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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 20, 2013Mike LondonQ. Coach, I wanted to ask you to give us an inside report on morale, feeling of the team, off week after the long losing streak? Is morale still good? Do you feel good about how you can finish the season? COACH LONDON: Yes, morale is very good. When you only have six seniors on your team, there's a lot of guys on the team that although the season has been disappointing, there's no bowl opportunities, there's still opportunities for them to get better, for them to continue playing, for them to develop the kind of skills we need to be successful here. No one's hanging their head. Guys are preparing. They're practicing well. Practices have been very spirited. That's what you want it to be. You want guys that want to be competitors and have a chance to win games regardless of what's going on week in, week out. That's been a very positive point for the guys. It's been good to see. We'll continue on until we play the last game as far as trying to create an atmosphere of the type of things that you need to do in order to win games. That's about effort, it's about energy, it's about passion. I would say our attitude here for the fellows, for the players, has been good. Q. Was there anything specifically in terms of tactics or strategy that you worked on during the off week to try to improve? COACH LONDON: Well, to me it's all about you got to have a base of fundamentals that, regardless of what the scheme is, you always have to go back to, back pedal, the way you run your routes, the way you release the ball, so many different things. An open week gives you a good amount of time to dedicate to those things. You can always put the schemes in, but you have to be fundamentally sound, be in position to make tackles, who is forcing the ball inside. Spent a lot of time on that basically. Those are the things that we believe you have to do well in order to play well. So we spent more time on that. Q. I know coaches talk about when they go to bowls, one of the things that helps for that is the extra practice, gives you longer to look at your younger players, redshirts, people like that. Not having that opportunity this year, did you use the off week to do anything with the younger guys that may play a big role in the future? COACH LONDON: There's a fair amount of players that are playing as youngsters. They are getting those reps. But you are correct in some of those players that we've redshirted, there were periods on points and practices that were emphasized on developing the young players. The biggest thing with bowl opportunities, you have a chance to develop players, particularly your young players. This season we played so many young players, their ongoing development has been developing as the season has gone on. Your open weeks you do take time to develop those guys that are redshirted and guys that haven't played a lot. Q. Mike, earlier this week at your press conference Monday, there was a lot of talk about the explosive plays this season, maybe the drop‑off in plays of 20 yards or more. Last week Dominique Terrell had a fair number of plays after that length. He's made periodic appearances lately. What's happened to him this season? COACH LONDON: Nicky, as we call him, is a guy that is still very much in the mix. We made the receiver change, if you can remember, a few games back. All that was geared towards getting better production from catches and from blocking, route running, all those things. Nicky, again, is a guy, like Darius Jennings, when the move was made, that didn't pout his head. Just continued to try to find a way to help this team win. He's practiced well. He's done a lot of things that a veteran player can do to help younger players. He became a selfless player, dedicated himself to whatever role we've asked him to do, to take on, to mentor the younger players, and he's done that. Although not being as productive on the field as he has been in the past, he's very much a part of the team. We have a receiving group that we're looking to find the right mix. We're finding guys that have chances to do some things for us. But, again, when you talk about Dominique Terrell, he's been a great teammate despite not having the opportunities. Q. Do you feel his confidence was eroded at all but some of the drops of the punts, particularly at Pitt? COACH LONDON: Every player is, I'm sure, conscious about doing the things that can help the team win. No one wants to drop passes or not run the correct route. When that happens, you also have to have consequences to that. You have to have options for that. That was done in the moves we made to make sure we had those opportunities. Nicky will play in games. Didn't have as prominent a role as he had in the past. Going down the stretch, he'll be involved in some things that we have going with different packages. Like I said, he's become a great teammate. He's not walking around sulking or anything like that. He's embraced the role. Now he has to increase being a team leader, and he's done that. Q. Coach London, talk about the season. It seems like it's been a struggle for you guys. How can you keep your team positive playing against a team like Miami? COACH LONDON: It was sort of the question that was asked a few moments earlier about the attitude and the mindset. Again, we're a team that has six seniors on it. There will be a lot of players that will be back two, three years, have a whole college career ahead of them. The one thing we want to focus on is always having a chance to compete. You look at college football, this past week, the things that happened, teams that won, teams that overcame large deficits. It's about continuing to give great effort. A lot of players on this team have been successful against Miami. It's one of those things you have to create that mindset, that balance of, we got two games left, and we want to play to the best of our ability to send these seniors out. There's been no problem about maintaining the passion or the energy, those things that you want guys to have. If you have a senior team, sometimes they realize things aren't going to go that way, the season can go south, attitudes, practice and effort. As I said previously, our practice, effort and attitude has been very good. We're excited about traveling down and playing Miami. Q. How difficult is Miami's defense? They've been slacking the last three games. Seems like they're a good defensive unit. What have you seen on film? COACH LONDON: Obviously they're big and they're athletic. There's a lot of things that they do, kind of multiple looks that they give, a 4‑3 and a 3‑4 look. Anthony Chickillo is very accomplished for them. Perryman, their linebacker, is a very good player. The corner, Howard, and Jenkins the safety. They play very aggressive. One of the things that we'll have to make sure we do, we talk about first downs, third‑down conversions are going to be important for us because they'll give you different looks. When you have an athletic team like that, you're right, teams have been running the ball on them. At the same time you have to look at the film, you have to look at what they can do, just not feel that you can come in and dominate a game with them because they're so explosive on defense and they have the weapons on offense to put points back on the board. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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