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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 29, 2010

Jimbo Fisher

THE MODERATOR: We welcome Coach Jimbo Fisher from Florida State. We'll take an opening statement and then questions.
COACH FISHER: It was great to get our first conference win. Very excited for that. And it was against a very good opponent in Wake Forest. They've always been a thorn in our side at Florida State since I've been here. They've done a great job. Coach Grobe had a great program. Our defense played pretty good in the game. Offense played well. Kicking game was well.
Like I said, we didn't play perfect, but we had a good win. And we're very excited to get our first ACC win. Looking forward trying to now go on the road against a very tough opponent in Virginia and try to continue our success. We know we definitely have our hands full.

Q. I know that you have a lot of playmakers on defense, but the guy who seems to be the linchpin of everything revolves around Kendall Smith. And I just wondered if you'd talk about him and what his role and the whole defensive scheme?
COACH FISHER: Kendall's our middle linebacker. Generally your middle linebacker is a great leader on your team. He's a senior. He's been around. He understands our defense. Done a great job at transitioning into the new defensive scheme which we put in. And just a hard worker. Athletic, physical, makes plays, seeing the field well right now. Hustling everywhere he's been, really is playing great football. He's doing a great job of that and being a great senior leader for our guys.
And he's a big guy, physical guy. And he will definitely have to be physical this week going against Virginia. But we've been pleased with his play and also his leadership.

Q. How much difference defensively, and in the defensive scheme change, a middle linebacker is pretty much the same in a lot of schemes. What I wonder how his role changed and what the things were that he had to adapt to?
COACH FISHER: I think your gap fitting and how we were reading things, and we're reading things a little bit differently and how we fit our runs. And also when you're in a man-to-man scheme, you have to be very careful.
You're in that box. But when you know you've got play action, sometimes you're responsible for the back end of the flat or you've got to carry a tight end vertical, whatever it might be, when you're in a man scheme. Sometimes that can make you a little hesitant in what you're doing, when you know you're in zone in the areas you have, and you're feeding off two to three and how your angles change and all that, I think it gives you a lot more comfort and allows you to play a little faster, be more physical in the box.

Q. If I'm not mistaken, these teams haven't played since 2006. I was curious whether you've ever been at Scott Stadium, whether this is going to be a lot of new stadiums for you?
COACH FISHER: I've been at Scott Stadium, there in Auburn. We played them in 1997, when I was the quarterback coach, helping calling the game when I was at Auburn, in '97, when they had Aaron Brooks, Kearney, Crawell and Poindexter. That was Damian Craig, our quarterback coach's senior year, we opened up the season there.

Q. Is the fact that you haven't, that Florida State hasn't played Virginia since 2006, does that make it any more difficult to prepare for them, or do you prepare for all the teams the same way?
COACH FISHER: I think in your familiarity with what's going on, I think it is different, because you don't know their players. I mean, you don't know their physical abilities. You can see them on field, but until you see a guy in person, his actual size, how he plays, the things he does, the teams you play year in, year out, I think it definitely does help you in your preparation in what's going on.
But now schematically, about being a new coaching staff there this year, we wouldn't -- either way we were playing them, it wouldn't give you any advantages, because it's a totally new scheme from what they've been doing.
But the advantage it would give you, just the familiarity of their players and their athletic ability and their sizes and their speeds and all those types of things I think it would give you, they would know us more than we would know them.
So I think that's where that comes into play to me.

Q. Interested to know how Christian has improved as a passer from sophomore year to this year?
COACH FISHER: Just his overall knowledge of what we're trying to do in the passing game, his familiarity with understanding defenses more, understanding where the holes are, understanding how to attack each coverage and the leverages of how the players play things.
I think just general knowledge of the game has helped him. Physically, he's developed himself into a bigger, stronger guy. His arms have gotten stronger. His footwork and balance, and he's worked his core to keep that great balance so keep doing a good job in decision making. But just his natural growth and his ability to progress as a player just from work ethic, film watch and experience, I think, has been a big thing. And physically, I think his arm strength and his footwork and really understanding the use of his hands, too. He's really developed his hands where he can place the ball and has great touch on the ball.

Q. What is the best thing that your pass rush has done and the best improvements that people have made technically in the last year that explains in part why you have 19 sacks so far?
COACH FISHER: I think our guys have matured physically. I think we've gotten bigger. And we've kept our speed and our strength.
I think our strength coach has done a great job. I think our guys' knowledge of how to rush the passer and they've put more time in the film study and their individual responsibility of how to get better.
And I think the other thing is we've done a good job of getting teams in second long and third and long and enable those guys to be free in the rush. In the pass we have, too. But I think mainly experience.
We're also doing a better job in the secondary, too. I think zone scheme sometimes can help you, make a quarterback hold the ball longer and help him -- and when guys are having to get off their second and third receivers, because sometimes when you're in man you know where you're going and it gets out quicker.
So I think sometimes our coverage has helped also, I think just in general. But I think our guys, and all three of those phases have just gotten better and maturing in what we're doing, and they believe in how we're playing defense.

Q. I was just wondering, after -- you had a long day when you played Oklahoma and how you got your defense to rally back from that and to -- I don't know if it was exactly a circle-the-wagon type of thing or whatever, because the last two defensive performances have been so strong. What did they take out of that game down there?
COACH FISHER: Well, I think, like I said, in that game, you can't let Oklahoma beat you twice. We were not as bad as that score indicated, but Oklahoma played very well that day. It was their day. We were a step off. They got us into a no huddle.
Like I say, a lot of the plays they got came from the speed of the game and us not being in position of alignment, and then you couldn't do your assignment. So you weren't able to use your ability.
And I think we learned from that, got a little more urgency in the no huddle situation because the teams tried to do it the next two games and we've handled it a lot better. We just explained to them. We didn't change. We didn't blow up and go crazy and make a lot of changes.
We knew we had some good guys in there playing well, but there were some young guys, it's going to be a growing process. We explained it to them. Kept coaching them the same way, kept doing things the same way. As defensive coordinator and head coach we didn't change how we were approaching things, and we believed in what we were doing. And our kids have bought into that and they're doing a great job of just playing it one play at a time and understanding how much preparation is a huge key.
And that they're trying to prepare even more to make sure they understand what they're trying to do and where they're trying to be and that will be huge this week against Virginia, because Virginia shifts and stems, moves around a lot and can cause you some problems.

Q. Mike London has three games under his belt there at UVA, the Richmond, Southern Cal and VMI. Three chances to see those game films. I was wondering what your impressions are of what you're seeing from UVA from those three games and what's impressing you from their standpoint?
COACH FISHER: I think, first of all, they're very well coached. They're playing with a lot of intensity. They're playing physical, a lot of enthusiasm. You can see they're very sound in all their schemes and the things they're doing, getting leverage on the ball and defense. They mix it up. They jump in different looks. They press you. They bail on you. They're zone. They're man. They're blitzing. They're doing a great job there.
Offensively, they're being physical running the football. Great play action. Can spread it and throw when they need to. Big backs. Kicking game being very sound.
They're a very good football team. Like I said before, they easily could have won the Southern Cal game. It was a great job going out to LA in a tough environment and playing a very good football game. They could be sitting there 3-0. Now all they are is 2-1.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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