Everything From Virginia Tech Interim HC Philip Montgomery After Wednesday's Practice

Virginia Tech football interim head coach Philip Montgomery spoke with the media following Wednesday's practice; here is the entirety of what Montgomery had to say:

On if the off week schedule is similar to Tech's first bye week:

"Yeah, very, very similar. Monday, we got a little bit of meetings. And lifting in Tuesday. Got work on the field today. Got work on the field, meetings and all of that. trying to get back healthy as much as we can at this point and try to get a little bit ahead on Florida State. And then tomorrow, we'll get a little bit and get a little bit of time for them to rest, reload and get ready to go for this next three-game push."

On the challenge of balancing the two open weeks so close together:

"It took forever to get to the first one. we needed it earlier. That being said, I think the guys have handled it well and we've had a good week. They understand how it's kind of being broke up at this point and so, I think they're in the right mindset. Now we got to go out and get ready for the next three games."

On if he's started to broach into looking into Florida State:

"Just like we did last time. I mean, we've got a couple of different periods in there where we put a little more emphasis and focus on them to try to get a little bit ahead. Obviously, we'll see how they play this weekend and see kind of from that standpoint what's changed, what hasn't changed and make sure that we're in the the right spot where we want to be gameplan-wise and get ready to go."

On if Montgomery ever crossed paths with Mike Norvell:

"Well, we were in the same conference together for a while [when Montgomery was at Tulsa and] when [Norvell] was at Memphis."

Q: Hallmarks of his offense or anything?

"Gus [Malzahn] is there running it now, and so I see a lot more Gus than I do [Mike]. I I don't think Mike's really into [it]. I'm sure he has some influence on it. But I think obviously him and Gus, he worked with Gus back in those days. And so, I'm sure he's kind of just turned it all over to him and it looks more like what what Malzahn does, more than it did what Mike is."

Q: What kind of stands out from what Gus does offensively in your mind?

"Mike did a good job. He had a lot of RPO stuff. He has some unbalanced stuff. He would work some tempo in there, a little bit more gap principles to it. You've watched Gus. Gus is going to change tempos on you some. He's a little bit more zone-oriented in some areas, going to try to get the ball out on the edges. Going to have a trick play here or there. That's kind of been his M.O. throughout the years and he's been really good at it."

On what stands out about Florida State's quarterback, Tommy Castellanos:

"First of all, he's a good athlete. Got a lively arm, does some really good things. Got to be honest when you're playing with him. He's a guy [that] once he gets out in the open field, can really make some things happen. They got some quarterback run stuff for him. So, you got to be really tuned in to what's happening in the back field. They'll give you a lot of different eye candy back there and so, you got to be assignment sound as you play them. But I think he's a a really talented dual-threat quarterback and we're going to have our hands full with him."

On what stood out development-wise about running back Jeff Overton, who played for the first time this year last week vs. Louisville:

"It was good just to see him get some action. Coming off the injury, first time really being in live action, being at this speed, college level, knocking the rust off, hadn't been hit in over a year, so I thought he handled it really well. Handled the atmosphere of it, did some good things. Was close to having some really big runs in there, and so, he's a talented young man. We'll see how he continues to develop, but it was great to have him back."

On Overton being a different style of runner than Marcellous Hawkins or Terion Stewart:

"He is a little bit different. The other two [Hawkins and Stewart], both of them got twitch, they got speed, they got power, they're heavier backs. Jeff's got a little bit more cut. His top end speed might be a little bit more than the others. Does a good thing as far as catching the ball out of the back field. Handled some things in the protection last week, for a young guy, I thought he did really well in that because we got some different looks in there. So, he's developing and I think he'll be a nice fixture in the back field around here."

On if it's good to get work in with Overton since he, at maximum, plays four games and can utilize his redshirt:

"It really didn't didn't come down to that. It was really about getting him cleared and once we got him cleared doctor-wise, then we started trying to add him to the mix. He's been practicing. He's been doing what he could do. But he finally fully got cleared and and obviously, we got an opportunity to use him."

On Florida State's defense:

"I'll tell you about them, first of all, they're big, they're long, they're athletic. They can really move around. They get a lot of hats to the ball. They got a lot of eyes looking at that. They can mix it up and drop eight and then all of a sudden, you got seven of them coming. So, they're a tough matchup from that standpoint. But we got to do a great job of getting things targeted, creating some movement and staying ahead of the chains. Because once you get behind them, they got a lot of exotic things that they can bring at you and we need to stay on the forefront."

Q: With the benefit of film study, do you see anything in the the punt team that some of the issues with coverage there and get guys for you?

Yeah, we've got some things to fix in that area. I think Coach [Stu] Holt is is doing a good job of that as we continue to get through the bye week. That's been a big emphasis for us this week. And those guys, I think are trending in the right direction. We just got to continue to be on the same page, keep the communication part of it right, get it targeted right and then when we got to get down there, we got to get hats around the football and get him [Louisville's Caullin Lacy] on the ground. He's a talented, talented returner, but I think [that] really, every team we play for the rest of the season is going to have a talented returner."

On if it's tougher than it sounds to directionally punt it and get it exactly to where they want:

"Some of that is is part of it. It's all about the operation. it's about the hang time, it's about the placement of the punt. There's so many different factors to that. And let's be honest, when you sit there and drop a ball and then you kick it off your foot, sometimes it doesn't go exactly where you want it to go. So, there's more variables to that than it is, 'hey, just kick it out of bounds, right?' Well, yeah, I can kick it out of bounds. It might only go 10 yards, too. So, you want to make sure that you're getting the most out of that when you do it."