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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 11, 2013Mike LondonQ. You haven't had the Welsh facility for long, but just wondering if the benefits had been as you envisioned for it? COACH LONDON: I would say yes. It's been an opportunity for us. And the weather sometimes during the course of August, there were some inclement parts where there were thunderstorms. And the ability to go inside and not just go in and do meetings and things like that has been significant for us. We used to go inside a smaller place, a smaller area where a bunch of bodies were in there and you really couldn't get things done. It was basically a walk through. But the ability to still practice and do your fundamental work and team work and all the thing that's you want it provides an opportunity for development, and that is the key. So all those who are the benefactors and have people that contribute to the project, obviously, I believe will pay big dividends as we start progressing and have opportunities to go in it. But it is a first‑class facility, and it's really been a huge benefit for us. Q. Just wondering after two games with your starter, what is your evaluation of the way David Watford has played for you guys? COACH LONDON: David's done a really nice job of understanding the fact that he knows that he has to protect the football. We have to protect the football and that as he plays, so goes the team as I said before, he came out and said he took the blame for the loss, but it's not just on him. There are a lot of things we can look at, lot of things we can improve upon. Looking back on both teams, the one we just played in Oregon, an exceptional team, an exceptional talent, very good defense. They led the country in scoring and turnover margin, and the week before that, playing against BYU, the team that the previous year was one of the top defenses in the country, and they go out and play Texas and put points on them and things like that. So I think you could look at the glass is half full. It's not half empty for David. The great thing about him, that's two college football starts with two good, good football teams. I just think his upside and what he continues to learn and how he continues to improve is ahead of him, particularly with the schedule as it's laid out. There are good teams that are still left to be played, but I think we played two really good teams, and I think David's best football is definitely ahead of him. Q. What else have you liked about the way he's led the team? COACH LONDON: You know, he's an even‑keel guy. He doesn't let the highs get him too high or the lows get him too low. I think what he knows is when everything's going on in the game, the crowd, the situation, and all players are looking at him. It's important that he shows there is a level of maturity, and a level of poise that he has. I think that that's critical for any quarterback that's in a leadership position, because he is, although he's not a captain. I think when you have those things like that, that his confidence, and the poise that he already possesses will continue to make him a better player and our players will continue to look to him and lean upon him. He's done a great job as being a college quarterback for us after two starts. Guys look to him. As I said, his best football is ahead of him. Q. Do you spend much time during the bye week on preparation for the Pitt game? How do you delegate the time during the bye week? COACH LONDON: No, we want to take the time necessary to get us straight, to get us together. To get us to improve our team for what we do and how we do it. We want to take the time to make sure that we are examining and exploring all of the opportunities for those guys that can run the ball, whether it's including our quarterback more or whether it's doing some other things with personnel groupings. The time spent is more towards us, and not out of disrespect to any team, it's about us right now. I think that when we go into the regular game week next week, then we'll be more geared towards what VMI does. But I would say right now, we practiced today. We had a Tuesday practice where we just lift and we ran. We practiced today, we'll practice tomorrow and then Friday we'll scrimmage with our younger players to make sure we're continuing to develop them, because sometimes they go on scout team and you forget all about them, so we've got to continue to coach them and develop them. We'll take care of ourselves this week, but then we'll get into game mode with VMI. Q. You gave up 187 yards rushing to BYU in your opener. They go out the next week and rush for 560 yards at Texas. Does that say something about your defense? Does that 187 look a lot better to you now? COACH LONDON: I don't know about that. But you have to put things in perspective, and, obviously, you always want to play good defense. You always want to have gap integrity and be sound in what you do. If you're going to play 8th man in the box with the safety down, that guy has to be lined up in the correct position. So what you do is you want to make sure you limit those explosive plays. Teams are going to get some yardage every once in a while running, but I do think when you look back that we've done a nice job thus far finding the identity of what we are defensively. And then when you look at a team like BYU that goes out and gets that amount of yardage on a ranked team nationally year‑in and year‑out, a team that all‑time has the top five, six, ten recruiting classes, then you know our system is what we are, what we have, and we just need to improve that. That is one of the things that the previous questioner just asked about what we're going to do. We've got to take care of ourselves. Make sure our hats in the gap, the coverage is correct, the fits are right. Same thing on offense, and same thing on special teams. But it has been a positive point. We can't rest your Laurels on that, but you always look to try to improve from there. Good question, thank you. Q. I hope you appreciate this one. But on the other side, the numbers were not very good against Oregon. Is some of that dismissive because they do that to everybody and it's such a unique system. Is it easier to discount some of the things that didn't work well last week, or can you actually find and correct a lot of things based on what happened? COACH LONDON: You don't want to discount the fact that they put up yardage as well. But you also alluded to the fact that in the last three years, they're averaging over 45, close to 45 points a game. That's against any team. That is with anyone they play. The fact that their system is one that they've been doing for such a long time that they had been very successful at doing that. What it causes you to do is the pace of the game, the defending not only the running backs but the quarterbacks and the wide receivers, that is something that they've done. That is why they're the second ranked team in the country. So you want to be relative again. You want to make sure that that's not the last team that we'll play that has that type of offense, hurry‑up, and try to stretch you horizontally and vertically. But it goes back to this week what we do is making sure that by taking care of ourselves, teams like that team that's will run the ball out of the fullback situation, just to get ourselves better. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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