Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer talks with the news media on Monday. Virginia Tech (5-2, 3-0 ACC) takes on Duke (1-5, 0-3 ACC) on Saturday.
Opening Statement
“You look at this Duke team, they average about 400 yards per game, about 278 throwing, 122 running and completed 57 percent of their passes. The quarterback has had a little bit of a problem here lately, but I think he’s got a tremendous upside,. They have really skilled people at wide receiver, and you look at them defensively, probably all you need to say is Duke had seven turnovers and [Miami] only scored 21 points on the defense and the other touchdown was an interception by a guy that took it back to the end zone, so again it’s a team that is very, very capable and we need a good week of preparation and continue to improve as a football team ourselves.”
On the big plays allowed by the defense
“There are certain things that can be corrected, not taking the proper gap, you know we had a freshman in there on the long pass that kind of read the quarterback’s eyes and left a guy open on the backside. There’s just some things that could certainly be corrected, you look at the five or six plays and then the rest of them the average per play was pretty good, but those five or six will get you, so we’re going to work hard on making sure we have our gaps taken care of.”
On shots that Tyrod Taylor has taken, are there any health concerns?
“Well I think number one, he has benefited from Coach Gentry’s strength program. He’s a strong guy and a very well conditioned guy but yea I think anytime your quarterback is getting hit you’re concerned and he took a couple the other day that you look at on video and you’re concerned. We talked to him and told him don’t take any that you don’t need to take but sometimes being competitive he’s going to get every yard he can, but there’s no denying that when your quarterback is taking hits there’s a concern element.”
How healthy is Tyrod right now
“He’s sore but he’s healthy.”
On Ryan Williams waiting to play
“I think it’s totally up to Ryan and the thing we told him is we want him 100 percent and I think anything less than that you know he needs to wait because of the kind of back he is and being a running back, I think when your hamstring is a little tender he can’t use his abilities and his quickness his stop and go and acceleration and so forth. Our thing with him is we want you to be 100 percent.”
Will Ryan be the starter as soon as he comes back or is that something you guys haven’t decided yet?
“Well we’ll see when he’s coming back, that’ll be the first thing.”
Thoughts on reappearance in the rankings this week, and where did you have the Hokies this week?
“Well we share that at the end of the year how we have them ranked, and you know it’s good to get back in there but our main thing right now is for us to continue to get better, and I really felt like we did the other day, I thought our offense was very effective and except for about five plays on defense we were very good. We had some good things in the kicking game, you know I think there are some things you point to and I think we took another step, but the question is do we take another step this week and that’s what we need to do as a football team.”
Chris Hazley making 10 in row, on the program and these one-year senior kickers who have terrific years
“I think number one they’ve all been very smart kids, I think they really understand the situation, they understand the pressure, they understand what’s going on. And then number two, I think they’ve been around the program and we have a lot of competitions out there and we compete every week and all the kickers get involved and so I think being around the program and competing against other good kickers we’ve got three or four really good kickers out there so I think that competition makes them better too. In the end the one that is most consistent that’s whose going to kick and they understand that when they get there, if they’re the guy, they’re pretty good, I think the whole process has kind of helped a guy kick here.”
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