NEW ERA PINSTRIPE BOWL: VIRGINIA TECH VS MARYLAND

December 28, 2021

J.C. Price

Michael Locksley

Yankee Stadium

Maryland Terrapins

Press Conference

J.C. PRICE: Definitely honored to represent Virginia Tech in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. Can't say enough of how we've been treated. The Yankees and everyone, John, Kevin, Emily, and everybody have been gracious hosts. Everybody has been so first class. This has been one of the best-run bowls I think I've been to in my 20 years as a player and as a coach. We're looking forward to facing Maryland tomorrow and really excited we're getting this game in. With that, we can open it up for questions.

Q. I was curious, with all the extra responsibilities you've had over the last month, have you enjoyed this whole process as the interim coach, or has it felt like a burden at any point in time?

J.C. PRICE: Oh, it's never felt like a burden. Some days have been harder than others. Some responsibilities have been easier than others, but it's been a guilty pleasure. Once again, I was humbled by given a chance to run the team and be the face of Virginia Tech for a few weeks. Didn't like the way it was handed to me, but I really have enjoyed it.

Several things about it that I've really enjoyed is getting to know the other side of the ball, the players, being more able to watch them in practice day to day. Not just staying down at the D-line. Getting to know those guys, talking a little more intimately about their lives and getting to know these kids on the offensive side of the ball on a personal level that sometimes you wouldn't get if you were just a position coach.

Q. Has anything been more challenging than you anticipated?

J.C. PRICE: More challenging? Just the time. Just the time that your brain doesn't shut off. I realize why some coaches can be thinner than others because I think there was a couple of days there when we were trying to finish the recruiting class and get ready for the bowl game, I totally forgot to eat. The days would just fly by, and you just wonder how you could ever get everything accomplished in a short amount of time, but it's been rewarding, though. It's been fun.

Q. J.C., is there any update on Da'Wain Lofton and Brion Murray's status for the game?

J.C. PRICE: We'll know for sure tomorrow. Pete can update you guys during the warmups.

Q. And kind of piggybacking on what Andy was asking you about kind of doing this, is there anything that you'll take from this experience to going back to a position coach? Any tangible lessons you can take to make you better at your job here in a couple of weeks?

J.C. PRICE: I definitely will leave this and go back to the D-line coach with a greater understanding that there's a difference between making suggestions and decisions. I think sometimes as an assistant coach everybody has ideas. From the smallest detail down to what socks you're going to wear for the game, just all the little intimate details that as a position coach that you don't realize. I didn't realize the head coach was really even involved in. I'll have a greater appreciation for the time and the effort that the head coach takes in for every aspect of the program.

Q. And then you've talked about how professional the guys that had to coach this game that are leaving after this. Did you take them out to dinner at all? Did you get them together at all and kind of talk with them? Was there anything kind of in the last couple of weeks that you did with them to show your appreciation or anything like that?

J.C. PRICE: I think we've all just kind of spent time with our families down here at the bowl game, and that's what bowl games are for. They're for the families and players. Coaches continue to work, but I think it's a great time. You spend so much time away from your families during the year, and being the holiday season, I think we all just spent time with our families.

Q. Was coaching always your post-playing career aspiration?

J.C. PRICE: It has been since high school. If you look back at my superlatives from my senior year book in high school, it said that I was going to be a high school football coach. Everybody has dreams, but I never thought the NFL was even going to be an option for me until late in my career at Tech, and the coaching bug was something that's always been there. I've always loved being around young people, love the strategizing where whether it's basketball, football, just sports in general. I think it's always been in the back of my mind that this is something I would want to do. I tell people all the time, I haven't worked a day in my life. I coach ball. I don't have a job. I'm a ball coach.

Q. Since you got into it, have you ever considered getting out?

J.C. PRICE: All the time. No, really I have not. There's always going to be tough times, and that makes you appreciate the great times, and just sports in general and football, it mirrors life with the ups and downs and things that come out of nowhere. I've said it before, this time last year I was looking for a job, and now here I am leading the Virginia Tech Hokies into the Pinstripe Bowl. Pinch me. Things can change no matter if it's good or bad. Good or bad, things can happen at a second's notice, as we know well in this country, so there's no bad days. There's just good or great.

Q. When you were looking for work a year ago, did you wonder if you would find it, and did you have plan B?

J.C. PRICE: I had enough feelers out there I thought I was going to be able to land a job. Obviously, when this one came available, I threw everything but the kitchen sink at it. I probably attacked trying to secure this job more than anything that I've ever tried to do in my life, and I was lucky enough that Coach Fuente decided to hire me, and Justin and Darryl Tapp, I know both of those guys were instrumental on me being here. I would not be here if it wasn't for those two guys standing on the table for me as a coach, and I will be forever appreciative of them.

Q. On a bit of a lighter note, I know the Yankees kind of have their own tradition with "Enter Sandman" with Mariano Rivera. Do you know, will "Enter Sandman" be played tomorrow, and how important is that to you guys as a team, I guess?

J.C. PRICE: I'm guessing it will. That's a good question. I can't tell you 100% with certainty, but I think every bowl game I've ever been to both teams do their own entrance, so I would think that would be played.

Q. You mentioned to Andy's question that you have had a chance to enjoy the bowl festivities. What have been some of the coolest things you've gotten a chance to do while you're here and to be able to enjoy that with your wife and your kids? What's that meant to you?

J.C. PRICE: The biggest thing was just the 9/11 Memorial. Going to the site and going through the museum and reliving that tragic day. I'm not saying that was enjoyable, but it's definitely the most impactful part of our visit. To watch our players go through that museum and the time and detail those guys took to read those things, and I think we probably could have spent eight hours there. That was very moving, and the respect everybody went through that museum with. I tell you, it's a tragic thing, but I thought the museum was -- that was a special moment. That will probably be something that I'll keep near and dear to my heart forever.

Q. There's a lot of young guys that are going to get the opportunity to play tomorrow, particularly on the offensive side. You mentioned how nice it's been to get to know those guys a lot more. What do you expect from those young guys? I know you've talked about next man up, but how excited are you to -- especially since you're staying here and these are going to be guys, some, that are going to be on the team next year, how excited are you to get to see those guys in action?

J.C. PRICE: In a lot of ways this is a preview for next year's football team. There's going to be a lot of young guys. The receivers have gotten a lot of the attention, but there's going to be young guys running down kickoffs. There's going to be more young guys on special teams. I think you're going to see that impact more on special teams with young guys than necessarily will offense and defense. I think offense and defense, I think it's been a little bit blown out of proportion. The depth is something you are concerned about, but I think where you are really going to see the young guys play are going to be on special teams. The one thing Coach Shibest has always done is he has routinely met with and coached four, five guys deep at times in meetings, and now we're going to be able to reap the benefits of his foresight doing that because the guys that were fifth on the depth chart in August are going to be out there playing for us tomorrow.

Q. Discussing the time off that you guys have had since the last regular season game, you've been on many staffs that have been to bowls. What's the biggest challenge in coming back crisp but not burning your guys out and getting them ready for the bowl game?

J.C. PRICE: I do believe there's a fine line between not being ready and banging them too much. It is late in the year. I think I placed a high importance on good-on-good once we gave them some time off at the beginning for finals. Then we got after it pretty good. We did a lot of good-on-good. We did inside. We've had a traditional Tuesday type practice that was a little more physical, and we tapered that off as we got to Christmas, and then they had two days off and then had a travel day, so it was three days that we didn't practice there, so I thought it was important that we came back here the first practice down here, and we put shoulder pads on, and we got after it pretty good, and then we ran through our normal schedule, normal Thursday.

You also have to keep the routine together. You can't just go off and change things. Coaches and players are all creatures of habit, so you have to maintain a balance between getting the work done, but also keeping the same type of schedule for them.

Q. And you opened the can of worms yourself. What can you tell me about the socks that you had to make the decisions on?

J.C. PRICE: Black. Hard, tough. That was one of the easy ones.

Q. I just have a question in regards to Blumrick. I know the team utilizes more of a running game between Blackshear and Burmeister. With Burmeister on the trade portal, how will Blumrick fulfill Burmeister's place to keep Maryland's defense on their toes?

J.C. PRICE: I don't think the offense changed much. We've rotated Connor and Braxton throughout the year, and with Connor taking the majority of the snaps here there in the bowl prep, I don't think the offense is going to look any different than it would if Braxton was there. When we had both of those guys, Blumrick was more of the running quarterback, but he can make the throws. The offense will probably be surprised how many times he throws it tomorrow.

Q. Also, I know with Maryland's passing game with Taulia Tagovailoa, how is the team's defense able to be prepared for that?

J.C. PRICE: I don't know if you can. He is really good. The best thing he does is he extends plays. When he extends them, you have quarterbacks that look to run. He does a great job. The first guy hardly ever gets him down, so we have to do a great job with our rush sling integrity, and then he does a great job of running around, but still looking to throw. So he puts a ton of pressure on your defensive backs to cover. Most of the time if you are covering more than five, six seconds, the advantage goes to the offense, and that's what he has enabled them to do all year, and that's why their passing numbers are so good.

Q. You mentioned when we were in Blacksburg about doing something to honor the Yankees. Did that ever come together? What was that going to be, or did you have any details on that?

J.C. PRICE: There should be something coming out later on today.

Q. You spearheaded this effort?

J.C. PRICE: Me, Danny White, Eric. All of us kind of collaborated together, and I think it's going to be a pretty cool deal. Can't wait to unveil it, show you guys what we did.

PETE MORRIS: Stay tuned on that, folks. We'll have something later this afternoon.

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: Thanks, everyone, for joining us. One, I would like to start off by thanking the New Era Pinstripe Bowl people. It's been a privilege to be a part of this experience this week. Thanks to all that have been involved putting this thing together. I've been to a lot of bowl games in my career, and I can tell you, this one has been put together first class. The players have really enjoyed themselves here, the experiences that New York City has to offer, and we're really looking forward to finally hitting the field tomorrow to take on Virginia Tech. With that, I'll open it up to questions.

Q. It's been over a month since your Terps last played a game. As a head coach this year and as an assistant in the past, what do you feel is the biggest challenge with the gap this long?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: Usually it's tackling, but what we've tried to do is stay pretty consistent within our practices to continue to thud. Even up until yesterday we were in shells, which are shoulder pads and helmets, to allow us to continue to do a great job fundamentally of tackling. The goal is to try to not be sloppy with the football, turnovers, but I think our biggest challenge is with Virginia Tech and all the different moving pieces there is to figuring out kind of what to expect. It's like the first game of a year for us where we've got to be prepared to adjust.

Q. And in the last couple of weeks of practice, what do you feel has really come together on each side of the ball? What has really stood out for you as far as the team being able to progress to where you want them to be?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: I think the big thing is this time of year for us, as I've talked about, it's about developing your team fundamentally. So many times during the season you get in the schemes where maybe you don't invest enough time into blocking, tackling, running, catching, and throwing. As I've said before, we use this time to go back to the basics. We actually reinstalled I think three of our installs of our systems on offense, defense, and special teams. We see this as the start of our '22 season, not the finish of our '21, and so we try to really do a great job of developing some of the younger players in our program that haven't had a chance to play that will get opportunities to play tomorrow.

Q. Just wanted to get your thoughts on any of the young guys that have impressed you. I know that was a big factor with you with the extra practices, but is there anyone in particular that has stood out over the last few weeks?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: I know you guys love that question. I think as a whole, all of our younger players have done a really good job of embracing the opportunities that they've been given to develop themselves. We went into bowl preparation with the mindset of we challenged our coaches to come up with what we call prescriptions for each player, and I can tell you each player really did a great job of trying to work deliberately at improving in the three areas. We gave them three areas that we wanted to see improvement during this phase of our program, and each and every one of the young players, and including the veterans, have done a good job buying into that. If I had to call some names of guys that I think have benefited from these practices, the two young running backs, Roman Hemby and Antwain Littleton have both really done a great job, and I expect those guys to contribute tomorrow in some form or fashion. I've seen Weston Wolff take some big steps at the tight end position. Guys like Andre Porter, Tommy Akingbesote on the D-line and Corey Coley, actually, did a really good job as well. Quite a few young guys have taken that next step that you want to see younger players take, and they've used this time wisely.

Q. What was the experience at Fordham like? Did it add some spark to have a practice someplace else other than College Park?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: Obviously, the history there at Fordham and being there and some of the great coaches that have spent time there. They got a little thing in the locker room with Vince Lombardi, who is one of the forefathers pretty much of the game. It's been a great experience for our players to be on campus there. As I said before, the Pinstripe people did a great job of having things organized, the facilities. I mean, we really didn't miss a beat with how we practiced and the way we evaluate practice. We were able to get the film watched and continue to develop while we were here, so as I said, it's been done first class here.

Q. Tell me about your running game. I know last year you had a great running game. You had that guy that got drafted by the Rams. Is that one thing you guys are working on this week to get that running game established? I know last year that took a lot of pressure off your quarterback.

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: We're always trying to create balance, Chris. I thought the last game we played against Rutgers was as close to the type of balance that we like to see in run and pass. We do have some young talented running backs. Our offensive line did a really good job in our last game of protecting the quarterback, but also allowing us to run the ball, and I do think we have to run the ball to have success. I think going into this game it's important that we kind of establish ourselves at the line of scrimmage, and it always starts with running and stopping the run. Those are the two things going into it that we feel like we need to get accomplished.

Q. If I could ask a follow-up. I know you are going into the stadium tomorrow. Center field, right field is kind of a launching pad during baseball season. What do you have to do with the field goal kicking, and I know it gets a little windy in center field here at Monument Park. What do you have to do to get ready for that?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: We practiced outdoors. We understand the elements of it. Our kickers will get out there early in pregame and get a better feel for the differences there. We got to go through it a little bit today in our walk-through we did there. I think we'll be fine. We've just got to continue to keep our concentration level on what's important, which to me is just the timing of it and going through his routine and not letting external things kind of get in the way.

Q. In terms of tomorrow, I know Virginia Tech is going to probably rely more on Blackshear to run the ball more, which leads to less time of possession for your offense. How is your team's offense prepared to make up for enough time and to keep up with the momentum for scoring?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: Again, it's not really about what other people do to us. It's about what we do. Time of possession is a factor in the game, but for us our goal is to use any opportunities we have to get the ball, sustain drives, and hopefully have every drive end with a kick, whether it's a punt, a field goal, or extra point. Again, the way they approach the game, obviously, is what they feel they need to do to win. For us on our end, the goal is to execute, and we've got a winning formula that consists of limiting big plays and trying to create turnovers on defense.

Then on offense for us we've shown that we can be an explosive offense, so make explosive plays, and then do a better job of taking care of the football than we have maybe this season. To me those are the two more important factors for us that we've got to handle.

Q. I know you've put a huge emphasis on your defense. What surprises do you see on your defense during this game tomorrow?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: What surprises do I see for our --

Q. Yes, for tomorrow.

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: I don't expect us to have any surprises with what we do. Obviously, as I've said before, I think J.C. has the ability -- he is playing with house money. They've got not much to lose, and I know for a fact they'll play hard for him as an interim head coach. Any time you play in a bowl game and especially with so many unknowns, we're treating this like a first game of the season for us because of not necessarily knowing personnel maybe as well because there isn't a lot of film on some of the guys that may be playing. We've just got to be ready to adjust.

Like I said, I know J.C., Coach Price, will have his team ready to play. They probably will leave caution to the wind, and I expect gadgets and plays that you maybe haven't prepared for that we've got to be prepared to adjust and get it coached up on the sideline and go out and execute our stuff.