Everything From Virginia Tech Interim HC Philip Montgomery After Week 7 Loss to Georgia Tech

Virginia Tech interim head coach Philip Montgomery spoke to the media following Tech's Week 7 loss in Atlanta to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Here's the entirety of what he had to say:

Opening Statement:

"Tough day, but I was proud of the way our guys came out and competed. Hats off, Georgia Tech's got a good program; they've got a lot of veteran players on it. [I] think Haynes [King] played extremely well, gave us some different looks, both offensively and defensively. First quarter kind of got away from us, but I was really proud of the way our guys battled all the way to the end; guys stepping up, continuing to fight, continuing to strain. Never saw any quit out of any of them, and with everything that we've gone through, I'm sure proud of that part of it. Now we've got to clean some things up, we've got to continue to grow, and try to get better. This bye week is going to be important for us. We need to try to get healthy. [We've] got a lot of guys that are banged up, trying to play through them. So, a good week of that should help, and then mentally, being able to stay back and breathe a little bit. Proud of our guys, [we've] got to continue to keep growing, and we'll learn from the tape.

On how tricky Georgia Tech's rushing attack can be:

"They gave us a couple of different looks, they're. coming off a bye week, they got the ball outside a little bit more than they have on tape. They opened up the game, a lot of screens, pushing the ball outside, throwing game-wise; [that] really hasn't been their scenario throughout. So, I think that's a contributing factor to our d-line in how well they've been playing. They were probably trying to spread it out a little more, tried to take those guys, tried to limit some of the factors that they play into the game. They do a good job on the misdirection, they do a good job on their plus-one runs, but I was proud of our defense, had a couple of big stops in there, deep into territory, had a couple of good stops when we had them pinned, we had the blocked field goal, we had some really good things that happened in there, we just have to string them together and our consistency has to get better."

On whether the Yellow Jackets' game plan shifted as the Hokies drew closer in the third:

"I think they were having some consistency in what they were doing. I don't think they changed a lot from the first half to the second half. I don't think they did a lot of things differently. For us, we've got to continue to keep grinding. I was proud of our guys the way they came out in the second half, continued to battle, continued to go, did some good things in that. Again, our consistency has got to continue to keep up, but when we stay ahead of the chains, good things happen. Early in the first half, we didn't do that."

On Kyron Drone's performance today:

"I thought he played his tail off today, to be honest, [the] guy just battled all the way through. [He] made some plays down the field, had to get out of the pocket, had to throw the ball on the run, did a nice job in the run game on some of our plus-one runs. If you think about the last drive there, he's doing everything he can to fight, and he's being competitive about it. I was proud of the way he battled, just like I was proud of the way our guys battled throughout, and there wasn't any quit. I thought he did some good things, thought we did some good things, but we've got to be more consistent in our play across the board."

On the two touchdown passes to Ja'Ricous Hairston and whether they were pre-planned entering the contest:

"No, the last one was something we schematically worked up in the lower red[zone]. [We] did a good job of operating, the other one on the fourth down was a third down call for us that we had within the game, we had actually called it earlier, but did a nice job there, just protection wise, had a little more time, and then did a nice job working through his progression and Ja'Ricous ran a nice route there, and we were able to capitalize on it."

On how he feels about the linebacker core, with Noah Chambers starting and having Caleb Woodson back:

"It was great having Caleb back, obviously, with JK [Jaden Keller] out, Caleb being able to jump back in there, as far as a guy that's got a little more experience. I'll have to look at the tape and see exactly, but Kaleb Spencer has been playing well, Noah has been playing well, to add Caleb back into that mix, hopefully we can get JK back, George Ballance stepped in and played some good reps today. So, guys are just stepping up, next man up type mentality, accepting the challenge each and every week, we got young guys that are playing and having to play, and those guys are gaining great experience; learning from mistakes, but learning from great experience in the process."

On the punt teams' fooled coverage:

"It was something we talked about all week long. Stu covered it. They had two returners back, and it's a communication deal, we've just got to make sure we know where the flight of the ball is going. So, that's a communication breakdown on our part, obviously came at a really bad time, because we had a great punt by Nick [Veltsistas], and it would have been nice to pin them back there."

On what allowed Caleb Woodson to return for the first time since the Old Dominion game:

"He's been recovering from an injury, and it's taken some time for him to be able to get back to the level that he can step back in and play. So, proud of him today and being able to step back in there and play. Again, I haven't seen the tape, but I know he made some valuable plays for us, and he always has consistently throughout his years here."

On Marcellous Hawkins' career night:

"I thought our offensive line did a pretty good job, especially with all of the different things we've got going on up front, a lot of heavy boxes in there, but we were getting some movement, we were getting some push. He did a nice job finding some lanes in there and then exploding through. Hawk's been pretty consistent for us all year, and we've got a lot of faith in him. We'll continue to keep using him in that way.

On the 0/8 third down conversion rate in the contest:

"Being behind the sticks is never good. I don't know the depths of those; they're a tough team on third down. They've got a lot of veterans in the secondary back there and gave us some different looks, got a couple of different pressures in there, but I'll have to look at the tape and see where that went. We've been pretty good on third down throughout the year. Today wasn't one of those days, so we'll have to go back to the drawing board to see what we can do to fix that.