Everything From Virginia Tech Interim HC Philip Montgomery On Tuesday

Virginia Tech football interim head coach Philip Montgomery addressed the media on Tuesday; here's the entirety of what he had to say:

Opening statement:

"First of all, it's a difficult week. It was a long week. But I'm very thankful for our players, for our staff, the way they came together, the way they worked. We had a very productive week of practice and I thought that really showed itself Saturday. I thought our guys played with a lot of passion, a lot of emotion. I thought we flew around defensively to the football. I thought we executed well offensively. Got more balance in what we wanted to do. I thought we were efficient in that way. And so, I'm very thankful. I'm very proud of those guys, all of them in that locker room, all of those guys on the coaching staff through a tough week. Thought No. 1 our fans were great. They came out, they supported. I asked them [to] please come and support and and show that passion that you have for this university, for the football team. I thought our guys fed off of that. So, I'm very thankful for them for coming out and doing that. We're going to need you to continue to do that throughout the year. As we look forward, obviously, we're on the road this week. Got a tough test starting, conference play right here. I know we got to get back to work. For us, it's all about putting our focus on ourselves, continuing to grow, continue to get better. We got to have a great week of work. I'm excited to get on the practice field with them today. And looking forward to our meetings. We got to have the exceptional meetings. We got to have a great practice tempo. And we got to be locked in because we know NC State is a very, very talented team and they've got a lot of weapons. We got to do a good job defensively of eliminating some of their explosive plays and then offensively, we got to sustain drives. We got to go get touchdowns. Find some explosive plays on our side of it. Give our guys an opportunity to go do that and looking forward to the opportunity to go play."

On assessing how to handle transfer portal in wake of ex-head coach Brent Pry's departure and having those conversations:

"Yeah, I mean, obviously, we're talking to guys, guys are talking to us. We're having those conversations. As we continue to work our way through them, we'll release how that kind of plays itself out, what guys are thinking and moving on. But until that point, we're kind of continuing to to mold as a team and continuing to move forward."

Q: I know it's one day into the second week here. Does it feel any more normal or settled or stable than this time last week?

Yeah, I mean, normal or settled? Probably not yet. But I think we're moving in the right direction. I think we're taking steps forward. Obviously, I feel better today than I did last week standing at this podium with everything that's going on. But that being said, having a week under our belt, all of us adjusting, there's still a lot of variables at play, but overall, we've got to get back to some type of normal routine. And I think that's what our guys are trying to do."

On no depth chart listed in the game notes this week and whether that is intentional:

"No, honestly, we're just working through things and so, we'll release one towards the end of the week. Obviously, with the new ACC rules, we start releasing all the injury reports throughout the week. And so, right now, we're just working through the process, continuing to evaluate things and making adjustments as we go."

On Montgomery's counsel to the staff and their families as he leads the program:

"I think, more than anything else, our staff, we have a great staff. We got a great group of men that are passionate about football, passionate about helping developing and growing young men. And they're locked into that part of it. Obviously the uncertainty of what the future holds is part of that. But the one thing that I told them and and we've expressed to each other is [that] we all got in this business for the love of the game, but also more importantly, for helping develop and grow young men. And we still have that that opportunity in front of us. As we step out onto the field, we all get to go compete. We all get to work together. And right now, we need each other more than ever. So, let's lean on each other. We're going to have good days and bad days. But try to do our best to leave what we can at the door and focus on our job and focus on these young men in that locker room. And they deserve and need our best every day."

On N.C. State tailback Hollywood Smothers and his skillset:

"If he's not the best back in the country, he's one of them. And they're doing a good job of finding different ways and getting him the ball in different ways. And we've got to do a good job of gang tackling, getting a lot of bodies around and keeping eyes on him and making sure that we can get him on the ground. He's going to get his yards, that's going to happen. We got to limit the explosiveness off of those and we got to do a good job of trying to get them behind the chains and put them in adverse situations. But that starts on first down and second down, especially with him. And he's a definite weapon and a definite guy we've got to really put our eyes on and and focus on getting on the ground."

On N.C. State's quarterback C.J. Bailey:

Yeah, CJ, I think has really improved. He's athletic, he's long, he can do all these things. He's got a big arm. Gets out of the pocket, he can be explosive. That being said, we've got to do a good job of giving him some different looks, trying to give him an opportunity to not be able to just throw to his first target, make him get through his progressions. Maybe try to get him off the spot when we have the opportunity to do that. And you can't let him just sit back there and take a deep shot. They've got really good skilled guys on the outside with their receivers. Obviously, they've got one of the more dynamic backs in the country. So, you've got to play the give and take in that part of it. But he has vastly improved and we've got to continue to try to get him off his spot and make him start moving around. Not in the sense of just letting him run, but making him move within the pocket and being in our rush lanes while we can get hands on him and get him on the ground and try to frustrate him a little."

On Drones and his confidence:

"The one thing that I can tell you about Kyron: Kyron didn't lose his confidence at all throughout any of what we considered tougher games or not. Right. He's confident. He's continuing to be in the moment, be where his feet are. I'm trying to get better. He's trying to get better. The offensive line is trying to get better. The receivers [are] trying to get better. The D-line's trying to get better. We're all trying to get better together. And so, I think Saturday he played a really good game. I thought he stayed within himself, stayed within the offense, took what they gave him. He was very efficient in that way, ran the ball when we asked him to. He's a weapon on both sides of that. He's got to continue to do that for us. And he wants to get better each and every week. And he's in the film room. He's up here tons of hours throughout the week and um he's staying motivated in that sense."

On Kaleb Spencer and Jordan Bass making their first starts and how Montgomery thought that they performed:

"Yeah, I thought Kaleb really played lights out. I thought he had a really good game. He is really developing into that linebacker spot with some of the different movements and things like that. But I think he's feeling more at home there, which is allowing him to play faster. I thought he played extremely well on Saturday. Same thing with Jordan. He's a long guy. He's physical. There's some things that we still want to coach up and still want to get better at. But love what he's bringing to the table. Love the energy that he's bringing it with. And he's just so eager to learn. Both of those guys are. So, we got to continue to keep going with them."

Q: Guess with uncertainty at both linebacker and safety position, depending on what depth you have there, was it encouraging to see them get those types of reps against Wofford and get some film and get a sense of what they need to do if they need to be given more snaps?

"Yeah, anytime we can get those guys in the game and give them opportunities and those guys have earned the the the opportunity to get in there. So, you're still going to see a lot of them. We're going to have to count on a lot of our young players and as we continue to keep growing and moving, whether that's with injuries or other things. Those guys stepping in playing well and being locked in during meetings and continuing to grow, you see a lot of growth out of those [guys] each and every week because of the amount of reps that they're getting."

On what stands out to Montgomery about NC State's defense:

"I think their defensive line is very physical. When you talk about [Cian] Slone, I know he got banged up a little bit in the Duke game. I think Dave [Doeren] came out and said it looked like he was trending to be fine and healthy, but dude plays with a lot of energy. Like, he is reckless in the way that he plays under the fundamentals of their defense, but he's a guy you got to know where he's at. 44 [defensive tackle Brandon Cleveland] is a really strong interior piece. Got quickness to him. 54 [defensive end Sabastian Harsh] is really, really good off the other side of it. And so, those guys have been playing really well. Their linebackers do a great job inside as far as fitting things up. We got to do a good job of trying to give them a little bit of eye candy, see if we can get them looking in the wrong direction. See if we can play on the edges a little bit and how we want to attack them. In the secondary, I think they've got a lot of talented guys that can run back there. We've got to do a good job of creating some matchups for ourselves and finding opportunities to be able to either get the ball outside, get it underneath or push the ball down the field and create some one-on-one matchups that I think we got a chance to go take advantage of."

On how Montgomery feels about his team's collective unity:

"Honestly, these guys, the way they've come together and we've got really, really great leadership within this group. Our leadership council, our captains, they've done a tremendous job over the course of the year, but especially in the last week. I think our guys are getting even more welded together, and that's what we got to have. With everything that we've gone through, with everything that we're going through, it's about all of us being all in, locking arms and attacking this thing in the way we can."

Q: Any update in terms of the status of [running back] Terion Stewart?

"At this point, he's trending in a positive direction. So, we'll find out more today when we hit the practice field."

On offensive line health:

"To that same point, and I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I think we got guys trending in the right way. We're going to find out a whole lot more today when we hit the practice field. And we'll see how they handle that and then come off of that, right? Like, yeah, you did pretty good in practice. How did we feel the next day? And so, we'll learn a lot more today after practice."

On freshmen seeing their first action or extended action and whether anyone did anything that made Montgomery & Co. think that one of them could immediately help:

"Yeah, I saw a bunch of guys that actually stepped in and did some really good things. Don't want to single one out over another, but we as a staff, we looked at the guys, especially some of those guys in the secondary with the way they stepped up and and made some plays. Thought they really fitted some things very well, came in and played physical, were sound and fundamentally sound in what they were doing. So, those guys are going to get more and more action and more and more opportunities, just like everybody else. But, we were really, really pleased with with the freshman and what they did coming in."

Q: Unpleasant circumstances duly noted. But is head coaching like riding a bike that you can pick pick it back up right away or was there some adjustment period for Phil Montgomery?

"There's a little bit of both of that in there. I've been blessed to have the opportunity to do this before, so I can fall back on some of my experiences there. But this is a unique situation in itself. But I will tell you, the players and the staff have been tremendous and they've been such a such a help through all of that and we still got to keep leaning on each other. When you think about the game and all of that, getting back on the field calling plays from the field with all the other duties."

Q: You were upstairs, right?

"I was upstairs. Now being down last week, there's a different variable to all of that, but I thought we handled it well and we'll continue to keep growing from that.

On any improvement from the offensive line:

"Yeah, I thought those guys, they're improving each and every week. We've still got a lot of room for growth there. But that being said, it's not about the mindset or the effort or any of those things. They're bringing that stuff to the table. Some of it is just youth and continuing to grow in that way, getting stronger, getting more confident, And not being hesitant about things. And so, I think we're making improvements there. Hopefully, we get some of the older guys back, but those young guys are stepping up and doing better. We got to continue to keep improving, especially in our pass protection side of it. I think we're doing better in the run side of it right now with them. But some of the pass protection parts of it, we got to continue to keep cleaning up and getting better."

On if the offense is finding its identity:

"I think we're getting really close. I think we're finding what we do best. I will tell you with the injuries that we've had, obviously, that kind of plays into that role. That being said, I think we know what we need to hang our hat on, how we need to attack. Now, it's about continuing to grow in those fashions, but also make sure that we are staying balanced in what we do, finding opportunities for guys to be involved and to affect the game. And so, it's going to be an ongoing process, but I think we are much much further along than what you think. And I think we found some good things throughout. We got to continue to keep building on those."

On Kody Huisman and his motor:

"Yeah, Kody brings a ton of energy, ton of experience, too. He plays recklessly in the fundamentals of the defense. Hs hair is always on fire. He's looking for advantages and edges and things that he can go attack. And so, he's been a great player for us up to this point. His role just continues to grow. He's very solid in what he does, but he's dynamic in other ways. And so, he's been absolutely fantastic. We need him to continue to keep playing well, just like the rest of our defensive line has.

On Kemari Copeland:

"Really in all of those D-linemen, but especially with Copeland, he is so fast and he's so strong and he can be so disruptive. He can blow up an offensive run play or pass play in the matter of a heartbeat. So, he puts a lot of pressure on us up front. We've dealt with it throughout the spring and throughout the summer and throughout fall camp. So, he's a guy I'm glad that's on our football team. He just continues to come to work every day. He's very motivated. It's very self-driven and I'm glad he's on our team and not somebody else's."

On if there's any competitive history with N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren:

"Dave and I have not played each other up to this point. Dave and I have known each other for a long time, but we have not locked horns in that way. So, I like his DC, DJ [Eliot], I interviewed DJ one time for a defensive coordinator spot with me when I was at Tulsa. So, I know him a little bit too. He does a great job and got a lot of respect for both of those guys."