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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 25, 2013Mike LondonTHE MODERATOR: We now welcome Virginia head coach Mike London. We'll bring on coach, ask for a brief opening about spring, then go on to questions. COACH LONDON: Good afternoon, everyone. We had a very productive spring, as you can imagine, with the new coordinators instituting schemes and systems that we think the guys picked up pretty well, now have to carry it over into the next three months when there's no one working with them but the strength coach. We're excited about the new staff, the infusion of talented coaches and players, ready to get after it. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach London. Q. Mike, a little off topic, but the draft. Oday Abushi, people joke about the 15‑yard penalties. In coaching him, does he have that mean streak that you think NFL teams are looking for? COACH LONDON: Well, I do. That's part of that whole mentality, nastiness, aggressiveness. You just have to be smart about when you do that. Post‑snap penalties are not good for anybody. I think he does have the temperament, he has the ability to be a productive member on any of these teams' offensive lines. Q. Mike, did you like the rhythm of having three post spring game practices? Will you continue to do that in future years? What were you able to accomplish in those three sessions? COACH LONDON: I think so. We have, as I said, on this staff, a very valuable staff in terms of coaches that have been head coaches before. What you find is everybody wants to play the spring game. You have the opportunity to play it on TV, get that type of exposure. But you also want to make sure you take care of some of those offenses or defenses that sometimes you don't see as much. I think with the first time with BYU, playing them, since I've been here, there's a new coordinator, offensive coordinator, so we've heard different things about whether it's the pistol or spread, obviously trying to get acclimated to Oregon's style of offense is a hurry‑up, no‑huddle, run a bunch of plays. We left one more practice for the Georgia Tech option. I think for this year it was kind of exactly what we needed in terms of putting a couple, three games on a prepractice plan. As we get into August, we'll take care of ourselves. But then we'll start fine tuning on those offenses that will be new to us or ones that provide challenges for us. Q. This year was the first in your three that you did not take any of your spring sessions on the road. Where do you see that going forward? Do you think you'll go back on the road in the future or just keep it at home? COACH LONDON: I think so. It's been very productive, beneficial for us. I think this year with the new coordinators, the three schemes, it was best to just fine tune what we're going to ask our players to do, give our coaches more time for us, preparation. We used to travel and do coaching clinics on that Friday night before Saturday. This year was just geared towards getting everybody acclimated, on the same page. We've had some success in taking our program on the road, the recruiting implications to it, the goodwill aspects of it. We look forward to doing it in the future. Q. Another draft question. I've seen this number, about having a player selected in 29 consecutive drafts. Does that mean anything to you? COACH LONDON: I mean, I think it does. There's another article that came out not too long ago about programs that have players drafted but also contribute to teams and have sustainability in the league. Virginia was in the top 20 of those numbers, as well. I think long before I got here, when I was here with Coach Groh, now even as it's manifested itself in the last couple years, Virginia is a place that has guys that are smart players, do well in the classroom, have gone on to the NFL, kind of stayed in the league, had longevity there. You can't take the credit for it. It's the school, it's the coaches preceding me. It's my job now to get these guys educated and help provide opportunities for them to have their name called today on tomorrow, whatever happens for some of these guys. Q. Could you talk about where you think the talent level is compared over your time there as head coach? Is that something you'll have to wait down the road to assess? COACH LONDON: Well, I mean, when you look at it, we've always been a young team. When you come in, you're changing over rosters because you're changing over schemes and things like that. You have an opportunity to assess players as they get bigger, stronger, have those experiences on the field, in the classroom, in the community. I think if you still look at our team, they're young guys that have played in college football games. To me, this next three months, four months before we play a game, is a critical development in some of the guys, like Eli Harold. You look up and down the roster, it's dotted with guys, Maurice, these guys that played in college games, but now you want that kind of experience, the exposure they've had. I think Evan Marcus, the weight coach, will do a great job with them. You want those things to take over. So you're always trying to collect talent, develop talent, but understand they have to perform on the field at some point. Q. I wanted to ask you about Phillip Sims and his spring. Is he solidly entrenched as the quarterback now after having some good moments last year or is there competition there? COACH LONDON: There's competition at every position, particularly the quarterback position, which is essential and critical for us to have that number one and that number two guy having opportunities to learn our system that Coach Fairchild has put together. I think the benefit for me or the program, as I've said before at the beginning, having three former head coaches on football teams that understand the importance of put in your system, find a guy that can bring along the other players in the system, but also do what you're asking him to do because he handles the ball 100% of the time. These next three months, as you see David Watford, Greyson Lambert, and Phillip, are critical. No coaches will be watching them, standing on top of them making them watch film, getting seven‑on‑sevens organized. It's going to be critical for our team that those guys, particularly the quarterback position, emerge themselves coming out of the summer. But then as we get into early August, we're going to make the decisions of who that one and two is going to be. Q. So right now you don't even have a tentative one or two? COACH LONDON: I would say not. All these guys, 15 practices, have the coaches look at the players, particularly the quarterbacks, assess their skill level.  They all have good skill. Trying to find what they do best, then put it together with the surrounding cast that we have on our team. They all know this is critical for them in terms of what they do, how they do, how they prepare themselves, their body, their mind, everything about being a quarterback for the system. They all understand that the competition of this is going to be critical. As they emerge, we will pick the one and then the two as we get early into August camp to allow us to get ready for our upcoming opponents. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us. Good luck the rest of the spring and we look forward to seeing you in Greensboro this summer. COACH LONDON: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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