Virginia Tech Football: Everything From DL Coach J.C. Price After Monday's Practice

Fall Camp rolled on today for Virginia Tech and the Hokies are now just 27 days away from their season opening game against South Carolina in Atlanta. After practice today, Hokies defensive line coach J.C. Price met with the media and here is everything that he had to say:

1. On what he sees out there so far in fall camp...

"Well, I mean, I think defensive line. I think we got some guys that we roll out there and play. I like our depth, I like the way the guys are attacking practice and my point of view we have only practiced twice, I don't count the ones without shoulder pads."

2. On what he was looking for in targeting certain transfers...

"Just adding quality depth, guys who come in and push for a starting job and compete, and just get more depth. You can never have too many D-Linemen. It's such a long season and it's such a hard position physically. It's so physically demanding what we ask and we do day in and day out, you can never, I don't think there is a coach in the country would ever tell you you had enough D-Linemen."

3. On if the numbers are where he wants them to be in the room...

"Oh yeah, it's great. We have, you know, we're in a place really probably for the first time where I feel like there's not a guy in there that can't eventually contribute to this program one way or the other. And that's the first time, and since I've been back to that, I could probably say that."

4. On the versatility of the D-Line...

"Yeah, I mean, they all bring a little bit different skillset. It's like anything in life, you don't want all the same thing. You want to often have to prepare for different guys and make them have to work, and you can't just roll out the same skill set. Everybody's going to bring something slightly different to the game and that's exciting"

5. On the emphasis before they put full pads on...

"Fundamentals. Fundamentals. Fundamentals. You know, 100 level things. You know, the pad level, your hand placement, your hand, your head, feet in your eyes. You know, it's got to be not just knowing where to go but how to get there then the details they're all over the place and the details help you perform at a higher level and right now that's, that's gonna be the concentration of matter."

7. On Kemari Copeland...

"He gives you everything he's got every day. He shows up early, stays late, he's doing everything that a guy in his position needs to do. His preparation is as good as anybody's I've been around."

8. On if Copeland has extra motivation...

"We had plans for him and we were rotating him in last year and he got the elbow but he's back and he's excited and he's ready to go."

9. On Copeland's motor...

"It's really impressive. You get a 280 pound ball of muscle moving in one direction, it's fun to watch and that's what it is. He's a good person. I mean he's a good dude. He's a guy you want to hang out leadership role and you know just it's just, it's fun when you see guys start growing up and he's definitely turned the corner."

10. On what Copeland does in the weight room and if he has to tell him to hold back...

"That's much watch TV every day. I've never told him to rein things back. No, we're full speed ahead."

11. On Copeland's role this fall...

"I mean, what do you think? I think he's gonna be a dominant player. I think he's flying under the radar right now and that's the way he likes it and that's the way I like it. You know, there's not a lot of people know about him, but they're gonna find out about him real quick. He's a good player."

12. On Kelvin Gilliam...

"Yeah, KG is doing everything right. He's showing up every day like a pro. And the leadership right now between him and Caleb Woodson, JK, I mean, the leadership we have right now is as good as we've been around. And player-led teams win, and that's what we're striving for. And those guys are taking that to heart."

13. On having different personnel for different fronts...

"Yeah I mean we're gonna put the guy and we're still trying to figure it out you know those, those new guys, we got three guys who weren't here in the spring so it's only our second day in shoulder pads so we're gonna work through all that and going to have a deep quality rotation. I'm pretty confident in that."

14. On adjusting to a new defensive coordinator...

"It's a fairly quick process. What you see when you've been, as long as I have, is a lot of people do a lot of similar things. They just call it different. As a coach and as a player, those guys are transferred in. You start grouping things. Well, this is what they call it here. This was like what so, you know, so there's a little bit of a learning curve, but, you know, with all the stuff you're allowed to do in the summertime now, you know, we're installing stuff for the fourth and fifth time with this group, so I don't foresee that being an issue now. It's a little bit different than it used to be when you're allowed to do football in the summertime and the OTAs that you're allowed to have, so I don't think the learning curve is nearly as bad as it used to be."

15. On the eagerness to learn a new scheme...

"If there wasn't eagerness and excitement for every season, I need to find something else to do."

16. On Emmett Laws...

"Oh, yes. It's all a process. No matter how fast you want a kid to get better, he's got to do it his own way. He's picked up right where he left off in the spring from the bowl practices and now he's picked up right where he left off this past spring in the fall and I said we want to have two practices with shoulder pads on so those are the two that I consider real but but he is who we think he is he's doing a great job."

17. On Aycen Stevens...

"Aycen is doing a much better job playing with his hands. His transition last year, he came to kind of late and he missed a lot of that preseason work and so he was kind of just kind of playing on instincts a lot last year and fundamentally with little raw where you can see he's a lot more polished going into this season And you know, he's another guy who's you know contributed a bunch last year and his role was nothing you know got not gonna do anything more than just improve"