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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 3, 2010

Paul Johnson

COACH JOHNSON: Good morning. Well, we've got quite a challenge in front of us. I think that everybody understands what a tough place that is to play, especially on a Thursday night, and they've probably got the football team that's playing better than anyone else in the league right now. They've won six games in a row and scoring a lot of points and playing great defense, so it'll be a big challenge for our football team.
Coming off the bye week after a loss, we're anxious to get back and play to see if we've improved in some areas, and certainly we'll have to have improved a great deal to have a chance up in Blacksburg. With that I guess I'll open it up for questions.

Q. You touched on Lane Stadium on a Thursday night is definitely a tough place to play. What's the biggest area of improvement that you wanted to work on during your bye week to prepare for that game?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, I think basically the biggest area is fundamentals on both sides of the ball. We've got to tackle better, a lot of little things, the angles of our blocks, the angles when we're in motion, execution, all those type things that a lot of it doesn't take any athletic ability, you've just got to be -- have a better concept and pay more attention to the detail, and that's something that we've really tried to work on here in this last week.

Q. The winner of the last three meetings between your two teams have gone on to win the ACC Championship. Does that set the tone for that game early on?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, we understand where we are in the conference race, and for us to have any chance we need to win this game. If we're going to have any chance at all to win the conference, we have to win Thursday night in Blacksburg. We understand that. It's a tough task, a big challenge, but we go in with our eyes wide open. We know what's at stake.

Q. I was curious, what do you think makes an effective play caller?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, I think that from a play-calling standpoint, again, my opinion is being able to see the field and adjust and see what's going on during the game. I don't know that tendencies are a bad thing. Most good teams have tendencies. I think that so much of calling the game, at least with what we do, is looking out and seeing what the other team is doing and try to adjust accordingly.
Now, having said that, you still have to execute the plays and do those things, but I don't think there's an exact science about it. And I think if you go back and you study the really good teams, you would find that most of them have tendencies, and I think that's a little something that's probably blown out of proportion.

Q. Why can good teams have tendencies, just playing to strengths and that sort of thing?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, I think you play to your strengths and you do what you do well. There's a misnomer out there sometimes among fans or whatever that, okay, well this week we can be in the shotgun and throw it 45 times and the next week we're going to be in the wishbone and run the option and the next week we'll put in the two-back power running game. You can't do that.
You find very few teams who are any good who don't have something that they hang their hat on, and they have base plays and a base offense. The better teams do that.
Now, do you have play action off the running play? Sure. When do you want to call play action? Well, when they're overcommitting to the run. You can't go into the game and say, okay, play No. 6 I'm going to call play action when you have no idea how they're playing. I guess you could, but I don't know that it's going to be very effective.
So I think you have to be able to watch the game and adjust, but I also think you have to rely on what you do. If we're running a play and we're getting five or six yards a pop, why change? Because they know what's coming? I mean, if they can't stop it, you can have all the tendencies you want. If it's not working, you've got to try to find something else to do, and it still comes down to execution.

Q. It's tough stopping your offense; you've had success moving the ball against Bud Foster and the Virginia Tech defense. He specifically went to Iowa to try to study, find a way to stop your attack. What do you think about Coach Foster just making that individual trip specifically to try to handle you guys?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, I don't think Coach Foster needs any help from anybody. He's certainly one of the best defensive coaches in the country and has been for a long time. You know, that's not unusual for people to visit other people. We struggled against Iowa in the Bowl game. They didn't line up any differently than half a dozen other teams we've played. They lined up with different players.
So you know, I don't think there's any magical way to line up. Maybe there is. Maybe somebody has found it. But the bottom line is they're going to have to beat blocks and make tackles, and we're going to have to block them and read the thing right. Whoever does that the best is going to win. It's not going to be some magical, mystical scheme or alignment.

Q. Also your defensive coordinator very familiar with Virginia Tech, Coach Groh. How big of a help is that in getting ready to play Virginia Tech?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, that could be a plus, but also I'm sure they're very familiar with Coach Groh. It's kind of tit for tat; they've played a lot against him, too. I don't think that anybody has the advantage. If anything they've had a lot of success against Coach Groh in the past.

Q. How is he settling in as your defensive coordinator?
COACH JOHNSON: I think he's settling in. It's a transition, and our guys are excited. I think they like playing for him. He's got a system, and I think the more we play to it, the more we recruit to it, the better we'll get defensively. At least certainly that's what we're hoping for.

Q. I wanted to ask you, it seems to me at least that Tyrod Taylor has really evolved as a quarterback and is playing at a high level now. When you look at him on film, do you see a big difference between what you've seen in the past for him?
COACH JOHNSON: No question. I mean, he's without a doubt right now from what I've seen the premier player in the league by a mile. He keeps so many plays alive and he can beat you so many different ways. Not only is he throwing the ball so much better but he can kill you running the ball and keeping things alive. We haven't been able to tackle him in the two years I've been here. I'm not sure we could get him down if we had him in a phone booth.
He runs around and extends plays and creates a lot of havoc. Last year we were able to keep them off the field. He didn't have the ball but about seven or eight minutes in the second half. We didn't really stop him.

Q. And their defense started the year a little shaky. Again, when you look at them on tape, what have they done to solidify that?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, they play good team defense. I think they have a good, solid scheme. Their coaches know what they're doing. They've been doing it for a long time, and they have answers. They may not have the marquee players, so to speak, but they've got a ton of really good players, and they play well together and they play good team defense.

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