Meet the Press: Virginia Tech Game
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Head coach Al Golden and selected student-athletes met with the media on Monday to discuss the Hurricanes’ Thursday night game against Virginia Tech.
Al Golden Pre-Game Press Conference
Oct. 29, 2012 (Virginia Tech)
Opening Statement…
“We have a great opportunity against Virginia Tech on Thursday night, and Iknow one that our team is excited about. We’re playing a team that has been thebenchmark on the (ACC) Coastal side, if not the conference, six of the lasteight years. Well-coached, disciplined team. Tough team led by one of thepremier players in the league in Logan Thomas. Very rugged offensive line.They’re using three running backs right now. Very explosive wide receivercorps. On defense, playing a little more man-to-man than we’ve seen from a BudFoster defense in the past. Aggressive in their press coverage. Excellent intheir eight-man front. Since 2000, I think they’ve been among the nation’s bestin terms of interceptions and TFLs – this team is no different. Obviouslythey’ve won the last three against us. It’s going to be a great challenge forus. I don’t think I need to talk about how well they’re playing on specialteams right now. Excellent team coming in, our guys had a chance to get restedup, I think we’re focused right now. We’re back in game week mode.”
On any benefits of playingsimilar running quarterbacks in Collin Klein and EJ Manuel…
“I hope it does. At the same time, the big thing with Logan – if I’m overthere, I’m saying he’s had 10 days before this game, and going to have ninedays on the back end – I would probably run Logan a little more than he’srunning or than he has run. He’s tough when he gets going, like (Florida StateQB EJ) Manuel and (Kansas State QB Collin) Klein. I think Logan does a greatjob with the read option, he does a great job with the power read, and he canmake all the throws. This is an excellent quarterback, and one that is going tobe a great challenge. We can’t let him get going.”
On how weather affects Hokies’ practice…
“They have an indoor facility. I don’t think it’s going to be interrupted. Asconsistent as that group is as a staff and as an organization, I don’t seeanything interrupting the continuity of what they’re doing to get ready forus.”
On how to improve on third-down offense…
“It’s an interesting thing – you go 4 out of 12 and you’re not having agood day, but if you go 6 out of 12, you’re among the best in the country. Youhave to make a couple more plays – sometimes that’s a little more time, alittle better protection. Someone has to shake free and make a play – and also,you can’t drop one. If you have an opportunity, you can’t drop one, or if youhave an open receiver, you can’t not connect. We’ve worked it. We don’t knowwhat we’re going to see from Tech. We are seeing more man-to-man, so obviouslythat means they have confidence in their coverage people. If you’re playing”man”, you get more pressure on the quarterback, and that’s how they’retrying to make things happen. We need to beat man-to-man and obviously protect,because they are pressuring in those situations.”
On throwing the ball deep against man-to-man coverage…
“If you’re going to take your shots,you have to hit them. And if you’re going to take your shots againstman-to-man, you need to protect. It’s no secret we’ve been a team that hastried to take shots in every game we’ve played in. We have not been assuccessful in the last couple weeks as we need to be, and we certainly we needto be very successful in doing so Thursday night against this team.”
On Olsen Pierre’s emergence at defensive tackle…
“He is starting to make a lot of progress.He’s playing with a little more energy, a little more confidence in his handplacement, in his transition to pass rush. We’ve just seen a little bitdifferent [with him]. We’ve got a long way to go there with Olsen, but he’sbeen better. I think that bye week helped him, those two practices last weekhelped him. So far he’s carrying it over. We really need him to step up andtake it to the next level for us.”
On who else has been rotating on the defensive line…
“Corey King looks like he’s getting off blocks a little better, movinghis feet. He showed up against good competition, he just has to keep going.We’re going to continue to work Earl Moore in there, Luther [Robinson], CurtisPorter is working with us now. Those are the guys – we’ve been working aboutsix or seven guys in there.”
On the implication of thenext four games on the season’s outcome…
“We’re not talking about the next fourgames. For us, we’re just trying to concentrate on this game. This team we’replaying has done what we’re trying to do. They’ve been to the championshipgame, they’ve won the division, they’ve won the ACC Championship. That’s ouronly focus right now, on the Virginia Tech Hokies and what we have to do toplay well. The bye week was long overdue for us – we got some guys healthy, gotsome guys some reps and some experience we desperately needed last week. Andnow we need to turn our attention to Virginia Tech.”
On the importance of the running game…
“Clearly at Notre Dame it started to get away from us, and we had toabandon it. I think our running game was excellent vs. North Carolina. And thenagainst Florida State, who is excellent at stopping the run; I thought westarted off good, got derailed a little bit, and then we weren’t convertingenough on third down. Late in the game we were throwing it. I think we have tohave patience in our run game. Where we’ve played our best this year is whenwe’ve been balanced. We need all three of those running backs to come throughfor us. Dallas Crawford has had a good week. I’m confident, as are the coaches,that he’s ready for an opportunity. Clearly I think Randy [Duke Johnson] andMike [James] are healed up and ready to go.”
On what Dallas Crawford brings to the offense…
“He has a little different style. He’s a little shiftier. He has excellentshort-area quickness. He can stop and start. He’s tough. Dallas is a toughcompetitor, and he has moxie. I’ve been really excited about what he has donethe last four practices. Dallas is excellent in pass protection. He’s smart andhe’s tough. He plays at good pad level, and like I said – he has moxie. He hasa tendency to figure things out.”
