Malik Cunningham, Redshirt Junior, QB
(When you look at the defense with all the guys missing, give me your thoughts on their performance. They had to battle a lot of things this week.)
“Defense, they played good. We were short-handed, so we knew as an offense we had to score a lot of points because [Virginia Tech’s] running back is pretty good. Their running game is pretty good. We just fell short we missed a couple opportunities that we would like to have back, but we can’t dwell on it. We have to come back to work tomorrow and get ready for Virginia.”
(What did you think offensively worked so well later in the game that didn’t work earlier in the game?)
“We decided to throw the ball. The running game wasn’t really there. It opened up a little bit for us, but we know we have a lot of weapons on the side, and we were able to see that in the second half. Those guys got the ball and got it in their hands, and we let them do what they do. We tried our hardest, but those losses like that kind of hurt.”
(When did you find out that so many of your teammates were not going to play? What was your reaction as a team when you heard it?)
“This morning. We knew that this was eventually going to hit us at some point. It has hit a lot of teams, and it was us this morning. We found out at about 9 o’clock that a couple guys on the defensive side were going to be out. It was another challenge for us as an offense. I told those guys before that game that we were going to have to score a lot of points today in order for us to win. Like I said, we fell a little short of that.”
(You heard about 9 o’clock. Have you had any communication with any of the guys who were out? What was their reaction?)
“I haven’t talked to any of those guys that are in quarantine. I was focused on the game this morning.”
(Can you give me a general reaction from you guys when you found out you were going to be missing that many guys today? It’s a shocking thing to learn the morning of the game.)
“All of our coaches preached that ‘so what, now what’?’ mentality. It’s just next man up. A lot of those young guys stepped up on the defensive side. A lot of the guys who rotate made some good strides today, and we have to grow from it tomorrow in practice.”
(You guys got behind by three scores. Coach Satterfield said it was an opportunity that you guys could’ve hung your heads, but you didn’t. What does that continue to say about this team’s will and drive to stay in games like that?)
“That we’ve just got so much fight in us that I wasn’t going to let anyone on the offense give up. There was a lot of ball left. We’ve seen it done… Last year, there were plenty of games where we were down and came back to come out on top, victorious. Like I said, we just fell short. And those losses like that, those hurt bad.”
(What did you see out of [Javian] Hawkins’ 90-yard touchdown run? What was your reaction?)
“Actually, they gave us the look. And I was reading him. It was crazy - right before the play, I had told Hawk he was going on that play on the backside end. He stayed with me, and he hit it up on the backside gap. I knew nobody on their defense was fast enough to catch him.”
Dez Fitzpatrick, Redshirt Senior, WR
(What was it like today? You had a big day with a big touchdown. What was clicking for you today?)
“Nothing more than just another game. You start throwing the ball a little bit more when you get behind a couple scores. The pass game looked good.”
(That big touchdown catch that you had - take us through that moment and the spark that it provided you guys.)
“The play called for me. It was another route, but the DB was so far off that I kind of just put my hands up and Malik [Cunningham], just quarterback/receiver timing, he knew what I was going to do. He saw the DB behind me, so just kind ran our own route right there. Big play in the game. Momentum-changer, but we’ve got to execute more after that.”
(How would you describe the challenge you guys faced today of missing nine guys and just finding out this morning that was going to be the case?)
“Everybody’s going through it all over the country at every college. We got our little taste of it on game day. Little surprise to us, but we have that so what, now what mentality. That’s what Coach Mike and Coach Satterfield preach to us all the time. You can’t look in the past. You’ve got to just move forward. You’ve got to step with your best foot forward.”
(You guys have been pretty good and safe from COVID for most of the season, and even through fall camp. Now that it has hit you, does that heighten your worries or your awareness of everything that can go on?)
“No. Matt Summers and his staff have done a tremendous job since corona even started. It’s probably just a couple of little slip-ups that just happen. I feel like we’ve done everything that we could do to prevent it. Sometimes it just finds people. That just happened to us, and so we’re just moving forward.”
Jared Goldwire, Senior, DL
(Obviously you guys were pretty short-handed up front. How do you get prepared when missing so many guys?)
“Next man up. We practice how we practice. The coaches prepared us despite the situation.”
(When did you find out about everybody being out? How did that change the game plan for what you guys might be expecting up front?)
“I found out right before pregame. Like I said, it’s just next man up. Clearly, it did change a little bit about what we were doing… we figured it out.”
(You were out there for a great majority of the snaps. Did you get any rest tonight? How much more trying was that as the game went along? Did you feel yourself wearing down?)
“No. We have a great nutrition staff, so they were keeping me hydrated and eating on the sideline. They helped me out throughout the game, so I felt energized.
(It looked like you were on the field almost the entire fourth quarter, and probably most of the game. Did you get any breaks?)
“Yeah. Dezmond Tell came in and relieved me on some drives.”
(Because of the guys out, did you feel a little more weight on your shoulders as one of those guys who was a senior up front trying to help the guys who were less experienced? Did you feel a need to show some leadership out there?)
“I just felt like keeping a positive mindset. As long as I kept that positive mindset, all we needed was the five men who played today. That was the mentality we all had.”
(Obviously, you played on short notice, and now you have a week to prepare to probably play on short notice again. “Does it help you to have that week? How do you think you are going to prepare with a small amount of guys?)
“Really that’s up to the coaching staff about how we’re going to prepare. I just know that we’re going to come out each and every day ready to practice and ready to work hard. They’re going to set a game plan and we’re going to follow it to the best of our abilities.”
(Coach mentioned that you guys this season have been safe and haven’t really had to deal with this personally yet. But now that you are dealing with and it has hit you, has it changed your view on the situation at all? Does it make you want to be that much safer and that much more careful?)
“Like Dez said, Matt and his staff have done a tremendous job up to this point. Whatever protocols they put in place, we’re going to follow.”
(Even though you were short-handed, you seemed to have battled pretty well today defensively. Were there any guys up front that maybe didn’t play in the past that you thought stood out today?)
“Derek Dorsey and Ramone [Puryear]. I thought they did tremendously on most of the plays. They haven’t really played a lot, especially Derek. I thought they did a tremendous job for being short-handed and short notice.”
(When you look at the defense with all the guys missing, give me your thoughts on their performance. They had to battle a lot of things this week.)
“Defense, they played good. We were short-handed, so we knew as an offense we had to score a lot of points because [Virginia Tech’s] running back is pretty good. Their running game is pretty good. We just fell short we missed a couple opportunities that we would like to have back, but we can’t dwell on it. We have to come back to work tomorrow and get ready for Virginia.”
(What did you think offensively worked so well later in the game that didn’t work earlier in the game?)
“We decided to throw the ball. The running game wasn’t really there. It opened up a little bit for us, but we know we have a lot of weapons on the side, and we were able to see that in the second half. Those guys got the ball and got it in their hands, and we let them do what they do. We tried our hardest, but those losses like that kind of hurt.”
(When did you find out that so many of your teammates were not going to play? What was your reaction as a team when you heard it?)
“This morning. We knew that this was eventually going to hit us at some point. It has hit a lot of teams, and it was us this morning. We found out at about 9 o’clock that a couple guys on the defensive side were going to be out. It was another challenge for us as an offense. I told those guys before that game that we were going to have to score a lot of points today in order for us to win. Like I said, we fell a little short of that.”
(You heard about 9 o’clock. Have you had any communication with any of the guys who were out? What was their reaction?)
“I haven’t talked to any of those guys that are in quarantine. I was focused on the game this morning.”
(Can you give me a general reaction from you guys when you found out you were going to be missing that many guys today? It’s a shocking thing to learn the morning of the game.)
“All of our coaches preached that ‘so what, now what’?’ mentality. It’s just next man up. A lot of those young guys stepped up on the defensive side. A lot of the guys who rotate made some good strides today, and we have to grow from it tomorrow in practice.”
(You guys got behind by three scores. Coach Satterfield said it was an opportunity that you guys could’ve hung your heads, but you didn’t. What does that continue to say about this team’s will and drive to stay in games like that?)
“That we’ve just got so much fight in us that I wasn’t going to let anyone on the offense give up. There was a lot of ball left. We’ve seen it done… Last year, there were plenty of games where we were down and came back to come out on top, victorious. Like I said, we just fell short. And those losses like that, those hurt bad.”
(What did you see out of [Javian] Hawkins’ 90-yard touchdown run? What was your reaction?)
“Actually, they gave us the look. And I was reading him. It was crazy - right before the play, I had told Hawk he was going on that play on the backside end. He stayed with me, and he hit it up on the backside gap. I knew nobody on their defense was fast enough to catch him.”
Dez Fitzpatrick, Redshirt Senior, WR
(What was it like today? You had a big day with a big touchdown. What was clicking for you today?)
“Nothing more than just another game. You start throwing the ball a little bit more when you get behind a couple scores. The pass game looked good.”
(That big touchdown catch that you had - take us through that moment and the spark that it provided you guys.)
“The play called for me. It was another route, but the DB was so far off that I kind of just put my hands up and Malik [Cunningham], just quarterback/receiver timing, he knew what I was going to do. He saw the DB behind me, so just kind ran our own route right there. Big play in the game. Momentum-changer, but we’ve got to execute more after that.”
(How would you describe the challenge you guys faced today of missing nine guys and just finding out this morning that was going to be the case?)
“Everybody’s going through it all over the country at every college. We got our little taste of it on game day. Little surprise to us, but we have that so what, now what mentality. That’s what Coach Mike and Coach Satterfield preach to us all the time. You can’t look in the past. You’ve got to just move forward. You’ve got to step with your best foot forward.”
(You guys have been pretty good and safe from COVID for most of the season, and even through fall camp. Now that it has hit you, does that heighten your worries or your awareness of everything that can go on?)
“No. Matt Summers and his staff have done a tremendous job since corona even started. It’s probably just a couple of little slip-ups that just happen. I feel like we’ve done everything that we could do to prevent it. Sometimes it just finds people. That just happened to us, and so we’re just moving forward.”
Jared Goldwire, Senior, DL
(Obviously you guys were pretty short-handed up front. How do you get prepared when missing so many guys?)
“Next man up. We practice how we practice. The coaches prepared us despite the situation.”
(When did you find out about everybody being out? How did that change the game plan for what you guys might be expecting up front?)
“I found out right before pregame. Like I said, it’s just next man up. Clearly, it did change a little bit about what we were doing… we figured it out.”
(You were out there for a great majority of the snaps. Did you get any rest tonight? How much more trying was that as the game went along? Did you feel yourself wearing down?)
“No. We have a great nutrition staff, so they were keeping me hydrated and eating on the sideline. They helped me out throughout the game, so I felt energized.
(It looked like you were on the field almost the entire fourth quarter, and probably most of the game. Did you get any breaks?)
“Yeah. Dezmond Tell came in and relieved me on some drives.”
(Because of the guys out, did you feel a little more weight on your shoulders as one of those guys who was a senior up front trying to help the guys who were less experienced? Did you feel a need to show some leadership out there?)
“I just felt like keeping a positive mindset. As long as I kept that positive mindset, all we needed was the five men who played today. That was the mentality we all had.”
(Obviously, you played on short notice, and now you have a week to prepare to probably play on short notice again. “Does it help you to have that week? How do you think you are going to prepare with a small amount of guys?)
“Really that’s up to the coaching staff about how we’re going to prepare. I just know that we’re going to come out each and every day ready to practice and ready to work hard. They’re going to set a game plan and we’re going to follow it to the best of our abilities.”
(Coach mentioned that you guys this season have been safe and haven’t really had to deal with this personally yet. But now that you are dealing with and it has hit you, has it changed your view on the situation at all? Does it make you want to be that much safer and that much more careful?)
“Like Dez said, Matt and his staff have done a tremendous job up to this point. Whatever protocols they put in place, we’re going to follow.”
(Even though you were short-handed, you seemed to have battled pretty well today defensively. Were there any guys up front that maybe didn’t play in the past that you thought stood out today?)
“Derek Dorsey and Ramone [Puryear]. I thought they did tremendously on most of the plays. They haven’t really played a lot, especially Derek. I thought they did a tremendous job for being short-handed and short notice.”
