Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer talks with reporters on Tuesday. The Hokies (0-1) host Furman (0-1) on Saturday in Blacksburg.
OPENING STATEMENT: How good is this profession? To see you guys and gals two times within 16 hours. No question we played the No. 1 team in the country last night, you watch the video and you’re even more impressed with them. Talented guys, well coaches guys and certainly deserve where they are. I think the bottom line for our football team is we need to get better. I think it’s very obvious that we’ve got to be better. That’s what we’re planning here this week. Brenden (Motley) will step in as the quarterback and Chris Durkin will backup, (Dwayne) Lawson will get more reps and we’ll kind of see where this goes. I think the great thing is that we have three exceptionally talented guys at quarterback. I think all of them already have some tremendous pluses but it’s game week and you don’t have a lot of reps and trying to figure out who’s the guy going to be. I think that’s going to be the challenge for our staff on a short week. That’s what we’ve got and that’s what we’re going to do.
Q. On OC Scot Loefller’s play calling with Brenden Motley at QB.
COACH BEAMER: I don’t think you can think about what might happen, I think you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. We’ll talk about that this week but to me, you can’t play that what if?
Q. On whether he was considering redshirting Lawson.
COACH BEAMER: Not really. He had a couple packages going and we talked about him playing some even in the Ohio State game, but we were concerned that it might be a little too much too soon. The other side of those is those guys that have it and I think he has it; you can’t put them on a big enough stage. No stage is too big. Michael Vick was that way, Tyrod Taylor, Bryan Randall was that way and I could go on and on with those guys we’ve had here. We’ll see, it’ll be an interesting week to see how he handles things, but the other two, Motley too how he handles things. I just saw Motley and Durkin walking down the hall. They’re in a different situation this week than they’ve ever been in. Someone’s got a chance to be the guy. It’s just a different deal.
Q. On the possibility of Dwayne Lawson seeing game time.
COACH BEAMER: Let’s practice this week then we’ll get that all figured out. [Lawson’s] a talented guy, I’ll say that. He’s a smart guy and competitive.
Q. On whether Tech outsmarted itself defensively.
COACH BEAMER: I think you give them (OSU) credit. They game-planned a lot for us and did a good job tightening their splits on us and working to get the ball outside. I thought they did a nice job and we give them credit. I think they really did a good job on us.
Q. On giving backups work against Furman.
COACH BEAMER: I haven’t thought about backups. I’ve thought about who’s going to start at quarterback and who are starters are and let’s try and go win a football game. Right now, this to me, is a tremendously important week. We need to get Virginia Tech better and we need to improve how we do things. Whether we get that accomplished in a short week, that’s where we are. I learned a long time ago you respect every opponent and our team does, we as coaches do. The whole deal that every given Saturday a guy can beat another guy and we’ve been through a few of those. In this business, once you start assuming that this is going to happen, you better tie your hat on and get ready for it to go the opposite way.
Q. On the rash of ACC Week 1 Injuries.
COACH BEAMER: I think those things just go in cycles, I don’t think there’s a clear answer that you could say proves. Some years I’ve been with teams that you go through years where no one gets hurt and teams like last year where it seems like everyone gets hurt. I think it just goes in cycles.
Q. On how Virginia Tech is approaching the short week.
COACH BEAMER: We’re going to take today and learn from our game. I think it’s really important early in the year to learn what was good and what was bad? What you need to work on? What do you need to do better? What are our shortcomings? What do we need to focus on? What are the strengths and really get those things down. As you go through the week you’re a better team for that next game so that’s where I am.
Q. On the importance of game one to game two improvement.
COACH BEAMER: You’ve got to make more improvement faster. I do think learning from what you did. Again I say this every year, college football is unique. You don’t have the exhibition games, the preseason games so when you play, you play and count it and go to the next one. I think it’s unique in that regard.
Q. On Motley’s ability to throw.
COACH BEAMER: I think it’s going to be interesting to see (Brenden) Motley with a week’s work. To me, there’s a lot of difference in the preparation between how you get your first guy ready and how you get your second guy ready. (Chris) Durkin moves into that situation where he’ll be getting a lot more reps than he got last week. I’ll be interested to see how he handles things when it’s him, it’s his offense, and how does he handle things? It’ll be interesting to watch him. I think he’s going to be fine to be honest with you. I don’t think he’ll flinch, I think he’ll be as solid as the day is long and do a good job in my opinion.
Q. On getting Bucky Hodges more involved in the offense.
COACH BEAMER: I think again, we’re talking about that. They did a good job of snugging up to Bucky and I said somewhere, a lot of people are going to snug up to Bucky. I think we’ve got to move him around. I think that’s No. 1 when you’re trying to get a guy and get matchups; you’ve got to move him around. I think that’ll be a major part of the game plan, not only Bucky. (Ryan) Malleck had a tremendous game and a lot of people underestimate the kind of player he is. He’s a tough guy, made a couple of amazing catches, big catches and he’s in the same category. You talk about an athletic guy that has size. I think you’ve got to put him in there, (Kalvin) Cline is kind of the same guy and we’ve got to get him going a little bit. I think we’ve got some different guys there and it’s not just Bucky. I think we need to think about all of them because they’re tough enough to block you inside and athletic enough to get you in space.
Q. On differences between Michael Brewer and Brenden Motley.
COACH BEAMER: About three inches, four inches (laughs). In giving Brewer his due, I’ve never seen a guy work harder during the summer in preparation. Get his receivers around him working harder, I thought he really was throwing the ball well and when you throw the ball well, it’s not just completing it but completing it where a guy can run with it and the location of the ball. I thought he was at the top of his game and we expect him back. The good thing I think we’ve got is a guy like Motley. He has had his moments and I think he has something running wise; he’s a bigger guy that’s probably a little bit faster than Brewer. Throwing wise, I think he’s good enough that’s getting better all the time. That’s where I think Motley is. Both of them are smart kids and both are good leaders. You want guys that know what’s going on and lead and both can do that.
Q. On Nijman playing a lot his first game.
COACH BEAMER: I think (Yosuah) Nijman is going to be one terrific player. He’s not right now but he’s 6’7 and athletic as all get out. Once we feed him a little bit, get him in the weight room a little bit he’s got a bright, bright future. In the end you’re building this thing but you want to be good for your conference games. The big picture you want to be good for your conference games. Hopefully when we open up the conference he’s going to be a lot better player than he was even last night. He got in there and handled himself okay. It’s tough playing in major college football against the No. 1 team in the country right out of high school, that’s tough. How they start is how they practice. (Wade) Hansen, (Jonathan) McLaughlin, Nijman and I’m about ready to get (Darius) Redman in there and give him a chance. I want to get the guys that give us the best chance to win I want to get in there. Redman is a guy that converted from tight end down to offensive tackle. He moved one position down and he’s got some athletic ability and in the end we need to shake it out and figure out who gives us the best chance to win.
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