|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 27, 2013Mike LondonQ.  I want to ask you first, a lot of the quotes or the comments coming out of Virginia Tech on Monday certainly were not bashful talking about the rivalry, the dislike for Virginia. As a head coach, do you take any of that stuff and pass it on to your players? Do you like for them to kind of see that? COACH LONDON: You know, the talking back and forth, stuff like that you can say‑‑ guys talk about each other, goad each other in terms of the competition part of it, but I don't get caught up into words, things that are being said. You play the game on the field. We have the utmost respect for Virginia Tech. I have the utmost respect for Coach Beamer. He's done a lot of good things and is one of the winningest coaches in college football. All the words back and forth don't amount to anything that's important. What's important is playing well on the field. Q. I also wanted to ask you, their corners, their young guys that they're going with now, Facyson and Kendall Fuller, what have you seen from their play all year? COACH LONDON: Yeah, they're two very talented young players. They attack the football very well. They play the ball in the air well and they'll come up and tackle for run force, and they also play coverage. Again, you look at them and you're impressed with two young guys that have a lot of years in front of them. Q. We spoke to Steve Fairchild earlier. Were you aware of the flak caused by some of the comments he made on radio? He said they were all made kind of in humor. Are you aware of that? COACH LONDON: I'm not aware of any comments. I don't read stuff most of the time. No, again, as far as us playing a Virginia Tech team that's a very good team, my personal relationship with Coach Beamer and some of the coaches on that staff have been professional over the years. So again, all you can do is just handle the situation on the field and not in the press or not in the message boards or chat rooms or whatever they call it. Q. This is a week we've got to vote All‑ACC, and I've just been asking coaches to talk about some guys on their team that might deserve it. One guy that's kind of been under the radar, at least down here, but his numbers are great, is Parks, and I just wonder if you could talk about the kind of year he's had. COACH LONDON: Yeah, I think without a doubt I think Kevin is a consideration for All‑ACC because of his production not only running the ball, catching the ball. His numbers here over the course of the years he's been here at Virginia, and just the overall production. When you look at things like that, players that played in games and made significant contributions in those games to their team, you definitely have to consider Kevin as being one of the best players at his position, at the running back position here in the ACC, but we're very proud of what Kevin has done for us here, for the school, and the opportunities that are still afforded to him with another season of eligibility. Q. What qualities make him a really good running back? COACH LONDON: Yeah, if you see him, you've probably been up close and seen him. He's very stocky. He's got big legs. He's got a low center of gravity. He's been able to fend off the initial blocker and continue to fight for extra yards. But he's a running back that sees the hole well and can accelerate through the hole. You look at this point of the season and the number of carries, I can't remember him being dinged up or hurt like most running backs are. He's been very resilient and very tough. He's got this game and he's got another season of eligibility to improve upon his numbers. Q. Going back to your statement that you were going to find a spot for Greyson Lambert in the game Saturday, what if David Watford is lighting it up and everything is going well? Does that other plan momentarily go on hold? COACH LONDON: Well, we'll see how that goes as the game goes. To predict that right now is hard to predict, but there are plans, as I said, to play Greyson, give him opportunities. We'll have to address that as the game is going on, given the different scenario that you just raised. Q. You'd be happy to have that scenario I'm sure. COACH LONDON: Whoever is productive and whatever is moving the team, that's the main focus. Q. I want to follow up on the All‑ACC. The toughest part for us voters is the offensive line, and Moses was a preseason All‑ACC guy. Has he played to that level, and is there anybody else we ought to look at? COACH LONDON: I believe Mo in the last half of the season here has improved in a lot of things. You always have room for improvement, and yes, he did come into preseason with a lot of notoriety and things like that, and I don't know if he would agree that he was playing up to his ability, capability, but as I said, the last few games here he's graded out well. He's done some nice things on tape. Scouts have come back in again based on the play that he's been doing to this point. So his best football, again, can be achieved through the success and the improvement from game to game, and obviously this game is a very important game for him in his development and his evaluation because he's going against two very good defensive ends, two very good players. I'm quite sure that their ends are ready for the challenge. It's been stated and it's understood, and now guys have to go out and just compete. Q. Let me ask you real quick about Logan Thomas. His good games have mostly been wins. His bad games have mostly been losses for Tech. Do you see something when he struggles that opposing defenses are doing, or does he just seem to have some off days? COACH LONDON: Yeah, that's hard to say. Again, I have respect for Logan. I think he's a talented, talented player because of his size and his ability. You know, sometimes in some games the surrounding cast may not play up to their potential, whether wrong routes, dropped passes, breakdown in communication with the protections, and then ultimately everything points back to the quarterback because you look at his numbers and look at all those other things. But we all see that Logan is a very talented young man, and when they're catching the ball and they're moving the ball and he becomes a weapon within the offense because he's a main part of the offense, and on the other hand, as I said, if the surrounding cast members aren't doing their part, it can make whatever wins, loss, or whatever issues may occur in the game, it can make that look like a suspect. We just have to concentrate on the game plan that we have and try to do things that limit or minimize his ability as much as possible. But like I said, he's a very talented guy, and I give a lot of credit to him and going through adversity and handling it and coming out on the other end. Q. How different does this offense look with a new offensive coordinator? From an Xs and Os standpoint do you see a dramatic difference? COACH LONDON: Well, when you look at teams you look at coordinators, where they were, where they came from, and the offensive coordinator there is from Auburn, so you see some elements from that style of offense. They've infused it with, I'm quite sure, with some of the things that they feel that they can do with the skill positions that they have. There's some similarity, again, like I said, with where the coordinator has been before, but also some additions with what you know Virginia Tech to be, and that's the challenge is to play to the best of our ability with those schemes that they use. Q. What went into the decision to move Canady back to safety for the first half? COACH LONDON: Well, you look at different packages that you play, whether it's nickel, dime or some other issues that you want to address as far as coverage, and I'll just say that that's part of it. Him being back, being healthy now gives us a tremendous amount of flexibility, and we're going to try to take advantage of that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|