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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 13, 2013Mike LondonQ. At this point do you do anything different with your roster in terms of looking towards the future and maybe trying to get some younger guys in or anything like that? COACH LONDON: Well, right now the guys that have been committed to play this year have been getting some reps. They played this past game and open week gives you an opportunity to continue their development. At one point against Carolina, there were six true freshmen on the field playing. Four freshmen on offense, and four freshmen on defense. So you want to make sure you have opportunities to develop them, and that's what's occurring particularly this open week. But with so many injuries we've had, it's given us an opportunity to get more reps for the Donte Wilkins and the Zach Bradshaws and those guys of the world. So there is a conscious effort to make sure we continue their development because they are very much a part of the future. Q. I'm sure it's been more difficult to recruit given the circumstances. But do you feel confident that you guys can keep everything together? COACH LONDON: Well, I mean, thus far everything's been very positive for us in terms of the young men who have said yes. They've said yes because they feel that they can be the difference and their talent is the type of talent that speaks to their opportunities to help this football team. On the field or in the classroom or just the type of degree that Virginia education provides them, there are young men that are saying I want to be a part of it because I believe in the message. So that's been very positive. It's been very positive even as we speak to 2015. So there are a lot of things that although the season is disappointing, the development of young players that are being seen by 14s and 15s that look at opportunities themselves. So we keep moving forward, keep pressing forward, and the whole idea is to get this football team to be a better football team. Q. Just curious what your quarterback situation is going forward? I know Greyson played pretty well towards the end and had moments in that UNC game. Will he get a chance and has he gotten a chance in his bye week and going forward to earn some playing time or would you say David is still firmly entrenched as your starter? COACH LONDON: Yeah, I would say that as we practiced today, David ran with the ones, Greyson with the twos, and Greyson had an opportunity with the ones. It's important that we continue Greyson's development as well. David has taken the reps with the ones today and feel certain that the opportunities of this week of getting them both reps and getting them both better as the question before was asked, how you continue to develop your younger players. And Greyson is in that mode of some of these younger players that with an open week you give him an extended amount of opportunities and reps. So we'll see how the games progress and games go on. We're in it to try to win these last two games and not make wholesale changes right now. But we definitely want to make sure we give a guy like Greyson an opportunity to compete and show himself in a football game before it's all said and done. Q. Could you talk about the year Kevin Parks is having? I think he's had four 100‑yard games? COACH LONDON: I tell you in a year that's been disappointing as far as the record level, obviously, Kevin is a guy that leads us in rushing. He's second on the team in receiving. He's done a lot of nice things. I mean, he's our leading scorer in terms of touchdowns. And the games you've alluded to about having 100‑plus yards, he's done an outstanding job with it. He's been kind of a leader for us this year despite things that have gone on record‑wise. He's been a guy that's a force in the locker room, and a guy that's embraced the fact that, listen, he's coached up a guy like Taquan Mizzell, and Keeon Johnson, and understands that their development and veterans like him can speed up their development by him expressing confidence in them. So as I said, Kevin has done an outstanding job for us this year with leadership on the field as we all see. Before it's all said and done he'll be in the top 10 in a lot of things here at UVA and still has another year left. Happy for the young man, but I know he is disappointed. But at the same time with two games left and a final season, he's committed to being the best he can be and helping some of these guys learn and grow up and help us as we go and as we move forward. Q. I know your last two games are against two of the better teams in the conference. But how important would it be to have something positive happen here at the end to stop the season from ending with a really dismal run? COACH LONDON: It's always important in the contests and the games that you play that you be very competitive and have a chance to win those games on the road to a Miami team that's played very well. They lost their last game but are still a very, very talented team. You play your rival team the very last game. So you're looking for positives. There are some things that have gone on inside that you can talk to about players making gains. But we're in a profession and a business that you count the W and Ls. Obviously, ending on a positive note from where we've been here is something that we all want to experience. So our players today, again, I said it last week, had a good practice. There's no one lowering their head or not looking for the season to get over. Maybe guys are practicing hard and developing these players to be competitive in games. But it's important. It's always important to end the season on a winning note before you go into your winter workouts. Q. In the first five games of the streak you were very competitive in all of them and a couple of them came down to the last seconds or the last few minutes. The last two games have been lopsided. I know one of those is Clemson, which is a terrific team. The other one NorthCarolina. Should I read anything into that or is that just circumstance of a one‑game that didn't go well? COACH LONDON: I think it's one that some of the teams, in particularly the Clemson team, and then two, for us we talked about how when a team gets two early scores on you and not being able to fight back from adversity how that can compound things. Then you're driving to score and you have issues to get the ball back to the team that can kill your momentum. It's the guys that are playing and still trying to execute the plays that need to be done. At the same time when you self‑inflict by making critical errors, you can't have penalty that's hurt you, even though we had five penalties to 13. Our five were critical penalties that directly resulted in long games or extended drives. So there is an understanding that obviously we've got to play well, coach better, and do better. I have to do better. It is disappointing to not be as competitive as what you needed to be particularly in this last game. But as we talk about the next two games come up, those you have chances now to demonstrate that you are or do or continue to have a chance to get better. And we need to do that this week in practice even though it's open. We need to do that the week of preparation for Miami. Q.  A guy who started a couple games in a row‑‑ well, I don't know if they're in a row but started a cup games, who you haven't talked about is Michael Moore at defensive end. What kind of development have you seen in him? COACH LONDON: Mike has done a nice job filling in and being a guy that has been here before again, another young player, but he's a defensive end type that's got an inside tackle body as well. But we play him on the outside because of the injury situation. Early on in the game with Brent already being out and Eli came out for a moment, Trent Corney was injured, had a concussion and he was out. So in the mix of getting players in and out of the game, and Jake Snyder playing some inside tackle position, it afforded Mike an opportunity to play extended reps at the defensive end position. He's gotten better. He continues to get better, and a guy that wants to play and wants to get in the mix. Sometimes opportunities are presented that you've got to and you've got to play well. So Mike's taking advantage of some of these extended rep opportunities for sure. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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