Tuesday News Conference Quotes
11/4/2008 7:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 4, 2008
Head Coach Ralph Friedgen
On the Virginia Tech Hokies:
"We're busily preparing for a tough football game against Virginia Tech, a very good football team. We're at their place, and we know what a tough place that is to play. Virginia Tech is very good on defense. They really run around, and they have great team speed."
On Virginia Tech's top defensive players:
"Some of the guys that really standout to me are their boundary corner, Victor Harris, who is one of the better defensive backs in the conference, and Brett Warren, a middle linebacker who is also very good. Defensive ends Jason Worilds and Orion Martin are both very good pass rushers and play very well."
On the Hokies offense:
"On offense, they have a very seasoned offensive line. They have 109 career starts between them, so they have been playing for a while. Their quarterback situation is up in the air, so we are prepared to play against anyone of them that plays. I am expecting both (quarterbacks Tyrod) Taylor and (Sean) Glennon to be back, but I thought (third-string quarterback Cory) Holt played very well against Florida State. I see they are moving (Jahre) Cheeseman from fullback to running back, and I thought he did a very good job running against Georgia Tech."
On the Virginia Tech special teams unit:
"Special teams are very good for them. (Victor) Harris is among the conference leaders in punt returns, and he also will return kickoffs. (Brent) Bowden is their punter. He is a junior who has punted very well. He's a directional punter, and he can put the ball where he wants to. Their field goal kicker, Dustin Keys, is 16 out of 19 this season, so he is solid."
On playing at Virginia Tech:
"We have our work cut out for us. Our kids have been working very hard. They are very excited, so I hope we just go out there and just play well."
On the atmosphere of Lane Stadium:
"It is very loud, there's a lot of team spirit, it's the only show in town, and I think they've won 14 out of 17 games played on a Thursday night. There are a lot of tough places to play in the ACC and this is one of them. We have to do a good job of being able to communicate and keep our poise. Things happen very fast, so it is a game where we can't turn the ball over and we have to be very sound in our kicking game. We can't have something happen that will get them going. I think field position will be a very big part of this football game. We have to take care of the football and we can't make a lot of mental mistakes. We have to deal with the crowd noise and the atmosphere. We have been working very hard to try to get that done, we'll see how we do when we get down to Virginia Tech."
On the momentum before a bye week:
"We treated this break a little different from the last one. We still had days off Monday and Tuesday, came in Wednesday and Thursday and worked pretty good. We still worked a lot on fundamentals but we also had some work on Virginia Tech. Last time, I just focused on getting better. We will find out. The rest probably helped both Virginia Tech and us because we had some of our guys extra time to get well. No one knows how the rest is going to affect how we do in the future. We have four tough games remaining, this being one of them, so we'll just have to see."
On assessing the team's motivation:
"I spend a lot of time thinking of ways to motivate our players to go to class, do well in school, be good people, and to play the best football. I think our practices have been okay, so it's always a wait and see kind of thing. However, I feel good about our football team, and I'm hoping we go out and play the way we are capable of playing."
On using the ACC Championship as a means of motivation:
"I have not taken that lead in talking about any of that. I have talked about us playing well and if we do that, hopefully it will give us the best chance to be successful. All that other stuff will take of itself. We need to just focus on us and doing what we have to do to play our best this week. We'll do the same thing next week."
On challenges in preparing to play against Virginia Tech's special teams:
"(Virginia Tech head coach) Frank (Beamer) does a good job of that. he is pretty much involved. I am more involved in it this year, myself. We obviously want to be very sound, but I think we have been pretty good over the years. The question is how to do it in that environment. We have had crowd noise on our punt protection this week because in the past, we have had failure to communicate. Here are a lot of different ways that that can affect you, and we are trying to cover everything we possibly can. I've actually had three extra walk-throughs for our extra teams, which I don't usually do, to make sure that we cover every situation possible so that we are prepared Thursday night.
On quarterback Chris Turner's consistency in practice this season:
"I don't think he's had a practice where the entire practice has been bad. A player is never going to be successful on every play, but to me Chris has never had a real bad one since the first game. That to me is something I think he's focused on, and has made him a better player. He's resilient, which is a good thing because I've been around a lot of other players where when they have a bad day, they really have a bad day. As a quarterback, Chris can't afford to do that because of the impact he has on the rest of the offense and the team. Hopefully, he'll continue to do this and if he does, I think he'll be special."
On expansion's contribution to the ACC:
"I think all three expansion teams have brought a lot to the ACC. It's another tough team you have to play. I played Virginia Tech and Miami, but haven't played Duke since the expansion. I think Boston College, Miami, and Virginia Tech have given a lot to our conference not only from a geographic layout but also as a competitive and media standout too. I think we had to expand, we get criticized now but I think we have the most parity in the country now bar nun. If we were in the NFL, the owners would love the parity we have because that's what they would want to achieve. In the ACC, anyone can win on any given day."
On playing Thursday night on national television:
"What I like most is winning. When you win, there's not only tremendous exposure for your football program but there's exposure for your school. When you are able to do that, especially at home, there are so many things that become exposed to the entire nation. It used to be that Thursday nights were the only game in town, but now we are playing on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Mondays. So I don't know if that takes away from the impact that it once had. I think it is also recognition of people finding you worthy of playing on a Thursday night. It's obviously either a good game or a good matchup, and that's why they do it. They don't do it because they don't expect a good game."
On Virginia Tech being a rival:
"I think it has to be a rivalry game, just as in anytime you play in a border state like Virginia or West Virginia. I also think Frank and my relationship also adds to it, but that was inevitable when they put Virginia Tech in the league. I think it's good. I've said in the past that I would like to have in-state rivals because I think that is something we miss. That is why I was in favor of playing Navy, but since we don't have that on a yearly basis. The next best thing is to have rivalries with Virginia, West Virginia, and Virginia Tech."
On Florida State's loss over the weekend:
"No matter how you cut it up, we control our own destiny. When everybody is playing everybody else these last four games, there are a lot of things that can happen. One of things I was telling my players on Sunday was you never know when that play is going to come up that determines who the champion is. Sometimes I think people don't realize that. When you practice, you are practicing to get better."
