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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 27, 2010

Mike London

THE MODERATOR: We now welcome Virginia head Coach Mike London. We'll bring on coach, ask for a brief opening statement, then go to questions.
COACH LONDON: Thanks for having me again.
Another opportunity for us to play at home. One of the last of two more opportunities to be at home here. Obviously playing a very, very good Miami team. We're looking forward to playing and competing, getting the crowd out there, being a TV game. Practice has been going well. Just moving toward having a good game. Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Anything that you can take away from the Eastern Michigan game and transfer into something useful this weekend against Miami?
COACH LONDON: The fact that any contest, any football game you play is hard to win games. When you have a chance to win a game, obviously you take away the feeling that you have immediately after the game, the things you're able to do in order to win the game. You take that as a learning process.
It's something you can look forward to if you do the things that are necessary. Third-down conversions, two-for-two on fourth down, red zone scoring opportunities, things like that. We're going to have to play, again as I've said in the past, we're going to have to play a game versus an opponent that's coming in here now that's very athletic, very fast, play a game of few penalties, few errors, make sure we tackle well, make sure that we don't get in second-and-long, third-and-long situations. Miami I believe is first in the country in tackles for losses, fourth in the country in sacks.
It makes you have to play exceptionally well to make sure you don't get in those adverse situations.

Q. Jacory Harris, he can beat you deep if you give him time, but he's getting impatient under pressure. Any new wrinkle that your defense is working on?
COACH LONDON: Other than rush 12. I think the thing is, he's got an arsenal of receivers that he can throw the ball to. He's got runningbacks that are in the backfield to hand off to, throw the ball to.
You just have to play good coverage. The pass-rush is going to have to help us out here because you can't just guard a guy all day long. Jacory is a tall athlete. The thing about him is he's not afraid to throw the ball up. It's risk/reward. If he throws the ball up, he's got some go-to guys, go-to receivers that can get it done in Hankerson and Berry. Sometimes that might present an opportunity for a defender to make a play for a ball on an interception.
The guys he's throwing to, handing off to, they do a nice job of putting points on the board and providing big plays.

Q. Coach, I wanted to ask you about Anthony Mihota. He played very sparingly as a defensive lineman his first couple years at Virginia. Wonder what you saw in him that you thought might make him a good offensive lineman and how he's handled that conversion to center.
COACH LONDON: Well, probably basically by attrition. When I first got here and Jack Shields had another year of eligibility, said he was going to concentrate on his academics and not play, that thrust Anthony into a position where, Listen, you're the next guy on the depth chart. You're the next guy that has the skill and the skill set to play the position.
Going into spring practice, Anthony knew he was going to be the starting center, so he had to work on all those things that centers have to do: being able to move left and right, snap, QB under, shotgun, whatever it may be. He embraced the role. He's improving as we go along, as we speak.
Another young player that hadn't had a whole lot of experience thrust into a starting position where he has to do a lot of things. A lot of times the center makes the calls on the Mike linebacker to set the protection. So his learning curve was that. Being the starting center, you have to learn fast and quickly. Then the fact he's playing against 300-pounders plus, having to block guys.
He's improving and he has improved. Miami is very big up front. He'll have all he can handle, for sure. But he's a guy we got, a guy we're playing with. As I said, he's doing the best he can. We're looking forward to a productive game for him.

Q. I understand he has a very artistic side to him. Have you seen much of that? What are your impressions? I know he's involved in animation, things like that.
COACH LONDON: It's interesting. Here you got a guy, interior lineman, tough, gruff, get-after kind of guy, but very artistic. Andy Warhohl-ish. He can draw, paint, animation that you talked about. He's very talented from that standpoint.
When you look at a guy who is a starting center, all the things a center does playing in the trenches, to find out he's an art major. He's very good at what he does and he enjoys doing it.

Q. What is your feeling about recruiting in Florida? It seems over the years there have been times when Virginia has said, It's not worth it. You got a couple people there last year. How do you look at recruiting in Florida?
COACH LONDON: Well, I mean, first of all you have to look at those profile schools that are attractive to students that are out of state there. There's some students that are from the Florida area that are here. In the past, Virginia has had players from Florida.
I think a lot of times you utilize the relationships that you either have on your staff with coaches that are either on our staff now. Whether it's the bowl school or schools in Jacksonville, whatever it may be, if a coach during his coaching tenure at other places has had any particular success or has developed a relationship with other high school coaches down in that area, and they fit the profile of what you're looking for academically, and when you talk about speed and things like that, they fit that part of that, the need that you have, you try to use it that way.
I think to go down there and develop those relationships, if you don't have a coach that knows anyone down there, is going to take a while to do it. But you always have to make sure that the profile schools that have sent players here before, that you continue to at least engage them, contact them, film, visit them. If you're lucky enough to develop a list of players that are interested in coming up our way, then you go with it.
I think it's kind of a three-prong approach to it: about coaches having prior relationships, profile schools, then people that have gone here that are alumni that had a good experience.

Q. Mike, the game Saturday is on ESPN. Virginia hasn't been on national television a whole lot in recent years. Is that a big deal for the program from a recruiting, exposure standpoint, or is does it matter at all?
COACH LONDON: No, it's always a big deal when you're on television, particularly the package that the ACC has with ESPN, being nationally televised. You're going to be playing in front of, auditioning for potential prospects that you've been writing or calling. Now they get a chance to see you up close and personal in terms of watching you on TV. Having a good showing, being competitive, can only help you.
On the other side, if you're not very competitive and you don't do well, it may hurt you. But it's a risk/reward that if you play well, people see you. I know part of the commercials, part of things they do, they'll show the grounds, talk about Virginia here a little bit. That's something that letters and phone calls can't afford you.
Television exposure, the opportunity is very, very important. This game is important for us in a lot of ways, and that's one of them.

Q. I anticipate Miami is going to load the box up and try to make Mark and those receivers make some plays down the field. How do you see that? How big will your quarterback and receivers be in this game?
COACH LONDON: Well, you might be right. You're probably right. Again, alluding to the fact that they're first in the country for tackles for losses and fourth in sacks, that's one of those things the key for us is to get first downs. We've got to avoid the second-and-10, third-and-10 situations because that's where they thrive.
Our quarterback, Mark is going to have to play efficient and smart. Second-and-five, second-and-four is not bad. But we got to get first downs and not go three-and-out, then kick to Benjamin, who is an excellent, excellent returner, then have our defense on the field all the time.
It will be important for us to be able to hang on to the ball, eat some clock up and move it when we have opportunities.

Q. What is your message to your fan base? You're trying to rebuild this program. This is when you need your fans the most, in a game like this on Saturday. I see you've already been reaching out to your fan base since day one.
COACH LONDON: I appreciate the question. It's consistent with the fact that when you take over a program, you're trying to build a program, it's important that people show up and come out. Recruits still come to our games because they want to see, can they see themselves playing here. They want to see what type of atmosphere it is. It's important the fan base come out and show them they support the team regardless because of the turnover.
So I've gone around, all over the place, all over the state, within our own school, different student organizations, in the community, Hey, keep coming out and supporting the team. We need to your help. We need your voice.
Hopefully it will pay off. That's the message. We're a program that's building. I want the fans to feel part of the process of building with us this year and for years to come.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us. Good luck this weekend and we'll talk to you next Wednesday.
COACH LONDON: Okay, thank you. Take care.

End of FastScripts

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