Everything From Virginia Tech Interim HC Philip Montgomery At Tuesday's Press Conference

Virginia Tech football interim head coach Philip Montgomery spoke to the media at Tuesday's press conference; here's the entirety of what Montgomery had to say:

Opening statement:

"Come on now. [Editor's note: One of the reporters asked Montgomery if it was "cold enough for [him]".] You had to ask that, right? I'll tell you, this morning when that wind chill was at 5 degrees. That's not normal for me at this time of year. But yeah, it's good. Looks like the sun's coming out and snow's starting to melt a little bit. So, we'll get some good work in. Big week for us coming off the bye. Excited to get back on the practice field with them today. Obviously, today being Veteran's Day, want to say thank you to all those veterans out there that have sacrificed and done so much, them and their families both. This is a special day for us and we want to make sure that we honor those men and women that have done so much for our country. So, we get to play this game because of the sacrifices that they made and continue to make throughout our military forces. So, thank you for them. As we look at this week we got, coming off the bye week, hopefully got a couple of guys back as far as getting healthier. You're not ever going to be 100%. We're trying to get back as close as we can. We got a very talented team we're fixing to go play in Florida State, in all three phases really. They're long, they're athletic, they got great team speed. We know it's going to be a challenge. But I know our guys are excited about that, going on the road, going down to their place. It's going to be a great atmosphere. I know our guys will be ready to play. The way we've approached every week, it all starts with our practice today and putting good days on top of good days and building those up till we get to game time. So, excited about the opportunity, excited to get back on the practice field with our guys today and ready to go back to work."

On if the second off week allows the team to refocus with three weeks left in the season:

Yeah, that's kind of the way we broke it up. Actually after the first bye week, it was like, 'Hey, here's our first one.' We needed it. It'd been a long season up to that point before we ever got one. And so, kind of took that mindset [of], 'Hey, let's get a good solid mindset on the next two weeks.' Then we're going to hit another bye week. And then we got three weeks after that. And so, we broke it up in that way. I think our guys have have kind of locked into that point. And we got a a really unbelievable three-game stretch right here in front of us. And we got a chance. We're still writing this story of what it's going to be. And so, for the next three weeks, we get to continue to do that and try to write the ending that we want."

On how pleased Montgomery is with the injury progression of some of his players:

"Yeah, we got a few that I think we potentially can get back, I think most everybody on that list at this point. You got some of those guys that it's going to be tough to get them back. You've got other guys that have the potential of getting back. So, we'll learn more today in the next couple of days as we lean towards game time. But overall, it's trying to get us as healthy as we can be. Everybody's playing hurt right now. Everybody's got bumps and bruises. And those guys getting the opportunity to rest not only their bodies, but their mind and their spirit. Really trying to get that in the way we needed to be for this last three games."

On slowing down Florida State's vertical passing attack:

"Yeah, we got to do a great job of understanding when those shots are taken. How can we get him off his spot, create some pressure to him? Don't want to obviously let him outside of the pocket because he does have some really explosive-type scrambling plays within that. And so, you got to do a good job of moving him off the spot and then, you got to do a good job of creating hurried situations for him. And then from the vertical passing game part of it, you got to do a great job of creating negative timing for them, right? Letting those guys just free release and be able to run. We've got to do a great job of understanding how we got to fit things, how we can put things on the roof to try to keep that under wraps. Because the explosive plays are the ones that really bite you and we got to do a good job of making them drive the length of the field."

On whether the familiarity of the defensive players who have seen Florida State quarterback Tommy Castellanos before helps:

"Yeah, I think so. I mean, anytime you get to play against a guy multiple different times, you get a better feeling of what he does, who he is, what his tendencies are. To your point, I think our guys are familiar with him and so, I think that will give us some advantage in the sense of [that] it's not just some brand new quarterback that you're seeing for the first time."

On whether Montgomery feels as part of the same coaching fraternity as Florida State OC Gus Malzahn ad if he ever looks at it:

"I guess from starting in the high school ranks and working our way through there is that fraternity of it. We're all from different branches and different people and we run different things but from that side of it, yeah, there's a handful of guys out there that have done it that way and and I'm pretty proud of starting in the high school ranks. I think it helped me as a coach. I think it developed me more and gave me the opportunity to be who I am now. And so, I look back on those days with a lot of pride and joy about them. Enjoyed my time doing it and obviously love what I'm doing now. But it was what kind of helped me become who I am today."

Q: You guys were both, it seemed, on the forefront of that tempo movement back in the day... Is it interesting to see how those things kind of come into to college football and become fashionable and the defenses kind of catch up and it kind of ebbs and flows?

"I think that's just about with everything, right? I mean, if you think back to those early days, when [Bill] Yeoman and [Darrell] Royal and all those guys were running all the veer stuff and when that first came in, everybody was clicking and everybody tried to run it. Then finally, defenses kind of caught up to it and everybody had to kind of change and move a little bit. Same thing with, you know, whether you're in the the eye formation and you're doing it that way or you're sitting here in in some type of tempo version of stuff. Everything's going to have flows and edges to it. The biggest thing that you want to try to do is stay on the the forefront of whatever the next thing is going to be, how you use that, how some of the things that you've already established as kind of part of your identity... those things, continue to use them, but then you got to continue to keep evolving and finding the next thing that that really can maybe set you apart in a way offensively or defensively as you continue to grow."

On Florida State averaging 330+ rushing yards a game over the first four weeks, not topping 170 in the last five and what Montgomery's notice in terms of defense limiting:

"I think guys just getting an idea of getting their eyes in the right spot, not chasing ghost, getting things fitted up a little bit better. Obviously, as you look at their schedule, some of those opponents got a little bit tougher and so, they started facing some different defenses in that. We've got to do a good job with our guys of creating some mismatches up front that we can take advantage of, creating penetration when we can. But making sure that we're fitting things right. And then, when you get the opportunity to get your hands on them, man, you got to get them on the ground. We got to make great tackles. We got to get multiple hats to the football. We got to be physical. We got to be aggressive. And we got to do a good job of trying to get them behind the chains."

On Wake Forest tallying 10 TFLs vs. Florida State, Clemson tallying six sacks and whether Tech can disguise their back end to create "havoc in the backfield":

"That's the hope. [Defensive coordinator Sam Siefkes] and those guys have done a good job of creating opportunities for that. We've got some exotic blitz packages that they're going to have to adjust to as well, and Sam and them have done a good job with that. And so, we've got to continue to keep evolving in that way, finding different ways to use our talents and our strengths to try to disrupt what they do. And so if we can do that, that always gives us a huge advantage."

On if there's any change to WR Donavon Greene's status with the team:

"Not at this point. Everything's still good."

Q: So, he hasn't had a catch in three weeks. He was obviously a big part of this offense early in the season. What can you guys do to to maybe get him going or find his direction?

"Anytime that you're dealing with receivers in the passing game and all of that, you're always trying to find those guys touches and find opportunities for those guys to go be explosives and make plays. We're still evolving as an offense and as you look at who we're playing and what their strengths and weaknesses are, trying to manufacture ways that our team has a opportunity to go be successful, right? And so whether that's what we do offensively, defensively or in special teams, we want to make sure when we gameplan this whole thing up, we, as a team, are giving ourselves the opportunity to go win. And so, I think those guys have done a tremendous job of putting all the selfishness part of it to the side and saying whatever we got to do to give ourselves a chance to go win, that's what we want to do because we're going to win this thing as a team. And it's going to take all of us to go get that done. So, I appreciate those receivers and other guys throughout the program that have made sacrifices to give us the opportunity to go win. And when they have opportunities to go make plays, those guys have stepped up and made them. So, we got to continue to keep giving them uh those opportunities. Love to be more balanced in what we do. And we'll see how that plays itself out over the next three weeks."

On what's impressed Montgomery about Hairston's consistent growth:

"I think you probably hit the nail on the head right there. His consistent growth, right? Every day he's been in the the film room, he's been in the weight room, he's been on the practice field working and he's not making those same mistakes over and over and over. He's learning from his mistakes. He's putting those in his memory bank. He's growing as a player. He continues to make plays throughout games, whether that's in the block scheme parts of it or in the passing game parts of it. And so, we've been really, really pleased with how he's grown, what he's done and really, what his future as a player is going to be, because I think he's got a tremendous future ahead of him."

And we'll go to Zoom for a couple. On Zoom, please use the raise hand feature to ask questions for Coach Montgomery and we'll open it to questions. We'll start with Steve, please. Uh, Phil, um, the Florida State's defense, uh, as you've looked at them here this past week and a half or so, uh, is there one unit or or player there that you've seen that's that's sticking out that's shown some that's, uh, shown some improvement there from maybe films that you saw from a month ago till more recently?

On whether there's been one unit/player sticking out from Florida State's defense on recent film compared to previous tapes:

"As you look at their defense as a whole, they do a really good job schematically. From the standpoint, they're going to play four-man front, they're going to play odd front, they're going to make you prepare for that. They're also going to get in the bear and they're going to make you prepare for all of that. They got a bunch of different blitzes that they can bring. They can be really exotic with it. You look at their down linemen, they're all long, athletic, physical. We got to do a good job of being able to create double teams, find movement, get on edges, be able to play and get movement that way, give our backs an opportunity to to be able to play downhill. Their linebackers are aggressive, they're athletic, they do a great job in the passing part of it. You look at little No. 0 [Earl Little Jr.], they use him in a lot of different ways, whether he's playing the nickel or he's playing the the true nickel safety in the middle of the field. So many different times, it's hard to to kind of target him from a block standpoint. So, he's able to come down into the box, create some opportunities for them to get tackles. He's a really good tackler. He's physical in the way he does it. They all fly around and play with a great motor. You look at the uh the two corners, I think both of them are really nice players. They play a field in a boundary-type look. They're athletic. They got great quickness. Obviously, they're a good unit and so, we're going to have our hands full. But we got to do a good job of leaning on what we do well, trying to put them in awkward situations and make them play disciplined football.

On whether Montgomery saw anything Louisville that limited the effectiveness of Virginia Tech QB Kyron Drones as opposed to the Cal game:

"Well, I think every defense presents different problems, right? And so, obviously against Cal, we felt like we had an advantage with him on some of the outskirts stuff as far as him running, being able to affect the run game. We utilized that, especially in the second half. Obviously, Louisville's watching the same tape and so, they're going to make adjustments and they're going to try to limit some of the exposure that he can get. And so, as you take away one thing or you try to limit one thing, you open up something else. And so, we got to continue to play that cat-and-mouse game with them and find out exactly how they want to try to defend him and try to defend what we do. Then, we try to make those adjustments as we move forward."