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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 13, 2013Al GoldenCOACH GOLDEN: We're preparing. We just finished our Wednesday practice, getting ready for Duke who is playing with a lot of confidence right now. Winners of five in a row. So it's a veteran team. It's a team that play was lot of poise. They're doing a great job protecting the football, they're doing a great job in penalties against and doing an excellent job on special teams. So it's a winning combination, and obviously why they're executing at such a high level and having such success. So it's a great challenge for us and one that we're looking forward to Saturday. Q. I saw on the depth chart that was released Tuesday that you had co‑starters in the secondary. Was that as much of a challenge to those guys as it was just trying to shake some things up? COACH GOLDEN: In terms of what, Heather? The safety? Q. Well, it had co‑starters at every position back there. COACH GOLDEN: Well, again, at safety we haven't had all four of those safeties healthy for any significant time. So Deon was out earlier and then Kacy Rodgers has been out the last‑‑ he's been playing sparingly the last three weeks. So it's nice to have all those guys back and healthy. So those guys will compete with A.J. Highsmith and Rayshawn Jenkins, and hopefully we'll get a better rotation out of it in addition to finding out who is going to perform better this week to start. At the corner positions, I just think Artie Burns and Corn Elder and Antonio Crawford have been coming on, and they're earning some reps. Certainly we're in the middle of a competition right now at those spots too, so we'll see. But we did not play well enough at any of those positions the other night. We cut too many guys loose and missed too many tackles not to shake it up a little bit. Q. What is the mood of your team coming off these back‑to‑back losses? COACH GOLDEN: Well, again, it's not really a Florida State loss and Virginia Tech loss. We're really dealing with the Virginia Tech loss just by the way it transpired. Two explosive plays in favor of us that ended up being disasters then the punt down. So three short fields there that we were responsible for. We can't make those kind of mistakes in a game like that. So I know our guys are disappointed in that, but at the same time our seniors have never been 7‑2. They've never won a Bowl game and haven't been to a Bowl game the last two years because they weren't allowed to be. So our seniors are doing a good job leading and making sure the guys know there is a lot of football left, a lot to play for, and then clearly when you watch the tape and look at how much confidence Duke is playing well, it grabs your attention. Our guys are focused in right now on Duke and getting ready for this challenge on Saturday. Q. Do you focus on the fact that if you just eliminate your own turnovers and take care of that aspect that would be a different story last week and could be a different result this week? Or are there certain other things that you didn't do too well last week that need to be improved upon? COACH GOLDEN: At this think there are other things too. I mentioned to Heather, we didn't tackle well enough on the back end. We cut some guys loose in man‑to‑man, and we weren't good enough on third down on either side of the ball which really helped their time of possession. So it's really a function of trying to fix those things. Then obviously controlling the things that you can control. There were a lot of things that we could control in that game. That went the other way. They made the plays we didn't, and you've got to give Virginia Tech credit for the type of game that they played. At the same time, our guys have to learn from our mistakes and move forward. I think we've done that. We're getting good leadership this week. Again, because our guys were up here last year in a dog fight, they know what to expect. Q. I saw Alex Figueroa yesterday in practice. I guess he wasn't practicing. He had his shoulder it looked like in a sling. I know you were really excited about him in the beginning of the season. Can you update sort of his status what it is or could be for this week and maybe why he hasn't played a whole lot or look like he played a whole lot the last couple games? COACH GOLDEN: Well, we're evaluating his shoulder again today and we'll know more by tomorrow and certainly by Friday. He did not practice again today and we're holding him out right now. We just want to make sure whatever the diagnosis is that we do all the battery of test that's we need to do and make sure that we're not going backwards there. But we're very high on Alex. He needs to continue to learn how to prepare and play the game faster and eliminate the mental errors and things of that nature. A lot of the things that you deal with freshmen, sometimes we forget he's a freshman, but he is a guy that we're excited about and has a great future. Q. Listened to your Virginia Tech game on the radio. It sounded like Logan Thomas had a terrific game against you. You played against him a couple years. You saw him on film from earlier this year. What were your impressions Saturday night? COACH GOLDEN: He did. As I said going into the game we were going to get the best of Logan Thomas and we did. Again, credit to the young man. He made all the plays. I thought he was great with his decision making. He ran the ball effectively. But the thing that was the most impressive watching the game was just how even when they went for their chunk plays that he found his check downs and didn't force anything. Obviously his ability to protect the ball was a big difference in the game. We could not get any takeaways from them and that cost us. Q. The best you've seen him? COACH GOLDEN: I mean, he played really well. I only see him a couple times a year in terms of the preparation. Two years ago there were a lot of these games like that. I thought he was brilliant in our game two years ago. Was it three years ago now? I can't even remember. It was the last time we were in Blacksburg. But, yeah, he played really well and we didn't play well enough. That combination was lethal for us. Q. What did you see on film about Duke and how explosive is their offense? COACH GOLDEN: No. 1, they're playing both quarterbacks. Both have the ability to run. Both have the ability to get out of the pocket. I think they're getting the type of plays that they need to get from obviously Crowder is having a magnificent year, close to 70 catches already and a hundred yards a game. But I think the biggest difference is Braxton Deaver. Those two guys are making it hard just to focus on one element of their offense. They have a veteran offensive line who is playing really well. And obviously it's a mature team. They know how to win. Q. Talking about your special teams. I was watching the game last week, and you have good special teams but you fumbled a couple of them. You said the weather wasn't a factor. He just didn't hold on to the football. Talk about his practice this week and is he ready to go on Saturday? COACH GOLDEN: Are you talking about‑‑ because we had two different guys fumble the ball. Q. The first fumble in the first quarter that is set up the touchdown. COACH GOLDEN: Yeah, it's heartbreaking there. We got two defensive stops. It's 7‑0, and we get a 20‑yard punt return and fumbled it. Again, he's a freshman. It's a shame. Then we come back and get another explosive return and fumble it again. So, again, we had a lot of great efforts on special teams. It's just eclipsed by the fact that we had three horrific plays. The two fumbles and then a punter with his knee on the ground. So we're obviously going to continue to work with Artie Burns and Stacy Coley on the ball security and protecting the football because the rest of the efforts, the efforts of the other ten guys on those plays are negated by not protecting the football. So hopefully they learn, but really unfortunate circumstance for us in that game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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