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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 21, 2011

Mike London

COACH LONDON: Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I hope everyone is doing well. Yeah, we did finish up our spring practice earlier than usual, but it gave us an opportunity to spend the last couple practices still evaluating and still trying to look at maybe some specialty offenses or defenses that sometimes as you go along during the course of your normal practice week you don't have enough time to get the amount of reps and get it on film and game plan for. So we spent the last three practices or so doing that.
But other than that, we're getting ready to get into heavy spring finals and big papers due and things like that and coaches getting ready to go out on the road here recruiting on Monday.

Q. You mentioned that you got through with -- you had your spring game earlier than usual. Last year you also had it fairly early by past standards. Do you think you're going to stick with that? I know the weather really didn't cooperate for your spring game.
COACH LONDON: Well, in the very end it did. At the beginning as we were leaving the McCue Center it looked like ice cubes were falling out of the sky, and I think the big guy upstairs said, okay, London, I'll give you a break, and all of a sudden a rainbow and Noah's ark in the background and the weather turned out to be pretty decent.
But I think that going into year two and having ability for guys to know the system and the schemes and the concepts put us further along than what we were before, and being approached with the idea of playing the cross game and being on ESPN.com and it was alumni weekend, we just felt it would be a good thing to do. And we'll look at future dates to see if they would benefit us and then be involved with some other things that go on during that time. But we'll probably continue to keep doing that.

Q. I'm getting that with Devin's absence from spring practice it created an opportunity for Rijo, and just wondering how he took advantage of it.
COACH LONDON: I'll tell you what, Rijo plays like a seasoned veteran. He took great advantage of it. He's a very smart football player. He was a full phase special teams guy last year, and it's always -- I know it's clichÃ©, you hear it all the time, the next-man-up mentality, but Rijo is a smart player. He's doing well in school. He's a great teammate, a Bethel product from down there in Tidewater, but he's doing well. He's taking the most of his advantages that are presented to him for not only playing corner, for special teams. He's smart enough that he can play safety, also. So I'm very pleased with where he's at.

Q. Jimmy Howell has done most of the punting the past couple years and I guess will probably do most or all of it this year. Is there another guy in the program working at that position who could replace Jimmy, or is that a position you're going to have to go out and recruit this year?
COACH LONDON: There are guys in the program that can punt and in case of extreme emergency can do it. Alec Vozenilek from St. Christopher is a guy that can kick field goals and punt, and he does it rather well. But every once in a while you have to address your kicking situation. Normally schools like to do the preferred walk-on route, whatever, but perhaps next year -- we'll evaluate not only Jimmy but Alec to see where he is as far as his progression.
You know, if we have to go out and scholarship a punter next year, then we'll do that. If not, then Alec has shown that -- he's shown in practice he's got the capability and the leg to do it, then -- I remember when I recruited Connor Hughes from Lafayette High School in Williamsburg, he was a walk-on kicker, and he ended up becoming an All-American, one of the school's all-time best. There's always an influx of young men that like to kick and punt and things like that. We have camps that they come in and there's an interest because of the school and all that. So there's always candidates to take care of those concerns about your kickers.

Q. I know it's obviously still a ways out from the season starting, but what kind of expectations will you have for the season? I know you were pretty hesitant to put any on last year. Has that changed now with everybody returning?
COACH LONDON: No, I mean, the expectations are to continue to get better in everything I ask the guys to perform in, increments of success. You've always heard me talk about we've gotten better in the classroom; we've cleaned up some things as far as players that have a different mindset than are the rules that I have for the team; they're no longer with us. On the field we need to improve better defensively. Offensively I thought we made great strides. We have the same kicking combination of guys coming back. So you always look to improve on the field when you have older guys and have an opportunity to infuse that with some pretty talented younger players coming in.
We're always looking for improvement in every area, and this year on the field is no different than in the classroom and in the community and everywhere else.

Q. Something you said after the final practice I wanted to clarify with you. Would it be your preference for one of the three veterans to emerge so you didn't have to use David Watford in the fall? Would you prefer not to use Watford?
COACH LONDON: Well, I'll tell you, I would prefer for whichever quarterback is the best candidate to help us win games manage the team. I think we have a veteran offensive line coming back, although it's kind of like the wide receiver bug hit us during spring practice; guys in casts and boots and things like that. I think all of them will be back. So I think the surrounding cast can help whoever the quarterback is.
Obviously the two older guys, Rocco and Metheny, have been in games and have played in front of large crowds and things like that. Michael Strauss has not and David Watford has not. David is still using his swipe card to get into his dorm. He wants to know where the library is and stuff like that. He's learning a whole lot of things about being a college student.
But I told him the biggest gains that they can make and separate themselves is between now and as we get ready to report to camp, because I know all of them are staying up here for the entire summer organizing their own seven-on-seven pass scales, watching film. I know they're all like, hey, listen, they've taken it upon themselves individually that there needs to be a break between who 1 and 2 is and No. 3 because No. 4 will be the scout team quarterback for a year.
But all of them have something that they're very talented at doing; they just need to separate themselves and do it on a consistent basis and distribute the ball to what I think will be some pretty good skill players.

Q. What do you like -- you alluded to the skills that they have, your quarterbacks. What are they and how are they a little bit different? What do you like about them?
COACH LONDON: Well, I think, without getting into long, elaborate explanation of each, Ross Metheny is the oldest of all of them and therefore you could argue the most experienced. But you gain experience through playing in games, and he played in a lot of games. I think just being around Coach Lazor for a while and being here before, the quarterback position, understanding coverages and where to go with the ball and different decision-making processes, he does that well.
Michael Rocco comes from a dad that coached him as a quarterback. They would come to our camps, our seven-on-seven camps, and his school, Liberty Christian, they would win every seven-on-seven camp against every team from Maryland, D.C., Atlanta, wherever they went, because he was a good decision maker.
Michael Strauss was the Dade County Player of the Year. He got in here mid-January last year. He's got a cannon of an arm. He throws the ball, he'll pick the ball deep, which is a good thing, but he'll throw it deep, which is a bad thing when the coverage doesn't dictate that.
And then David Watford has an extreme amount of poise for a freshman quarterback. Coach Smith was up here the other day at a coaches' clinic we had and talked about the poise that he has. Nothing rattles him, and you like that in a quarterback. He's going to have to learn to be more vocal, but when you're just learning the offense you're trying to find your own place. So each of them have something that they bring to the table, but they're going to have to get better at what the other person has over them in order to separate themselves.

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