BLACKSBURG – With Syracuse up next for Virginia Tech football, head coach Justin Fuente met with the media for a press conference on Monday. Read what he had to say below.
HEAD COACH JUSTIN FUENTE
Opening Statement:
"I do have some injury updates. Unfortunately, I do not have good news. Dean Ferguson and Devon Hunter are out for the season. They'll have season-ending surgeries. Dean had been battling through numerous injuries throughout the entire season quite frankly, just incredible example of perseverance. Basically, halfway through the season, it seemed like every week was a new body part for him. This is just one bridge too far. He'll surgery here shortly. Devon obviously has been through a lot. I believe it was on a special teams play where he hurt his knee, he'll have surgery. It'll end both of those guys' seasons so there's that update. We have a tremendous challenge this week with Syracuse coming to town. This is a team that's found their identity, in my opinion. Dino [Babers] has been known as the guy that throws the ball around the park and they have really found, in my estimation at least in the last several games, found a quarterback, and certainly found their tailback. They are running the ball as well as anybody in America. They've lost three games by I think three points apiece, really heartbreaking tough games. They have kind of dipped into the Rocky Long tree of defensive coordinators. I've coached against Rocky and his scheme in the Mountain West Conference for many years. Tony White's done a great job in a short time with their defense in Syracuse and they provide a lot of problems schematically. Despite the difficult news with Dean and Devon, our guys had a great workout yesterday. We're anxious for this challenge when Syracuse comes into town."
On whether he has any injury update on DB Jermaine Waller:
"I really don't. I know Jermaine will be out there if he can. I don't think this is a long-term issue. I don't know how short term."
On the offense:
"We need to do better, starting with coaching and trickling all the way down to our execution. Pitt provides a unique challenge, you know exactly where they're going to be virtually every snap which forces you to play a different style of football. If you can't play it, it's going to be a long day, and we didn't play it well enough to give ourselves a chance. Ultimately the execution left plenty to be desired. We have to find a way to get our guys playing with some confidence and the way we played early in the year, which wasn't prolific, but it was certainly confident. We have to find a way. I've slowly watched the last several weeks a shift there in the confidence level. For defenses it's increasing and offensively it's decreased. We have to find a way to get that back to where it was. Like I said early in the year, it wasn't like we were racking out 50 Point games earlier in the year but there was just a difference in our confidence and competitive fire."
On the offensive approach vs. Pitt:
"We approached it the way we needed to approach it to go win the game. I just think we have to continue to create our identity and find a way to be more efficient on the offensive side of the ball. I've had several conversations with several guys on our staff on both sides of the ball with what I have been doing and what I need to be doing and how I can help that out. We'll continue to have those conversations."
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