Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Following its 21-10 victory over Richmond on Saturday, Virginia Tech football head coach Justin Fuente and select players met with the media for a postgame press conference. Read what Fuente and the others had to say below.
HEAD COACH JUSTIN FUENTE
Opening statement:
"First of all, thanks to everybody that came out to support our kids. Obviously, I'm pleased to get out of there with a victory. We've got a bye week staring us here in the face and we're going to have to do a lot of work. After the bye week we've got eight straight games. Our guys played hard. They were ready to play. Defense was good. Offense struggled – pretty inconsistent to say the least."
On the current state of the offense:
"First of all, we played two pretty good defensive lines the last two weeks. That being said, we've been inconsistent. At times it's been pretty good, [but] not nearly consistent enough to score like we're going to need to score as the season goes along. We've got huge improvement to make. Shuffling the offensive line around shouldn't matter. All those guys have played a bunch of snaps. It's a byproduct of what we had to do, but as a whole, we've got to find a way to play better."
On putting in QB Knox Kadum:
"The timing of him going in was not prescribed. I met with Braxton [Burmeister] and Knox on Sunday of last week and told them at some point Knox was going to play in the first half. How much or how little – this wasn't a deal where one guy needed to be looking over his shoulder or whatever. The facts were Knox is going to play at some point and also Braxton was going to go back in. That was the way it was going to be. I didn't know when – it's always hard to put a timing on those things because of the flow of the game and all that stuff. On first down, we run the ball and don't help ourselves. We don't get north or south and now we're in second and long, and Knox is in a tough situation. Backed up on second and long. But that's part of playing quarterback, too. Being disciplined enough to go throw the ball away and live to play the next down. I wish it would've turned out differently for him, but where the ball was should be inconsequential to how he performs."
On QB Braxton Burmeister's performance:
"I'd say some good, some bad. He had a great week of preparation after getting some news that he didn't like. I was proud of the way he responded through preparation [and] he made some plays out there today like he has all week. He made some plays in the passing game. He gave our guys some chances to go catch the ball. Some of them we made and some of them we didn't. It certainly wasn't perfect, but I think it was better in terms of getting our guys chances to make some plays."
DEFENSIVE BACK TAE DALEY
On adjusting to Richmond's backup quarterback:
"We just trusted our keys, trusted our assignments. We made plays and [kept] doing what we've been doing in practice all week."
On what happened with Richmond's starting QB:
"Honestly, I didn't [see him get injured]. They didn't tell me he was out for the game – I wasn't aware he was out for the game until the second quarter."
RECEIVER TRÉ TURNER
On which of the two acrobatic catches was hardest:
"The second one was harder. The second was harder because I'm looking up in the air and the ball just happened to land exactly where I put my hands up. When I caught the ball, I didn't even see it, but it happened. I guess that was the toughest one and I had to make it happen."
On getting his foot down on the TD receptions:
"We practice because that white line in the end zone or on the sidelines is not going to move so you just have to know where it is. I knew I was in the air too long, so I had to get one of my feet down and I just so happened to get that left one down luckily."
QUARTERBACK BRAXTON BURMEISTER
On being told QB Knox Kadum would play in the first half:
"All I can do is control myself so I went out, worked, got better, felt like I had a good week of practice and that's all I can do."
On grading his own passing game:
"Yeah, I definitely have missed a couple throws. I feel like from an execution standpoint, I've missed a couple reads. I also feel like I've made a lot of plays out of the pocket and throwing on the run, giving our guys a chance sometimes so I feel like it's kind of been up and down. I've just got to put it all together and we'll be good."
RECEIVER TAYVION ROBINSON
On what he saw during his punt return TD:
"All week in practice, he was telling me he was going to roll punt, that it was going to be a weird look, and particularly that one. He had punted away from his coverage team, so I was like 'I got to have a chance on this one'. When I caught it, they always tell me to get north and south, and I did. I found the seam and scored."
On what it meant to him after his punt return:
"It was great, all the way across the board. The guys blocked their tails off on that return. Getting that return just kind of let everybody know that I'm not the same person I was last year. I'm a lot better, my preparation really showed out there today, and it was just exciting getting in the box."
LINEBACKER DAX HOLLIFIELD
On the Richmond QB going down:
"I thought number 9 was a good runner already, but he's a big pass threat as well and when number 17 came in they really got the personnel to run the ball so I knew what was coming, we expected a lot of running. I thought we played it well, but we knew it was coming. A lot of times they tried to rush me out of the box and run a lot of QB draws for third downs which really hurt us sometimes but other than that I thought we did a fine job."
On not allowing third down conversions:
"Third downs are critical, we focus on it a lot in fall camp, during practice, we have a lot of packages for third down, we really focus on it, I mean that's money down. First and second down that's one thing but really getting off the field, giving our offense good field position. I mean we don't want to be out there. We want our offense to be out there as much as they can and that's the key."