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Press Conference: Frank Beamer

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Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer talks with the news media. Virginia Tech (8-2, 6-0 ACC) travels to Miami (7-3, 5-2 ACC) on Saturday.

Opening Statement

I can tell you it’s not getting any easier. You turn on that tape of Miami and you see a really good football team, a team that can strike several ways, a team that’s playing great defense. I think they’re number two in the conference in total defense, 19th in the country. They lead the conference in pass defense efficiency. Just overall has got some great speed on offense, offensive line led by Franklin in there, but I think they’re really good up front and then they’ve got a couple of defensive lineman that are special too, and linebackers, I mean this is a good football team.

Why did Ryan Williams not return kickoffs this past game, and who are you going to have back there this Saturday?

I think Ryan decided that he would rather not do that, and you want a guy back there that wants to be there, and I’m not sure what Ryan’s reasoning was but you know it was his decision. And back there this week it’ll probably be the two guys that we ended up with, Carmichael and Hosley.

On Jayron Hosley’s season

Well he’s quite a talent. [Brandon] Flowers, who is from that high school said ‘hey he’s just like me’ so he convinced us that we needed to go down there and recruit him and boy am I glad we did. He just has a lot of natural abilities, he’s very good playing the ball, not only good hands but good instincts as to where the ball is and when to go for it and so forth and he’s a tough kid, he’s tough minded and tough physically and does a good job with those punt returns so he does a lot of good things for us.

Any good game that stands out to you about Jayron

Well you go back to the NC State game and I think he’s that National Player of the Week that week I believe, I think he had three interceptions and did a great job one-on-one out there and did a great job.

On special teams and what doing well on special teams means to you and the players

Well it’s an area that I think is the quickest way to win a football game because you’re always talking about big yardage plays, momentum plays, so from that standpoint trying to win games. I think that’s the quickest way is to have good play there. But I can tell you this team we’re getting ready to play; they’re really good on special teams. They’re athletic and you look at their schemes and so forth, and this is a good crowd that we’re getting ready to special team wise.

On the lack of blocked field goals and punts, anything you can point to

Not particularly, we haven’t gone after quite as many as we have in the past because sometimes you’re facing that shield protection where they’ve got three guys there and sometimes it’s easier to return against that than it is to try and block a punt against that. But I think generally speaking people do a better job on special teams than they did a few years ago. I think you used to be able to out scheme some people but anymore I think a lot of people are using good players on special teams and I think most people are playing better special teams than they did a few years ago.

On preparing for what quarterback they will face against Miami

I don’t think their game plan changes a lot with who plays quarterback. You know Harris is a real talent and has been good for them for a long time then the Morris kid comes in there and is very poised for a freshman, got good pocket presence. I mean he’s done a heck of a job for them so I don’t think their game plan changes a whole lot regardless of what quarterback plays.

On Tariq Edwards playing more toward the end

I think Lyndell got winded there a little bit, but we are, you know Tariq did a nice job on kickoff coverage and made an exceptional play, and I was talking to Coach Foster yesterday and we’re going to look to get him a little more playing time. He needs to practice well so you’ve got a little more confidence in him, but it seems like when he gets in there he does well, but you know we want him to practice well.

On David Wilson and the possibility of playing this weekend

Well we’ll see you know he’s listed in blue, light work right now and you know we’ll announce that on Thursday, but yea you hope you’ve got him for sure and he’s feeling really good, I know Coach Mike talked to him yesterday morning I believe it was.

On Jarrett Boykin injury

An AC sprain is what they’ve got it listed as and he’s toughed it out and hung in there and played.

On injuries and being banged up towards the end of the year

You know DJ Coles is coming back, he’s listed in blue right now and what he can do we’ll find out this week, but you’re right we’ve got some guys dinged up at that position.

On Drager and his probability to play on Saturday

We’ve got him listed as blue right now, they did some other testing on him and he checked out good so we’ll figure that out on Thursday what we’re going to do for sure.

On Ryan Williams, and is it normal for the players to have that much input about what they do and don’t do

Oh yea absolutely, I think when you talk about your punt returners and your kickoff returners they have a lot of say there as far as if they want to do it or not.

On Miami’s running game

Well you know between Berry, Miller, and James I think they’ve got 186 yards rushing a game and Berry’s got 85 and Miller’s got 58 and James’ has got 35 then you add a fourth one so they keep them fresh and they pound you and a lot of that goes back to that offensive line, you know they’re big and mobile and tough and so they’ve got it rolling pretty good in that running game and of course that helps your passing game so I think they’ve got it rolling really well offensively. And defensively, I read all those stats in the beginning they’re right up there in the conference and nationally in the stats defensively, they are good.

When you can afford to lose a game, is there a concern that the players might take that for granted

I would hope not, our leadership has been good and we play each game as hard as we can possibly play it and it doesn’t take long to realize you better play a great, great football game this weekend against this Miami team, you know they’ve got it, they are good and so I think we’ve done a good job at taking it one game at a time and playing it as hard as we can and I expect us to do the same this week, and I know we have to, to have any shot at winning this thing.

On the mood was when the team started 0-2

I don’t think the mood ever changed, I don’t think you can come back from two tough losses in not even a week you know we played on Monday and then we played on Saturday, and had two tough losses, I don’t think you come back from that unless you’ve got really good kids and we have really good character kids. Tyrod Taylor leads us on offense and John Graves leads us on defense and we have some other guys in there, Davon Morgan and Andre Smith and Rashad Carmichael, I think the leadership is good and we went back to work and you couldn’t tell a lot difference between the Monday practice for Boise State and the Monday practice for East Carolina so it was right back to work. So I’m proud of our players and I think it all starts with your coaching staff, you know our coaches do well but our players really hung in there.

On the game in the rain last year and if this game will motivate them this year or is that overrated

I think it’s overrated, you know I think it’s a different year, it’s different players, and hopefully it’s not going to be raining Saturday you know that was a miserable day from a weather standpoint and then things just kind of went our way, we got some big plays and it went our way and games happen like that, but if you start trying to play another game because of what happened last year I think you’re going down the wrong road there so we certainly understand that we need to be ready to play a great football game here Saturday.

On the Miami offensive line

Oh wow that Franklin guy over there, he’s big time, 6’7″, then you go on the other side and they’re playing a freshman Henderson and he’s 6’8″. Our guys won’t have any trouble getting leverage we’ll be underneath them that’s for sure just from the height standpoint, but it’s a good offensive line I think a real plus for them is there offensive line and you know they’ve got good backs but you’ve got to have good blocking to get yards, and I think they’re really good.

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