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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 18, 2013Mike LondonQ. You talked the other day about your desire to involve David Watford more in the running game or to utilize his running talents more. What has prevented that from happening up until now? COACH LONDON: Well, most of all the opportunities that he has created for himself. I mean, sometimes when you're dropping back and you want to stay in the pocket and you want to wait for your secondary receiver or third choice to open up, sometimes you stay there and you throw the ball, but we also want to make sure we coach them well enough that sometimes it's not about waiting for No.2, No.3 to open up. Sometimes if you see linebackers turning and running with underneath coverage, sometimes they'll pull the ball and go. I think that's one of the things a young emerging quarterback will get better at, things to get him out on the corner, whether it's play action or misdirection, little sprint outs, to utilize, again, if it's there to make the throw, and if not, then know you become a running threat. I think there's a couple things that we can do to allow his decision‑making process to not improvise but to make what's given is something that he's worked on with this open week and things that we can do for him. Q. Has he been a little bit tentative maybe owing to the quality of the competition? COACH LONDON: Well, you know, when you look back at the quality of the competition in the last couple weeks, it's been very good competition. I think there's a little bit of validity to what you say, is that they're good defenses that have put players in position to do things, either to pull them up or take away certain things. But again, he's a talented enough player that has the ability to make even an open‑field tackler miss, and I think giving him the opportunity to make those type of decisions in game and saying you have the opportunity to do that I think will be something that will be beneficial for him. He's embraced it, and we'll see how it culminates into not only this game but the rest of the games throughout the season. Q. I just wonder how you used the open week last week. I assume it was more focused on your own team than preparing a week early for VMI. Can you address that? Is that assumption right? COACH LONDON: That's a pretty good assumption. Most coaches when they have an open week like to take care of the things that they may be either deficient at or that they need more work on or need better execution at. Obviously the open week provides an opportunity for guys that are perhaps dinged up with injuries to heal and get better. It's also an opportunity to develop some of the guys that don't always get in the game because as you go through the season, we all like that your first team guys last throughout the whole game, but inevitably there will be situations where that second guy or the guy that was No.3 who becomes No.2 has to be developed and has to maybe have a chance to go in the game. And I think during some open weeks you allow some more development of guys like that. We had a scrimmage. We had some of the veteran guys practice half a practice and then designate the latter half of practice to developing the other guys that are on the team at different positions. Those are the things that are important, and you're right, you want to take care of yourself more than anything else, and then when you get into game week you go back to regular game week and get ready for your opponent. So we try to take care of a lot of things, but specific to execution, specific to what we just mentioned we can do with David, taking vertical shots, and then getting guys healed up. But I would say that the most coaches in open‑week situations like to take care of the teams first and then address the teams that they may be playing. Q. Was there anything specific that you thought you needed to address after your first two games? You obviously had a pretty good win over BYU and a tough loss to a very, very good Oregon team. Was there anything exposed in those two weeks that you thought you needed to correct or fine‑tune? COACH LONDON: Well, we talked about being able to run the ball. No secret, we talked about how we can utilize David in some aspects, about throwing the ball more downfield vertically to allow our receivers to go make plays. I think we have fast enough receivers to get even or behind secondary guys. And then about execution. You know, we've played a couple 3‑4 alignment type teams, and obviously VMI will be another 3‑4 look. Again, it gives you some opportunities to block the different looks but also make sure that you handle the fundamentals of what we're asking these guys to do to the point that the accumulated amount of reps during the open week also translates into what happens during the rest of the season. But the biggest thing for us, again, was trying to get some running backs back. We had some ankle issues, and they're back on the slow mend. But that's probably the focus for us is physically how we're doing at that position and then taking care of ourselves and what we do with the ball. Q. Reading the media guide last night, you were born and raised in West Point, New York. You're playing against all these military schools. COACH LONDON: Yeah, there's no secret that my father was in the United States Air Force, and I was born in Highland Falls, West Point Academy, and I have played against a lot of academy schools. Again, there's a great sense of pride in being a part of a‑‑ a son of a military retiree, but also the fact that you appreciate, as I said before, the men and women in uniform that have made sacrifices for us and this country. You know, that just comes from just growing up and being I guess what you'd call a military brat or whatever you want to call them, but a lot of respect for what our armed forces do. Q. What's it like playing against teams in the Commonwealth because you've got a lot of great teams in this state. What's it like playing against another good team in this state? COACH LONDON: Yeah, the competition or the teams that are in your state, whether it's a‑‑ for us now there's two BCS opponents with Virginia Tech and ODU, but I've been on the other side of being at Richmond and coming back and playing Virginia and then playing other 1‑A schools. Particularly your in‑state schools, it's talked about. It's the water cooler talk. It's alumni. It's the state. It's people that follow the home state schools, and you get two teams playing against each other, then it's talked about. We've played a lot of‑‑ we've played Richmond and William & Mary and VMI in my time here, even as an assistant, and it's one of those things that you always look to, the kids from both sides, particularly from the FCS side, looks to play the BCS school in their state. I'm sure it'll be exciting or an opportunity for the cadets playing here at Virginia in Charlottesville, and there will be a lot of people there hopefully that will cheer the state schools on. Q. Do you think a lot of players in the state of Virginia, football players, get underrated by the other states like Texas and Florida, and people don't realize that Virginia has good players, the state? COACH LONDON: Well, I would go the opposite with that. I think Virginia has some of the best talent, high school talent coached by great high school coaches in the country, and I think it's evident when you look at recruiting classes, when you look at guys that have committed not only to the two in‑state schools or now a third BCS school, but you look at where they're going, you look at who's coming in, who's offering these kids now, I think it's a testament to the job that the in‑state BCS schools are doing to keep the best talent in state. But there is no denying that there's a lot of BCS schools that come in here and make those offers, and every once in a while they get one of the best players to come out of the state. I think the state is very much recognized as having a talented group of young men, and now the job is always as an in‑state school is to keep the in‑state talent in state and playing for you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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