September 16, 2002
Selected quotes from Head Coach R.C. Slocum at Monday's weekly football media luncheon at Cain Hall:
What is the quarterback situation?
"We're fortunate to have several guys who have played. They all have some different things they bring to the table. We've got another week of preparation to get ready for the game, so we'll work all week to see how things develop."
Is there an advantage to not announcing a starter?
"I think you have to cover all the bases. You watch the tapes and the guys we have do different things. Some guys have different strengths. I think it creates a little bit of uncertainty from a defensive standpoint. There are a number of different things you can do offensively depending on which direction you went with the quarterback. It's really not to our advantage to spell out what we're going to do. So we'll leave it like that and let them plan for all our players and we'll plan for all of their players."
What are your impressions of Virginia Tech?
"I watched games all day Saturday and I've already seen a lot of tape of a lot of games and I don't think I've seen a more impressive team than Virginia Tech. They are outstanding on special teams, which they always are. Defensively they just smother you. Some of the coaches said they are better this year than they have been. Then when you look at their offense, they've got two excellent tailbacks. Both of those guys are big time backs. They're fast and they're big and physical. They line up with a big strong line and come right at you. What they did (against Marshall) is hard to do. To lineup and go down the field without throwing a pass is hard to do. They'd be fun to watch if you weren't playing them. I've studied their defense and they come after you. They let it all hang out."
Does their defense remind you of your defense?
"I've got great regard for Frank Beamer. He's a good friend of mine. We've been friends a long time. I admire their philosophy. They're going to make things happen. They have them all crowded up on the line and they're reckless. This is what you like -- you have the No. 7-ranked team in the nation coming in here and we're going to have everybody we can get in the stadium. That's what it's all about. If you're a fan, you ought to be excited. If you're a coach, you ought to be excited and if you're a player you ought to be excited. These kind of games are fun to be in. This is what you really coach for. If we had no chance to win this game and we weren't any good, there wouldn't be anybody here. It'd be no big deal, probably wouldn't be on television. But it's going to be a big deal because we have a chance to win the ballgame. It should be a great contest and either one of the two teams, whoever makes fewer mistakes, will win the ballgame."
Virginia Tech's special teams force a lot of mistakes...
"They do. They're great at it, but we take some pride in our special teams too. We've blocked some punts and we've done some things on special teams ourselves. That's a challenge. It will be a challenge to win this ballgame and every phase of our team must play well. We have to play well on special teams to match them. Our offense has to rise up and play well for us to have a chance to win. And our defense has to play well. We can't just say we're going to play defense and play special teams, because they're going to play defense and play special teams too. It's going to be a contest to see which offense playing against a good defense can be effective."
Do you feel like your running game improved against Pittsburgh?
"I saw some improvement. I don't know how strong I'd want to make it in terms of how much improvement, but we definitely improved. We blocked better and we had some runs that looked more like runs should look in terms of bodies going that way and pushing the pile. In major college football, you don't get many clean runs. You don't get many runs where the guy runs through a big gaping hole and runs untouched. To be consistent, you have to have a whole bunch of runs where it doesn't look like there's much there but the pile goes that way for about five yards. You've got to have backs that will hit it up in there and fight for those yards and I thought we did more of that in that ballgame. By dropping some balls, we allowed them to use more eight-man fronts than they could have done. We had some chances to take advantage of that but we didn't do it."
Do you get Billy Yates (out with a broken arm since fall camp) back this week?
"I'm very optimistic that we will get Yates back this week. The doctors haven't given him the go-ahead and he hasn't been in any full contact work, but he has been practicing. That would be helpful. (Would you move Andre Brooks back to tackle?) "We'll have to see. Brooks has been nicked up too. He's been banged up, so we'll have to see how Brooks does through this week to see what we'll do."