Press Conference: Virginia Tech football coach Justin Fuente

Virginia Tech football coach Justin Fuente talks with reporters. The #17 Hokies (4-1, 2-0 ACC) travel to Syracuse (2-4, 0-2 ACC) on Saturday.

Opening Statement: “I was really pleased with the way our kids handled everything that came with the game last week. The conditions, and obviously, we had a very talented opponent. Our kids responded to all the challenges we issued to them, and they ultimately played pretty well in some pretty tough conditions. I do want to thank everyone that came down to the game to support our kids. I thought it was a fantastic showing by Hokie Nation. It was really a special moment at the end of the game. It was really neat for our kids to high five everyone. It’s another great example as to why this is such a special place. “We have a huge challenge ahead of us this week with coach (Dino) Babers at Syracuse. We will travel up there. Offensively, I guess you can say they are from the Baylor tree of going fast and throwing the ball all over the yard. I had a chance to play against coach Babers when he was at Bowling Green last year. He did a fine job there, and he is in the process of doing a great job at Syracuse. It’s going to be a heck of a challenge for us in all areas of the game. We will have to have a great mindset and a great week of preparation as we prepare to go up there.”

On if he ever had to coach in that type of environment on Saturday and how much did the weather change their offensive game plan: “We have coached in some bad stuff before. When I was at TCU, we played at Air Force in a freezing rain type of scenario. That was as wet as a game that I have ever coached in. I was talking to someone, I can’t remember who, I think it was one of our coaches. Usually when you have that much rain, there is thunder and lightning that comes with and the game gets delayed. In this situation, there wasn’t any lightning, so you were able to play through the whole thing. I had several games delayed because of torrential down pours, but there also was lightning with that. It was kind of a unique experience. I will say this, and you all saw it, that field was in incredible shape. We were on the field, and we realized how much water was on it. I don’t know what the actual numbers were, but I know it rained a lot. The field was in remarkably good shape. How much it changed what we tried to do offensively? A lot. When you look at the flow of the game combined with the conditions, the bottom line is to try and win the ball game. If that means you only throw one pass in the second half, then that’s what it means. That’s fine with me. As long as we find a way to get the job done. It was a significant factor in the game.”

On an update with WR Isaiah Ford: “He looked fine yesterday. I’m not going into a lot of details with any of that stuff. (Associate Athletics Director, Sports Medicine) Mike Goforth does a great job. I won’t go into a lot of detail about all that stuff. They look good.”

On if it’s possible to over-prepare for Syracuse WR Amba Etta-Tawo, who leads the ACC receiving: “I don’t know if you can over prepare for anything. I think you have to be consciousness of the other weapons out there. If you are too dialed in on one guy, you can leave yourself open to be exploited in some other places. To me, we know they are going to put the ball in the air. We know they are going to operate at an incredibly fast pace. They do want to run the football as well. I think you have to be a little bit careful when you pigeon hole their scheme as purely throwing the ball. They do put up big numbers, but they do like to run the ball in between the tackles. You have to be a little bit careful with that, but obviously, you have to be mindful of the guy that leads the league in receiving. As far as becoming too dependent on one particular guy, I think that’s why you preach the way you preach in terms of the lessons you try to teach everyone. We are all a part of what we are trying to do offensively. We try and share the ball and move the ball around, so that we are harder to defend, generally speaking, because more people touch the ball.”

On how comforting is it to leave the defensive side alone with Bud Foster and focus on the offensive side of the ball: “That’s the way I’ve always done it. When I worked with Gary Patterson at TCU, and I was the offensive coordinator, and he was calling the defense. There was a clear framework from which we were expected to operate, and never once was he in there micromanaging the details of the offense. I always appreciated that. I felt like whenever I had the chance to run my own program that I would want to do it the same way. That’s the way we did it at Memphis with Barry Odom, and that’s the way we did it when Galen Scott was the coordinator. That’s the way we are doing it here with Bud (Foster). I want those guys to feel like they can create a game plan and really hone in on their area of expertise’s within the frameworks of what we are trying to set forth as a team. How nice is it to have good coaches on your staff? It’s fantastic, whether it’s Bud (Foster), (special team’s coordinator and tight ends coach) James Shibest, (offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach) Brad Cornelsen or any of the guys that we have. It’s of great comfort to know that you have really great, competent people. They are all about trying to win the game, too. They are established. They aren’t concerned with who gets the pats on the back, they are concerned on finding a way to win the ball game.”

On what his benchmarks are as he goes through a week of practice to qualify it as a good week of preparation: “I think there are a bunch of things. Part of it is just a feel for the team. I try not to be the coach at the end of the game that says ‘by the way, you didn’t prepare well on Tuesday.’ I try to tell them on Tuesday how I feel about the way they are approaching the game as opposed to after the fact. When you go out there on Tuesday, you are implementing a new game plan, and you understand that there are going to be some things that don’t go exactly the way you anticipate them to go on Saturday, in terms of guys learning what to do and learning the new looks. How are we approaching it? Are we approaching it with the right intensity, the right mentality and the right attention to detail? Is it getting better as the week goes along? I felt like our Sunday and Tuesday practices were fantastic last week. I thought our Wednesday and Thursday practices were like ‘we are just ready to play, coach. Enough of this practice stuff. It’s been two weeks. Can we please get to the game?’ It was a little bit expected. It’s a little bit of feel for your team and how they are approaching things. Then you have to take some feedback from assistant coaches and how we are approaching the week.”

On if there is something that the team is doing offensively that he is particularly proud of from an organizational standpoint: “No. it’s kind of like we are constantly working on a car. There’s a knock here and a knock there, and then you pull over and tinker with that. That’s how I feel right now about us. There were a couple of things that happened during the game Saturday that I wasn’t very happy about offensively. Honestly, we got away with it, but there are some things that are getting better. We are valuing the football, and we are becoming more of a discipline team on offense. We haven’t played at breakneck speed; which I didn’t really think we were going to get to. Part of that, if you look at the Boston College and East Carolina game, we got out ahead of them. There is really no reason to do that. The game against North Carolina, I’m not sure you want to run a lot of plays in those conditions. It’s kind of been a function of just trying to find a way to get the job done. We are constantly working on various things. It seems that things keep creeping up on what we need to address.”

On if he ever played in a dome and if the indoor facility at Tech makes a difference: “I coached inside at an NFL field or two; in Minnesota, and I think the roof was closed for the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona one time. From my understanding, this is a little bit of a different deal compared to those. We are going to try and get there. We are still working out the details of our travel. If we can make it work out between our flights and Friday schedule, I would like to get in there for a little bit even if we don’t have an organized practice to see the place a little bit. I don’t know. I think getting there and seeing a little bit will be nice, other than that, I don’t know how big of a factor it will be.”

On how successful has he been with building the culture here at Virginia Tech: “It’s a constant, I shouldn’t say battle. You can’t get tired of trying to preach your message. You can’t get tired, at least this is according to the business people I read. Whether it’s big corporations or football coaches, you continue to find ways to articulate the message and the culture. You can’t stop that. If you stop, relax or quit then it begins to deteriorate in my opinion. We continue to hit them over the head with the messages that we are trying to preach. Sometimes I think they are listening, and sometimes I am not sure. By large, I think they have done a good job accepting who we want to be and what we are trying to be, and they live that out on a daily basis.”

On how the players are handling the success to the start of the season: “It’s certainly a challenge. There are a lot of things out there, and we try to articulate the message that those things are off leading. It truly is 12 one-game seasons, and all those wonderful things can disappear if we don’t take care of our business. It kind of rings the truth for me. We have to understand why we are in this situation and the things that we have done. If we stop doing those things, then we will no longer find ourselves in the same situation. Just because you prepare and do things right doesn’t mean that you are absolutely going to win. It does not guarantee that. All it does is guarantee that you will have chance. Ultimately, you have to find a way to win the ball game.”

On whether the bad snaps of his center at North Carolina had anything to do with the weather: “I didn’t feel like that was condition-oriented. I feel like that was poor execution on our part. I was upset with myself that it happened twice quite honestly. It’s something that we have to improve on. That’s my responsibility and my fault. I am not blaming that on the kids, but we have to do a better job of being able to communicate and pull off what we were trying to do there.”

On how the offense and defense complement one another in the big picture and whether he and Coach Foster discuss different scenarios during the week: “We would love to play every game from ahead. You never really know how a game is going to play out, but you try and forecast those things out and talk those things out ahead time as best you can. Most of the time, you are wrong anyways. At least you can try to cover scenarios and think about the development of the game to ultimately end up with the best result that you can get. Then you have some brief conversations in the heat of the battle about the flow of the game. I think it easier, it doesn’t mean that you can, it’s just easier to make those decisions on the offensive side of the ball, in terms of not throwing the ball very much. Those aren’t defensive decisions. Those are pretty one-sided, but there are some of those discussions that go back-and-forth.”

On who some of the business authors are that he takes lessons from: “I don’t do much during the season. In the offseason, I pick up on whatever I can, whether it’s coaches or business people. I’m not going to stand up here and pretend like I read 35 books every summer. Anything that can help us win, I’m interested in. You always worry about it. After four years at Memphis, I was worried about if I should be talking about the same things. How should I articulate it to them? Should I try and change the way I tell them? Are they blocking me out? Are they tired of hearing it? It’s one of the things I admire about coach (Frank) Beamer and having 29 years. He continued to preach his culture, and the kids still listened to it. That’s pretty fantastic. I have a thirst to figure that out. Part of what I remember about reading was ‘don’t get tired of hitting them over the head with it.’ You can’t stop, whether it’s Walmart, Virginia Tech football or any other corporation.”