championship game - HokieSports.com

2016 DR PEPPER ACC FOOTBALL

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME VIRGINIA TECH POSTGAME TRANSCRIPT THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you’d like to start with an opening statement, then we’ll open it up for questions. JUSTIN FUENTE: Congratulations to Coach Swinney. Clemson, for winning the ACC championship. They’ve got a fine ball club. I’m awfully proud of our kids. They showed up here to win the ballgame. It’s a pretty somber locker room because of that, because they didn’t just come to play a close game or do other than win the ball game. Obviously, we came up a little short but it wasn’t because we weren’t out there competing. I think our kids poured their heart and soul into this and are going to learn some life lessons from this endeavor but I’m awfully proud in the way they believed and the way they prepared and ultimately how they played. Q. Justin, how much did it take out of you guys. It was a slow start, they jumped out, and then after that, you guys were basically even. How hard was it to kind of spot them that lead early? JUSTIN FUENTE: How hard it was it to spot them a lead? Q. Well, I guess it’s easy to do that. But, I mean, how challenging was it to overcome that early deficit? JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, I mean, everything that we did out there was challenging when you’re playing a team like that. So making a first down is hard. Making a stop is hard. Executing a kickoff return or a kickoff is difficult. We’re playing one of the best teams in all of America. So, you know, you’re going to have to you’re going to have to understand going in that they’re going to make some plays and you’re going to have find a way to make some and you’re going to have to find a

way to steal a position or a prolong a drive somehow in order to give yourself a chance at the end to win the game. And we did enough of those to give ourselves a chance at the end of the game. We just weren’t able to kind of pull all the way through. Q. Justin, if you do pull all the way through on that last drive, are you going for two? JUSTIN FUENTE: Absolutely. Q. You guys got the interception early in the third quarter and then had to punt it right away. If you look at that, that’s a pretty critical sequence there? JUSTIN FUENTE: Yeah, it was disappointing. It certainly was. That was a big play. We had a short field. Didn’t do anything with it. Didn’t execute very well. That was the biggest thing, is we had on second down, if I’m not mistaken, that was the play that got reviewed that ended up being incomplete on second down there, which it it should have been an easy completion. And we were just kind of out of rhythm. I mean, we were moving a little fast and, you know, some fundamental things should have been easier there and. But, yeah, you’re correct. We needed to get points out of that. Q. You alluded to it yesterday and when you talked about the Tennessee game. If that Virginia Tech team would have shown up tonight, it would have been a different game. How much has this team grown into itself over the course of the season and is there any of that from you in the locker room afterwards maybe an attempt to lift spirits or was it just JUSTIN FUENTE: Yeah. Well, I told them the reason

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CHAMPIONSHIP GAME they hurt so bad is because of because they sold out for the cause. They they poured their heart and soul into winning the game. They believed that they were going to do that. And we came up short. And there’s nothing I could tell them to make them feel better because they did do that. That’s why it’s disappointing. But I’m awfully proud to be able to sit in front of you all and tell you all that I’m their coach. I’m proud of the way they played. I’m proud of the way they competed. I’m proud of the way we handled the ups and downs of the game, the emotion. And we have come a million miles since when we started. And we still have one more opportunity to play. And our mission is to send our seniors off the right way, get to ten wins and, you know, that work will start shortly. Q. You’ve been understandably reluctant to kind of talk about the whole year as you’re going through. I know it’s hard to do after the game right now but can you talk to just the accomplishment your first season after a division title of being in this game and playing this game as tight as you did. Have you exceeded maybe your own expectations in what you’ve done this year? JUSTIN FUENTE: Oh, I don’t know about that. You’re asking me after we just lost a conference championship game by seven points if I’m happy with our season. I mean, I’m disappointed that for our seniors we couldn’t pull this thing out because it’s a high character group of kids in there that have been through a lot and poured a lot into this, and I wish we could have I wish we collectively could have pulled them all the way through. Q. From your vantage point, how impressive was Jerod in that final stretch?

JUSTIN FUENTE: He did some good things. He kind of settled down a little bit. We hit on a couple runs, and we felt like if we could ever get a little drive going. It’s just hard to walk out there when that defense is fresh and just march the ball down the field. It’s not going to happen very often. And if we could ever sustain a few drives and get them moving around a little bit, we felt like we could do a little bit, and we did that at times, and Jerod got into a nice rhythm there at the end made some big plays. Q. Justin, how long have you had that fake punt in your back pocket, and did you feel like you needed a spark or something at that point? JUSTIN FUENTE: Yeah. We game plan them up on a weekly basis and use them when we feel like the time’s right. Just, you know, throughout this season, there just hasn’t been the right opportunity, the ball in the right spot. You know, the game going a certain way, whatever, to use to use those in general. But, you know, we felt good about it this week. We felt good about the look. And, you know, like I said, we knew we may need to do some things like that in order to give ourselves a chance and extend a drive. So felt good about the whole thing and glad we executed. Q. Then you came back with a second consecutive gadget. I mean, how unusual is that to do it back to back, and again, was that a look you guys had seen and you knew you wanted to use Sam on a pass? JUSTIN FUENTE: Yeah. That’s kind of the similar deal. I mean, we had another one or two that we didn’t pull the trigger on later in the game. But, you know, we wanted to run it into the right look. We felt like we got the right look. Obviously, we trust Sam in making



CHAMPIONSHIP GAME good decisions.

could get back into the game?

Q. You alluded to the next game. Any thoughts on what type of ballgame you guys are in line for at this point?

ISAIAH FORD: We were very confident. We have been there before, the Notre Dame game, we were down 17, and we were able to rally together and fight back. So we were confident that we could come back and we could get the job done. We just fell a little short.

JUSTIN FUENTE: I have no idea, to be honest with you. I haven’t paid any attention to that. I’ve been worried about trying to give these kids a chance to beat Clemson. So I haven’t really paid any attention to it. I’m sorry. Q. Justin, you speak to how difficult it was to get pressure on Deshaun and how good he was on the occasions when you were able to do that. JUSTIN FUENTE: Yeah. He’s you know, he’s just he’s got so many weapons around him that are so dangerous, and you’ve got to pick your spots on trying to come after him. And we did and got some pressure on him particularly early. You know, getting a couple of those drive extending penalties in the first half hurt us, especially when we were in good position too, you know. I mean, we were in good in a good spot there. You know, kind of hurt us. But at times we were able to get some pressure and get him off the spot and try to make him uncomfortable. But he’s a very good player. I mean, he’s played in a lot of games. He’s an accomplished player. We knew that coming in. And you know guys like that are going to make some plays.

Q. When Jerod was walking off the field after that last throw he had, it seems seemed like people were kind of coming around him. Were you one of those guys around him to say anything to him, were you guys saying anything to each other on the sideline at that point? ISAIAH FORD: I just told that I loved him and just to keep his head up, you know. He played a tough, great game. He’s hard on himself so I know he’ll think about this in pro ball, but just to keep his head up. Q. Isaiah, I know it’s tough to do after a loss, but what this team’s accomplished this year in coach’s first season, how can you kind of sum up the progress you guys have made? ISAIAH FORD: To be honest, I can’t really think about that right now. It’s a tough loss and I really wanted to win this game, especially for our seniors so I’m sorry. I can’t really answer that one.

ISAIAH FORD

TRAVON McMILLIAN

Q. Isaiah, they obviously got off to a quick start, and you guys were able to get basically all the way back into it. How tough was it to kind of fall behind early, and how confident were you guys that you

On the team’s comeback: “I’m just really proud of our seniors, the leadership we have on this team. We never give up. We continue to



CHAMPIONSHIP GAME fight and when we’re going through adversity that’s when we’re at our best. We continue to fight and we came up short today. We definitely showed the character we have on this team.” On what could have been: “We just tried to prepare as best as we could this week--with practicing everything and give it our best shot.”

us. The only ones who believed in us, was us. I’m just thankful we’ve gotten to this point.” AUGIE CONTE On Virginia Tech’s ability to produce and come back: “Jerod had some good throws and runs. It was a pretty decent team effort in the fourth quarter.”

KEN EKANEM “There was a lot of talent all the way around. We made a lot of mistakes in the game and [Clemson] capitalized on it. They’re a good enough team. We don’t need to help them with penalties. We were just not doing our assignments. We messed up.” On the comeback: “Well, we’ve been in this position before so no one has been feeling the pressure. We needed to come out, execute the plan, and close the gap for us. It kept us in the game. I’m proud of our guys on offense, especially trying to get us back in the game. We just have to do better. Penalty-wise we just cannot give up that yardage.

ANDREW MOTUAPUAKA On the close game: “We expected to come out and win. We didn’t want to just come here and play the game and be out there. We wanted to win the game. No one ever believed in
