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CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: FLORIDA VS VIRGINIA

December 27, 2019

John Hevesy

Miami Gardens, Florida

JOHN HEVESY: I think it's really what you wish for, every kid you have. Your own kids included is how he's worked, and Nick Buchanan is kind of the same way. Nick was three years on the scout team before we got here and he's been a starter the last few years. If you watch Kyle, he did everything he was asked to do and he knew when his opportunity came to take advantage of it. With a jump around here or there, he saw what University of Florida done for him, what his education did for him, what his opportunity was there, and he made the best of it.

You know, kids have different reasons why they jump around. They do things. They hear one thing, but I think you meet Kyle, you talk to Kyle, it's how hard he's worked at what he's done. When the opportunity came, whether it was last year, he had an opportunity, he came in and took advantage of it, and then unfortunately got hurt that week in practice. So he didn't have the opportunity to get him, and then you see him come back this year, opportunity came, took advantage of it, and even more the character of him is how he prepared when he had to go into the Kentucky game this year is how he prepared every week for the last two years in practice as if he was a starter and then when his opportunity came, it wasn't a big drop-off like I don't know what's going on, I wasn't a starter, so I think you see everything about his character, his education, graduating, working on his masters and then preparing each week like he was the starter, so when the opportunity came he took advantage of it.

Q. What have you seen of this offensive line this year from day one to Orange Bowl practice?
JOHN HEVESY: I think first we've come together as a group. That's the biggest thing. I think there's still -- that's the best thing. The biggest thing is individually there's things we need to work on individually to get better at. You see as a group we're on the same page, but individually there's still things that as you go through the season, my first goal was just to get to that point. I think Nick did a great job of getting them going the right way, and now each individual has the things that you see week after week, you see, okay, we've got to work on this, we've got to work on this to get us functioning all as one. So to me, it's always the biggest thing is the deficiencies each one of them have that we've got to keep working on to get better as a group. I think the one thing is finishing the season, and we've done, there's obviously things we need to work on, but there's things that we've done for us to go into the off-season, being the only one that graduates, OK here, a lot of young guys playing with the twos that they have the why in what they're doing, so really going into January and February, who's the one guy and bringing 14 of them back to have the understanding of the game. Now it's just really --

Q. Does that get you excited?
JOHN HEVESY: It does, because it goes back to me. Obviously it's the game first but then you come back in January, they have the fundamentals. It's not where last year, it's okay, you lose in a sense six guys, seven guys walked out the door, so here's eight through 15 that you're going back to teach everything to. That was kind of last year doing that. So this year everyone has here's how we do things, here's what you expect. Really you take the four starters last year, T.J. McCoy, Villano who played, what was that, six, and then Harkless was the older guy, there's seven that walked out the door. So there's not just the four starters, there were seven bodies that you looked at between ones and twos. Stone was a two, Brett Heggie was kind of rotated in. After that, Jean was not even in the two deep the first five, six weeks of the season until kind of injuries happened. So now going into this January, I've got 14 guys that understand what's going on, understand what's expected of them fundamentally, technically, assignment wise they've learned a lot of football. Now really it's to bring it back in and start with a foundation and bring it back up.

Really Nick -- there's 14 with me right now, so I'm down to 13, and then there's two that just showed up and then Isaiah shows up in January, too.

Q. So 13 guys that really know what they're doing?
JOHN HEVESY: And that have listened to me for a year, and okay, here's what's expected. Now for me it's to go back and really break them down individually, which I have everything going to meet with them when the game is over and come back in January, here's your individual deal-- because I've seen them all now -- the guys last year could play. I tell the older guys, I've got three seniors coming up next year with Stone, Brett and Jean. I've got to tell them, if you want to move on from here, here's this 12-month contract. This time next year where do you want to be, so it goes through everything with your hands, your feet, what you have to do if you want to play beyond this year, here's what you need to work on and focus on, and now it puts the onus on them if they want to go beyond this. Now, for the younger guys we've got to go back to fundamentals. But a lot of those younger guys have an idea of this level of football, how they have to be, whether it's -- the younger guys got to be in the weight room, this January and February being in the weight room and just getting stronger. Last year they came in and it was like, what is going on, just trying to figure out -- running a scheme, how we do things in the weight room. Now they understand a whole year of -- there's four of them that came in last year and they've been through the off-season. So for them coming in they know what to expect, so now they can really improve instead of just -- I talk about surviving, survive that lift, now go get better than that lift.

Q. The perception is that you guys have done a great job of pass blocking but not such a great job of run blocking. You see it every playoffs --
JOHN HEVESY: I think there's things that we need to get better at. Obviously we've done a good job of protecting. I think for us to win games -- and like Kyle comes in and Kyle can throw a ball, Kyle does a great job of protection. Kyle's not a runner. Everybody comes in, we're going to run the ball, but Kyle's not a runner. So we're going to always use what we have. Kyle can throw the ball and does a great job, has the right protections, and from things you got to work on, I think there's things need to work on, I think there are things that you don't start seeing until it's pinpointed out on there. For me even those four new guys, where's their deficiency? You don't always see it through spring practice, through fall camp, because there's so much installation going on. Now there's things we have to work on, whether it's being more physical, whether it's things we have to get better at. Obviously the run game we've got to be better all around to get us going.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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