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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 8, 2017

Justin Fuente

Greensboro, North Carolina

JUSTIN FUENTE: Another road trip for us this week. Going to Georgia Tech. Going to be a heck of a challenge for us, all the problems that Paul Johnson and his staff provide. Their scheme, it's going to take a heck of a week of preparation. We'll have to play really well to have a chance.

But we had a good day of practice yesterday. Hopefully have another good day today.

Q. To take a look at this season, what your takeaways have been up to this point, what you've learned most about this team as they've tried to progress forward this year.
JUSTIN FUENTE: We've got a resilient group of guys. They've battled and competed in every game. I don't know what other people expected of us coming into the season, but we've certainly brought a bunch of young guys along that are playing a lot of snaps. We've been led by a veteran defense that has played at an elite level at times, by very good special teams, an offense that in order to be successful is going to have to be opportunistic and take care of the football.

Q. As far as you being with Virginia Tech, Memphis before that, what have you learned the most coming from Memphis to Virginia Tech?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Oh, I don't know. I think every job is different. There are always different challenges at each spot. Kind of learning and adapting to those challenges I think is important in this business, while still trying to stay true to what you believe in and how you'd like for it to look.

I'm enjoying it. I enjoy my job. I enjoy coming to work every day. I've genuinely enjoyed these kids.

Q. Can you describe what it was like going through the travel delays, that whole situation after the Miami game. Had you been through anything like that before?
JUSTIN FUENTE: No, I've never been through anything like that. I've been a part of late games, early morning arrivals, but never one that was delayed in the manner this was delayed.

As far as describing it, I mean, I would use the word 'frustrating', but there's really nothing you can do. You don't have any control over the situation. You try and make the best decisions you can, try to make sure you keep your team fed, do the best thing you can do for them to get some rest.

It wasn't like we were out there doing manual labor. We were sitting around wasting time. Our kids and staff handled it well. But it was large, long spouts of boredom I would classify it as.

Q. How did you make sure everybody was fed?
JUSTIN FUENTE: When we finally landed wherever it was we were, Danielle, our director of ops, had some restaurants in the community come out and bring some food. We essentially just catered food while we waited on our buses.

Q. I know Georgia Tech runs a scheme that you don't see very often, probably once a year when you play them. What is it about that that makes it so difficult to prepare for?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, if everybody ran it, it would still be a good offense. It's always been a good offense. It's stayed the test of time. It's just so different than what you work on on a daily basis.

They are very, very good at it. I don't mean to take anything away from Paul and what they're doing. Paul understands all of the adjustments. He's been running it for so long, he understands it inside and out, much in the way that Bud understands the defense we run inside and out and can make adjustments throughout the game.

The fact is you never see it. You don't see it daily in spring ball or two-a-days or in very many weeks during the season. The other aspect of it is they're very good at it. They are execution oriented. They have answers to whatever it is you give them, can really cause you problems.

Q. Can your scout team give you a decent look at what your defense is facing? Is this where the film room comes in particularly important?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, it is a challenge. It's a challenge because it's different than what those kids are doing, what they do on a daily basis. It's one thing to line up in four-wide, tell them all to run curl routes. They pretty much all know that. It's another thing to tell them to arc block or load block. That's just something different than what we do on a daily basis.

Yes, you can coach those guys into giving you a good look. It's this way every week. It's never going to be exactly the same as what you're going to face.

The problem is your starting offense can't give you that look either. Usually during a normal week, your starting offense can do some things to help simulate what you're going to see. It's not realistic for us to put our first team offense out there and run a triple option and have it look anything close to what it's going to look like on Saturday.

Q. Who is your scout team quarterback this week?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Kalil Pimpleton has been working on it, done a really good job so far.

Q. You mentioned you have a defense that has been playing at times at an elite level this season. In regards to defending what you'll see Saturday, how critical is it to have tackles like Ricky and Tim who have played well?
JUSTIN FUENTE: They're going to have to play well. When you play an offense like this, there becomes maybe even more technique or some different techniques involved in terms of how to defend and read blocks and see what's going on.

It's going to be incredibly important that we're strong in the middle. Everybody has always said, it's been said a million times, you have to be able to tackle the fullback in the triple option scheme. Sometimes that comes down to your defensive tackles. It's going to be really important that we do a good job, that we defeat some blocks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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