Season Opener, COVID-19 & Injuries

“I felt like we had a really good camp. We had more really minor injuries than then we wanted, We had some pulls and some soreness that kept some guys out. But we feel like we’re in pretty good shape for game week.

“The opening games are really, really tricky. This is my 33rd one. and you, as a head coach have to make a lot of decisions. How much do you run? How much do you hit? How much do you stay out in the sun? You’ve got a night ballgame, it’ll be half-light and half- dark with a six o’clock starting time. But you don’t want to be too tired and dead leg it but you got to get your work done.

“We’re in a different place than we were two years ago. And even last year, we’ve got to decide who plays and how many plays that they play. You have to earn the right to play. And the players do that, the coaches really don’t decide that, the players do. But now even on a Monday, for a Friday night game, you’ve got to decide, when do you take a certain defensive lineman out, put another guy in for four plays or six plays or 10 plays? When is the backup guy as good as the starter when the starter is tired? We’ve played some guys, 90 something plays at Virginia Tech a couple of years ago on defense and the defensive line, and that’s just ridiculous, that’s too much. Then you wonder why you lose late in the ballgame. So, we’re still working on all of those things as we start working toward the game on Friday night. We wanted to create depth as a team and we feel like we did that. We’re a lot deeper with this team than we’d been with any of the other teams that we have had.

“Most first games are lost more than won. You watch those games Saturday and there’s so many mistakes. You just hope as a as a coaching staff that you’ve helped your team prepare to a point that they’ll have fewer mistakes. You go back and look at, even on the road night games early, we lose to Florida State and we have two blocked punts in the game. We have an interception for a touchdown in the game. We have a situation where they drive the length of the field or 75 yards in a minute, 26 seconds and score right before the half. Then we dropped a punt at the 30. That’s 20 something points that you give up on the road that you just can’t do. Then the same at Virginia. There’s a 75-yard flare for a touchdown. There’s an interception at their 30. There’s a dropped punt at their 30. We botched a touchdown right before the half and then didn’t stop a fake punt at the end. So those are things that you can’t do and win ballgames and we need to improve in those areas on Friday night. Do you want to open up with a regional rival on the road, a huge conference game? Probably not. But that’s done by TV. We don’t get asked. Does it excite your players and your fans in the summer? Yes. So you probably work harder than if you were opening up with a lesser opponent.

“Unlike some people, I love going to stadiums that are full and have passionate fans like Virginia Tech. Especially after last year, our young people didn’t get to experience full stadiums, and that’s just not the way college football is. You missed the pageantry and the fun. Virginia Tech’s got the great opening, they’ve got the tremendous fans and it’s a fun place to play. A challenging place to play, but it’s a fun challenge. I know our guys really, really look forward to going up there and loved that atmosphere two years ago. You’ve got to really compliment the Virginia Tech fans because they’re as good as any fans in the country.

“In this game, like all others you’ve got to win the rushing battle and that’s hard for us because they’ve rushed for over 250 yards against us the last two years. And three of the five starting offensive linemen are back. That center, left guard, and left tackle are as good as anybody in college football. And as I look three or four of these guys are from North Carolina, so we can’t let really good players like this get out of state. Then you’ve got to win the turnover battle and who knows? When you’re working with new receivers and new running backs, it’s always a concern with ball security. We’ve got to force more turnovers, that’s something we haven’t done the last two years that we need to do. But stopping the run against Virginia Tech will be the toughest thing because they have been tougher than we are and more physical than we’ve been for the last two years, so that’s something that has to get better on Friday night. We’ve got to handle the atmosphere, but I think again, that’s fun. That’s something that you enjoy doing. You’ve got to play hard. One thing I’ll give Virginia Tech credit for is both years we’ve played them, they haven’t given up. They were behind at Virginia Tech two years ago and came back and fought. Last year they were behind, they score, the onside kick, they score again, and they kept a game close that we were moving the ball really, really well in.” 

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