Everything From Brent Pry's Media Availability Ahead of Matchup With Old Dominion
Here’s everything from head coach Brent Pry’s press conference ahead of the Hokies’ game against in-state foe Old Dominion.
1. On ODU's offense:
"On that side of the ball from them, yeah you know, they're spreading it out. They got an interesting scheme, and you know, there's certain plays that they execute really well. You know, it's a numbers game. They spread you out. They've had success running the ball at times. And I think they have to be able to do that. They want to do that. And then there's obviously the one-on-one matchups on the perimeter. You know, sometimes there's no depth to the defense out there and if they break a tackle, it's an explosive play. But you know, they're getting a lot from the sideline. A lot of check-with-me stuff trying to put themselves in the best play call. It's familiar to us from last year. So you know, they do a nice job with it. It was a successful offense at Fordham. You know, with that quarterback, that playcaller. And. You know it'sit's unique, it's different. It's not what you see all the time."
2. On the familiarity of the two teams playing each other:
"Honestly, it's the next game on the schedule for us. We got to go and be 1-0. A lot of that stuff was worked out long ago. You know, for me and our team, it's about going and being 1-0 this week, winning one on the road. You know, at night, they got a good environment over there. I know we've got some, you know, a group of fans, some Hokies over there that will be in attendance, and we'll need them to be loud and present."
3. On Quentin Reddish's impact against the Herd:
"Yeah, he had in the neighborhood of 20 snaps on defense, played a lot on teams. I thought he did. Pretty well. Certainly not you know where he wants to be, where we need him to be. But for his first, you know, significant amount of snaps. I thought it was a a good, good first run. He's a talented guy, he works very hard at it. I look for him to improve each week."
4. On Bhayshul Tuten being off of kick returns:
"Yeah, that's a good question. It's a week by week decision. You know, we felt like we needed to get him going, get our run game going. He's certainly an important ingredient in that and you know, obviously he's a threat on kickoff return and we want hime to be able to do that as well. And that may happen this weekend, it may not."
5. On the options at running back:
"Yeah, like I've I've said in the past, I think Bhayshul is a really well-rounded back, you know, he's got speed to run away. He can make a guy miss and he can put his pads up, you know [he can]roll his pads over and get that tough yardage. And he did that some Saturday. But I'm going to tell you Malachi and PJ did it as well. There was a big run that PJ had. Late in the game, I believe it was for first down where he put his head down and he's not the biggest guy, but all three guys did some of that which is necessary."
6. On the blocked punt:
"Most of all was a great job by Marshall. Coach Holt hadn't seen that, I hadn't seen that in our experiences, where you leave that outside receiver uncovered and they timed it up really good. And, You know there's nobody for that guy. You know, you would think that you know, obviously we've covered it. Now you can raise up and throw it to that guy. There's things you can do. You can slow the cadence and make some adjustments, but we hadn't seen that. Not many people have done that. We called around and and found a couple scenarios over the last few years in the NFL or in college. And how they handled it. But it was a nice job by Marshall. The operation was a hair slow, but probably not enough, you know, to make a big difference [in the block]
7. On offensive line rotation:
"Yeah. You know, obviously we're still work in progress. We've got to continue to get better. I do give credit. I thought Marshall's front was pretty good. I thought 15 [Mike Green] is a guy that could could have success in this league week-after-week. I think 33 [Deeve Harris] is a good player. I thought they had good size and strength inside. But we got to play better you know, we lost too many one on ones some at tackle some at guard. In the run game we gave up some TFL's. It got us off schedule in the first half. Where we just got beat too quick and then we gave up some rushes you know, some some things in the throw game where Kyrone just didn't even have a chance to set his feet. We got to be better there. And then as far as Brody Meadows, I anticipate him to be full go100% with us this week. And I talked to him yesterday, talked to him this morning. I think he's trending. You know to be able to go out and get a good day's work in."
8. On Dante Lovett’s performance and spot in the lineup:
“Yeah, Dante, you know, continues to earn trust defensively. Especially, he's always been a high-effort guy. You know, it's technique, it's consistency, and he's showing and demonstrating more and more of that. He made some really good plays in that ball game. He did a couple of good things on teams, so he's a guy, a second-year player, that has to continue to come on. You know, as well as Mansoor played, I mean, we've got to have that third guy that we can get a healthy rotation with. I think Dante is making us feel better and better about that.”
9. On Virginia Tech finding an offensive identity:
“Yeah, I think we're best when Kyron’s at his best. And that's play selection, that's Kyron, that's the offensive line, that's the wideouts, it's all of it. But we got to get Kyron going, get him comfortable, you know, get him playing at his best. He's done that at times in these last two weeks, and I think there's been some times that he knows, and we know, we got to do better. And some of it's kind of dispersed among a couple of other spots. I don't know that it's any one thing, but we got to play to his strengths and get him coming out the gate well.”
10. On lack of designed-runs for Kyron Drones:
“Again, some of those play calls are read plays, you know, and Marshall did a great job. They didn't want him to run it. They were crashing D-ends up the field, you know, and making him give the ball a bunch. They wanted the ball out of his hands in the run game, and we'll see that time and time again. And we're fortunate, you know, that's one of the reasons that Tuten was able to have the day he had. As a defense, you look and say, what do we need to take away? I think a lot of people are going to say we need to take away Kyron's ability to run the ball. And we've got to do a nice job of dispersing the ball around to some other pretty good guys that can do some things and get some YAC yards. We got some wideouts, we got Tuten, we got some guys that, you know, we just got to share the wealth a little bit and make sure we're making people defend multiple things.”
11. On difference between first and second half:
“Honestly, I think the biggest difference was we were off schedule in the first half. Again, too many TFLs, a couple of early down incompletions where we were third and long. You look at our third downs in the first half versus the second half—much more manageable in the second half. And that's not anything that most people wouldn't recognize. You got to stay on schedule. We did not do a good job in the first half of that. I think we had three drives. The one in the second quarter went, I think it was eight or nine plays, and we kicked a field goal. The opening drive, I think, was six or seven plays, and we lost it on downs. And then late in the half, we had a six or seven play drive. Outside of that, we were five plays or less and punting the ball. Just not good enough. We were able to, you know, that first drive of the second half, being on schedule, that was a really good example of that. We certainly have to be more of that type of offense.”
12. On ODU’s defense:
“They do a really good job defensively. They're sound, they play hard, they fit well. I think they're well-coached. It's a good group, and they were last year, they were the year before. I think Blake does a good job coordinating the show over there, and they've got the right personnel to run the scheme they run. They'll battle. They did against South Carolina, they did against East Carolina. You probably look at those games and say defensively, they did their part to win the game.”
13. On the linebacker position:
“Yeah, again, I think when you look at inside linebacker, we're kind of playing that out by committee a little bit. There's four guys, and even with McDonald, a fifth guy that are capable. Kelly got a bunch of snaps, a few that I'm sure he'd like to have back. Caleb Woodson played pretty well, had one significant misfit, but played well on teams, and you feel good about him in there. JK, Sam played better in week two than he did in week one. Those guys, I think Coach Marve and I both have very high standards at that position, and we got to continue to get better there as well.”
14 On playing group-of-five teams in the future:
“To be honest, David, it's just out of my control right now. These contracts are in place well ahead of time, and I don't worry about things I can't control. We've got to be the type of team that can go to Old Dominion and win the football game. That's who we need to be, and we'll prepare all week that way. It's a challenge to win on the road, period. It's a challenge to win a night game on the road, and it's a challenge to win against a school in your own state on the road. There's a lot at play there for us, a lot of motivation to have a great week and go play well.”
15. On Marshall’s 69-yard rush:
“Yeah, and I don't want to single Caleb out. He's doing some really good things. To be honest, that shouldn't have been the run that it was. You got to get it on the ground at the third level. We had an opportunity to get it tackled for about 12 to 15 yards and didn't. We got to do that. Thankfully, Dorian, great effort play, got the guy on the ground and gave us a chance. We got to line up and get to stop then and force the field goal. But good effort by Dorian on the play, for sure.”
16. On Mansoor Delane’s game against Marshall:
“I was pleased. I thought he played with confidence, which coming off the game against Vanderbilt, he was disappointed, we were disappointed. He had a great week of practice—technique, demeanor. He came out ready to go. I thought he played with good technique, good fundamentals. He competed and played confident. I believe the only ball that was caught on him was the one-handed, which was a heck of a catch.”
17. On the expectations of starting 4-0:
“You ask them to ignore the noise. I know that's very challenging at times. We didn't do enough to beat Vanderbilt. That was the message. It wasn't about 4-0, it wasn't about that kind of chatter. It was, did we do what we needed to do to be ready to beat Vanderbilt? And to a man, nobody felt that way. We needed to play better and have a better mindset. We need to coach better. I don't think it was ever about the 4-0, it was about what we needed to do to be 1-0 that week.”
18. On the safety position:
“To be honest, I thought the three guys manned the spot pretty well. I think we had 11 or 12 pass breakups, maybe 10 in the secondary. Really nice job. They communicated, they fit. There was quite a bit of motion with their slot, and that involves those safeties spinning and making checks. I thought they handled it well. Stro is kind of the old head that has the most snaps. Those guys owned it, had a really good week. I thought PLo did a really good job preparing them for an offense that seemed to do a fair amount of things. Quentin's a first-year player, Mose’s is a second-year player, and Jaylen's a second-year player at the position. You're not very experienced there, but I thought they played a good football game.”
CONNOR MARDIAN