INSIGHT BOWL: VIRGINIA TECH v CALIFORNIA

December 26, 2003

Frank Beamer

Kevin Jones

Bryan Randall

BRYAN RANDALL: Yeah, a little bit, I did. Definitely towards the end of the third quarter it started turning into a high-scoring game and kind of like it was going back and forth. Sore second they scored two times and we don't score at all and the points got up there, I figured whoever got the last possession since both offenses were moving the ball well.

BRYAN RANDALL: It's always tough when little things come up to bite you, you know, at the end. But sometimes it's going to be ballgames like that. A lot of times it's going to be ballgames like that and sometimes you come out on top and sometimes you don't.

BRYAN RANDALL: I knew we had the momentum then. It's a matter of getting that and hopefully they miss that field goal. But, you know they did. You have to tip your hats to them. They played well and they do quite enough to win.

KEVIN JONES: It was pretty emotional. Just went out there and gave it my all to win. Cal made a lot of big plays for the most part. I think our defense played solid. Certainly Cal got touchdowns and it's just unfortunate that we tried hard and didn't give up. I love all of my teammates. We just don't come out with the win.

KEVIN JONES: You could say, again we scored every time we got the ball then we would have won, but we didn't. So we can't pin it on the defense or offense. The team lost. It's a letdown but they have better things to look to next year. We have a fresh new start in ACC and hopefully we can start off right there.

KEVIN JONES: It was difficult, period, because we lost. I was out there having fun and just trying to make plays and get us a ahead so we could win the game. Like I said, it didn't happen that way.

BRYAN RANDALL: A little bit, it did. It's a shootout. A lot of points were put up on the board by both offenses and I guess only thing that didn't happen was it didn't go into overtime. It did cross my mind when I saw those points on the board; that if they miss that field goal, we were going into overtime.

BRYAN RANDALL: We were prepared for this ballgame. It's the last one of the season and it's a long time before you play again. I wanted to come out and give it my best shot, come out give myself the opportunity to play the best that I can. I know coach had a great game plan for the quarterbacks and just a matter of going out there and putting it to work.

COACH BEAMER: I feel for Carter Ward. A good kicker that just had an awful night. I think it was something that possible California did very average, it would be return kickoffs. And we had, I think, three kickoffs out of bounds, which is just awful, awful. But I'm proud of our football team. I thought we battled. We had some great performances, these two guys right here, Denzel (ph) did a heck of a job on that punt return, just to get it going. I thought we didn't get the guy blocked well enough to get him started. Well, he started himself and, you know, it's just a shame because -- and then we come right back and we almost have a great kickoff, it's going to be right in the corner of the end zone and goes out of bounds, one hop. And how far is that from going in the end zone, could y'all tell? And then all of a sudden it's back at the 35-yard line. Defensively, I think there's two things. I think we're looking for playmakers and we're going to study a little bit -- coach and I talked about it -- studying things a little bit. But I think in the end it just gives them -- you have to to be able to make plays. I give the quarterback a lot of credit. That kid is accurate. He is a heck of a quarterback. It's hard to get to him. A couple of the their best receivers are out and they are still -- I mean, I think this Cal team is a team in the Pac 10 that better you watch out for. I mean, I was very impressed with how efficient they were in offense and so, know, you've got to give them credit for that.

COACH BEAMER: Well, I think we just kicked the ball poorly. I don't know if you put that on the special teams because we had a punt return. But, you know, to kick a ball as poorly as we did, that's disappointing. I feel for those guys.

COACH BEAMER: I was hoping our defense could come back out and have a good performance. I think we played hard. We just got beat a couple times one-on-one, they beat us. Still gets down to you have to perform and you have to have playmakers. You know, we just didn't make enough plays. We had a few guys on defense, went out in the back of that room; Hall, he made some plays, but we didn't have enough of those. They had a hard time stopping us and we certainly had a hard time stopping us. Still hate to get it tied up and kick a ball out of bounds and get a ball at the 35. You know, you just -- the kicking in the game needs to be better than that.