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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 3, 2010

Mike London

COACH LONDON: Good morning, everyone. I appreciate the opportunity again this morning. Obviously we're all very excited about the exciting win at our home field where we had to play a very, very good Miami team and were just very fortunate to come out with a victory.
It's short-lived now when you think about competition and move on to the next opponent, and that's traveling down to Durham to play Duke. So our players are excited about that opportunity.

Q. I was wondering if you'd talk a little bit about Chase Minnifield. It's a guy who in past years has demonstrated his athletic ability on returns but this year seems to be really coming into his own as a defensive player, as well.
COACH LONDON: You know, Chase has had the benefit of having a father that's played in the NFL, Frank Minnifield, with a great deal of technique coaching and how to study and how to look at your opponents and the different type of routes that are run, and splits, and then you get some coaching with our secondary coaches and the film study. So he's a guy that's really stepped up in terms of his preparation for a game. He's one of the first guys out at practice before practice, running, warming up, on a bicycle, whatever it is, just to get his legs going.
His game has really stepped forward and it has allowed him to be very productive in games, know when to take chances and know that sometimes they're going to throw the ball up deep and sometimes they may get it and sometimes not. But the nature of the position of a defensive back is you're on an island most of the time by yourself and it's one-on-one and you've got to perform. But he doesn't shy away from any opportunities to perform.

Q. You were defensive coordinator in 2006 when Darnell Carter arrived at Virginia and you were coordinator in 2007 when he was a red-shirt freshman. What do you remember about Darnell from those days, and at that point did you project him as a guy who would be a contributor inside linebacker at some point?
COACH LONDON: Well, to tell you the truth, I don't remember a whole lot about him because back then we had some pretty good linebackers playing at that time. I know now he's got hair on his chin. Back then he didn't have any hair on his face, so I know the maturation process went on.
But I know Darnell now to be a guy that for whatever reason, the academic reason that he left, and had a chance to come back, that academically he's straightened himself out, become much more mature. He's studied the game, and the game means more to him maybe than what it meant back then. But it means more to him now. He can play all three positions, the linebacker positions. He can call out formations and make the checks.
And I just think sometimes in college you get to that point where the light goes on, and I think the light went on for him when he came back. We sat down and talked in December, we talked about what he would have to do to stay on scholarship going through school academically, had a good spring practice, and then just started to show steady improvement, so much that when we asked ourselves who are the best linebackers around the room, offensive coaches, defensive coaches, and his name was mentioned as being one of the top three by everyone.
You know, he's making the most of this opportunity now on the field and in the classroom, and I'm very, very proud of him and happy for him.

Q. Do you have to remind yourself as coaches sometimes that the lightbulb comes on at different times for different players and that if you give up on a guy too early you might be not getting everything you can out of him, that he might just be a late bloomer?
COACH LONDON: Sure, I mean, we all do. If you have kids, it's the same thing, when you're raising kids. Sometimes things come a little easier, sometimes harder, sometimes through guided discovery, sometimes through hands-on approach about making sure that they go this way, that way, and do everything you tell them. But the biggest thing is just allowing yourself to grow and mature a little bit.
The trick is does the player fit the school and the environment that he's in because it may not just be the maturity part of it, it just may be, well, you know what, this guy doesn't fit here. Different places fit different personalities and players, so sometimes it takes just a little bit longer for that person to develop.
But I think with Darnell, he didn't take his academics as serious as he needed to, and that's why he left. And somewhere along the line maybe just spending some time away, he decided that he wanted to get serious about it and take whatever steps necessary to come back and obtain a degree from this University.
He did that, and he's doing that, like I said, and I'm very proud of what he's doing on and off the field.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Sean Renfree coming off a game where he was pretty accurate, 28 of 30. When you look at the tape of that and you see some of his earlier performances where he was struggling a little bit, what do you see changed, and what do you do to defend that?
COACH LONDON: You know, I think when you're in an offense that you throw, you rely on receivers to run routes, and there's a certain amount of time, there's a certain window of opportunity that you have to make throws that it becomes very critical. And sometimes when you've had negative opportunities or things that go against you, the routes are still going to be there, the holes, the windows will still be there, it's just the mindset of I've got to throw the ball, I've got to throw it and trust that the receiver is going to run the route.
And I think when Marc has games that are not productive, it's a little bit of not throwing the ball in the window as to where the receivers are going to be because they both have to trust each other. And when he's on, with the route and with the coverage, with the window -- you'll notice sometimes the ball will be out of his hands sometimes before the receiver breaks, and that's what's supposed to happen. That's what quarterbacks do. You throw the ball not when they're standing there wide open. You throw it when they're making their break and about to be open, but there's an understanding of the coverage if a guy has inside-outside leverage or if he's deep, that also plays into it. And I think when Marc is on, he's on because he knows all of those elements. And when he has issues sometimes in one of those elements, he's not on top of his game.
This past one was a pretty good one for him, and as far as Renfrow, you watch him, and the offense was -- excuse me, I'm still talking about Marc, but when you watch Marc throw, you know if he's on, if he's back there and the ball is being released and it's out of his hands before the receiver makes his break, and if he can do that, then we'll be pretty good.

Q. I was asking about Renfree. He's coming off a game against Navy where he hit 28 of 30 and I just wonder what you saw on film and what he did well in that game, or was it just a fluke?
COACH LONDON: Okay, I apologize for that. The offense that -- that offense kind of reminded me of a Texas Tech offense. We played that in a Bowl game a couple years ago. It's an offense where the receivers run in certain routes and they sit in holes and pockets and there's a high opportunity for completions. And when you saw the game before, I think he was like 28 of 30, and then he hit his first 16 and was in a rhythm.
So we have tape, and you look at things and you study things, so you try to do some things to take him out of his rhythm. I mean, you try to do some coverage things. You try to do -- whether you blitz or whether you play different inside-outside techniques or whatever it may be.
But they've got a great offense that they take him and they utilize the skill of two very good receivers, they spread you across the field horizontally and make you defend a bunch of gaps. And as I said, he does a great job of throwing the ball and filling those gaps and then making you go tackle those players.

Q. I saw you at the end of the Miami game, I saw you hit your knees, and I thought, wow, that meant a lot to Mike, it was pretty emotional. Then you didn't get up and I got a little concerned about you and you said you weren't feeling that great. Have you been to see the doctor? What's going on there?
COACH LONDON: No, I got up. It was, it was an emotional time from just the fact that you go and you say, I'm very humble, and thank you, Lord, for just watching the game unfold. As I said before, if you knew what was going on with our team in terms of people losing loved ones and just some of the things that young men go through in their lives that they're struggling with, a game of this magnitude and that you watch them out there playing, sometimes you're not a human being if you don't become emotionally involved with your players or the circumstances that go on with the game.
And it was just a quick moment there. It was like being very humbled by that whole experience. There's been times where people could have come up and beat us, but just watching that 3rd down throw Marc made to Snyder, you know, he put it where only -- if Snyder didn't catch it then no one was going to catch it. And then the one that he made to Kris Burd was -- I was just talking a few minutes ago about throwing the ball in the windows. Kris wasn't even out of his break yet and Marc just trusted the fact that he was going to be there, and boom, he threw it.
When you see guys having success like that, because they've been through some stuff and a lot of things, you see them having success, you're happy for them, and that was just a moment right there, just acknowledging the fact that I'm very humbled because it's one of those wins that we're talking about a signature win after not having -- after playing well and not doing well against USC and then not playing well Florida State and then Georgia Tech and then North Carolina, so people start talking about what's going on with this team. And then seeing something like that just brought all those emotions back out.
But that's the way I am, too. People say, act like you've been there. Well, I haven't been there. I'm going to continue to be the same person I've always been, and that's just the way it is.

Q. Okay, so pure emotion, no health issues?
COACH LONDON: Absolutely not. Pure emotion.

Q. Question about the fact that at Richmond last year you played Duke, and then a lot of these ACC opponents you were facing for the first time or many of your coaches. Is that any benefit at all that you prepared for the Cutcliffe system last year?
COACH LONDON: I don't know how much of a benefit. I can't recall if they ran the pistol. Obviously the quarterback was different, Thaddeus Lewis, and this year they have two quarterbacks that come in, one that throws, Renfree, the other guy that does a nice job running the ball.
So I think what it does remind me, I think we started out fast, I believe we blocked a punt early on and did a couple other things in the game which kept us in it and kept us on them. So there is value to starting fast as we started with Miami, and there's always value to that, and we've got to keep trying to harp that continue point to our players particularly when you're on the road, when you're away.
We're still learning how to play. We're still learning how to play games, and this is going to be an important game for us because it's the next game of our second season, and I keep talking to the players. Duke has beat Virginia the last couple times, and no one has -- you can't forget about those things. No one is counting, well, how many other opportunities do we have. This is the next and most important game for us now.

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