Opening statement
“When you look at Virginia, I think you see a really good football team, a team that it is one yard behind us in total defense. I think we’re third in the conference and they’re fourth. They’re physical up front, attacking, so they’ve got that part. Offensively, I think they’re talented. I think at wide receiver, they have some excellent athletes. Up front the offensive line has always been a plus for them and I think it is again. Tight ends, they use them a lot. They’re big and physical and of course at quarterback, [Phillip] Sims is completing 56 percent and [Michael] Rocco is 62 percent. I think [Perry] Jones and [Kevin] Parks out of the backfield, they’ve combined for 1,000 yards and have about 69 catches I believe between them. This is a very capable football team and of course this is the big battle in the state and we need to get ready.”
On the challenge of facing two quarterbacks
“They both throw the ball well. Rocco has had a little more experience. Sims probably runs a little bit better. I think they’re similar in that they’re both very good quarterbacks. I think they’ve got two guys that can play and they’re using them.”
On Maryland leaving the ACC to join the Big Ten
“Sorry to see them go. I’m not sure how much it would affect our conference. I don’t think it would have a great impact on our conference, but I’m sorry to see Maryland go…I’m sure finances were involved and I think this conference is strong, very strong. I think the additions that we’ve made have helped us. I think Notre Dame has certainly helped us so I feel great about the ACC.”
On the receiver rotation and Marcus Davis’ status
“We’ll see. I was proud of how he answered there in the second half, made some really good catches for us. Again, evaluation of the game enters into it and how you practice enters into it. We’ll see.”
On the shuffling around of wide receivers and how playing time was determined
“A lot of it last week was on game play. We made that decision early in the week. You’ve got some different guys that all of them played very well for the most part in this ball game.”
On if Alonzo Tweedy will continue starting at the whip position
“They’re putting the game plan together right now and kind of how the game plan goes depends on how much playing time [Ronny] VanDyke would get or how much playing time Tweedy would get so we’re in that process right now.”
On if he’s surprised with the play of Tweedy at the whip
“He’s always been a good open field tackler. You can see that in his special teams play. He has some athletic skills that can help you in certain ways on your defense.”
On what he thought of the play of his three running backs on Saturday
“Martin Scales, I can’t say enough about him. You talk about some tough running and a great pick up of a first down when we needed it there at the end. J.C. [Coleman] was jumping up in the hole and really about three or four times was like one step away from being a long run. I thought Tony Gregory really showed some speed too so I thought we took a step forward with our running backs and our running game in this particular ball game.”
On Michael Holmes’ injury
“He had trouble practicing so in the end there were other guys that had some more practice time and that’s the way we went.”
On Holmes’ availability this week
“I think he’ll be available. Again, we’ll see how we want to rotate him in there this week, but it kind of gets into which packages we use. I was certainly pleased with the way it work out last week.”
On the difference he noticed on kickoffs with Michael Branthover
“There wasn’t much difference. I do think that Branthover is a little bit better in coverage, but we’re going to go right back. We charted it all last week and I’m going to chart it again this week. The last kick, I will say this, the last kick I thought was a very good kick. It had height and the position was good. He’s had the ability to do that. Again, if you can do it one time, you can do it every time. He hadn’t kicked for awhile and the last one when we really needed one, he came through so hopefully that is a sign of what he’s going to do this week.”
On Michael Cole’s status
“I leave that up to the doctors, him and his family. We haven’t met today to get an update on that. We meet later on today.”
On Donaldven Manning’s status
“We’ll see how practice goes and whether he dresses this week or not, that hasn’t been decided for sure yet. [Donovan] Riley got in there and got a little playing time last week.”
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