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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 13, 2013Randy EdsallCOACH EDSALL: Well, when you watch Virginia Tech play, they're an outstanding football team. They're well coached in all three phases. Their defense is playing at a very high level. And a lot of experienced seniors on that defense that do a tremendous job. And then offensively they started to get it going here in the last two weeks. And Logan Thomas is an outstanding quarterback, a career record holder in a lot of areas for Virginia Tech. So we have a tremendous opportunity and challenge ahead of us on Saturday and look forward to it. Q. One of the things offensively, they seem to get their running game a little bit in gear. Got a big list of perimeter blocking from the wide receivers. What did you see change in the last few weeks in what they're doing in the run game? COACH EDSALL: I think they've got guys healthy. And they've just been able to execute the things that they want to do. They're big up front and good running backs. Got a good fullback. And again, when you have the ability to throw the ball the way that they do, that opens up the running game a little bit more for them. So I think it's just been a collective effort on everybody's part on their offense to have that come together. Q. Your kids, I guess none of them have played the game at Wynne Stadium. What do you tell them in terms of the atmosphere and getting them ready for a new destination? COACH EDSALL: What we tell them it will be loud. And I've had the privilege of coaching there, but, yeah, you're right, we haven't had kids that have played there. We'll get crowd noise and it is a great environment. They just have to understand that they have to focus on what's going on out on the field and just leave everything else away from them. And hopefully we'll be able to do that. Q. I was curious whether you had coached there before. Obviously you said you hadn't. When and how often have you coached at Virginia Tech? COACH EDSALL: It was when I was at Connecticut. And also Boston College. I know my last memory wasn't too fond of being back there, because we had care I column I get a serious knee injury when we were there at Connecticut. Frank has done a great job growing and developing that program over the years. And didn't always start out that way, but he built it to ‑‑ something to be very, very special. And they've got very passionate fans that love to support their team and they're out there and they're very vocal. Again, they've made it a very tough place to play. And again, that's why you have to have all your focus and attention on to what's taking place. And you've got to make sure that you eliminate mistakes, because if not, that crowd really gets into it and makes it even more difficult. Q. Just wondering, did you get a sense last week that C.J. was pressing or trying to do too much out there? COACH EDSALL: No, I don't think he was pressing. I just think that there was some ‑‑ like I said, he did a lot of good things in the game. We moved the ball offensively. Once we got in the plus side of the field we were just not able to take advantage of what we had done to move the ball down the field. And again, there was just some things that we looked at with him on film and showed him. He'll be better this week. Again, we've got to keep him out there playing because, again, you know, the repetition and the constant flow of playing is really what C.J. needs. And I think he'll play well this week. Q. How has the adjustment been for Ricardo moving to wide receiver. Do you anticipate him maybe factoring in the rotation the last three games or does that hinge on injuries in the slot? COACH EDSALL: Again, Ricardo is a good athlete. So in terms of his running ability and everything along those lines he's fine. He's got good hands. But again it's just the fundamentals and the technique of route running and doing those sort of things and reading coverage as you're coming off the ball. Those are the things that he has to really get up to speed with and do. As far as playing a lot of that will be predicated on what happens at that position and if there's injuries or not, or how quickly he gets up to speed and being able to function within the scheme of what we're doing. Q. Are you pleased with the progress he's made so far? COACH EDSALL: He's gotten better each day that he's out there there's improvement. And again, that's ‑‑ we were forced to make that move based on the number of injuries that we've had. Q. The Virginia Tech game last Saturday against Miami, what did you see on that film with the defense? COACH EDSALL: They're a very physical defense, they're a defense that plays a lot of man coverage. They can get pressure with four guys up front. And again it's one that just played a lot of football together. When you go down their roster and you see the number of seniors and red shirt seniors that are playing for them, there's a tremendous amount of experience there on that defense. But, again, you just see a defense that's playing well within the scheme that they have playing in. They play aggressive. And the thing is they can get pressure with four guys from a defensive standpoint that's always a great thing. Q. Talk about Coach Beamer, what type of coach is he, he used to be a Maryland assistant back in '71. What's it like to go up against him all the time? COACH EDSALL: Frank is a very good football coach. You don't become the winningest active football coach in FBS with not being a good coach. The thing you take a look at, it didn't start well there for him at Virginia Tech, but the people there stuck with him and allowed him to build his program. And now look what they've got today and look what they've done with the program, with the facilities, with everything that they have there. And I think that's just a great testament to Frank's ability to be an outstanding leader. Q. I wanted to ask you about guys stepping up. I know you've been banged up in a lot of places, probably nowhere worst that losing two of the best receivers in the League a couple of weeks ago.  I see Levern Jacobs and Taivon, both have stepped up and had pretty big receiving games. Are they helping fill that gap or can you address that? COACH EDSALL: Yeah, Laverne is a young man who is very talented. And he's continued to grow and develop in the program. And I think the thing is with Laverne he's still not to the point where he's ended up where he can go in terms of how good he can be. But you can see the progression of him getting better. And he has the ability to make big plays. And what we need to continue to do is need to continue to just coach him and for him to learn. Like I said, I think he's got enough skills that he can really be an outstanding receiver here at this level. Amba is a younger guy who's learning, who's getting the opportunity and working to make the most of it. We still have to get Amba a little stronger and put some more weight on him. But those two guys are doing a nice job of stepping in and trying to replace two excellent wide receivers. And they're working extremely hard every day and going out in the field and doing everything they can to replace Dion and Stefan. Q. I mentioned them because they both obviously had big games fairly recently. Is there anybody else in the mix that maybe I wouldn't notice yet that might be on the verge of making that kind of impact? COACH EDSALL: Well, Nigel King has come back off the injury, and he's a guy that has to step up, as well, for us. And, again, now that he's back a little bit more healthy than he has been we expect to see the ‑‑ we expect that we can get production out of him like we've seen out of some of the other guys, as well. But I would think that those are the three guys. And difficult Andre lane is a true pressure man, he's a guy that who was in the mix for us, and mall couple calmer who stepped in when Nigel was hurt. We have Daniel Adams. We have a lot of younger guys pressed into service. Again, if you're in that situation that's something you relish because you're getting that opportunity. And what they want to do is make the most of us. Because the more competition we have the better we are, because that keeps everybody on their toes. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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