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FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: VIRGINIA TECH v CINCINNATI

December 29, 2008

Jeff Quinn

MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA

JASON ALPERT: Coach, you've had a few days to be here in town and get acclimated to south Florida. Talk about your preparations for the FedEx Orange Bowl.
JEFF QUINN: First of all, this is a tremendous experience for our entire program. We want to thank the Orange Bowl and obviously congratulations to Virginia Tech and the Bearcats, you know, the opportunity to represent the Big East.
One of the things that you always look for is some past experiences to draw from, and having an opportunity to be in two previous Bowl games prior to this one, there's nothing better. We really appreciate the accommodations and all the things that are going on at the Orange Bowl this year.

Q. When you think of a few years back when you took over the team for that Bowl game, what were those 34 days like, and how much of an effect has that had on the team's success the past two years?
JEFF QUINN: Well, we have a little bit of an interesting story because we were at Central Michigan in the year 2006 and won the mid-America Conference Championship and had an opportunity to go to the Motor City Bowl and Brian had an opportunity to get the job at Cincinnati.
I stayed back with a couple of the coaching staff members to coach the Central Michigan team, so my first Bowl game was as interim head coach. I was on the job four days and thrust into a situation that -- there's nothing better than to have hands-on experience, and going through that process really kind of opened your eyes and gave me, myself and the rest of the coaches an opportunity to really see how the Bowl system works and the preparation and the requirements that it took.
There's a lot of detail work that goes on in terms of getting your kids ready and getting them accustomed to the Bowl schedule because there are a lot of things that are going on during those weeks. Not only did I have the Motor City Bowl, but ten days later we went to Toronto and had a chance at it twice, so all the mistakes that we made at the Motor City Bowl we were able to clean up at the International Bowl and then last year at the Papa John's.
To be able to play in the fourth Bowl game in three seasons, it's been a tremendous experience for me and our coaching staff and our entire program. But when you have a great organization like the Orange Bowl committee and all the people involved, it makes the transition a lot easier on our kids, and so they can completely focus on the task at hand and get prepared and ready to play this football game.

Q. Could you just give a Cliff's Notes version of the quarterback situation this year? I know there's been people in and out of there, and just Pike, a guy who wasn't really on the depth chart at the beginning of the year, how did that rapid rise happen, and can you just discuss him a little bit and what he brings to the table?
JEFF QUINN: Absolutely. You know, it's been a very interesting year when it comes to the quarterback position for us. As I always said, you never underestimate the spirit of a human being. A lot of times you look at profile, height, weight and things of that nature. But you can never really see what's in a kid's chest, in his heart and what's between his ears and his smarts.
Tony has been kind of playing as kind of a backup role guy and not really being a front-runner at the quarterback starting position. We had Dustin come in in the beginning of the season, and then in the Oklahoma game he went down with a leg injury, and then Tony went in, and then we worked through that, and in Akron he broke his arm. Not only did we have our top two guys, but you knew Tony, all that work and preparation and time that it took him to get ready, even though he wasn't that front-runner, you knew that when he had his chance he was going to be able to deliver.
And I think we've all seen that in a lot of cases, and it happened at Central Michigan. We started with Brian Brunner, and he went down in the second play against Boston College in our first game, and a red-shirt freshman went in, Dan LeFevour, which a lot of people may know, and he turns out to be a great quarterback. You spend time not only with your starters but your key backups.
And then we went through a couple other guys with Chaz and Zach Collaros and Demetrius Jones, so it's been five quarterbacks that have played for us this year.
It's a tribute to the players, it's a tribute to the system, trying to make sure that it's still very much user-friendly, so if you do have a next man in come in that those kids can come in and deliver and perform at a high level without any hesitations from that standpoint.
But Tony, the thing I love about Tony is he really took charge. Once he was called upon, he really stepped in and stepped up and did some of the things that you would expect a starting quarterback to do, and plus he's a very talented quarterback from a skill level.

Q. What is the most interesting part about working with Brian Kelly?
JEFF QUINN: Going to the Orange Bowl -- no (laughter).
The thing that -- our story is Brian and I started coaching as assistant coaches together at Grand Valley State, a Division II school up in Michigan, and we were both assistant coaches at that time. And then when our football coach at that time, Tom Beck, went down to Notre Dame, Brian was promoted as the head football coach, so Brian and I have been coaching together 20 years. We always kind of joke we've outlasted most marriages from that standpoint. But the great thing is the consistency.
Brian is a tremendous football coach from the standpoint that his day-to-day message is very clear and very precise, and I think that allows our kids to know what's expected on a day-to-day basis, whether it's practice, performance in games, game planning, things of that nature.
But Brian allows you to coach. He doesn't micromanage. He allows his coaches to coach, and that's been one of the things that I can appreciate in this business is I don't have somebody looking over me all the time in our coaches. He allows us to do our work and do our job. And I think that's allowed us to gel better as a staff.
And then the consistency and continuity of the staff, you know, us all being together, when you have a lot of transition in coaching, you look at most of their records, they struggle a little bit, and I think that's been one of our strengths with Brian is he's been able to keep coaches on staff. He gives them a task, gives them a job to do, and he allows them to do it.

Q. How has having three and a half weeks to get ready for this game maybe sort of neutralized a bit of maybe the awe factor with your kids who aren't necessarily used to being on this stage? Obviously it's a huge game, it's a big game, national spotlight, all that stuff. But does having that extra time sort of make it seem to the guys perhaps more like a regular game? Does the shock of them being in a BCS game for the first time kind of wear off over this month?
JEFF QUINN: You know, like any competitor, you look at all games from the standpoint you have a week's worth of preparation. The extra time, even though we went to Hawaii, allowed us to play that extra game, so I think that gave us a distinct advantage.
You know, it gives your kids a chance to really hone down and sharpen their minds so there's clarity and confidence in the game plan, so you're repeating things over and over again. So I think it's a distinct advantage for teams to have a little bit more time to get ready for this game.
And we try not to hype up a game more than another game. It's an important game, absolutely. They're all important. This one, as we tell our kids, look, this is our National Championship game, and this is what we want, and we want to finish this season off on a high note, and we want our kids to play as they've done all year, play four quarters of football, play with everything they have, be smart, make plays, and do the little things.
And I think in those three weeks you can really hammer home on a consistent basis the things you expect out of them, but you hope that the maturity of your team, the passion for the game will carry itself and build that, that heightened anticipation, so when the night comes, our kids are crystal clear in their thinking and ready to perform at the highest level.

Q. Just wondering, how much do you feel you have to establish a running game on Thursday night in order to make everything work? A lot of emphasis has been on passing, but how much do you feel that the running game is going to be essential?
JEFF QUINN: You know, it's always about the efficiency of whether it's the running game, the passing game, screen game, and there's always going to be things underlying that you have to do well in order for you to put points on the board. You know, every single run play we have to establish a consistent, efficient run game, whether it's four yards or whether it's a big play in 15, 20. We feel very confident in our running backs and offensive line to move the ball on the ground, and certainly we tend to air the ball a little bit, and that's who we are, and that's good.
We're going to go into this game as we have every game, and that is to be very, very efficient in the play calling, as Brian has done all year long. I feel really good about what we do from a running standpoint. To say, hey, we're going to put -- we've got to run the ball 40 times to win this football game, the key is we have to put points on the board and we have to eliminate the mistakes, those turnovers. This is a defense that does a very, very good job of creating turnovers.
With that being said, as well as I, you can't give them more opportunities than we have, and we've got to be very efficient from that standpoint.
I feel very good about a run game. I feel very good about our game plan, and I think overall our kids are ready to perform.
JASON ALPERT: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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