Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – With Notre Dame 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:
"It's good to get everybody back after the bye week, good work for the young kids and a little rest for the older guys. We practiced with everyone on Thursday, the kids had a lift and run Friday morning, then fall break. We were back last night for a really good workout. We're back on our regular week schedule. Obviously big game this week, tremendous challenge. Very talented, well coached, disciplined, tough football team coming in here. You them play you realize there is a reason they've had so much success the last several years. Coach [Brian] Kelly's done a fantastic job. They're sound in their schemes, play with great effort and they have talent as well. Tremendous challenge. I know they're coming off a disappointment. I'm sure we'll just continue to fuel their fire to get back in the win column. The guys are excited and ready to go to work."
On takeaways from the practices with the younger players:
"I think it's more of a long-term investment. Sometimes that long term ends up being short term though. You just never know how the seasons going to play out. The first guy that comes to mind is Jaylen Jones. A guy that's been dealing with a little bit of an injury, but when he's been healthy has been working with the ones and rotating in. So it's good to get him in there. Jalen Stroman's another one coming from that freshmen class that are on the verge of playing a lot that had been slowed for one reason or another. It was great to get those guys in there. [Wilfried] Pene's another one that's learning the defensive line, he's been working inside and needed all that work and he took full advantage of it in terms of just showing up to really work and concentrate on his craft."
On Notre Dame's defense under a new defensive coordinator:
"I think they're quite a bit different. I think Marcus Freeman is a fantastic coach with a bright future. They gave up a couple big plays, missed a tackle or two in the first game and then have played really solid defense ever since. The foundation is man coverage, but they mix up their looks and move their front and they do quite a bit. They provide a tremendous challenge for everyone. You start thinking about diversity of looks you're going to get and the talent and the people you're going to try and play against. Quite a bit different, I would say than the last guy that was in there, but the results have been similar, very effective."
On his approach to redshirting:
"It's different than last year, last year was a one-off, unique situation. We'll handle it the same way we handled it two years ago in terms of just having those discussions each and every week. There are a couple guys that we think will contribute on special teams that we know we want to redshirt that we'll try and save those games until later on when we need them in specific spots due to injuries or the natural attrition that happens during the season. It's something we monitor closely every single week like I'm sure all the coaches do. We have a spreadsheet of participation numbers. You have really two classes that have redshirt years so I guess you can say there are more guys that are eligible to redshirt because there's two classes."