play, I think they're going to play in a lot of close football games. They play great on defense. They're a top-20 defensive team right now, very solid in the kicking game, and they're going to win plenty more games as this season goes along.

Q. They've got a linebacker who seems to be one of these tackling machines, Joe Giles, a sophomore linebacker. Do you notice him on film in particular?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, I notice him and a whole bunch of guys out there playing hard. Their talent level in my estimation -- and again, I've been asked about this a couple times, and I'm not an expert on the history of Duke football, but just when I watch them play, their talent level seems to have increased dramatically over the last several years, and they certainly understand their scheme and are playing hard and getting to the football.

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