Press Conference: Mike London

QUESTION:  Can you talk a little bit about the opportunity that major collegiate athletics and a game like this affords for raising awareness of causes and diseases like this?

COACH LONDON:  When you have an opportunity that’s presented with a platform such as this, with a guy like Coach Fisher—a well-respected coach in college football and throughout the Tallahassee community—and myself having lived in this community, in Virginia for a long time…We have shared the different experiences with our families.  As a head coach and assistant coach, your personal lives a lot of times are put out there.  We talk about the successful times of it, but also try to bring a human face and human story to other issues.  We also want to talk about the tragedies, the things we have to overcome—our children and sickness—just different things you try to make people aware of.

What happens with Coach Fisher and myself, both having children who have been diagnosed with Fanconi anemia…the news at first is devastating as soon as you get it as a parent.  Your first reaction, ‘Why me?’  Your next reaction is, ‘What do we have to do to beat this?  What do we have to do to educate ourselves and make the right chance for our children?’

By the grace of God, we—I, Ticynn, my wife—were able to go through this process.  On the other end, post bone marrow transplant, we were able to watch Ticynn as she celebrated her 16th birthday a couple days ago.  When I first found out about Coach Fisher’s son, it was at the ACC coaches meeting.  He wasn’t there.  I was talking to Tom O’Brien.  Coach O’Brien mentioned, ‘He’s in Minnesota somewhere.  His son has some kind of rare disease.’  We stopped talking, then we started talking some more about it.  I said, ‘Fanconi anemia?’  He said, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’

It’s a rare blood disorder, like I said, that affects your body’s ability to fight off infections.  When I found out that his son, Ethan, was diagnosed with that and that they were out trying to do whatever they could to find out more about it—to find out about the opportunities and research, what they needed to do—I immediately reached out to Coach Fisher.  We talked not as two football coaches but as two fathers, two fathers whose children—one who had gone through and one who is about to go through the process.  It provided some comfort in knowing that when we did Ticynn’s bone marrow transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital, I believe the success rate was in the high 60, 70 percent.  Talking with Coach Fisher I believe now it’s in the high 80 percentile.

You talk about things like that.  My wife, Regina, and his wife, Candi, have talked a couple of times also and started a foundation called Kids First, which speaks to the research and the fundraising element of Fanconi anemia.

My wife and I and Ticynn will soon be starting a foundation ourselves.  We’re going to deal with the bone marrow registry or the bone marrow drives that take place in order to educate people—for people to sign up, for people to perhaps become donors, and perhaps to get involved with being a match.

Marrow.org will be the match our family will heavily get into since Ticynn’s post-transplant.  Either/or, there are a lot of families out there.  Whether it’s blood disorders, cancers, leukemia, whatever it may be, the awareness needs to continue to be raised.

I’m sorry for the long answer to your short question.  Using the opportunity and the platform that both of us have been provided not only to talk about our own children but other people’s children, other people’s loved ones, friends, whatever it may be, it makes the cause well worth it.

QUESTION:   You mentioned Ticynn had her 16th birthday.  How is she doing physically?

COACH LONDON:  She’s doing fantastic physically.  There’s still things that she has have checked every year because your susceptible to certain things.  When I was here at UVa before, there were some great doctors that were her primary care physicians that have since moved on.  They still know of her because we were here when the transplant took place at Johns Hopkins.  But she goes back every year.  She just finished playing volleyball at St. Anne’s Belfield.  She’s doing well.

QUESTION:   I don’t know if you had somebody like yourself to comfort you like you have done to the Fishers.  What do you think it has meant to them?

COACH LONDON:  We’re not relatively close, but we’re in the same profession.  I have a tremendous amount of respect for him.  Anytime you’re with a family member or friend when their first diagnosed, you want the comfort of somebody being able to put their arm around you, pat you on the back, tell you it’s going to be all right.

I think because we have been through the whole process, every time your son or daughter gets sick with a cold you’re frantic because you know what that could lead to.  We talked about different things that we did, that we experienced, and that they’re going through.  That provided them a sense of comfort, a sense of understanding.  They know that our phones are always open; we’re always available.

There’s also a sense of urgency, for us and for them I’m quite sure, to find and raise the awareness.  Knowing he and his wife started the foundation and having Ticynn go through the process successfully rekindled a desire for me personally to be involved with the bone marrow awareness and donor programs because, like I said, it’s not just Fanconi anemia.  There’s a lot of things out there—cancer, leukemia, so many different things out there that people are susceptible to.

There’s a need for about 10,000 bone marrow transports every day.  You look at it nationally, you look at it worldwide, and it’s quite daunting.  Like I said, Coach Fisher and his wife rekindled an inspiration in myself and my wife Regina to get back in the forefront of trying to use our resources—this platform and its opportunities—to raise the awareness out there among people who may want to get involved.

QUESTION:   Is Ticynn going on the trip this weekend to meet Ethan?

COACH LONDON:  We’ll have a private family meeting between everyone.  We’re doing that, but there are a lot of other things going on.  There’s a public service announcement that Ticynn, my wife, and myself did that we’re trying to tie in.  I know they have plans to do bone marrow drives.  We did bone marrow drives when I was at Richmond and then the two years I’ve been here.  We talked to Trevor [Grywatch] who was a match, and another player who is no longer with us.  We have a student on grounds, Joe Lashell, who was a match also and actually did the procedure through his hip.  He and I have been in contact.  He’s now been actively involved in raising awareness also.

So it’s turned out to be great, not only for the players because of the community service aspect of it but also for the two players who have had the opportunity to save someone’s life and for the student here on Grounds who has done it.  The commitment, like I said, is to continue to keep raising the awareness in that regard.

QUESTION:   What year was Tycinn diagnosed?

COACH LONDON:  2001.  She was about seven years old when we first got here.  We had lost to Boston College.  She got sick and was diagnosed at Boston College Children’s Hospital.  Coach Groh got the job here.  We set it up to try to find the nearest and best facility—at that time, that was Johns Hopkins.  I know Duke University had one.  We could have gone out to Minnesota.  It just worked out, coming here to Virginia, that Johns Hopkins was the closest and the best.

QUESTION:   You mentioned a foundation you started.  Where are you in that?

COACH LONDON:  We’re in the planning stages of it, so we’re not ready to talk about it publicly at this point in terms of details.  There are some things, some loose things we have to tie together, to make sure everything is compliant with the university and with myself.  As soon as those issues are cleared, then we’ll hopefully have something else we can talk about and kick it off.

QUESTION:   We talked about this a bit before, but what is the advantage of having smaller running backs behind a larger offensive line?

COACH LONDON:  The size of our backs isn’t because we specifically went out and looked for those size of backs.  It just happened to be that when Kevin Parks was being recruited, he was one of the best running backs in the country.  He liked Virginia and he chose Virginia.  It was the same with Perry Jones when he was coming out of school.

There were some backs here that were decent size but that, through other reasons—whether it be academic or administratively—are no longer here.

Clifton Richardson is a size back.

We’re a zone.  It plays into the fact that Perry and Kevin are sized backs, the way they are.  They like to hit it downhill.  They like to jump cut.  They like to find the creases and the holes that the line provides for them.

It wasn’t by design.  It was, ‘Okay, we have these type of backs, let’s run these type of plays.’  We have the plays we run based on the offensive line we have and the backs we have that fit the scheme because of their size.  Clifton Richardson does a nice job also.  Everyone sees Perry and K.P. have done a really nice job of finding those holes and those creases.

QUESTION:   The last two games will be on national TV.  Is that a goal you set heading into the season?

COACH LONDON:  The goal is always—if you want to raise the profile of your program—to play on national TV and play well.  That’s the other thing.  You want to play well on national TV because of the implications it has on recruiting—the young men sitting in their living room watching you.  It’s as much of a motivation for them also.

It’s even more of a motivation because we’re away, it’s their homecoming.  There are a whole lot of things going on there.  Again, it’s an opportunity to show what type of team we are, what we can be.  If we play well enough, it creates an opportunity for people to look at Virginia and say, ‘That’s a school I’m very interested in.’

It’s great that that opportunity presents itself.

QUESTION:   Did you anticipate the transition on defense from the 3-4 to 4-3 being as bumpy as it was last season?

COACH LONDON:  That was very much the issue last year, as everyone saw.  You were seeing guys that are two-gappers or safeties, undersized, moving to linebacker.  They have to learn linebacker fits.  It was a tough learning curve for all that.

Another season, another spring practice, another early August camp, guys are getting bigger and stronger.  It’s the same terminology, same coaches.  You get better at the technique with your hands, with your feet, with communicating.  I think that lends itself to the improvement—the consistency of teaching the type of techniques that are needed—of guys being able to play this defense like you’re supposed to play it.

QUESTION:   Were you surprised that the transition was as rough as it was for the players?

COACH LONDON:  You always go into a season optimistic.  I’m an eternal optimist, but we did have to deal with some issues where guys weren’t quite ready or big enough or skilled enough.  You just keep believing in what you’re doing and you spend time doing it.  As you see this season, we’ve kind of seen the benefits of sticking with the plan, practicing it, developing the players, having continuity and consistency.  You see how the guys are playing.  I think they’re playing really well.

QUESTION:   What are your thoughts on Florida State?

COACH LONDON:  They look like the Florida State of old.  They’ve got guys flying up the field.  You look at them defensively.  Greg Reid is on the Paul Hornung watch list; he’s a Jim Thorpe Award candidate.  Linebacker Nigel Bradham is pre-season All-ACC and on the Nagurski Award list.  Brandon Jenkins, the defensive end, is a pre-season All-American.

You look throughout their defense.  You see guys that are vertical players up the field.  They are take off and aggressive players.  They don’t do a whole lot of blitzing.  They say, ‘Here we are, we’re attacking you, now block us.’  They have a lot of speed and athleticism; they just play sound, fundamental defense.  You see why they’re number one in the ACC, fourth overall in the country, in total defense.

They have good players all over the place.  As I said, our work is cut out for us.  It’s a tremendous challenge.  We’ll have to play our best game to date, no question about it, when we go on the road and play these guys in the type of atmosphere that I’m quite sure will be created.

QUESTION:   What are you thoughts on Thursday night’s Virginia Tech-North Carolina matchup?  That means Virginia Tech will have more rest coming into the game against you two weeks from now.

COACH LONDON:  You always look for a very competitive game.  I know that we’re playing on Saturday night.  We’ll get in early Sunday morning.  I know their game is being played Thursday night.  It is what it is.  We’ll have to prepare the way we need to.

Again, first things first for us, which is going down to Tallahassee.

QUESTION:   What are your thoughts on what Coach Cutcliffe said about Chase Minnifield after Saturday’s game?

COACH LONDON:  That is going to remain in-house—how I handled that.  My response to Coach Cutcliffe was exactly what I said, what I meant by it.  What I also said was that there are a lot of emotions, passion, and energy that goes on out there.

I talk to my players about what they do, how they act, how they react versus calls and versus things that happen inside a game.

As I said, we’ll handle that internally and we’ll move on from there.

QUESTION:   Given Perry Jones’ success returning punts Saturday against Duke, will you continue to use him in that role?

COACH LONDON:  We’ll practice tomorrow.  Our work days are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  As I said, Perry does a lot of things for us.  Going down the stretch here with opportunities to be very competitive, it’s important that we try to put our best players in the best position to help us.

Could you see Perry back there?  You very well could.

QUESTION:   Have you heard back from the ACC about the interference call in the end zone against Duke?

COACH LONDON:  All I’ll say is that I’ve been reassured.

QUESTION:   How much better does Florida State look now, on this five-game winning streak, than they did at the start of the season?

COACH LONDON:  You look how they do vertically, up the field, and how attack-minded they are.  Their corners, their kick return—they do a lot of things.  I just think they’re playing with a tremendous amount of confidence, the way Florida State of old played.  They’ve won some games here.  The quarterback, EJ Manuel, has been productive.  They’ve done a tremendous job on special teams.  Defensively, when you’re number four in the country and number one in the ACC, you play with a certain amount of confidence that actually lends itself to the way these games are being played and the turnout, the end result of it.  You can see they’re playing with a tremendous amount of confidence, for sure.

QUESTION:   Does having won three games on the road already this season, including one in Florida, give you any added confidence going into Saturday’s game?

COACH LONDON:  I don’t know if you get credit for going down to Florida and winning once.  It doesn’t mean you’re going to automatically go down there and win again.

With a team that hasn’t won on the road before like that, it’s always significant.  It’s always important to point out what can happen, what the possibilities are.

All you do is say, ‘Here we are with another road game with another very, very good team on national TV.’  Those are the things that we have to be alert to and try to take care of—not the streaks, the wins in Florida.

We’re going to have to play our best game.  They’ve played well the last five games, extremely well.  We’re going to have to do that also.

QUESTION:   Justin Renfrow was a guy that played early in the season.  What have you seen out of him as of late?

COACH LONDON:  He’s okay now.  Obviously going down the stretch here, we’re going to have some opportunities for a big guy like him to get in and provide some depth for us.

The other thing that Florida State does is they two-platoon.  When you have all those All-Americans, you bring one wave in, then the next group of All-Americans comes in.  They do a lot of that.  We’re going to have to be substitute-conscious ourselves because you’re going to have guys getting after you play after play.  Justin can provide that type of relief.

QUESTION:   What is the status of Chris Brathwaite?

COACH LONDON:  He’s just getting back to being in shape.  When you’re 300 pounds plus and you have a knee issue, being able to run, change direction, lift, torque your body, is always important.  I think he’s getting back to where he’s practicing well.  Over these two games, plus perhaps a third game, we’ll continue his development.  He’s squatting again.  He’s back to being 100 percent.

With the three-way rotation we have with Will Hill, Nick Jenkins and Matt Conrath—between Renfrow and Brathwaite—it’s important that we get reps for the fourth guy so they can continue their development.

QUESTION:  What are your thoughts on the offensive line’s performance recently?

COACH LONDON:  In the really clutch moments when we had to run the ball, get first downs, try to knock them off the ball, what really struck me was that, in the latter part of the game, Oday Aboushi was running down field to get a block on a defensive back.  As the game wears on, when you see bigger guys running down the field to block, that stands out.  It talks about their conditioning level.  It also talks about hopefully the mindset we’re trying to present here.  I think Perry Jones is close to being a thousand-yard rusher.  They talk about that.

There’s different things that motivate them.  We call them the big lovelies.  I won’t get into all the things that motivate them.  Watching them play into the fourth quarter and block down field has been something that’s been really neat to look at.

QUESTION:   EJ Manuel is from the Virginia Beach area.  Did you have any connections with him?

COACH LONDON:  He’s a heck of a player.  Bayside High School—that’s where Demetrious Nicholson is from.  There are some other things going on that we like at Bayside High School.

I remember EJ when he was coming out of school.  I wish he was up at Virginia.  That didn’t work out either.  But he’s gone off and done well for himself.  He’s become his own quarterback, his own man, and developed his own identity.  You see him playing well for them.

Press Conference: Mike London

QUESTION:  Teams tend to be more successful throwing the ball, as opposed to running, against your defense.  Do you expect more of the same Saturday against Duke?

COACH LONDON:  You always go into the game and you try to see what teams do best.  And as your game plan, what you try to do is stop what they do best.

The last couple of games teams had a good rushing offense and a particular back, and that was the offense we had to deal with.  Duke is more of a passing team.  They pass to set up the run.

Part of the strategy in game planning them will be to try to do some things coverage-wise to help us.  They are ranked high in the passing category.  When you ook at the yards per catch, it’s not as high.  You see a lot of short throws and crossing routes and things like that, which means there’s not a lot of opportunities to get to the quarterback.

You still have to game plan in terms of the types of routes—what you want the quarterback to see pre-snap read and those types of things.  Every game is different in what you have to stop—what you go in and try and stop.

Obviously one of the things we’ve been pretty good at is stopping the run and that will continue to be a main focus.  Also I know we’ll have to look at what they do passing-wise and address it.

QUESTION: How would you evaluate Demetrious Nicholson’s performance thus far?

COACH LONDON:  I think Tra’ has done quite well.  He’s a guy that’s taken 50-plus snaps in the last few games here and started every game.  If you look at it, the teams between 60, 80 snaps a game.  He’s been in there.  He’s had pass breakups.  He’s had tackles, interceptions.

Part of the game plan for any team—if you have a young player, corner or whatever it might be—you might try to go after them.

I know they got behind Trey once, but there were two outstanding plays on balls thrown in the end zone where he got his hand on the football and knocked it out of the guy’s hand.  That’s a very good play.

To me, Trey’s a candidate for the Freshman All-ACC team.  I don’t know how you rank them.  For a young man that’s played, started every game, has played against some of the best competition in the league to date, and has been productive for us…that’s an accomplishment for him.  He’s truly doing what we thought he would do and he can only　get better.

QUESTION: What makes Coach Cutcliffe’s passing game so difficult to defend?

COACH LONDON:  What he’s been known to really do is make quarterbacks successful and find ways to attack coverages, find ways to teach quarterbacks what they’re looking for per defensive look.

He does a great job of creating situations or throws—formations or run plays off play-action pass fakes—that complement each other.

You can see why they can move the ball against a lot of people, but he’s been doing that system for a while.

You look at some of the quarterbacks under his tutelage, and it’s quite an impressive list.  Sea Renfree—he’s doing a nice job himself.  It seems like he’s been there forever.  He’s running their offense, the style of offense that they like, and that’s been productive for them.

QUESTION: It seems like Virginia has played well against Miami in the past; Duke has played well against Virginia.  Is there a rhyme or reason to why certain teams do better in certain matchups?

COACH LONDON:  That’s a good question.  I don’t know the answer to that.  I know that Duke beat us last year at their place.  Our focus and concentration is trying to find a way to beat them at our place.

I can’t speak to the two previous years.  I don’t know what that record was when I was here before, but you have to respect all teams.  And you can’t go into any game not respecting a team because of record or because of you think you have better personnel.

You’ve got to play the game.  You’ve got to play the game like it’s meant to be played.  You can’t take anyone lightly.  We can’t afford to do anything like that.  To us, this is a very important game because it’s one of the last two home games.  It’s a conference opponent.  It’s a chance to further any postseason opportunity that might be presented to us.

QUESTION: How much have the past two weeks helped in reinforcing what you’re teaching and doing here as part of building a program?

COACH LONDON:  The expectations we have—that I have for them in the classroom, in the community—are ones they have to fulfill or else.  Particularly in a classroom—or else they’re not going to play.  They’re not going to travel.

Hopefully that message has been loud and clear.  What they do in the community in terms of their behavior and how they act has been pretty good so far.

The development of the player—when you talk about the strength coach, the coaching, going into the second season, guys getting better from the technical standpoint—that’s a large part of it.  I always go back to LaRoy Reynolds learning safety.  The year before, learning safety things then last year, making him a linebacker.  He’s efficient physically in terms of the skills of a linebacker and his knowledge of the position.

You get a chance to coach them up—go through the season, another spring practice, winter conditioning, summer—and he comes back, he’s playing, and he plays like a linebacker should play.

The benefit of that has been a lot of these guys hearing the same terminology over and over again and getting better.  A lot of that has to do with the development of them as players—now they’re getting in games where hopefully you’re stronger, because you’re faster. Because you may be a little more athletic than you were before, hopefully things are coming to fruition this season because guys are stronger and faster and they can make that play when it counts.

There’s still some plays being made against us, and that happens in every game.  For the most part, we’re starting to see some maturity, some strength, some speed, some athleticism.  We just have to keep recruiting for that, keep coaching to it, and keep demanding those things I talked to you about.

QUESTION: Do you remember any conversation about Perry Jones possibly slipping to the FCS level?

COACH LONDON:  I remember when I was leaving here, turning on Perry’s highlight tape, and it was unbelievable.

He was running ball, throwing the ball, returning the ball, kicking punts.  I joked that he was the guy—after somebody kicked the ball off—run on the field, get the tee, go back to the sideline, go back into the game.  He did everything for his high school.  I remember the next question was, ‘Well, how tall is he?’  That was the next question.

Fortunately for Virginia, I don’t remember how he committed, how that came about, and who recruited him.  He would have been one of those Walter Payton Award-type candidates in FCS football because of all those things.  He can return punts and kicks.  Obviously for us, he’s probably our most valuable player.  Like I said, he’s just a tremendous athlete that was dynamic on tape.  I do remember him.

I remember when we left Richmond trying to maybe get on him, but I think he had already committed.

QUESTION: Would you say the same about LaRoy Reynolds?

COACH LONDON:  They’re two good players.  LaRoy has continued to be a work in progress and has gotten better.  Like Perry, he’s an outstanding young man, too.

He’s a better person than a player.  I know you probably hear that all the time.  But with him, it’s true.  On Sundays we would come into the office during the summer, and he’d be out on the field by himself running.

He’d grab a couple other guys with him.  That’s just the stuff he does.  He is not looking for the bright lights.  ‘Coach, what do you want me to do?’  Then he gets it done.

In practice, he’ll be the scout team punt returner or kickoff returner because he wants to give a good look—just things that he does like that make you marvel at him.

QUESTION: The team has only given up eight sacks in nine games.  What can you say about the offensive line’s performance thus far?

COACH LONDON:  I think it speaks to the ability of Morgan Moses, Oday Aboushi, Austin Pasztor, and Luke Bowanko.  But I think it also speaks to what I’ve always said: that our passing game is based on windows—not throwing to a guy waiting until he’s getting open.  It’s based on coverage, based on throwing through windows.

When the receiver can make a cut based on a coverage with his back, his head is to the quarterback.  The quarterback knows he’s going to run to that spot, then by the time the receiver comes around the ball’s there.  There’s a lot to that as opposed to the receiver running a route and getting open.  The quarterback tends to hold it just a little bit longer and then has to get rid of it.

I think you’re more accessible to quarterback hits and sacks because of that.  I think partly our lack of sacks is because offensively, guys like Kris Burd and Timmy Smith, understand the offense.  They run the routes—they run to the holes, the seams, the spots. The quarterback is throwing it before they come out of their break, so there’s less opportunity for a sack and the ball is getting out on rhythm.  I think that’s a big part of it.

QUESTION: What has made Michael Rocco so good against the blitz?  Does he call the play in moments like that?

COACH LONDON:  He doesn’t change the plays.  I think someone asked last night about his ability to audible, and he’s allowed to do that based on the down, the distance call, the personnel group that’s going in.

His knowledge of the offense and the pre-snap read and his knowledge of post-snap read—the mechanics of dropping back, taking a quick look, looking at the secondary, the rotation of the safeties—he’s done a good job doing those type of things.

When you do that and the passing game part of it with throwing through the windows—that knowledge has put him in the position where he can command the offense.  He’s not always flashy but he’s getting the job done so far.  That’s probably the biggest asset that he has going for him right now.  He can command the offense and keep it moving.

QUESTION: What have you seen from the freshmen redshirts who aren’t playing yet?

COACH LONDON: There are quite a few redshirting that aren’t playing, and I’ve seen some development.  It goes back to we’re talking about with like Jake McGee, who was our special teams player of the game.  On the first kickoff, the kickoff return, he had a tremendous block.

He’s been down there a lot making plays.  His talent level and skill level, and because of the need, meant we had to play him.  He’s doing everything we’ve asked him to do.

He’ll get better because he’ll get bigger and stronger.  There are some guys who just weren’t quite ready in the early part.  We just put them on the shelf early.  If we don’t play a guy early, then I don’t want to mess around in the third, fourth game of the year and play him.

There are some that are like that.  Jay Whitmire, Ross Burbank—there are two linemen I can go on.  Vince Croce, and Marco Jones—they’re getting bigger and stronger.  They’re giving the offensive and defensive teams problems in practice.

They’re going to be better players because they’re going to know the system.  They’re going to get stronger.  They’re good students.  They’re good, young men.  The prospect of them being able to help with depth and contribute next year, when they do play, is very positive for us.

QUESTION: It appears that Aaron Taliaferro is playing better now than he did the first three years.  Is he doing anything differently now than he did previously?

COACH LONDON:  Aaron has been a guy who’s always tried to find a home in the defense.  In the 3-4, he was a Mike or Jack inside linebacker.  Then he moved to the outside linebacker spot, and maybe he didn’t fit the scheme that was required of him in that.

Then in comes the 4-3 defense, and he has an opportunity to play off the line in space, using the knowledge of his linebacker skills.  You use that, and you put it together with playing a Sam, which is to the strong side, and the Will, which is the opposite.

He could play both those linebacker positions, and he can play the Mike because he’s been playing linebacker for a while.  It was an easier transition for him with this new defense.

There was a time when he and Ausar Walcott basically split reps, split time.  They’re challenging each other for playing time.  AT, along with Matt Conrath and Rodney McLeod, were our defensive players of the game.

He did play well.  He continues to play well, and and hopefully he’ll continue to play well for however many games we have left.

QUESTION: How much freedom does the defense have to audible?

COACH LONDON:  Steve Greer makes the calls, gets them lined up.  Rodney McLeod is the one that handles the coverages back there.  There are certain things that we do based on formations that we’ll call, and because Rodney is so versed and so experienced in seeing those types of looks, he’ll handle the coverage part of it.

He does a pretty nice job.  He and Steve communicate well with each other during the course of the game through hand signals, gestures, voice, looks, whatever it is.

Your safety and your linebacker who call the plays have to be on the same page because if you’re blitzing, then you’ve got coverage issues.  If you’re run-stunning, then you’ve got gap issues.

The communication between the two of them has been really good.  Steve has benefited from a veteran safety like Rodney and vice versa.

QUESTION: Now that the team is bowl eligible, how do you prevent the guys from looking at the big picture instead of going game-by-game like before?

COACH LONDON:  The fifth year guys on our team are the only guys that have experienced a bowl opportunity.  Everyone else has never experienced that.

There’s no complacency in where we sit because there’s not enough guys on this team that have experienced that on a year in, year out basis.  What they see in front of them is six wins makes you bowl eligible, but seven wins probably makes you guaranteed.  Eight wins gives you an opportunity to do something else.  Nine wins—I think they’re looking at it.

We’re not just satisfied because we became bowl eligible.  With the remaining games, you can improve your situation.  The seniors can attest you can improve your situation.  The majority of the team is really focused on this particular game—chin up—because it’s the most important game.  They know the ramifications of a successful season depends on how we play the next three games and we start with this one against Duke.

QUESTION: The team is still eligible to win an ACC championship.  Have you mentioned that at all to the team?

COACH LONDON:  I think they know that.  I think they know that in order to do that, you have to win all the way up to the last one.  We take care of what we have to do. Then the other teams will play other games and other teams, and it will decide their own fate.

We need to understand we control our own fate, that’s for sure.  But as I said, this is a game against a team that has beaten us three years in a row.

They beat us last year.  Tough, tough loss down there towards the end of the game.  We’re focused on the Blue Devils.

QUESTION: What is your opinion of the wide receivers’ performance thus far this year?

COACH LONDON:  I think last year each of them caught over 50 footballs, which was pretty good when you look at wide receivers on the same team.  That’s a pretty good number.

Tim Smith got hurt.  Chris Snyder has been hobbled a little bit.  What helped us was a healthy Tim Smith.  Everybody can see that he’s fast.  He can catch the ball.  He can run.

What helped us is that last year, Kris Burd was kind of the go-to guy.  Now this year there’s two go-to guys.  Kris and Tim.  It’s unfortunate what happened to Matt Snyder.  Someone’s role had to pick up in the wide receiver position, and you could argue Darius Jennings has and a couple other names.

Both of them have improved their knowledge of the passing game.  It’s not to the extent that LaRoy Reynolds has improved because he’s coming from a different position.  But it’s both of them understanding the passing game, and they do a great job as they’re running their routes. They see coverages—what the corner and safety are doing which dictates the kind of route they run.

It’s not your old run up to the tree, take a left, run a square in, square out.  When they’re running routes, they’re running routes based on corners and safety alignments; and the quarterback is on the same page and he’s throwing the ball to those spots.

They’ve gotten better at doing that and maybe the answer of the quarterback having gotten better, too, probably plays into a large part of it also.

QUESTION: How much of the defense’s surge can be attributed to the play of the backfield?

COACH LONDON:  I think it’s the mentality that Coach Reid and defensive coaches.  Obviously I’d like the team to have to adopt the mentality of the head coach—about being a physical guy, playing with emotion and passion.

I know that Coach Reid and the defensive staff have instilled that aggressiveness, that kind of approach to how you play a game, how you compete against your opponent.  You fear no one, but you respect them.  That shows, and it shows when you have demonstrated performance playing against good teams like Georgia Tech, Miami.  When you do those type of things, it shows that you’re capable of playing really good defense.

When you have a chance to win some games—everybody talks about how winning breeds success, and success is fed off of winning.  That’s what’s going on right now.  We’ve got a long way to go here.  But I think our total defense is maybe in the top-25 in the country right now.

That came from a lot of hard work and a lot of evaluating where we need to be from a strength position, from schemes, from who is playing a position.

I’m very pleased defensively with how they’re playing and how we basically went from—I don’t know where we all were last year—to where they are now.  We’re just playing good, solid hard, aggressive team defense.

QUESTION: What can you tell us about Duke’s defense?

COACH LONDON:  They’re a little unique in that they’re a 4-2-5 defense.  They use four down lineman, two inside backers and then an umbrella of safeties—three safeties and two corners—giving them an opportunity to roll coverages, bring guys three or four off an edge which sometimes dictates a blitz or pressure.

They do a pretty good job.  The best player on their defense is Matt Daniels.  He’s a tremendous, outstanding player.  You see him making all kinds of plays against everybody they play.

He’s kind of the quarterback of the defense—a very emotional guy, but very, very rugged.  I listen to all the TV versions of teams that played, and to a tee, every coach that talks about their personnel has talked about him and being the guy for them.  He plays like it.

QUESTION: Did you beat Duke when you were coaching at Richmond?

COACH LONDON:  The first game, yes.  We went down there and beat them.

QUESTION: Is the demeanor on a bus ride home different from a 3 a.m. plane ride after a win?

COACH LONDON:  When you win, they’re all the same.  They’re all talkative, noisy, even on the 3:00 a.m. flights.  Guys are back there talking.  You’re watching TV, they’re doing their homework, whatever it is.  Whether you’re flying or driving back, when you win, it’s a great atmosphere.

QUESTION: How much do you emphasize with this guys that they have lost to Duke three games in a row?

COACH LONDON:  It’s written about, it’s talked about, and so they understand that.  The third years have been here during those games, and so they know it’s 0 for 3 right now.

It was the same issue that we had with Maryland and knowing the November deal.  It’s there, it’s out there, and we understand it.

The only thing you can do is play the game on Saturday.  And as I said, our motivation is to put ourselves in a better position, with another opportunity to win a game.  Also because we lost to them at their place last year and they’re coming to our place.

QUESTION: What is your opinion of Duke’s two wide receivers?

COACH LONDON:  I’ll tell you, they are pretty good.  They are very good players.  One of the things that they do best is the short passing game.  They catch the ball on the run and they get yards after the catch.  They do things like that.  I would imagine that with their style of offense—where you throw the ball based on coverages, based on where defenders are not—they’re well versed on that as well.

I forgot one of them was a track guy.  When they catch it, they can run with it.  And that’s been a large part of their success.

So defensively, knowing where they are, that’s going to be important for us, because they’re definitely two playmakers.

QUESTION: You have their high school quarterback.  Does that help?

COACH LONDON:  Yeah, I don’t know how many deep, deep secrets he knows other than maybe favorite color and movie star, something like that.  I don’t know how much he knows football-wise.

Press Conference: Mike London

QUESTION: You did not have a game on Saturday.  Did you spend it watching football?

COACH LONDON:  We had Saturday off – Thursday had the game and we got back early, early Friday morning.  We had something later on that afternoon.

I was able to kind of go through the channels a little bit, look at a couple games—basically have a chance to be at home, be a dad, a husband – those type of things.

I did have a chance to look at a little bit of the game that Boston College and Maryland were playing.  I looked outside our door.  There was sun in the sky.  Up there, the weather got after them pretty good.  Going back and forth on a few channels, I had a chance to look at a couple of games.

QUESTION: Your team has surprised this season, both with some of its wins and some of its losses.  How would you respond to the argument that it is not exactly the same team every week?

COACH LONDON:  We try to be the same team every week, to play with some of the schemes, some of the calls, some of the things that we think make us a good football team.  Whether we execute the same every week, that’s up for debate, I guess.

The plan on both sides, all three elements of the football team, is to try to accentuate our play-makers, limit turnovers, create turnovers, have explosive plays.

Among the games we have played thus far, the times we’ve been successful in those endeavors speaks to the wins.  The times we haven’t, it speaks to the losses.

We’re trying to be a more consistent team and play more favorable to the way that we’re capable of playing.

QUESTION: Have you detected any change in Michael Rocco’s comfort level now that he is the primary quarterback?

COACH LONDON:  Maybe it might be inwardly with him.  Outwardly, he’s the same guy—same type of demeanor, same type of body language, same type of person.  He’s always practiced well.  To answer your question, the changes might be internally.  You could ask him.  But in terms of outwardly—what he practices, what he does when he’s around his team, around the office in terms of meetings—he’s been very consistent in that manner.

Hopefully as we go into game two of his opportunity, he continues to exhibit those traits that led him to be successful this past week.

QUESTION: Now that the team is two months into its season, do you plan to use your freshmen more?

COACH LONDON:  They’ll play just based on regular rotation.  Their knowledge of the offense has increased to a level, receiver-wise, that Coach Moore and Coach Lazor feel comfortable about putting Darius Jennings and Dominique Terrell in the game.  Running back-wise Clifton [Richardson] is getting to that place also, whether it’s on runs or protections.  Their knowledge of the offense and the whole scheme has picked up.  When that picks up, obviously their rep opportunities will increase as well.

QUESTION: You have 12 scholarship players from Maryland.  Is there more emphasis on this game because of the recruiting implications?

COACH LONDON:  Those 12 know a lot of the players from that area who are playing on their team.  There’s no secret that Maryland is an area where we recruit heavily—D.C., Northern Virginia, up and around there.

Having success in the recruiting arena is important, as is having success in the athletic arena.  Having the opportunity to play Maryland, for us it’s another chance for another ACC win.  But naturally you look at some of the recruiting implications, as well.

QUESTION: When you made the quarterback decision, did you take into consideration the fact that Michael Rocco never seemed to play quite as well when he went back in after David Watford was given a series or two?

COACH LONDON:  I don’t think that had as much an impact that he never played well after, as much as it was into giving David the opportunity to play and become an experienced quarterback with reps.

In hindsight, you can look back and mention what you just mentioned.  But going into it, that wasn’t the goal.  The goal was to get David ready, as well.  We still got a lot of games to play for that statement would end up being accurate.

Hopefully now that Michael has the opportunity to be the quarterback, we’ll get more consistent play, better play, more confidence in his play.  Whatever roles David has the rest of the season, he gets more confidence.  Even when he’s not playing, he’s learning.  He’s taking reps in practice.  He’s seen the big picture.

Hopefully both guys will benefit from it as well as Ross Metheny and Michael Strauss – who are watching.

QUESTION: You mentioned briefly Clifton Richardson and run protection.  How much of a challenge was that for him?  That doesn’t seem like something he would have learned in high school.

COACH LONDON:  Maybe not.  Maybe it was Clifton left, Clifton right at high school.  But in the college setting, based on personnel, you have different types of protections:  slide protection where you have the end man on the line of scrimmage, protection where you have to scan and take it outside, inside protection where you have to take a linebacker.  I’m sure there was some stuff on his plate that he had to work himself through.

Over the course of practices and games, sitting in the team meeting room and the position meeting room with running backs, with Coach Faragalli and with the guys, he’s picking it up and seeing it.

Probably because as physical as he runs, he can be as physical when he pass protects also.  He is kind of a bigger back type of guy.  You look at Perry Jones, Kevin Parks and Khalek Shepherd, they’re a smaller type of guys.

There’s been times where you get the big back presence that perhaps Terence Fells-Danzer or Max Milien have, or maybe even Colter Phillips could be in the backfield.  Now Clifton’s learning curve has put him in a position where he can pass protect and also be part of getting out of the backfield if the linebacker doesn’t show, being part of the slip screen where he has to act like he’s blocking then turns to the line of scrimmage for the screen.  He’s got pretty good hands.

Like I said, as we go down the stretch here, his role of knowing what to do has increased, which will allow him to go in the game more frequently.

QUESTION: How proud of Michael Rocco and the way he was able to prepare given the short week were you?

COACH LONDON:  It speaks to the maturity level of Michael.  You go back and you say you’re hoping you made the right decisions for him and for David.

I think his ability to pick up the pre-snap read, see things as they were occurring, was huge because a lot of times in football, you look at the game film and you try to see what hurt the other team.  Lo and behold, you see a lot of copycat defenses, a lot of defenses that teams have used to be successful even though they disguise it in another way.

I think his recognition of those things – the game planning was impressive.  To say he’s mature as a sophomore—he is mature and he’s going to get more mature.  It’s a benefit to him and it’s a benefit to us.

How proud of him am I?  I’m extremely proud on a big stage that he could handle it because they were bringing it.

QUESTION: What can you say about Maryland?

COACH LONDON:  As I told the players, this is a very good football team.  Everybody says, ‘Look at their record.’  You look at their record—there’s a loss to ranked West Virginia, ranked Georgia Tech, ranked Clemson, then Florida State, who at the time was still a very, very good team.  A lot of people had them picked in the top-ten, Temple is a win away from being bowl-eligible.  This past weekend with all the inclement weather, Boston College got on them early, but they came back.  They beat Miami and they beat an FCS team, Towson, who is 6-2 right now.

It’s a very talented team, a very skillful team.  The quarterback situation—whichever one they decide to go with, both of them are very adept to running the style of offense they have.  C.J. Brown—you watch the Georgia Tech game, he takes off for a 77-yard run, he can run.  There’s talent right there.

Davin Meggett, the running back, is very explosive.  The wide receivers who they get the ball downfield to are they’re very good.

Defensively that’s where they’ve been nicked up a little bit with injuries, having to play young guys here and there, the experience or lack thereof has caused some concerns.  But they play hard.  They play hard on film.

In their special teams, they’ve had some guys nicked up.  Tony Logan was a guy that was a dynamic returner.  You haven’t seen him for the last of couple games—don’t know if it’s an injury situation, whatever it is.  They’re a fast, athletic team.  You see they were in a lot of the games that they lost after halftime.  It’s an explosive team that’s a good team.

To look at their record and say they’re 2-6 is not indicative of the type of talent they have.

QUESTION: You have made 40 percent of your third down conversions this year.  Is there a percentage you want to meet every week?  How do you feel you have performed on third downs so far this year?

COACH LONDON:  On all third downs you’d like to have as high of a percentage as possible so you can keep moving the chains.

It’s a good percentage in terms of third down.  You also get into a distance of third-and-two, third-and-five, third-and-seven, third-and-12 plus.  Your chances of those situations diminish the longer the yardage is.

Up into the 40s, if you ask coaches I’ve been around like Bill Lazor, up in the 40s, 42 percent, is fairly representative of a number that can be successful.  But that’s a big element of playing a game—those third down situations.  It goes back to the first and second downs.  You don’t want to create those second and 10s or third and 10s because you’re not successful in your first two downs.  I think that’s something we have to work hard at doing.  When you get down to the third down situation, it’s proven you’re more successful in the third-and-one, third-and-two, third-and-three because of the call playing that’s at your disposal.

We practiced third down situations because they are very critical.  We’ll continue to drive.  I think last week they were two for nine, which was substantial for us in terms of getting the ball back on those seven opportunities they didn’t convert.  We consciously look at that and try to work on that on both sides of the ball.

QUESTION: It seems the players have responded well this season to criticism.  Do you feel they have rallied behind that?

COACH LONDON:  Good things and bad things are said and written all the time.  You’ve just got to be thick-skinned about it and say, ‘Listen, people are entitled to their opinions.’  You have to not take it personal to where it consumes your every thought and everything that you do.  You just play ball.  You circle the wagons with people that are in your program, that know what’s going on, the people that you say you believe in.  You just play from the standpoint of what you can control is what you can control.  You can’t control message boards, the way things are written, commentary, all those types of things.

Like I said, people are entitled to their opinions.

With our team, we’re just worried about what we can control.  If we play with energy, passion and effort, a lot of times those things kind of work their way out.  It’s not one thing that we look at and say, ‘Here is what they’re saying about it.’  We don’t look at it that way.  We’re in this thing to play, to play well.  When you play well, you have a chance to put yourself in a position to win games.  That’s what it’s about.

QUESTION: Danny O’Brien has shown he can be an effective passer.  Can your secondary correct its mistakes from Miami?

COACH LONDON:  What happened in Miami was 6-5 versus 5-10, 5-11.  There were a couple shots there that Tom Streeter went up and made one of those off-the-rim type grabs.

There’s things you do defensively—playing through the hands, teaching disruptive techniques that any corner, 5-10, 6-2, would have to make.  We have to be better at that.

A couple of throws, like the one he threw over Chase Minnifield … Chase has one of the better vertical leaps on our team.  It was a perfect throw.  It was going to be thrown out of bounds, or Streeter was going to make a catch.  He made an unbelievable catch.

We tie in that part of the pass defense also to the pass-rushers.  It’s not just one position; it’s other positions that are tied into a successful pass defense.

QUESTION: Michael Rocco is quiet in the press room.  How does that translate to his on-field personality?

COACH LONDON:  Would you like your quarterback to be rah-rah?  It fits his personality.  You don’t want him to be something that he’s not.  From day one, that’s who Michael is in terms of his outward appearance, when you meet him, when he’s in school.  When he’s playing, he’s competitive.  That’s what you want.  You want guys that are competitive no matter if they’re overtly boisterous or whatever it may be.

I think I wouldn’t want him to change from who he is from that standpoint.  Every once in a while you chest bump him or something like that, with him coming to the sideline looking for somebody to do that.  If he throws the ball for 200 something yards, makes completions, I’m fine with that, too.

His personality is one where on the field he’s very competitive.  Sometimes you’d like to see a guy come up here, command the whole room, even with his teammates.  With his teammates, you see him joking around.  They’re very comfortable with him.  It’s just the personality that he has and it is what it is.  We live with it.  He’s playing with it.  Hopefully he continues to play with it and we’re successful with it.

QUESTION: Against Miami, short plays turned into big gains.  Is that a sign of the offense getting more comfortable?

COACH LONDON:  More of it is the recognition that we need to increase our explosive plays or increase  the time we throw the ball downfield.  When you’re known to run the ball and you’ve run it successfully, teams start playing with eight defenders down in the box—safety, whatever it is.  The way to remedy that is to throw the ball deep.  The halfback pass has been in for a while.  If you saw, they were normally a cover-three deep, which means their corners on run would come up.

One particular play was a cover-two where the corner had to come up.  Perry Jones did a great job of throwing the ball over the safety.  It was a conscious effort to show that we’re going to throw the ball down the field and that we need to continue to keep doing that so teams won’t start stacking up safeties to stop the run.  Because of the development of some of these young guys, they can go vertical down the field.  Tim Smith during last three games or so has proven he can go vertical down the field, so we want to do more of that.

QUESTION: Matt Schaub used to act similarly to Michael Rocco.

COACH LONDON:  As far as personality.  He wouldn’t say ‘boo’ either, but he would lead by example.

QUESTION: It seems the field goal kicking game has cooled off somewhat.  Are you concerned at all?

COACH LONDON:  You’re concerned anytime you miss a field goal, particularly from a makeable range.  32 yards is definitely maekable for Robert Randolph.  Haven’t looked at the specifics of snap, hold, kick, those things like that, but normally, Robert at the beginning of the season was been kind of automatic.  You do rely on two other people—the snapper and the holder—to get that done for you.

I know Robert when he missed that one, he knew it right away.  He spent a lot of time at practice yesterday kicking.  He wants to get it right.  Those three elements—the kicker, the snapper, and the holder—they all have to work together.  I think he’ll do better because he wants to do better.  He’s proud about what he does, how he does it.  We’ll keep giving him opportunities to get in the red zone to keep putting them up.

QUESTION: How would you gauge Demetrious Nicholson’s confidence level?

COACH LONDON:  When you’re a corner, part of the hazardous duty you have is that every corner is going to get the ball thrown deep and have to defend deep balls.

It’s been eight games now, and he’s played at least 60 reps each game.  He’s got two interceptions, a lot of reps where he’s been involved in pass breakups, tackles.  You have to have a short memory as a corner when the ball gets thrown deep on you.  If you don’t, you’re always worried about the last play when the next play could be the next big play again.

It’s no secret that teams will probably try to throw at him, but he takes it on as a challenge.  That’s part of the reason why he started there at day one.  The young man has a tremendous amount of confidence in himself and his ability.  He’ll continue to keep getting better because he’s going to play against some of the best talent in our conference, in the country.

We just keep coaching him up when there’s a size mismatch, how to play through the hands a little better.  But Tre has responded in a positive manner to balls being thrown on him and behind him in a couple situations.  There also have been plays where he’s been step-for-step and made some pretty good plays.

Being a corner out there by yourself, everybody’s eyes are on you and they see the mistakes you make.  He’s a great young man.  Probably before he’s done playing here, he’ll end up being a captain.

QUESTION: What are your thoughts on the possibility of becoming bowl eligible?

COACH LONDON:  You guys hate this, but we talk about a one game at a time mentality.  We relish, cherish every win.  This challenge right here, this game is against a good team on the road once again.  That’s another opportunity.  That was a big game we had against Georgia Tech; we didn’t play so well against NC State.  We just had a big game against Miami.  Now we want to go back-to-back with another game showing our ability to play well on the road.

Those are the main focuses now.  The by-product of that is that when you count wins up, it is the sixth win.  But we’re looking at it as a border state rivalry—they beat us last year, a lot of our players are from Maryland, the recruiting implications, different things like that.  That’s how we’re approaching this.  It’s a good team that lost to some really, really good teams that are still playing well.  We’ve got to play good football ourselves.  That’s the focal point for us now.

QUESTION: What would it mean to get the win Saturday?

COACH LONDON:  As I just said, the importance for us is preparing for our game coming off another big game, another road game, another big victory.  I was talking about playing consistent.  After one game, we need to put another good game together—back-to-back consistency.  One game up, one game down.  We want to be a consistent team.

This is a team that, as I said, is a very good team despite what the record says.  We have the opportunity to go on the road, in a rivalry game, a conference game—the implication of just winning the game—what that means.  Those things are obviously what everybody is looking at.

Where we’re at in this program—the wins, how they line up, when they line up—those are the most important things.  Then what we can do to make sure we put ourselves in a position to win.

QUESTION: What are your thoughts on Maryland’s inability recently to stop the run?

COACH LONDON:  As I alluded to before, there’s a lot of injuries.  You look at their two-deep—it’s dotted with freshmen backing up in two-deep on their entire roster.

Defensively it appears that’s where most of the injuries and things occurred.  Kenny Tate was an outstanding player.  To lose him, with his leadership, it’s got to hurt.

You may see some guys that are playing the position of linebacker or safety or defensive end, but there’s something to be said about experience, about having played the position before, run fits, knowing where you have to be, reading your keys.  There’s something to be said about the weight room, getting bigger and stronger.  Maybe there’s a little bit of everything that is the issue—teams offensively having a chance to run the ball against some undersized guys, guys that aren’t quite developed in their position as of yet.

They’re a young team that will be good.  Right now they have to deal with the issues of teams that have been running the ball.

They’re just like us.  We have young guys.  You put them in there.  You have to live sometimes with the results of however it shakes out.  But it appears that’s one of the issues they’re having.

QUESTION: It seems like the return game has improved.  Is that because it has been a focus in practice, or is that just a result of players getting more comfortable back there?

COACH LONDON:  I think it’s a little bit of both.  I know they’re quick to say we have to get rid of the yuck Dominique Terrell punt catching.  You can rib Darius Jennings about the kickoff protection and those kind of things, like when he ran into the sideline.  He said, ‘It was the wind.’  I don’t care if it’s the wind—catch the ball.

He and Khalek Shepherd have done a nice job of advancing the ball.  They’re improving in all areas of returns, Coach Poindexter is recognizing the type of scheme we need to put together to help them be successful—just the experience of having played in games now—all those things kind of add up.

There’s been some really good kickoff returns not only by Darius but Khalek Shepherd that have sparked us in terms of where we spot the ball.  We’re going to continue to keep looking for those opportunities and

Press Conference: Mike London

QUESTION:   There was a time when Virginia tended to play one Thursday night game each season. The matchup against Miami will be the team’s first Thursday game in a while. What does this mean as a recruiting tool and as a chance to showcase the program?

COACH LONDON:  Provided that you play well and you’re competitive, it gives you an opportunity to get your name out there and to get your brand　out there. These young men that we’ve been writing and calling and visiting their schools—they have heard about us. This is an opportunity to put a face with the name, an opportunity to put the school brand out there, to be recognized from the national media exposure that’s given. Even from the commercials that they run—they talk about the schools, the things they have to offer.  Playing well on national TV against a very, very good opponent is something that every program looks for once.

Particularly, this is a good situation for us, provided we play well. The way recruiting has been going, and the mentality we have been trying to get across to the young men that are out there and their parents, this is another opportunity for us.

QUESTION:   How do you take a week’s worth of preparation and squeeze it into a much shorter time frame between games?

COACH LONDON:  I believe someone asked me that last night, too.  It’s just that you have to kind of take your days and maybe combine together.  Monday is a day off, so basically yesterday, Sunday, we came in and watched a tape of the opponent and watched the scouting report of the upcoming opponent. Because of the shortened days and the opportunities, Sunday was an abbreviated kind of Tuesday practice.  We went to the tape and we also did a lot of Miami prep.  We did a Miami practice yesterday, so Sunday’s practice was kind of like what we would have on Tuesday because of Monday being off.

Tomorrow’s practice will be like a Wednesday’s practice, and so you’ll have to kind of combine, as I was saying before. Sometimes you’ll do a first and second down and maybe a first practice but now you have to combine some of those elements because you are shorted a day.  We’ll have practice again tomorrow and combine kind of a Tuesday, Wednesday practice together and then get ready to go.  We will practice early Wednesday morning and leave Wednesday afternoon, one or two o’clock, and have our meetings and get ready to play on the next day.

QUESTION:   You have played a number of your former coaching colleagues already this season. Would you say that you have spent more time with Al Golden, the current Miami coach, than anyone else?

COACH LONDON:  I would say that’s probably correct.  With the time that we were here—I’ll even back up.  We were at Boston College and we were here at Virginia, so I would say that’s a fair assessment of my association with Al.  Our families are friends and Al was a close friend during the time that my daughter went through her issues, so there’s a personal friendship that goes back.

QUESTION:   The kick return team has been more productive recently.  Why is that, and what are your thoughts on Khalek Shepherd?

COACH LONDON:  I think part of that has been that the unit has gotten better in terms of understanding the returns, the blocking angles, the techniques.  You look at the personnel on that unit. You look at some of these freshmen getting to be two, three, four-phased special teams players. There’s a lot of them that have shown development to this point, as far as the understanding of the scheme and blocking angles. Khalek does a great job of just having an eye—being a running back and having a feel and an eye for the openings and understanding for what we are trying to get done.  He has raised the level of his play, allowing us an opportunity to change our field position.

We keep continuing to get better as a unit, and he’ll keep continuing to get better as a returner. It will be a bonus or a plus for us.

QUESTION:  Al Golden said yesterday on the Miami teleconference　that this will be the first game in which the Hurricanes will have all their players back from suspensions. What are your thoughts on Miami now that everyone will be available to play?

COACH LONDON:  What you see is a very fast athletic team.  The linebacker spins—he’s truly an incredible player.  Travis Benjamin, the wide receiver, kick returner, punt returner, is electric and dynamic. Lamar Miller, the running back, is a big back that’s a hard runner.

You see a lot of things that Al has got going that can add up to where they play hard on defense, run around. The quarterback is throwing the ball down the field to some of the skilled receivers; their special teams has become a weapon for them also.  I can imagine that with having guys back they will just add to the fact that they are getting better.

QUESTION:   Do you plan to use the same quarterback rotation in the coming weeks?

COACH LONDON:  That was another question that was posed last night and the way I answered it was that Michael Rocco was the starting quarterback and he will be afforded the opportunity to go in the game and play and do what he needs to do.

With David Watford we are not talking about series with him.  We are talking about perhaps plays for him.  He’s done a nice job.  At the same time, it’s tough on a young player when you have the situations on the interceptions. You want to play well, but also at the same time, you have to make sure to continue to bring him along.

David will do fine.  He’ll be in the game and he’ll play in the game.  There probably won’t be the rotation part of it as you’ve been seeing, in order to give [David] a chance to watch, but it will give Michael an opportunity to get in the game and play the game.

I was here when Anthony Martinez played South Carolina as a true freshman and that didn’t go well for him and that didn’t bode well for his confidence. I’m mindful of a young player like David who has a tremendous amount of talent and is going to be a good player here, but I don’t want to put him in the situation where you try to put the ballgame on his shoulder or every decision, every throw, every check, every play call is something that he’s being scrutinized for.  In order to take some of that off his plate, I’ve decided to make sure that his role in the offense is one that can provide him a level of success, because he still has to go to class here.  He still has to be a lot of things other than just a quarterback for this team.

We are going to go down that route the next five games here, hopefully six games, and we’ll continue to keep developing him and feel much better about his development now with the opportunities that he’s had. He’s been in games, has made big throws, made big runs.  For his continued development, we want to make sure that we limit his role a little bit more and let him watch, let him absorb, let him learn, let him play, and let him play at the right opportunities.

QUESTION:   Was that a difficult decision to make? How much of it was based on Watford’s interceptions Saturday against N.C. State?

COACH LONDON:  It’s a tough decision for a young man that wants to play, but also it’s a tough decision for a coach that sees that this is a young man. When you’re the starting quarterback and with all of the other issues that you have had, particularly as a freshman, there’s a lot on your plate.

Him playing and getting to the point where he’s gotten to now, you just have to make the decision. Do you live with more of that, with adding more to his plate with everything else that he has?  Or do you back off his role a little bit and give him an opportunity to still go in and play plays, or use him in personnel groups and things like that, knowing that you still brought him along. God forbid anything happens to your starter.

I’ve talked to all of the quarterbacks and all of them have role and they will continue to have a role, but I’m worried about David Watford as an individual.  Some people want him out there, just throw him out there and let him play.  We have gotten to this point and evaluated where we are with him and his development. He’ll have opportunities, but not as the opportunities have been presented thus far.

He’s embraced his role. He understands, the team understands. Everyone is on the same page of how we try to develop another quarterback and how we try to get guys in the game so they can all add up to helping us.

It’s because of the point where we are, not based on just three interceptions, and as we move forward going down the latter part of the season, giving Michael the opportunity to solidify some things for himself in the game but also giving David the chance to watch and continue to grow seven games into the season.

I think he’ll be a better player for it and we’ll be a better team.  We haven’t had the opportunity to see both of those guys in there. We are going down the stretch, we are going down the second half of the season, and we want to provide a measure of success for each guy.

Clifton Richardson is another young man that to me is a dynamic player. We are going to have to find ways to get him in the game and give him more opportunities.  Now, I’m fortunate with Matt Snyder going down with his injury. What happens now is Darius Jennings and Dominique Terrell are presented even more chances for getting in the game.

You saw a couple of times where we threw deep balls to Darius; he has that type of speed and he has that type of ability.

Some of the young guys have to play and step up because of the roles.  David in particular is going to continue to play, but for his development, he needs to take a step back here and watch a little bit because I think that in the long run, it will be best for him and best for the team. We had to get to this point.

We had to get to a point in the season where you try and develop who your quarterbacks are and your depth situation.  When you coach, you have to make tough decisions. You make them and you live with them and then you move forward.  That’s the decision. It’s been made and we are moving forward; now we are concentrating on how to play a very good Miami team.

QUESTION:   Beating Georgia Tech was a step toward changing public perception of Virginia. Similarly, how big of an impact did John-Kevin Dolce’s hit on Jacory Harris last year have on the team’s image?

COACH LONDON:  Things like that happen in the game in all aspects—big interceptions, big conversions on third down, or whatever.  There are a lot of plays that are made in games that sometimes going back to, was the turning point.

Obviously everyone saw that hit and everyone saw the implications.  It was a legitimate hit, a legal hit, and it was unfortunate that he had to leave the game from that.

As far as an emotional turn or emotional boost it may have provided for people that watched that, I think it was another play in a series of was going on in the game already.  There were interceptions and there were big third down runs, conversions, big third down stops.

I think that was one that was most notable plays that people look at, but during the course of that game—we won the turnover battle and the field position battles—just different things happened that became the catalyst, a bunch of mini-catalysts. The fellows captured how the game was going and ended up having a chance to play really well, coming out, holding on, and getting a victory.

I’m quite sure they have not forgotten it, as a motivating factor for them. We can’t use that. The only thing that was is a play that happened last year.  It’s nothing that is going to help us this year.  Their quarterback is playing well. He’s done a lot of things that I’m sure Al wanted from him in the beginning. He’s improved and the team has improved; he’s surrounded himself with the running back and Travis Benjamin who really go get it.

QUESTION:   As important as David Watford’s maturation process is, what can you say about Michael Rocco’s development?

COACH LONDON:  I don’t think it’s as much as Michael’s development.  Michael played last year, and Michael started out as our starter.  I think what it allowed for him to do, even as a true sophomore quarterback, was to watch the game, observe the game, and watch the rotation of the safeties and watch the different aspects of it.

I think in terms of his development, him watching, those things have been a benefit for him.  His learning curve has continued to increase and improve. Now where we are in the situation with David is, ‘Listen, we are not going to put the added parts on your plate.  We’ll take some off your plate.’

Now with Michael, ‘You’ve been through this system. You’ve watched Marc Verica play. You’ve been through the same system, you’ve had the opportunities and started every game. We can add more on your plate.  The other thing is getting everyone around Michael to raise their level.  You have to be able to run the ball better.  We have to be able to get the ball to Kris Burd and Tim Smith.  Tim for the last couple of games has caught the long touchdown passes, and we need to continue to keep doing that and take multiple shots.

I think the best way also to help Michael would be to do some of these other things, run the ball better more and also be able to take those down-the-field shots.  Also, I think our defense is playing much better.  I think as a coaching staff, this makes sense for us right now where we are.  All of the players, teams, everyone knew from behind the scenes what was going on. Now this is an opportunity for us to move forward—rally behind one cause, and the cause is to try to win as many games as we can coming down the stretch.

QUESTION:   The running game has been improving.  How much of a say do you have in the number of running plays executed during the game?

COACH LONDON:  The coaches present how we have to attack a particular team.  I think one thing that probably got us behind the count a lot of times is that when you run the ball, you want to get in a situation where your second down is second and five, second and four, and you can always create those third and short situations where you have a chance to move.

What happens with us is N.C. State did a great job on the first down runs and then it became second and 11, second and 10.  The way to get out of that and try to minimize that, get half of that, is to throw the ball.  We we got having to throw the ball to try to get us back on schedule to make a makeable third down.

Perry Jones, Kevin Parks and an increased role with Clifton Richardson—obviously they are running backs and that’s their strength. We also need to address the strengths of some of the playmakers that we have to carry the ball.

QUESTION:   Can you expound upon the quarterback situation and when you might use David Watford?

COACH LONDON:  No, without also providing a scouting report for anyone else. I would like to get him in for some plays that he can have some success at and build confidence with him in those ways.  I’ll just leave it at that.

QUESTION: Dominique Terrell muffed a punt late in the game.  Do you need Chase Minnifield back there in order to ensure a safe catch

COACH LONDON:  I asked Coach Poindexter that myself. There were all kind of drills that we got from other places and they actually did a pretty nice job.  Even in the game there were a couple of fair catches they made with traffic in their face. Unfortunately some of the traffic was created by our own guys. Trying to block their guys and trying to track their guys presented an extra challenge to them.

With this young man, it’s going to take one return where he breaks one level, and everyone else will have a chance to see how dynamic this young man can be.

As a coach, you can say, ‘You know what, we are giving up one.’  Or, you can say, ‘You know what, we believe in you. We’ll continue to keep doing the things that are surrounding you—the guys that are running down and keeping people off of you so they are not breathing down your neck.’  Set up things that keep him successful. He had a great week of practice as you can you tell from some punts in the game, and I think he’s just one catch away from being the dynamic player we recruited and that we believe he can be.

QUESTION:   Do you have any idea where David Watford’s head is right now or what he is thinking?

COACH LONDON:  It’s a great question.  It’s a fair question when you’re dealing with it.  He’s a young freshman who’s dealing with being a student at this university, being involved in the community here—just so many different things.  I think it helps that he has his cousin, Marques Hagans, here who also played the same position.  I think it also helps that I’m a relationship type of coach; I like to talk to players and I want players to tell me about how they are feeling and what they are thinking.

Everyone wants to have success.  No one wants to fail.  With everything we do, what you guys do, no one wants to fail.  We are all human beings who feel like if something bad happens in the game, ‘Oh, man, I’m the cause of that.’

When you talk about a young player and you talk about the psychology of dealing with a young guy, I continue to keep talking about the things that he can be, the things that he wants to be.  I’m kind of the eternal optimist the way I look at things and try to be fair to him. For a young man to think that he lost the game and shoulder an entire perhaps game or turn of a season, I’m not going to allow him to have that type of a decision.

I want be you to be a student-athlete.  I want to you not to feel like you have to win everything and to relish the role that we are going to give you. Hopefully, with a few wins, maybe there’s an extra opportunity that affords to you get better as a quarterback.  With spring practice, another opportunity is going to be afforded you to get better as a quarterback.

But I have to worry about these guys.  You see them on the football field.  I worry about these guys behind the scenes in everything they do—in the classroom, everything they do. Everything affects them.  It’s a domino effect.  To be fair to the young man and to be fair to the team…he’s dynamic and he shows flashes of great run, great throw, but sometimes it might not be in his best interest.

That’s a decision that’s made and that’s why we are where we are right now.  I think that you guys had a chance to talk to guys after practice.  I don’t know if you talked to David or not, but I think he’s at peace with that to be honest with you.

He knows he’s still going to play, and there’s some things that we like to do to utilize his talents and his abilities.  I’m responsible for these guys in a lot of ways.  In a football way, you want it to happen. If it doesn’t manifest itself on the field, it provides a level frustration not only for him but people that are watching.  You know that he’s going to be good.  Then you make the decision, ‘What’s in the best interests of him?’  The team right now is moving in the direction that we are moving.

QUESTION:   What is your assessment of the defense?

COACH LONDON:  I think they have been progressing and playing well to tell you the truth.  You mention a fact that involves the special teams part of it and the turnovers.  When you get the ball on the other side of the 50, or close to the 50, 47, 48, then you’re hoping to get—if not six points—at least a field goal or at least a chance to flip the field again so now they are starting out on their own ten or five or whatever.

And I think the last couple of games, particularly where the defense had to make their holds, their stands, they have done a really nice job of playing defense, of coming up with big stops, of coming up with turnovers and providing an opportunity to shorten the field offensively.

When you’re playing, when all cylinders are hit—all three phases—it’s a great game like the Georgia Tech game.  But you need another side to pick up their side of the points, field position, whatever it may be.  It makes it tough for you.

I think we can play better defensively because, if we give up three turnovers, we have to create one more than they had.  That’s got to be the mind-set, whatever it is.  If they are running the ball, we have to stop the run.  If they are throwing the ball, we have to stop the pass.

With the development of players playing defense, LaRoy Reynolds is having an excellent season at linebacker.  Steve Greer—excellent season at linebacker.  Ausar Walcott, everybody knows he was in the doghouse before, but both he and Aaron Taliaferro are playing well at the linebacker position.  That’s critical when you change a defense—critical that they make the calls—and they are responsible for a lot of the run fits.

Coach Reid and the defensive staff have done a nice job.  Now we just have to put everything together, put it all together.  One side doesn’t get points because of the other side.  We all have to play together to win the game.  And everybody understands that.  That’s why I think our team is stronger and more resilient and more focused now than we were last year.  Last year is a different story.

You see some maturity, you see some guys still playing hard.  Those are the things that you hope just keep tipping the scale for you and give you a chance.

QUESTION:   In hindsight, do you think it would have been better to redshirt David Watford?

COACH LONDON:  I think it was important for David to have experienced what he experienced right now on the field and the opportunities that we had to evaluate and assess him in games, in situations.  I think if you ask him, he’ll be a much better quarterback.  The only other times you would get that experience is by going through the things of the game. Otherwise we would be talking about him next year, getting in the game and getting some game experience.

You have to ask him that, too.  I think he would give you an honest answer himself about the opportunities that were afforded him.  He wanted to do well, get it done well.  We would not be having this conversation, but he didn’t and he tried.  Now it’s time to make sure that this young man doesn’t continue to experience the weight of the world on his shoulders or defeat—that we try to provide opportunities for him, that ‘this was a good season for you, a good learning curve for you, and you’ll get better at this because you’ve been in games.  You’ve made big plays, big throws, big runs’

I think he’ll become a better player from this experience.

QUESTION:   Are you concerned that other teams will use N.C. State’s same defensive strategy?

COACH LONDON:  That’s another good question.  A lot of times when you’re game planning another team, you look at what worked for the previous game or what’s worked in the past.  They were tuned to take the outside plays away and set the edge, so all pass drops would have to step up into the pocket.  Through practice yesterday and through practice today, you understand that Miami has a way that they play, but you can’t stick your hand in the sand and say there will be some copycat things.  They may try to.  We are going to address how to attack those particular type of teams.  Practice today; we’ll do it again tomorrow.  We’ll keep doing it until game time.

QUESTION:   What is the difference between Jacory Harris this year and Jacory Harris last year?

COACH LONDON:  I think he’s much more patient in the pocket.  You see sometimes people are rushing at him.  I listened to Al—how he was assessing Jacory—talking about him having patience and developing second and third reads and he would become a better quarterback, more experienced quarterback. Part of that is having some surrounding guy, surrounding cast around you.  Their offensive line is big.  You have Lamar Miller and those guys that can run the ball for; you have Travis Benjamin and the other wide receivers.  He’s like 6-5, he’s unbelievable.

He can throw it up.  With all quarterbacks, you hope that they have been around the scheme, the system.  They learn how to be a quarterback by reading coverages.  Everybody is telling them, ‘Hey, you, step up to the pocket, feel the rush, this is what you need to do.’

I think he’s benefitting from that, from having a successful year thus far and where they are now offensively.  And he’ll just continue to get better, I believe.  He’s already got the height and the arm strength and the skills, and you can point it out.  His touchdown to interception ratio has dramatically increased because he can read the roads and he can put the ball and place the ball where it needs to be placed.  That’s a benefit to Miami as his development continues.