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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 19, 2011

Randy Edsall

COACH EDSALL: Well, we've got another tremendous challenge on our hands going down to Tallahassee and playing Florida State. They've got E.J. Manuel back as their quarterback, and when you watch the film, you just see a very talented, athletic team that you've got to make sure that you're doing all the things that you're supposed to be doing in order to give yourselves a chance to win.
We've got to have another good week of -- we've got to prepare well this week and go down and play great in all three phases to give ourselves an opportunity to win.

Q. How has CJ handled now being the starter, being elevated to starter in practice and whatnot, how he's carried himself the last few days, and then the areas for improvement, how have you seen him work to get better of late?
COACH EDSALL: Well, I think he carries himself very, very well. He's a very poised, mature young man, very confident young man, and he's just taking the opportunity that he's had and going out there and just trying to get better. Every day he's working to get better in all facets of his game, and again, you just see a guy that's extremely focused, a guy that knows that he's not the finished product but is a guy that's going to work extremely hard and take coaching, and again, I think we'll see him improve as he continues to get more repetitions.

Q. Is there any one area that you've seen him clean up specifically?
COACH EDSALL: No, I mean, he's got the ability to throw the ball. He's got the ability to run the ball. And again, when you take a look at it, he really hasn't played a whole lot of football in the last couple years. So I thought he got better from the Georgia Tech game to the Clemson game, and again, we hope that he makes that same improvement with the Florida State game.

Q. I'm sure you've gotten plenty of questions about CJ Brown this week but just another one. When you came in last year I'm sure you had heard a lot about Danny O'Brien, saw some good things out of him this spring. Was there a point when you kind of took notice that, hey, this other guy, he could be a factor, too?
COACH EDSALL: Well, you know, I said, we're very, very fortunate that we have two really good quarterbacks. I made mention of that in the spring. I made a comment that CJ brown was pushing Danny O'Brien, and then everybody at that point in time wanted to -- oh, do we have a controversy or whatever. So I saw it as we were out there in spring practice, and I felt, like I said, we have two very good quarterbacks. A little bit different skill set for each of them, but -- and then you just see it going and you see CJ competing each and every day and preparing each and every day, so if and when his opportunity came he was going to go out and make the most of it.
You know, now the roles have been reversed, so Danny is working very, very hard and knows that, hey, when his opportunity comes, then he's got to be ready to go, as well. So we're fortunate that we have two really good quarterbacks.

Q. As a follow-up, do you worry about keeping Danny happy?
COACH EDSALL: Well, just like with all of our positions, you know, we have a starter and we have a backup, and backups have to make sure that they're prepared, ready to go in the ballgame. You never know when that opportunity is going to come. We tell them they're one play away from playing, and when that opportunity comes, we expect them to go in and do a good job. That's the message that we send to all of our players. And the starters, we tell them, play so the backups don't get that opportunity to come in and relieve you. But if you're a backup, just make sure you're ready to go because you're one play away from playing.

Q. With the mounting injuries, are there any other scout team players you see distinguishing themselves right now, be it freshmen, sophomore, juniors, seniors, anybody down there that you may elevate and get in the mix?
COACH EDSALL: Oh, man. If you look at that every -- there's no freshmen that we're going to take at this point in time. Sixth, going into our seventh game of the year we're not going to burn a red shirt on anybody now. We do have some young men that could be there, but again, we just have to see how that all happens. We're really kind of thin right now at wide receiver, defensive back, linebacker a little bit. But I think that we'll start to get a couple guys back here off the injury shelf in the next couple weeks, or at least I hope we do.

Q. Are you hopeful for any of those this week?
COACH EDSALL: Again, it's a possibility. We'll have to see how today and tomorrow goes and then we'll put it out on Thursday night. But there's a glimmer of hope, but not as much of a glimmer as I would hope for at this point in time.

Q. Talk about the challenges of coaching the young defense that you have and what you took away from the Clemson game to get prepared for another good offense in Florida State coming up this weekend.
COACH EDSALL: Well, it's really a lot fun because these kids are very eager and excited, and they're playing with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. It's just that you have to be patient because they're young, they're inexperienced, and they haven't seen everything that a junior or a senior who's played for two or three years have seen.
But the way they go out each day to practice and the way they approach it and their eagerness and their ability to learn has just been very, very good, and again, it's just -- you know, in this league you don't -- there's no rest for the weary. You go from Georgia Tech, you go to Clemson and now to Florida State and then you're going to go to another one next weekend.
But again, I just like the way they've approached things. I like their attitude. I like the way that they've prepared during the week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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