BLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech football head coach Justin Fuente, offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen, defensive coordinator Justin Hamilton and select student-athletes took the podium on Wednesday and fielded questions from the media in the Beamer-Lawson Indoor Practice Facility. Read what Fuente and others had to say:
HEAD COACH JUSTIN FUENTE
Opening statement:
"Obviously, we're excited to get the season kicked off. I'm sure every coach on this day gets up and talks about how hard his kids have been working. Throughout the summertime, we had a huge emphasis on player-led activities, leadership, and I'm really, really proud of the way our kids handled the summertime. We had great work in the winter through spring practice, and the summer is when you get a chance to have some great player ownership of your team. I think we took huge strides forward with that. Our kids look like they're in great shape. We've enjoyed a couple days off here leading up to report day and practice. We're anxious and excited to go get started, we've got a lot of work to do. We've got a challenging schedule. But we've got a great group of young guys that I think are anxious to go get after it."
On the season opener against North Carolina:
"We've played in big opening games before. We haven't really been a stranger to that, at least in our time here. So I don't know that it changes a tremendous amount. And we have known for some time that with the advent of the ACC Network, that we were going to play conference games to open up the season. I'm just happy that we've got one at home, it seems like we've been everywhere except home. So we're excited about that part of it. But we will go about our installation the way that we did, before we played West Virginia or any of the other teams we've opened up against. We've got to install the fundamentals and evaluate the young players. And then, with a week and a half or two weeks left to go, you have to turn your attention to your first opponent."
On entering camp with no quarterback competition:
"We'll continue to do it like we always do it. Guys that deserve reps will continue to get reps, and guys that prove that they don't deserve reps will get less rounds. If it heads that way, in the quarterback room or the wide receiver room or or in the linebacker room, that's how I operate. But I don't know that naming Braxton (Burmeister) as the starter really changed anything, it just is nice to know that. You know that's the direction you're clearly heading. That is a nice feeling to have. That's pretty much where we are, and we feel good about that. We look forward to helping him push along and then also bringing those guys behind it all. I know it's a lot easier on that one person. It's definitely easier on Braxton. I don't know that it's better or worse for the football team between having a competition or basically knowing who the guy is going to be. But it's certainly better for that person in the comfort of their own skin, without a doubt."
On which players Coach Fuente's family likes:
"Tyrell Smith is the favorite player in the house, period. He's got longevity. I don't know how many times he's graduated from college, but he's a favorite one, by far. My daughters call him "Juicy." I'm looking forward to seeing Dean Ferguson, somebody that has contributed for us on special teams. He and Dax (Hollifield) are playing Mike linebacker, and Dean's made huge strides. I feel great that Dean's gonna be a really good player. CJ McCray is one that kind of passed a little bit under the radar when he came here from Marshall. I haven't seen practice one day, but I can tell you, he's in the mold of Alan Tisdale. This is a longer guy that can really run that's gained weight like Alan, that gets you excited about some length and athleticism there on the defensive side of the ball at linebacker."
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR BRAD CORNELSEN
Opening statement:
"Before we get started, I'm just excited about where our team is. I'm sure I'm echoing what Coach Fuente said about our team this summer and the position that they've put themselves in. The mission is for those guys to give themselves a chance to have a great fall camp, so credit to them and the work they put in the summer. Not only Ben [Hilgart] and the staff in the weight room, but all the other people that spent the summer up here getting our guys ready to go from the nutrition staff, training room staff, and so on so forth. [I'm] just excited to get ready. The team looks good and [is] in position to give themselves a chance to have a great fall camp."
On how to assess the running back situation without Khalil Herbert:
"Those guys that have some experience, you know from Raheem [Blackshear], Jalen [Holston], Keshawn [King]. Those are the guys kind of with the most experience underneath them heading into fall. Those will be the guys that kind of mix in the most there with probably the first group up front. Khalil had a great year. he took some nice seams up in front of him and turned them into huge plays. We're going to miss that and it's time for you know for the next guy to step up and to fill those shoes. That's not easy to fill those kinds of shoes with a season like that and kind of production he had. We've got capable guys with explosiveness. Guys that can do the same."
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR JUSTIN HAMILTON
On the impact of physical size on the defensive line position group:
"You hope so. I mean for use you know, (Barno) really was just scratching the surface of his knowledge of the position last year when we moved him there and throughout the course of the year. Hopefully, he's a guy that can do some things that either get quality matchups for himself or create quality matchups for the other guys inside. That's something that as we go through fall camp, and we're looking forward to see how that progresses."
On what strides DB Chamarri Conner has made on the field?
"Let me go back and we first got him or when I first got him in 2019, he was very raw. From a drill perspective, from technique, backpedaling, transitioning, pad level, he was very raw. I mean, you could see the skills that he was very raw. We've seen him fine tune that. He's a guy that if you come over here on a Saturday or Sunday, when we're not in practice, not working, it's not uncommon at all to see him out there on the grass working by himself. He was working on the sled one day last year. I just so happened to see that. He's out in the sandpit. He's a guy that works on his craft and he's gotten much better at understanding what formations means, what splits mean, what receiver's strengths and weaknesses mean, what the meters of receivers mean, pre-snap reads for quarterbacks. He's developed a lot in those areas. He still has a lot of room where he can improve, he knows that and he will work towards that. As far as a technician, that's where I've seen him make the most strides. He's always been an aggressive contacts seeker. But technically, he's become much more sound."
