Postgame Quotes: Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech Head Coach Justin Fuente

JUSTIN FUENTE: I was tickled to death. Our guys responded like we asked them to do. We didn't play particularly fantastic at times, disappointed in the penalties, but played well enough to beat a very physical and tough, hard-nosed football team at their place. We played really well on 3rd down defensively. In the first half, we made a few more plays on 3rd down. We got pretty far down the ol' depth chart there at the wide receiver position, but I thought the young guys stepped in and performed admirably.

We're into bye week and need to focus on some self-improvement, get some guys healthy and get ready for the next stretch.

Q. You mentioned the young guys stepping up at receiver. You don't have (C.J.) Carroll, Cam (Phillips) goes out. What's going through your mind at that point?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Well, that's why we work those guys. Obviously we'd like to have Cam out there when C.J. has been so steady for us, but that's part of the deal. That's why we rep all the guys that we do, to try and prepare them for that opportunity, and it was good to see Eric (Kumah) make some contested catches on some slants in there in coverage on 3rd down. Murphy, I don't know how many catches he had -- he had a couple catches in the first half, I don't know if he had one in the second. But it was good to get those guys in there and playing well. We've got to get them playing a little better without the ball. There are some things we've got to get done.

Q. Are you at least encouraged by information you've gotten so far on Cam (Phillips)?
JUSTIN FUENTE: Yeah, and the limited information I got, I have, everything checked out as a sprain, and the bye week is coming at a good time. We'll get him healthy and get ready to go.

Q. Five sacks tonight, 109 rushing yards --
JUSTIN FUENTE: Yeah, I thought that was some shared responsibility there. First of all, they're really good at end. Really good. And second of all, there's a couple times I thought Josh, when things just weren't right, we were getting tired a little bit at wide out. At times guys weren't just that open. I thought we held the ball just a little too long. I told Josh a couple times, just throw that away and just go play the next play. It's just part of his kind of maturation process. So combine that with the fact that we caused them some problems, which probably led to that inflated number. That number is far too many.

Q. Obviously with Cam out, Eric really stepped up seemed like at receiver. Especially your touchdown scoring drive in the second quarter he had three catches on 3rd downs.
JUSTIN FUENTE: Yeah, some big plays on 3rd down into man coverage - really, really encouraging to see Eric win those inside routes and break a tackle and make some good plays. It was nice, because you're right, usually that's Cam in there, and that's what a team does. That's what a team needs. That's what we need - our young guys to continue to improve to give ourselves a chance to be the best that we can be.

QB JOSH JACKSON
Q. You don't have CJ tonight, and you're missing Cam. What's going through your head, and what do you think about the younger guys stepping up on the offense?
JOSH JACKSON: I wouldn't say too much, it's just next guy up. Savoy and Kumah obviously had good games, they stepped up, and I had seen them do that in practice all week long, all season long, so got great -- we have good depth at receiver, so I wasn't too worried.

Q. You hit Kumah on 3rd down passes that moved the chains. Is that something he does regularly in practice?
JOSH JACKSON: I mean, we haven't done much 3rd down versus defense lately, but he was just the guy, my reads took me to him, and he made some great catches.

Q. How essential was he tonight stepping up with both Cam and CJ out?
JOSH JACKSON: He was big. You know, obviously for 3rd downs, everything like that, he's a great blocker also on the perimeter, so I think he had a great game overall.

Q. How important was it to get that quick strike after they miss the field goal?
JOSH JACKSON: Yeah, that's very big for like momentum and everything like that. The pick and then we got a good stop and then we go drive it down the field, so that's big time definitely for our offense, and glad that we could do it.

Q. Is it important obviously to kind of strike first, get to score first? You've done that in some of the other games against maybe lesser opponents, but you kind of started a little slow at times. Was it important to jump out --
JOSH JACKSON: Yeah, definitely to get in your groove, get started off pretty well. Well, not on the first drive, obviously, but after our defense had a great stop and we were able to drive the field, I think that gets your momentum going, gets your confidence up, and I think that helped our offense.

Q. Any disappointment in the second half not being able to punch it in on a couple of red zone trips?
JOSH JACKSON: Yeah, I got two opportunities and I couldn't get in. That happens, but I don't think we were too worried about it, we were just going to keep going on to the next play. At the end of the day, we did win the game, so I feel good about that.

Q. They said there was some shared responsibility in the five sacks tonight. What was his message to you in the game on some of those sacks?
JOSH JACKSON: I didn't really talk to him about it. Maybe one I could have got out of. 7 is a great player. He had a pretty good grip on me. It may be the way I evaded wasn't too great, but I'll look at the film and see how I can get better.

Q. You're halfway through your first season. How do you think you've played so far?
JOSH JACKSON: Well, thankfully our team is 5-1, 1-1 in conference, and that's all I really focus on. I don't really care about my stats. At the end of the day, it's just about winning, so 5-1 going into a bye week is pretty good, so I think I'm doing all right then.

Q. I'm guessing it's probably pretty easy for you to keep an even keel after Clemson, right? Some people get high for those kinds of games and then -- how did you feel coming into this game?
JOSH JACKSON: Coming into this game?

Q. Yeah, in terms of shaking that loss off.
JOSH JACKSON: No, I was ready, just the next week. What happened happened, and just ready to play better and just be a good quarterback for my team. I mean, if you focus too much on the last week, it's going to end up beating you. I thought we moved on well as a team.

Q. Did you get your pregame moment with lefty?
JOSH JACKSON: I didn't get to. I didn't get to say hello to him, but I'm sure I'll text him or he'll text me pretty soon.

K JOEY SLYE
Q. Is it nice to get it out of the way?
JOEY SLYE: Yeah, yeah, honestly there's just been a lot of talk about it, and honestly for me, it's just something that's just been there. If I do my job, it's going to come anyway, so I've really just been focused on what I can do to help the team and kind of those victories will come with everything. But it is just kind of nice to kind of get away from talking about it pretty much.

Q. How do you sort of evaluate this season? You're only halfway through. It's been interesting because you're chasing all these records and all that stuff, but you've also had some frustrations that you haven't had to deal with at other points in your career. You came in like 8 of 13 I think it was. How do you sort of evaluate so far?
JOEY SLYE: Honestly with myself, I've been pretty disappointed, just in the opportunities that I'm working my butt off for the last five, six years that I've been starting kicking, and like I said, I've really been working my butt off to be as efficient as I can be for the team, not just myself but for the team. When they send me out there, I've got to make the kicks, because a lot of times let's say we sputter on the first series and we need to kick a field goal. Like points matter in the game, of course, and finishing the drive with something positive can help our offense just look forward to something, gets our kickoff team unit on there, and my kickoffs have been pretty good this year. So giving our defense good starting position and all that stuff has been important. Just like being able to do that for my team is more important than accumulating points or accumulating field goals over the years. The fact that Coach Fuente sent me out there for those short chip shots that I feel like I should have made and I walk off the field not making them is disappointing for myself, and then also the harder part is like kind of having my defense go out there like realizing like my kicker just missed from really short. It's been frustrating. I've been very consistent inside of 40 since I've gotten here, so having these inconsistencies this year, like I said, it's just been really disappointing. But it's also kind of like a silver lining where I'm dealing with some adversity that I've never had to deal with since I've gotten here, so it's been good to work through, but it's something that I don't feel like working through anymore. I definitely feel like I've got my head on back straight and feel confident in my kicking.

Q. What was the reaction from your teammates when you set the record on the sideline?
JOEY SLYE: They informed me again. As soon as the game starts, I just -- I don't really even focus on how many points I'm making. Like a field goal is a field goal, a PAT is the same thing. I'm just trying to go out there and make my kicks. I came over to the sideline, and one of our recruiting guys, he actually came up to me and said, congratulations, and I was like, appreciate it. I thought he was just saying good job for the field goal. And he's like, you know you just broke the record. I was like, no, I didn't, but appreciate it. Yeah, I just kind of lost focus of it just because it's important to me because it's like an accumulation of my work, but at the same time, I'm just trying to help our team win.

Q. I know you're in the middle of a season and Shane is in the middle of a season, but have you communicated with him at all?
JOEY SLYE: Yeah, we text every week. He's not just like an alumni at Virginia Tech to me or a kicking coach to talk to. He's like a true friend. Like we'll talk about whatever. It's definitely cool to build a relationship with him, especially with all the stuff that's been happening this year. But honestly I'm just really thankful for the friendship he's given me for the past couple years.

LB TERRELL EDMUNDS
Q. What did you think of the defensive performance?
TERRELL EDMUNDS: Well, I believe the defense played well tonight. We played a pretty solid game. Towards the end we started giving up a few plays, but they have good guys just like we have good guys. They started making plays, and we had to make adjustments, so we just decided to come together and finish out the game.

Q. You guys talk a lot about putting that Clemson loss behind you, you kind of said you've already done it at the beginning of the week and you wanted to sort of get back on track heading into the off week. You're 5-1 at this point; how do you feel halfway through?
TERRELL EDMUNDS: Well, personally we're on to UNC now. We have a bye week coming up, but we're going 1-0 against UNC. We're putting this win behind us. We can't be too high off this win, and we let the loss against Clemson go by last weekend. We just came out this game and played our hardest, and we came up with the victory, and hopefully against UNC we can come out with a victory.

Q. Did you feel like there was a danger if you didn't start fast tonight of letting that loss amount to two losses if you didn't turn it around right away?
TERRELL EDMUNDS: Losing never really goes in my head. Like even against Clemson, I never really thought about losing. So coming into this game we're all together. I was going to fight for my brothers and they were going to fight for me. Throughout the end we felt like we were going to get the victory regardless, and we came out and we got the victory, so that was good.

Q. I noticed after touchbacks everybody raising their hands to the fans and stuff. Was there a discussion about sort of bring your own energy mentality tonight? I know Coach Fuente said he was pleased at the energy level.
TERRELL EDMUNDS: Well, the first play of the game, regardless of -- we call our kickoff team swat, or kickoff return, we try to just set the tone right there. If it's kickoff, they're trying to run as far as they can, and swat, we're trying to get down there and just have a party of our own and just trying to get everybody amped up, getting ready for the defense to come out. As you can see, like home games, we really get the crowd into it, and the defense came out hyped, and we just like doing that.

Q. When you guys are dominating in the second half defensively, did you feel you were frustrating them? Could you sense it?
TERRELL EDMUNDS: Somewhat yes, but at the same time, we didn't want to let off the gas because we didn't want to feel as if there were frustrated and we had to -- we just felt like the game was over because at no point we wanted to feel like the game was over until there was no time left in the fourth quarter. So we just kept on playing our calls and doing what Coach Foster told us to do, and we came out with the victory.

Q. What's that feel like when you're a defensive player and you're getting them off the field constantly?
TERRELL EDMUNDS: It's great, going three-and-out, just knowing that everyone is doing their job, everyone is executing their job. It's amazing just going out there, just playing with your brothers. That's when you're really having fun, when they're not executing on offense and then you're executing on defense. That's just great football.

Q. Are there some things you feel like you guys collectively can do better and sort of focus on doing better in this off week?
TERRELL EDMUNDS: Definitely, because we didn't have a perfect game on offense, defense or special teams, so we just need to fix those mistakes and then just come out next week and just prepare for UNC the best way that we can and just try to limit those mistakes in the next game and then come out and just play Hokie football.

Q. Anything in particular stand out to you or is it just overall iron things out, making sure you're sharp?
TERRELL EDMUNDS: That's a question for Coach Fuente.

Q. Coach Fuente said that Jackson has not only impressed the offensive players but also the guys on your side of the ball. Would you agree with that? How do you feel about the way Jackson is playing the first half of the season?
TERRELL EDMUNDS: He's playing great. I'm not going to really speak about the game time because I'm going to just speak on practice because just going against ones versus ones in practice and he's really competing with us and making big plays on us, and we're just out there trying to make him better and he's making us better at the same time, so just seeing how that transitions from practice to in the game, that's amazing just seeing what he's doing, and hopefully he can keep everything going on a good route.

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