Doeren's Virginia Tech Scouting Report
Last Saturday, NC State was the team playing its season opener while its opponent, Wake Forest, already had a game under its belt.
This week the roles will be reversed.
The Wolfpack will be the more seasoned team, coming off a 45-42 win against the Deacons while the Hokies are still waiting to play for the first time after having two games postponed by COVID-19.
There is still a chance they won't have enough players available to answer the bell against State on Saturday. But if they do, here's what Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren had to say about the matchup during his regular weekly media conference on Monday:
"They have nine starters back on offense, eight on defense and all three specialists return for them, so they’re a very experienced team, a team that’s been to 27 straight bowl games.
"Obviously with two of their former coaches here, we know their personnel, (we) just don’t know who’s going to play with what they’ve been dealing with. So we’ll have to feel that out once we get into the game. They’re a very physical team, they’re a blue-collar team, very proud football team. We look forward to competing against them and playing a game in a great stadium and great environment.
"They have a new defensive coordinator, so we’ll see what goes on if there’s changes to their scheme. Obviously they ran a system under Bud Foster that was very successful for a long time and the new DC did play for him. But we do expect to see some things different. (We're) just not sure what they’ll be until we get into the game. But they’ve always been who they are. They load the box, they force you to throw the football because they’ve got numbers. They’re aggressive. They play with good technique. They’re very sound.
"On offense, they’re a balanced offense, lots of tempo, lots of formations, lots of motion, jet schemes and read schemes on your edges with counters and powers and quarterbacks that can run the football and throw. It’s going to be a different challenge than we had last week, and one that we’re looking forward to.
"Today is our off day, so we get a chance to heal up. We didn’t get home, playing an 8 o’clock game until pretty late. The guys came in on both sides of the ball and both sides of the ball played a lot of snaps. But the kids bounced back pretty good yesterday. We had good meetings with them. Now we’re just kind of getting our stuff together here as we get ready for our practice tomorrow.
"ACC football is four quarter football. We know we’re going to be playing a team that we went through the same thing they’re coming out of and how that can affect your conditioning. We had that in our games. We expect to see a lot of their players rotating. But I know they’re not going to change who they are. They’re a tough group and they’re well-coached."
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