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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 7, 2011

Frank Beamer

THE MODERATOR: We welcome Frank Beamer from Virginia Tech.
COACH BEAMER: We are really pleased with how he we played as a football team against Appalachian State, a good football team, a team that's been picked to challenge at their level and I think they will.
Yeah, I think the question is, is coming back and playing against the East Carolina team at East Carolina, how are you going to play away from home. East Carolina had South Carolina down, and of course South Carolina is one of the top picks in the Southeastern Conference. This is a good football team. They can score points. Defensively, I think the points they gave up is a little misleading. Actually, yards was 351, I believe. But we know it's a different situation this week of how we are going to react to that situation; it's a question of -- for us at Virginia Tech. Question?

Q. What do you have to do to sort of avoid that same kind of scary start that South Carolina had against these guys?
COACH BEAMER: Well, you've got to be ready to play a good football team, a team that again, they don't have any trouble scoring points. They averaged 37 last year and got off to a good start this year. So they certainly get your attention right away.
And you know, I think they are more physical on defense. I think they look strong, and they got after us, pressured us good last year. Tyrel (ph) had to run around quite a bit. So you know, they get your attention, so you'd better be ready to play from the opening whistle.

Q. Do you think this will be your toughest non-conference test of the season?
COACH BEAMER: Well, I think it's the next game and a team that's really got a lot -- can score points and get after you on defense. I think that's what we got.

Q. Your defense is held to a high standard and last year turnovers and points were not up to what you had done in the past; in the off-season what did y'all do to kind of correct that and how do it you think y'all looked so far last week?
COACH BEAMER: We did, we gave up a lot of long plays last year. I think it's a matter of taking your responsibility and being accountable and I thought our first group, particularly, did a good job of that on Saturday.
And then second, we have just got to bring some guys along. At one point in time, I think we had seven freshmen on the field going on defense, and going into the game, 24 of the 70 people we dressed had never played in a college game so we have got some young guys running around. I think the real issue with us right now is bringing our depth along.
Because to get through a season, you've just got to depend on those second guys have to come in and not be a drop-off. That's what we are working on right now.

Q. How much of a test will this game be in terms of seeing how far you've come? Carolina has been pretty explosive at times.
COACH BEAMER: There's no question, we have got a challenge, a team that averaged 37 last year, and you know, got the quarterback back, who can do it. He's accurate and knows what he's doing. He's got experience, and got some athletic guys at receiver. It's a challenge for us.

Q. I know in the past couple of years, you've had your spots where you were able to use David Wilson but now that he's the featured guy back there, how do you like the way he responded?
COACH BEAMER: Well, he had an excellent game, excellent opening ballgame. Just he ran the ball and broke a lot of tackles and really had a good ballgame. And, you know, the backups there, Oglesby and Gregory, I thought they did a good job, too.
If we stay healthy there, I think we'll be solid at the tailback position.

Q. How is David maybe a little bit different from the guys that he's had to play behind for a couple of years?
COACH BEAMER: Well, I think David's just got a great combination. He's fast and he's strong, and he runs with a lot of energy. That's kind of about what you want at that position. And you know, certainly he's physically matured. He's always been fast and he's always been strong, but he's probably even more so, you know, in his third year here the at Virginia Tech.
So he's the guy you notice pretty quickly.

Q. What can you learn after one game, and I would like to preface that by saying, you guys lost to James Madison last year and people probably said, oh, man, Tech's no good, and then you won 11 in a row. This year you hammer Appalachian State so, if people are saying, wow, Tech looks really good what can you learn from one game?
COACH BEAMER: Well, I think -- I told the team yesterday, what happens from here on out, you know, I mean, we did, we played well in that opening ballgame, but can we be a consistent football team and can we play the same way down in Greenville that we played in Blacksburg. There's a lot of questions that's going to be answered in this ballgame because we are playing a really good football team, an explosive football team, an athletic football team.
So I think we are going to answer some questions here Saturday.

Q. Did you learn anything about Logan Thomas that you didn't already know?
COACH BEAMER: No. We thought -- I thought Logan, I said in preseason, he's going to be as good as he can be. And you know, I thought he was good. He handled his game well. I didn't think -- I thought he was very poised. He just needs experience, and the more he plays, the better he's going to get, and I think it will happen fast, too. I think he's a smart guy, very competitive, and I think we'll see improvement each and every week.

Q. Finally, Brian Stinespring is out of the booth and down on the so I had line now, how did that impact your sideline and how did that impact your offense?
COACH BEAMER: I thought our operation was good. You look out on the field and what happens there is what really matters, and you know, the plays got in, and I think Brian likes being there with the offense when they came off the field. I thought the operation for the most part was very good.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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