NEW ERA PINSTRIPE BOWL: VIRGINIA TECH VS MARYLAND

December 29, 2021

J.C. Price

Yankee Stadium

Virginia Tech Hokies

Press Conference

Maryland 54, Virginia Tech 10

J.C. PRICE: Obviously, disappointed in the outcome. Not disappointed in these players. Love them. Proud of them. They got more things thrown at them in one year's time, year and a half, than any other team in history, and they continue to fight. One game does not define who those guys are in that locker room. I think it's a situation where it's like plowing a snow hill. You are plowing snow up hill. Eventually everything just caught up to us, and we didn't have enough tonight. They were a better team. They out-coached us. They outplayed us. I give my hats off to Maryland and their staff. They prepared their guys. They were ready to go. They played a hell of a game. With that, questions.

Q. J.C., in terms of the offense, the late scratches with Kaleb Smith and Da'Wain, how limited were you in the playbook and the passing game in terms of the guys you had available personnel-wise?

J.C. PRICE: Obviously, we had guys playing positions that they were not accustomed to. I'm sure that affected the play-calling some.

Q. Then, obviously, they took away the inside runs. Do you think you needed to vary it up a little more earlier? Maryland looked content on trying to just stop you guys up the middle.

J.C. PRICE: There wasn't many holes. You saw the game. They executed better than we did in all three phases.

Q. You spoke before the game about it being hard to cover guys for five or six seconds. How tough was it to get a pass rush in this game, and how big of a deal was that in allowing Tagovailoa to throw on you guys?

J.C. PRICE: I think it had a huge part in it. The quarterback, we knew he was good coming into the game. We knew what was going to happen, and he did it. He scrambled around, extended plays, found receivers. They made plays all night, and it seemed like we were a step behind all night. Didn't really have a major momentum swing play go our way. 50/50s went their way. Just wasn't our night.

Q. J.C., you said before the game that depth might be an issue with special teams, and did you just have guys covering that first punt who were unaccustomed to doing that?

J.C. PRICE: I don't know if it was unaccustomed to doing that as it was just hadn't done a lot of it. It was a fundamental breakdown. We had guys that were free, and we knew their punt returner is a good player. He is going to do everything he can to return them. He doesn't fair catch very often. He is very aggressive back there. That first punt return we had guys that were free. They disengaged. They got down the field, and we failed to break down and just ran past the ball. In football any time -- special teams, D-line, whatever the situation is on defense, if you are behind the ball, it's not a good thing, and he looked up and had too many guys behind the ball.

Q. I saw you as the guys were coming off the field. You were hugging each and every one of them and talking to them. You talked multiple times about how difficult of a year this has been for this entire group. Regardless of the result, how proud are you of these guys, the group that played today, of their commitment to the program, to the university, and the way after they've battled through everything that they still went out and gave it their all today regardless of the result?

J.C. PRICE: I'm proud to be their coach. I'm proud of those guys. Maryland was a better team today, obviously. They were a better coached. They played better. That doesn't stop a person from caring about somebody because you lost a football game, and I care about those guys. They care about this program, and the guys that are moving on should always feel welcome to come back here any time they want, and the guys that are coming back, obviously, we need to go to work and be better than we were today.

Q. I know during this game there was a lot of times where you got stopped on the run. Did you feel like the offense was a little bit one-dimensional at times?

J.C. PRICE: Our plan was to come in and run the ball, and we ran effectively in the first half. We snapped the ball twice as many times as they did in the first half, and that was our recipe, and it just got to the point where we fell too far behind.

Q. Also, what are you looking forward to to help bring optimism for your program for next season?

J.C. PRICE: We've got a lot of good kids coming back. There's a couple of guys who have another year that may be on the fence, and I'm going to go to work recruiting them and try to get them to return to school. The guys who are leaving, that's what's best for them, and good luck to them in the NFL, but the nucleus is here.

You don't understand all the things these kids went through. I think eventually it just caught up to us. It caught up to us tonight, and I was hoping it wouldn't, but eventually when you go through so many adverse things, yeah, it's been difficult.

Q. The third quarter, it seemed as though after you guys had gone toe to toe with them sustaining those drives offensively and holding them a little bit in check defensively, that third quarter they seemed to have the answers. What did you see down there on the field? What do you feel was the difference in that third quarter where they were able to put enough of a cushion between them and you guys?

J.C. PRICE: I thought the big third down. The first third down of the half was big. They got open on a corner route. Once again, the kid made a contested catch. It was not an easy catch. It wasn't a layup, and they seemed to make those plays all night, and we just did not seem to be able to make a big play to shift the momentum other than Payoute's first catch. We had trouble making plays against them tonight, and you have to tip your hat to Maryland for that.

Q. If I could, just two quick ones. Noah Sage finished the game at defensive line. Was he a guy that even worked there before that for you guys, a walk-on?

J.C. PRICE: He had been moved to D-tackle for scout team purposes earlier in the year, so he had been working with us, yes.

Q. Did you leave that decision up to Brad when to bring him in, or did you have kind of a say? Did you discuss that at all going in, or what was the plan?

J.C. PRICE: Me and Corn had conversations about how we wanted to work Tahj into the game. The number one thing was we wanted to win the game. We didn't want to put him in a bad situation, so we decided to rotate him like we did. I was on board with what happened.

Q. Just as a follow-up to Mike's question on Tahj there, what did you think of his showing in the fourth quarter there and how he handled himself in the game?

J.C. PRICE: He looked like he was a functional college quarterback, what we thought. I think that kid has a bright future. There are things he needs to work on, obviously, but he has a high care factor. The thing about the young guys is they're young guys, so when you are a young guy, you're just not physically mature as some of these guys they were going against tonight, but the future is very bright for most of those young guys that play. The D.J. Harveys, the Cole Nelsons, Stretch Carroll, Tahj. All those young guys are going to have bright futures, but they are just not ready at this point, but they are all going to be good players. There are going to be guys that you are going to be proud of here in the near future, and they're also good kids, and they have a high care factor. They work hard. They're never on any lists. Those are going to be the guys that we're going to look up a year or two from now, and they're going to be leading our football team, and you guys are going to be proud of that.