Virginia Tech football coach Justin Fuente talks with reporters. The #25 Hokies (3-1, 1-0 ACC) travel to #17 UNC (4-1, 2-0 ACC) on Saturday.
Opening Statement: “We had a good week of work last week. Tuesday and Wednesday practices were really good. We put in good work for some of our young guys, while still keeping our older guys on point and getting some work in. Thursday we had a little bit more game-oriented practice. Then we brought them back Sunday, and we had a really good, lengthy practice. The kids are off today. We are kind of back in our regular mode of operation now.
“We have a tremendous challenge in front of us with North Carolina. They are coming off two huge victories. They are all big, but two close games. Two hard-fought victories. I know a lot of people haven’t gone down to Tallahassee and walked away with a win, so that’s a big feather in their hat. Congratulations to them. We have a tremendous amount of work left to do in order to get ready to go down there and play. They are highly explosive on offense. They have skilled players all over the place from wide receivers to running backs. Their quarterbacks are playing at a really high level, too. They can both run and throw the football. Their defense continues to make plays and be opportunistic. They are very solid in special teams. They are very talented, very well coached group. We have to get our guys ready to go.”
On if anything jumped out at him while self-scouting during the bye week: “No, not really. We had a pretty decent handle on what was going on. It’s a relatively small sample size. It’s not like it was a 10-game evaluation. Nothing huge.”
On if having an extra week of prep for North Carolina is a big factor: “I don’t know. I don’t know how big of a factor it is. I know when I get the schedule, I look and see who has two weeks before they play us. It always raises my antenna, but I don’t know how big or small an advantage it is in terms of both teams playing quickly and all that. We are pretty rested by game day anyways even during a normal week. We are not out there hitting each other on Thursday and Friday. We are pretty rested by game day.”
On the team being on pace to set a school record for the lowest opponent completion percentage in a season: “Everybody has game goals and things they like to accomplish, but it’s not something we talk about statistically on a regular basis. Offensively, we may have some goals that they would like them to have in terms of efficiency and efficiency in the Red Zone. I’m sure we have some of those same objectives on defense, but I don’t think completion percentage is something we harp on a daily basis. We’ve done a decent job with it in the past. It’s a byproduct of getting pressure on the quarterback. Obviously, we are doing a good job in coverage. We will certainly be tested this week with the skill players we are going to see and the quarterbacks we are going to see.”
On North Carolina QB Mitch Trubisky: “He’s been fantastic. He’s been incredibly diligent with the ball. He is not throwing interceptions. He is giving his guys chances to make plays. Just from judging from a far, he seems to have a great deal of trust in those guys, obviously with (WR Ryan) Switzer in the slot. They have some speed guys on the outside, and they do a great job. He is performing at an awfully high level right now. It’s pretty impressive to watch.”
His thoughts on being ranked No. 25 in the AP Top 25 Poll this week: “I always look at it like this. Can anyone tell me who was ranked and who wasn’t ranked in week five last year? It’s great for our fans to take pride in and get excited about. It may add to more fanfare on the outside about the upcoming games, but it’s not something that we draw a lot of focus on. We have a tremendous challenge this week in terms of going to North Carolina and trying to find a way to win the game.”
On if he had a chance to break down the UNC film and if there are certain things that the Hokies can attack in order to be successful this week: “I had a chance to watch them. They do a great job of making you earn every single yard and making you execute. They don’t tend to give up huge chunks of yardage. They do a great job at keeping the ball in front of them. They are very sound in all their schemes. They have good players who are willing to play hard and run the football. They do some things that have given some people problems because they have done a good job at keeping the ball in front of them and forcing them to execute for a long period of time.”
On North Carolina being his team’s first true road game in a stretch of four of five away from home: “First of all, in terms of a bunch of road games coming up, we don’t really address that. We just worry about this week and try to do everything we can to prepare and to win one ball game. I don’t think there is a whole lot you can do about games that are two, three and four weeks in advance. In my short time here, I love playing in Lane Stadium. It’s a fantastic venue, but there also is something that can be drawn from playing on the road. You can cut your travel squad down a little bit to compile with the ACC regulations. You take the people you need to go win the game, and I think that can draw teams closer together at times. We will prepare the way we always do, but knowing that there will be a few guys that don’t make the trip because of our travel restrictions, we are only taking the people that we need to go into someone else’s stadium and try to play a ball game.”
On what he did during the bye week: “I spent some time with the family on Saturday. It was a good day.”
On if he watched the UNC vs. Florida State game live on television: “I watched it. My family was there. Cecilia (his oldest daughter) can give you a good breakdown on what was going on.”
On if he ever crossed paths with UNC’s head coach Larry Fedora: “We have, but not on the field. When I was at TCU, he was at Southern Miss. Coach Fedora didn’t come down, but Blake Anderson was his offensive coordinator at the time. (Associate Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/OL Coach Chris) Kapilovic, who is the offensive coordinator now, was on staff with him. Their staff came down, and we spent a couple days together in Fort Worth. We talked ball and shared some ideas about practice plans and that sort of stuff. That was time ago obviously. Then when I was at Memphis, they returned the favor. We went up there and spent a day talking to Blake (Anderson). Coach Fedora was great with us, but it was mostly with the offensive staff. To my recollection, I don’t think we played against each other.”
On how valuable the two days of fundamental practices were during the bye week: “If you take special teams for example. You start special teams and go through two-a-days and the fundamentals. Then in a game week, you hit on the fundamentals on Sunday night and early in the week, but most of it is scheme oriented. What happens is that early in two-a-days, you are not sure what freshmen are going to play. You are trying to rep your two-deep, three-deep and sometimes even four-deep on the spiel team unit. Sometimes the guys that were true freshmen on the fourth team in week one are now on the first team or second team in week five, so it’s a good chance for those guys to get back to some of the fundamental work during the bye week that they probably didn’t get much during two-a-days. The same can be said on offense and defense in that manner, too. It’s also the last time that you are going to have a chance to do that until the bowl prep. When you have a week to get ready, you don’t have time to kind of go back and comb through that sort of stuff with the younger players. It was a good chance for those guys, while still working the older guys. I don’t want to paint the picture that they were just drinking water on the sidelines. They still got plenty of reps, but the young guys got in there and played more reps than they usually do during game week.”
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