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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 31, 2011

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: Appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today.
Obviously the first game of the year again. With the gentleman that I spent four years of my coaching career with, Coach Laycock, have a tremendous amount of respect for him. Very knowledgeable in the way he's running his program.
It's going to be a good game because everyone knows what happened two years ago and all that. It's an opportunity for older guys that can play better and some new faces to make their debut. We're excited about the challenge.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for Coach London.

Q. Mike, we've been asking your players about the 2009 William & Mary game now for six weeks probably. You get questions about it all the time. Is there a fine line you walk between overdoing it and not doing enough on that game? I think Frank Beamer said he showed the JMU game from last year to his team. You're not showing this video to your team, are you?
COACH LONDON: No. There is a fine line. As you said, the media has been talking about it forever, fans, message boards, things like that. The players are well aware of it.
The thing that we talk about and try to control is their mindset going into this game, that you don't need any more proof of FCS teams that have come in and beat BCS teams on their own turf. I've been a part of it. You don't beat it over the head. There's an awareness of it. You don't want to stick your head in a hole.
At the same time all the things you work on during camp, your execution, fundamentals, things like that, it being your first game, that's what you're most concerned about, is playing a game that you eliminate things that may have caused you to lose the previous year or previous years.
Right now we're focused on doing what we know how to do. The pink elephant in the room is what happened a couple years ago. You acknowledge it, move on, prepare for playing a good game.

Q. Coach, you entered pre-season camp with a three-way competition at quarterback. What did Michael Rocco do to separate himself and win that job?
COACH LONDON: What he ended up doing over everyone else was provide a level of consistency as far as what was being asked in terms of the quarterback reads, the distribution of the ball, the high-percentage throws and passes.
When you have quarterbacks that are in the mix there, you have to settle with one that's going to take the majority of the reps. It wasn't that Ross Metheny was way behind him by any stretch. It's just at this time, this game, the quarterback was going to take the snaps, at the William & Mary game, is going to be Michael Rocco.
I made a commitment to try to utilize the talents of a younger player, David Watford, who doesn't know the scope of the offense as Ross and Michael do, but has some skill and ability that can provide some play-making opportunities for us.
So this year is about trying to provide opportunities by getting the ball in hands of play-makers and using whatever assets they have.
As much as you characterize it as a three-way battle for the quarterback, it's more so Michael emerged as the guy going into this game that Coach Lazor and the offensive staff and we feel comfortable with taking that first snap.

Q. Is this a competition that will stay open for a while or have you settled in on him as the number one guy?
COACH LONDON: I would hope there would be a competition in that every game, every practice is always a constant evaluation going on. If Michael is getting the job done, with some of the limited things that we plan on doing with David Watford, it will stay that way. If not, if his performance is not at a level that's high enough to help us achieve what our goals are, then Ross, who has been in the offense himself, will have that opportunity.
It's a constant evaluation. Both of these guys, Ross and Michael, played in games last year, at the last minute, a couple reps here and there. A lot of times the way you can only assess the effectiveness of your quarterback is when they are playing in front of a live crowd and when they're getting hit. They haven't gotten hit in practice. But they will. How they respond to that is going to be crucial.
The short answer to your question is they'll be constantly evaluated.

Q. How does being a coach's son manifest itself in the way he goes about things?
COACH LONDON: I think you grow up around it, not only a coach's son, but he's got uncles that also were coaches. Danny Rocco at Liberty, another uncle that's head football coach here in Charlottesville. You grow up with that. Your dad coaches you, all the technicalities of being a quarterback when he played for Liberty Christian. I think just being in a family of coaches, hearing the jargon and the language, knowing the lifestyle, you check off more boxes perhaps because you've been exposed more.

Q. Mike, about the quarterback position, looking at the big picture, you're one of five schools in the ACC whose quarterback will start his first game. Looking at that position across the league, what do you see out of those guys? Is it any comfort that you're not the only one who has the first-time starter going out there?
COACH LONDON: What comfort that brings to me, obviously you wish you could get to a point where you build sort of a level of separation between the quarterbacks that you have in your program. Mark was a fifth-year guy last year, had no one that had any game experience. This year the two guys that have some game experience were battling back and forth a little bit. One is going to take the first snap against William & Mary. Then we have a younger player that has some skills that we also want to be able to utilize.
I just think from that standpoint, the question that was asked before, there's a constant evaluation that goes on. You only can answer a lot of questions sometimes when you're under the gun, when you're playing, no coaches are out there on the field, when the elements are involved, when the guy has to make a quick decision when the blitz is coming. You try to simulate that as much as possible in practices, crowd noise, all different kind of things. It really doesn't come to fruition until you see them perform on the field.
I think this game and as the season goes on, everyone will be looking closely, I'm sure. We will, as well, to the production, the efficiency, the opportunities, whether it's Michael Rocco, Ross Metheny or David Watford, and the young guy that's pretty good, too, is Michael Strauss.
We'll see and evaluate them as the season goes on as to what kind of production we're getting.

Q. Mike, as a coach who likes to get a lot of guys on the field, how much across the board was depth an issue for you guys last year in terms of the number of guys you felt comfortable putting into the thick of things?
COACH LONDON: Let me see if I can answer it this way. Tell me if I answered the question.
I think last year, let's take the runningback position. You have Keith Payne and Raynard Horne, Perry Jones. You have the ability afforded you to redshirt a Kevin Parks. It was that way at a lot of positions. I think Morgan Moses and Michael Rocco and Rijo Walker were the only true freshmen that ended up playing.
I think as guys graduated this year, through some of the attrition, whether it's academically or through personal conduct, this large incoming freshman class has provided an opportunity to fill in some of those roles, the depth issues. I think that's why you may see anywhere between 10 to 12 freshmen play.
There's a skill level there that they brought in that warrants, although we may be young at the depth part of it, but they'll grow to be better players as they have opportunity.
I hope that answers the question you're asking.

Q. Did you feel at any time like depth was a serious issue for you or not?
COACH LONDON: Depth wasn't a serious issue. I think during the course of training camp, you put second, third year, some fourth year guys. You give them some opportunities. The mindset becomes, Listen, it's all about trying to play the players that can give you the best opportunity. We've had some third, fourth year guys that have given great effort that aren't in the depth, maybe third behind some of these young guys.
It's trying to put people in positions to help us play and help us win. I think as we set along these 10 to 12 freshmen, we've identified them as being able to do that.

Q. Coach, I know you know Al Golden. It has to have been tough for him to walk into this NCAA situation in his first year. Have you spoken to him at all recently, given him any encouragement?
COACH LONDON: No, I have been spoken. I've texted him. Al and I are really good friends from the Boston College days and the Virginia days. He's got a tough situation he's going through. From all accounts of the media, what I know about him, he's handling it in a first-class manner.
He has a situation that he has to deal with, incoming new coach that has circumstances he has to deal with. I think he's doing a good job of it.
I'll reach out here soon. A lot of us got a lot of things going on. But I'm proud of Al, proud to call him a friend of mine. Any support I can give him, he knows he's got it.

Q. How much with what has gone on at the University of Miami in relation to the NCAA has been a lesson to you and your team? Have you spoken to your team about boosters and used what's happened at Miami to approach the subject?
COACH LONDON: Absolutely. You become self-reflective of what you're doing. We've have Jason Montgomery from the NCAA enforcement come out and talk to the team. We've had different speakers talk about boosters, what extra benefits are, if it doesn't feel right. If it's free, it's probably not good for you. Just things like that. You keep trying to educate the players. We talk about it all the time, about doing the right things, making good decisions.
I think when you see things around you happening like that, you look around your own program, you just want to make sure that you do your due diligence in educating them, bringing people in, reminding them, get them around compliance, talk about the dos and don'ts which we did, talk to the players. You try to educate them as much as you can and hope you've done the best job of doing that.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, we're out of time here. Thanks for being with us. Good luck this weekend. We'll talk to you next week.
COACH LONDON: Thank you.

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