Video: Head Coach Geoff Collins Discusses Loss To Virginia Tech

Coach Collins spoke to the media following the 45-0 loss.

Opening Statement

“First of all, I’ve got to give hats off to Virginia Tech. That’s probably the best group of players we’ve seen since we played Temple. Really good players across the board at every level, offense, defense, offensive line, defensive lines. I thought it was the first game that the level of attrition caught up to us. I’m proud of the way the guys fought. There were a bunch of guys playing roles that they had not had to play and they came out there and battled. But when you get yourself in a hole that much that early, you can’t overcome it. But again, credit to Virginia Tech and credit to their players. They have some really, really good players.”

On how the team looked in practice leading up to this week

“You guys were out there. The energy was good. We’re still constantly working on fundamentals and technique and getting better in every phase of the program. So, those things were good. And then you go out there and they started hot and were playing well, and I don’t think we started the way that we can and the way that we will going forward. I thought it was a good week of practice. I thought the guys came in with the right mindset. We don’t make any excuses in this program.”

On the postgame mindset of the team heading into a short week

“They’re resilient. I’m going to leave the comments that I made to them in the locker room, that’s sacred. I just told them the truth, that’s what we do. Here’s the reason why what happened, happened. And we’re going to come back tomorrow morning and watch the film with our coaches, get it corrected and we’ve got to have short memories because we play at home on Thursday night at Bobby Dodd. We’ve got to get healthy in a lot of spots, trying to get some guys back on a short week. Some new guys who might have gotten banged up, we’ve got to get them healthy as well. But the mood and the mindset, when we get this thing regrouped we’ll have it, and we’ve just got to make sure we’re in the right physical space to be able to play Thursday night.”

On the ineffectiveness of the offense

“Being able to affect the game, being able to make sure we have the motions and the shifts right on every level. There are two plays, obviously, we wish we could have back, procedurally. But against a team that’s got a really, really good roster we can’t have self-inflicted wounds like that. When you’ve got a football team, you’ve got to make sure that everybody’s on the same page, and on those two instances we were not. We will get better going forward. There were some guys who were out there making some plays and we’ll continue to build on those moving forward.”

On being shut out

“I worry about the process that we go through. We’ve got to do a better job collectively making sure that we’ve got guys throughout the entire organization learning how to play at a high level regardless of attrition. They’ve got to be ready, when it’s their turn, to step up and play and play at a high level, and to play physical, tough football. We’ll continue to work on that so we can always be playing at a high level in whatever those things are. We’re just going to be doing good things.”