“First of all, just give Virginia Tech a lot of credit. We knew they were a good football team coming in. I think their coaching staff does a really, really good job at what they do. They want to run the football and then be solid in everything else. I thought they came out tonight, and that's what they did. They established the run and were able to get some big plays off of that run. We didn't do much offensively at the beginning of the game and then they jumped out to a 21-0 lead. I told our guys I was really proud of them because of what they did. They easily could have just said 'Man, this game's over, we're missing some guys’… Start hanging your head and start making excuses, but they didn't do that. They continued to fight. I thought we got a big spark out of Hawk's [Javian Hawkins] run right before the half – 90-yard touchdown run into halftime, there's a lot of spirit there. You come back out in the second half and you're just battling back and forth. I thought [Malik] Cunningham played a really good game today. One bad throw on the interception. The other two interceptions were a tipped ball by a receiver and then fourth down play where you’ve got to just throw it in the end zone. Thought he played outstanding there, particularly the last few drives there in the fourth quarter. A lot of fight, just came up a little bit short… didn't get enough plays there at the end and had a hard time stopping them there on some of those drives right there at the end of the game. But again, I'm proud of our guys. Tough, tough way to end it, though.”
(When did you find out you were going to be missing so many guys today and with most of those absences COVID related?)
“We found out this morning on most of those guys. You are correct with that. We're in the year of this virus we have to deal with. We've been doing a great job with it, really this whole time. Really got caught with it today, right now. This is the most difficult time really for all us coaches, because you're dealing with all these parameters that we have with this, and the hand that you're dealt, you’ve got to deal with it and move forward and that's what we did.”
(Because of how depleted your defense was, what kind of adjustments did you have to make maybe even today in terms of personnel and alignment and strategy, trying to get some of the guys up front particularly some breathers?)
“Very difficult to do. We were down to five D-linemen today, and we usually like to play seven or eight. And on top of that, you're playing a team that wants to run the football and they're one of the best in the country at that. And that's very difficult. We tried to get a couple of linebackers, if we need to get some spells, let those guys come in there and play D-line, but we really ended up just rotating those five guys, trying to keep them as fresh as you can, which is difficult. Monty Montgomery was out at linebacker. He's arguably one of our best playmakers on the defensive side of the ball. So you missed him Isaiah Hayes was out, starting safety, who is basically the quarterback of the defense back in the back end. What we did, we told the other guys 'now's your opportunity and your chance to come out and make some plays. Maybe you haven't gotten as many reps in a game, so now's your time. You're training just like everybody else.' Those guys went out and I thought played really hard, and gave everything they had tonight and at the end of it, it wasn't good enough. But you’ve got to make adjustments the best you can and really, when you don't have that many players on one side of the ball, there's not a whole lot you can do. We don't have a bunch of guys to go to anyway. So that's all you have. That's all we had to work with. So we were just rotating those guys in and probably got wore down a little bit there by the fourth quarter.”
(On the onside kick within a score late in the game, what was the thought process behind that?)
“It was a hard time stopping them, number one. You want to get the ball back. The one thing they can do when they occupied the ball is run the time out. Time was of the essence and we needed to score and we need to score quickly. The first time that we did onside with five minutes to go we were thinking maybe we can catch them off guard. And I think we did catch them off guard a little bit with that, though. Anytime on an onside kick you got to get the proper bounce. The first one, they ended up getting the ball on the 30-yard line, which was like it would be on a normal kick anyway. And so you're trying to get the ball, maybe it bounces your way. The second one, we did have them outflanked on that one. And the ball’s just got to bounce, it bounced right over Hawkins' head. It was just one of those deals, it's bouncing and then all of a sudden goes right over the head and then last one there, it was a perfect kick, [Javian] Hawkins got it, they got us for the delay of game, so we're one second past the delay of game. We're trying to win the game. That's why we onside kicked it. If you kick it deep and they melt out five minutes of the clock, you don't even give yourself a chance, so we were just trying to win the game.”
(How would you evaluate how the offensive line played over the course of this game?)
“The first play we got sacked. And it was a play where they slanted the defensive end, all the way underneath the offensive line. It was a good move by them. It's hard… we’ll have to go back and see how they actually really played. I thought during the second half when they knew we were going to throw in the fourth quarter. I thought they did a really good job with protection. I think it was a couple things early in the game that they were doing some stunts to be able to beat our offensive line and get in the backfield. And a couple others were coverage issues as well. I think I have to go back and look. I thought we played okay. Was it great, probably not great. But it wasn't bad either. I think they were just probably solid. As we go back and look at the film, we'll have more idea about how they played.”
(On Javian Hawkins’ big run to end the first half)
“That's a set that we like in third-down situations. A three-by-one with four wide and sometimes teams don't load up the weak side and that's where he ended up hitting. We run a play to the weak side and one of his great attributes is to be able to run fast once he breaks past the linebackers. He got a couple of good blocks down the field and was able to turn on the speed. He's a great big play threat back and is one of the best in the country. If you go back and look at his numbers over the last year and a half, he's one of those guys that's probably got as many 20-plus yard runs as anybody. He showed that again that you're never out of it when you give him the football. He's got an opportunity to score, and he's a special player and he competes his tail off. I love the way he plays. So that was a big spark for us right before halftime.”
(How do you prepare for Virginia going forward with so many defensive players out today?)
“In this world we're living in this year 2020, you take everything day by day. So, we'll look at it tomorrow and we'll figure out where we are with everybody and see what we need to do personnel-wise. When it gets thrown to you on a Saturday morning before you get to play, you really don't have much time to change anything that you've already worked on that whole week. The only positive is now where you actually know, so you can have a little bit more time to kind of game plan to figure out where we need to put guys with your personnel to see what we need to do. We'll assess it tomorrow, and we'll figure out what we need to do as far as, is there anybody we need to move around. Are there any young guys that haven't played a whole lot and now we need to get some reps. That is what ends up happening, trying to get guys reps throughout practice so they know what the game plan is. We will know more about that tomorrow, probably Monday and kind of give you an update on that.”
(A large majority of the players out today were on defense, have you done any contact tracing for a specific issue like a party or a meeting where all these guys were?)
“No, I don't think it was any of that. I think it's really an issue where all it takes is one. One person, and then all of a sudden, maybe it’s one other and one other. It's really not anything we can link it back to. It just came on to us this morning. We haven't had a ton of great time to investigate but I don't suspect it's anything like you mentioned there as far as parties or any of that kind of thing. Our guys have been outstanding this whole time since they've been back. They understand the ramifications of when you're out and about and what could happen. We're on a college campus, where there's a lot of people. So you never know. I don't think anybody truly knows where they come in contact. But I think our guys do a really good job with it.”
(Clemson announced that Trevor Lawrence will not play next week, do you know if these guys will be out for next week's game?)
“I don't know. We will address it tomorrow and by Monday we'll have a pretty good update. We'll see where everybody's going to be located with that. Obviously, there's protocols and there's certain days everybody has to wait. For some, they will be out next week and for others they may be back, so we'll have to see.”
(When did you find out you were going to be missing so many guys today and with most of those absences COVID related?)
“We found out this morning on most of those guys. You are correct with that. We're in the year of this virus we have to deal with. We've been doing a great job with it, really this whole time. Really got caught with it today, right now. This is the most difficult time really for all us coaches, because you're dealing with all these parameters that we have with this, and the hand that you're dealt, you’ve got to deal with it and move forward and that's what we did.”
(Because of how depleted your defense was, what kind of adjustments did you have to make maybe even today in terms of personnel and alignment and strategy, trying to get some of the guys up front particularly some breathers?)
“Very difficult to do. We were down to five D-linemen today, and we usually like to play seven or eight. And on top of that, you're playing a team that wants to run the football and they're one of the best in the country at that. And that's very difficult. We tried to get a couple of linebackers, if we need to get some spells, let those guys come in there and play D-line, but we really ended up just rotating those five guys, trying to keep them as fresh as you can, which is difficult. Monty Montgomery was out at linebacker. He's arguably one of our best playmakers on the defensive side of the ball. So you missed him Isaiah Hayes was out, starting safety, who is basically the quarterback of the defense back in the back end. What we did, we told the other guys 'now's your opportunity and your chance to come out and make some plays. Maybe you haven't gotten as many reps in a game, so now's your time. You're training just like everybody else.' Those guys went out and I thought played really hard, and gave everything they had tonight and at the end of it, it wasn't good enough. But you’ve got to make adjustments the best you can and really, when you don't have that many players on one side of the ball, there's not a whole lot you can do. We don't have a bunch of guys to go to anyway. So that's all you have. That's all we had to work with. So we were just rotating those guys in and probably got wore down a little bit there by the fourth quarter.”
(On the onside kick within a score late in the game, what was the thought process behind that?)
“It was a hard time stopping them, number one. You want to get the ball back. The one thing they can do when they occupied the ball is run the time out. Time was of the essence and we needed to score and we need to score quickly. The first time that we did onside with five minutes to go we were thinking maybe we can catch them off guard. And I think we did catch them off guard a little bit with that, though. Anytime on an onside kick you got to get the proper bounce. The first one, they ended up getting the ball on the 30-yard line, which was like it would be on a normal kick anyway. And so you're trying to get the ball, maybe it bounces your way. The second one, we did have them outflanked on that one. And the ball’s just got to bounce, it bounced right over Hawkins' head. It was just one of those deals, it's bouncing and then all of a sudden goes right over the head and then last one there, it was a perfect kick, [Javian] Hawkins got it, they got us for the delay of game, so we're one second past the delay of game. We're trying to win the game. That's why we onside kicked it. If you kick it deep and they melt out five minutes of the clock, you don't even give yourself a chance, so we were just trying to win the game.”
(How would you evaluate how the offensive line played over the course of this game?)
“The first play we got sacked. And it was a play where they slanted the defensive end, all the way underneath the offensive line. It was a good move by them. It's hard… we’ll have to go back and see how they actually really played. I thought during the second half when they knew we were going to throw in the fourth quarter. I thought they did a really good job with protection. I think it was a couple things early in the game that they were doing some stunts to be able to beat our offensive line and get in the backfield. And a couple others were coverage issues as well. I think I have to go back and look. I thought we played okay. Was it great, probably not great. But it wasn't bad either. I think they were just probably solid. As we go back and look at the film, we'll have more idea about how they played.”
(On Javian Hawkins’ big run to end the first half)
“That's a set that we like in third-down situations. A three-by-one with four wide and sometimes teams don't load up the weak side and that's where he ended up hitting. We run a play to the weak side and one of his great attributes is to be able to run fast once he breaks past the linebackers. He got a couple of good blocks down the field and was able to turn on the speed. He's a great big play threat back and is one of the best in the country. If you go back and look at his numbers over the last year and a half, he's one of those guys that's probably got as many 20-plus yard runs as anybody. He showed that again that you're never out of it when you give him the football. He's got an opportunity to score, and he's a special player and he competes his tail off. I love the way he plays. So that was a big spark for us right before halftime.”
(How do you prepare for Virginia going forward with so many defensive players out today?)
“In this world we're living in this year 2020, you take everything day by day. So, we'll look at it tomorrow and we'll figure out where we are with everybody and see what we need to do personnel-wise. When it gets thrown to you on a Saturday morning before you get to play, you really don't have much time to change anything that you've already worked on that whole week. The only positive is now where you actually know, so you can have a little bit more time to kind of game plan to figure out where we need to put guys with your personnel to see what we need to do. We'll assess it tomorrow, and we'll figure out what we need to do as far as, is there anybody we need to move around. Are there any young guys that haven't played a whole lot and now we need to get some reps. That is what ends up happening, trying to get guys reps throughout practice so they know what the game plan is. We will know more about that tomorrow, probably Monday and kind of give you an update on that.”
(A large majority of the players out today were on defense, have you done any contact tracing for a specific issue like a party or a meeting where all these guys were?)
“No, I don't think it was any of that. I think it's really an issue where all it takes is one. One person, and then all of a sudden, maybe it’s one other and one other. It's really not anything we can link it back to. It just came on to us this morning. We haven't had a ton of great time to investigate but I don't suspect it's anything like you mentioned there as far as parties or any of that kind of thing. Our guys have been outstanding this whole time since they've been back. They understand the ramifications of when you're out and about and what could happen. We're on a college campus, where there's a lot of people. So you never know. I don't think anybody truly knows where they come in contact. But I think our guys do a really good job with it.”
(Clemson announced that Trevor Lawrence will not play next week, do you know if these guys will be out for next week's game?)
“I don't know. We will address it tomorrow and by Monday we'll have a pretty good update. We'll see where everybody's going to be located with that. Obviously, there's protocols and there's certain days everybody has to wait. For some, they will be out next week and for others they may be back, so we'll have to see.”
