BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 5, 2021

Justin Fuentes

Postgame Press Conference

Boston College 17, Virginia Tech 3

JUSTIN FUENTES: Congratulations to Boston College on a tough, tough victory.

I don't know, I mean, they ran the ball really well. We made basically no plays in the passing game. Really, two turnovers. One in the red zone and one after an interception. Pretty tough to win games like that. I'm proud of our effort. Our kids are playing hard and prepared well.

You have to play better on the road and in an environment like that to deserve to win the game.

Q. Kind of a scary scene with Jalen Stroman being carted --

JUSTIN FUENTES: I have no idea what you're talking about.

Q. Okay. In terms of Braxton Burmeister --

JUSTIN FUENTES: I just saw him 30 seconds ago.

Q. Somebody was carted off --

JUSTIN FUENTES: I just saw Jalen Stroman.

Q. He's okay then?

JUSTIN FUENTES: I'm not making light of it but I just saw Jalen Stroman, I swear. Walked right in off the field.

Q. Braxton has been knocked out of five of the 14 games he's played here. I know luck is involved but is he going to take better care of himself on some of those plays and how do you evaluate him going out of so many games over the last two years?

JUSTIN FUENTES: I don't know. I mean, one of them was because his hand cramped, so I don't know what he could do to avoid that. So I don't have a comment on that right now. He's been playing beat up all year. He's been a warrior for us.

Q. Knox goes in for Braxton. Do you still expect more out of the passing game?

JUSTIN FUENTES: Well, if we're going to win a game, we're going to have to, yeah. Yeah, I expect us to do more. But in man coverage, we were just blanketed.

Q. Fourth and sixth and you punted, your best chance to get the ball and score or what was the thought process?

JUSTIN FUENTES: You've got two timeouts and there's five-some-odd minutes and I know it's a two-score game, but I just felt like we flipped the field and get a stop and get the ball back.

Q. Did you guys prepare for him as well --

JUSTIN FUENTES: They didn't do anything different. We didn't know who was going to play quarterback, including Jurkovec. And they run their offense. So I mean, it shouldn't have that big an effect on rushing yards.

Q. There was a point in the third quarter where Braxton was warming up there in front of the bench. Did he want to go back in? What was his status?

JUSTIN FUENTES: Oh, I mean, the trainers told me he was going to see if he could go in the second half and he couldn't. I mean, yes, he wanted to play, yes. But it's just, you know, kind of an upper body injury in there that he couldn't go with.

Q. In terms of the run defense, obviously you sound disappointed. What did you think was the issue tonight with the run defense?

JUSTIN FUENTES: Oh, I would have to look at it in more detail to tell you specifically what the issue was. I mean, we played five defensive linemen against them in 12-personnel in an effort to hold up better and at times we did. You know, some short yardages, we held up really well. You know, they got into a little bunched set and we were a little soft on the edge a few times. But made some adjustments and got that stop.

Q. You mentioned being blanketed -- is this from a Georgia Tech injury? Did you know all week he would not play?

JUSTIN FUENTES: I mean, no, we didn't know all week he wasn't going to play. It was from Georgia Tech. He actually practiced early in the week. He did not get hurt in practice. It's just -- it's kind of a freaky injury that he's got that hopefully he'll be back next week.

Q. You picked Dorian on that first drive and gave it right back. Gained 22 yards essentially.

JUSTIN FUENTES: Certainly, the two plays I think were that one and the third down when they threw it up there and batted the ball up in the air and I think it was a tight end caught it. You're right there playing really good defense, and you don't get off the field in either one of those scenarios. It's disappointing.

You know, especially when you have got a turnover like that. You can't give good players multiple opportunities and we did on that drive.

Q. Did you see who batted the ball on that play? We did not.

JUSTIN FUENTES: I thought it was Tae Daley. I mean, it was kind of two guys going, their guy and our guy going up and you know, just kind of a mid-air kind of collision that knocked the ball backwards right into his hands. Thought it was Tae.

Q. You watched four or five, offense didn't get going in any way. Is there a path to save the season?

JUSTIN FUENTES: Certainly. I've been really pleased with our kids. We've had three games where we just absolutely had our heart ripped out on virtually the last play of the game. We've had two games where we've been beaten. And yet our guys still continue to fight and stick together and scratch and claw.

So we've got Senior Night coming up next Saturday. We've got a large group of really good kids that have been in this program -- most of them have been in this program for a long time that deserve to get sent out the right way.