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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 9, 2013Mike LondonQ. Maryland, of course, coming off a considerable drumming last week, would you rather not play a game against somebody who has just come off a defeat like that because they must feel like they have an awful lot to prove, that they're not really the team that got embarrassed last week? COACH LONDON: It really doesn't matter. Every team is competitive. I'm quite sure that's not a game they played that represents their team. Whether you lose by a lot or win by a lot, you always appeal to the competitive nature of our guys, of players in general. I would imagine that they were‑‑ they looked at the things they have to correct, like we've had to coming out of our games, and just worry about the things that they have to correct in order to play a productive game. I'm quite sure we'll get their best effort. They're back at home. Players on both teams have played either with or against each other, and you forget about what happened the week before and everything like that. I believe it's about the game this week, about the players that have played against each other, about where both teams are, where they want to go, and about performing on Saturday. Q. What impressed you about their first four games of the season which they won all four, and the kinds of things that you might expect to see on Saturday? COACH LONDON: When you look at them, they've played well offensively. C.J. Brown has really done an outstanding job of running their offense, of doing the things that I'm sure Coach Locksley wants them to do in being efficient with their offense. You look at the play makers, Long, and look at Diggs, you look at the guys that they have that provide explosive plays for them. They're number one in the country, I believe, in the red zone. So once they get down there, they've had a high amount of success. You look at defensively, for a while, whether one or two, I think number three right now in sacks. They're a top 25 in total defense. So coach has them doing a great job on defense. So you just look at them, and they've been a complete football team. Lot of the games that they've played, they've relied on their play makers to really step up and they've shown themselves to do that. So Coach Edsall's got a pretty good team in place right now. The challenge for us is to play our best football game to date, particularly since it's such a border school rival, all of those things that go into a game like this and maybe perhaps the last football game that Virginia and Maryland play for a while. Q. You mentioned the rivalry there. I know that Maryland and Virginia are pretty scheduled up in the future, but would you consider, if you had the opportunity, scheduling Maryland in the future as a non‑conference opponent? COACH LONDON: Well, in the realm of possibilities and things like that, I guess that's always in the realm of possibility. But you're right. If you look at the schedules, the conference affiliations and things like that, who knows what's going to happen down the line. But I do know over the years when I was here as an assistant and just knowing that it's always‑‑ it's always a game that a lot of your players going to Virginia, D.C., even some kids from Maryland always look forward to playing. However, if it extends beyond the conference affiliations and the limitations that the conferences will have on conference games or out of conference schedule, who knows. I do know what's important right now, this game against them for us is important. I know that they will be looking for us as well. Q. Real quick, the Baltimore kid Jennings, I know his numbers are down a little from last year. But I haven't seen enough of your games to pinpoint what's out there. Could you talk about him for a second? COACH LONDON: Yeah, Darius is a fantastic young man, one of our leaders on the team. When we made some wide receiver changes, he was a guy that stood up and said, you know what, as a receiving corps we need to have a sense of urgency about the way we play and what we do. And Darius stepped up in a role that last week he returned a couple kickoffs and did a really nice job. He's embraced the fact that it's about the team. It's about everybody producing. His job and the things that he's doing now, playing the receiver in the game or the kickoff returner, he's accepted that and embraced it as far as doing whatever he can to help this team win. He's a great young man, as I've said before. Very representative of his family and Gilman, and the places where he comes from. He's hungry and he wants to win. He wants to do it in a team way. So I have high praise for Darius. Q. A lot has been said about the penalties and the turnovers this week. It seemed like looking over the course of your tenure, it seems like the penalties are not a constant, but it seems like there's one really bad penalty game here or there during the season. But the turnovers just kept kind of playing the team throughout your tenure. Is there anything you can put your finger on? Because I imagine you probably have instructed them on the high and tight and all the other stuff. COACH LONDON: You always have to just continue to keep teaching the pressure points, ball security, the angles that defenders are coming at you and the throws that you make. It's always a teaching point. The position coaches and their individual drills are drilling those type of things. So we just keep drilling them, keep drilling them until they become ingrained at a point when the players' games aren't as put up in the air like that as far as dropping the ball or not being aware of a defender or where you throw the ball. So it's always a process of just coaching ball security, coaching ball disruption. We'll continue to keep doing that. There will be times that ‑‑ you hope there are times in a game that you don't have any turnovers. But it's not from a lack of teaching and coaching. We'll continue to keep doing that. Players want to get it because they understand that turnovers can cause ‑‑ definitely are a direct cause to wins and losses, and losses particularly. Q. I wanted to ask about Alec‑‑ I can't even say his name? COACH LONDON: Doug knows. You can ask Doug. Q. That's good (laughing). No, I just wanted to ask about him stepping in and taking over as a placekicker after being just a punter earlier? Can you talk about his performance and your feeling about him going forward? COACH LONDON: I tell you, Alec has done a great job of stepping into a role that when he first came here he was a punter and placekicker. But we've had guys that could do different things, maybe handle specific chores and duties. So Alec became the punter and he's done a really nice job doing that. When the (indiscernible) situation occurred, we had to look for the guys that we have here, and also Alec is a guy that works hard. You look at him, he's probably one of the strongest guys on the team. He's athletic. He's played other sports before. He said, coach, I'll do it. He had been working on his punting, but we put him in practice and kicked a couple of 30‑yarders, backed him up 30, 35, 40 yarders. He was very accurate. So he's one of those guys that, as he said, hey, coach, you can count on me. He did an outstanding job punting, and then he handled the two field goals that he had to kick during the game. He's embraced the fact that as a‑‑ one of you asked about Darius Jennings. Darius Jennings wants to do whatever to help the team win. Alec is like that. He wants to rise to the occasion to be productive. I'm very proud of him for having that kind of mindset, because he has been productive and special teams‑wise has improved because of his leg. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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