Duke Blue Devils College Football Pregame Quote, 11/08/2021

I want to start out by saying congratulations to Jaylen Stinson, who is the ACC Special Teams Player of the Week for obvious reasons. That was really good to see. It seems like it’s been a long time coming. I don’t know exactly how many kickoff returns for touchdowns we’ve had since we’ve been here, but a high number and I was really happy to see that return. It gave us a big lift in the game. Now time to get on that punt return portion of it. We’re working hard to improve that area because it certainly puts you in a much better position to win games, which is where our focus is.

Virginia Tech is a good football team. They had a tough go of it last week when they get a quarterback banged up, and so we know what they’re capable of. They opened the year up in an extremely good manner with a win over North Carolina, and then they had some injuries and things to deal with, but a big challenge. I think most importantly, talking about Duke and where we are and what we’ve got to do. We did some things better. Better is not good enough to win. We have to do things extremely well, consistently. We had a very good opening quarter and had a chance to have 14 more points than we had. Those are the things you can’t do. We certainly can’t leave those points on the field. We had a chance to develop somewhat of a big lead and couldn’t pull it off. I’m proud of our team for the way they continue to be into it, to fight, to represent the program, represent each other, playing as hard as they can play. Our job as a staff is to get them playing better. That’s where it falls on my shoulders. Their job as a squad is to take that coaching and put that into effect on the game field. So, it’s a collective opportunity to create better habits to win games. That’s simply where we are right now, and we are not backing off of an extreme effort to do that.

On the status of graduate student Gunnar Holmberg after leaving the game on Saturday with an injury:

Gunnar was much better Sunday. We’ll see day to day where it is, but much better Sunday. I was encouraged about that, but we’ll see where we are on a day-to-day basis. I’ll just listen to what he feels and what the trainers feel, and we’ll see how the week goes.

On Holmberg’s health and if they consider not letting him play:

Any player that’s a starter, if they feel good, they’ll play. That’s where you get into the day to day. But you know, he’s like most quarterbacks and the second quarter of that game, we gave up five sacks. He had four of them and Riley [Leonard] had the fifth one. That kind of changed the momentum of the game. Any time a quarterback’s getting hit too much, look at my man Daniel [Jones] in the National Football League. It’s just part of the game, but it’s part of the game you try to eliminate.

On how much Holmberg needs to practice to be ready for Saturday:

Well, I mean, he’s played a good bit of football this year, but you hope a guy can get out there in a day to day mode and get back normal. You don’t know often until you get on the field on how they feel.

On if Holmberg could still play even if he doesn’t practice this week:

Oh, I don’t think you try to do that. I don’t think we’re in that mode. I think day to day means see how you feel out on the practice field.

On the positive takeaways from Saturday and how the team will build on those:

Well, I’ll start with the kicking game. I thought we improved immensely in all aspects of the kicking game, which is something that we’ve worked hard because we feel like we need that as a winning edge. Defensively, particularly in the first quarter, just finding a way to get some stops, which we got some stops. In the red zone, forcing some field goal attempts and not giving up touchdowns, making them compete more for yardage. No question, there was improvement. Was it enough? I understand the amount of yards we gave up as the game went on. Another big improvement is when your offense is staying on the field and converting third downs, which we did in the first quarter, and your defense is getting out and getting a stop. That’s how you get ahead of the game and then you get a kickoff return for a touchdown, that’s playing well together. Offensively, I thought we were doing a good job of taking what they gave us. Picking and choosing where to throw the ball, when to throw the ball, effectively running the football until we get into bad yardage and bad down and distance occurred. We took a sack on a sprint-out pass, which shouldn’t happen. But with staying on schedule, I think our offense was functioning at a high level, which is what I believe we’re capable of doing. Two hundred two yards in a quarter is a really good start. Consistency has to be maintained. But top to bottom, yeah, we blocked a little better. We threw and caught it a little better. We defensively, got some timely stops, stopped touchdowns and forced field goal attempts. Then, the kicking game doing their part. When you bring it over four quarters, then you’ve got a chance to be a winner.

On how freshman quarterback Riley Leonard played after entering the game:

I thought he played really well. No matter how much you tell a backup quarterback get ready and be ready, when you’re thrust in there it’s unique. He obviously didn’t have a lot of snaps and I think he got better as it went on. His toughness and his ability to compete was outstanding. He’s got a lot of ability and he’ll be a better player from having been thrust into that, even if he’s the backup. Now you understand, ‘whoa, I’ve got to be ready’. A lot of valuable lessons learned by him.

On if Leonard will get increased practice reps with Holmberg’s status unknown:

Well, we kind of pretty much equalize two units of repetition. I think the lesson for players is how meaningful those reps have to be in practice. I think probably if you wanted to call it a talent, and I would, one of the great talents the great ones have is the ability to make practice like a game. Every bit like a game. Just as intense, just as focused, playing just as fast. He and I chatted, he cannot wait to get on the practice field tomorrow and to feel that intensity out there.

On if Duke will prepare for Braxton Burmeister as Virginia Tech’s quarterback:

You have to prepare for their offense. They’re not going to change offense. You got to remember 10 other people are doing what they’re doing. The quarterback has his job. We have no idea who will play. I would expect Burmeister will be there, but I don’t know. I have no idea what his circumstances are and nor will I. So, you go prepare to play against an offensive system and whichever quarterback it is, you can’t let that matter. I think he’s a heck of a player. Obviously, there’s a reason he’s a starter, but the same circumstance that when you get thrust in a game, that’s hard, really hard. It was on the road and a difficult circumstance.

On Mataeo Durant reaching 1,000 rushing yards this season:

Yeah, I probably should have said something about that leading out. It’s awesome. He’s earned it. We’ve all seen it. Thank goodness he’s a far cry from being done. He’s feeling good. He’s hungry. I think everybody on this team is hungry, which I think people sometimes don’t really understand. It’s hard on everybody and everybody that watches. Nobody’s happy about what’s happening, but the least happy are the people that are within. Those players are the ones that I’m concerned about the most. I am very proud of their fight. I’m very proud of their attitude and their ability to go to work at practice. They’re the ones that I concern myself with, and Mataeo has been a good leader in that regard in how he goes about practicing football.

On if he is having to do anything special regarding the message to the team:

Nothing that I would call special. But when you walk in a team meeting room on Sunday, and/or when you walk in a locker room on Saturday post-game, I don’t know if I would call it special, but you try not to repeat yourself. Most important lesson I would tell any young coach is to be genuine and be truthful. You can’t go in and just sing the same song. When you’re in there, you speak the truth of what you’ve seen. I have seen in detail by that time, defense, kicking and offense, and you talk about what you have to continue to do to find that way to be successful. This is the truth in life. How many people have we never heard of that were that close to doing something great and they stopped? I mean, we don’t know. Maybe no one, but I would doubt that, wouldn’t you all, huh? We know others, like Abraham Lincoln, that didn’t stop. He found he did some things that were great in most people’s eyes, correct? Those are the kinds of things that I think about. I don’t think about failure, I think about success and talk to them about success. Why would you do it any other way? I think that’s extremely important. I don’t know, I’ve coached in far too many football games to count, know or remember and certainly have never won them all. But I know this, if you stop competing to win, you’re not going to win. That has to be resolved. That’s inside of each one of us.

On opposing quarterbacks scrambling and finding success:

If you watch college football, professional football, or if you go back and watch the Super Bowl from last year. Watch how many plays Tom Brady made scrambling even running for a first down or moving. People are doing a better job of that, the athletes that are at quarterback. There’s nothing easy about that. Sacks generally come when you have somebody that can just absolutely quickly defeat a one-on-one block. When scrambles occur often is and you get people stuck. There’s nobody open, but they’re stuck on blocks and there’s avenues, you understand what I’m saying. Then those guys athleticism, if you’re up in a pocket and it opens, they’re fast. The longer you’re in coverage, obviously the deeper you are on the field. So, there’s no fast force on the quarterback. What you’re bringing up is one of the things that you’re scratching your head and you’re praying. We got to win some of those one-on-one circumstances get to a quarterback faster, create some sacks and that way your coverage and your pass rush time together, you understand what I’m saying. There’s timing on defense. People talk about timing on offense, and I always keep a clock on all of that, particularly defensively. So, that’s a complex issue. Then when a quarterback breaks, you hope you have edge speed or somebody that can, retrace is the term we use, and tackle them. You see some of those guys in the NFL that got it. It is problematic. You try to stay in rush lanes, you try to do every little thing right. But sometimes it doesn’t all go according to script. I know that’s a complex answer, but it’s really a very complex question. You want to beat the coverage at the time. If you can force a hold of the ball, there should be a sack. If you can get to a quarterback and sack him quickly enough, if we can get a 2.3 or 2.4 sack, we should be good enough in coverage to have it covered, if that makes sense in explaining timing. I love football and I love the ability to watch it and understand all phases of it. It is really always a challenge. Obviously, ability plays a role and all of those things on both sides of the ball. Pitt is a very talented team on offense, very talented. And that quarterback is extremely talented.

On the Virginia Tech offense and the challenge it poses:

Since Justin Fuente has been there, they’re physical up front on offense and they can run the football. They’re going to run the ball and they’re going to run it well. They always have match-up issues. I think what makes them really special is that they’ve got receivers that are one-on-one difficult to deal with. So, you’re not going to just line up and say we’re going to stuff the run and be fine. No, there’s always balance, and they have skill level outside. That’s very difficult for anybody to match up with. Burmeister is the kind of quarterback that has those feet where he’s a part of the run game, also his ability to escape. Then receivers that have big play capabilities. So, you prepare every day, you look at formations, you look at what they do out of formations, and we will go out there and be very intense on making as much like a game as we can. You do it individual, to group work and then to team work. That all looks like as much as we can simulate at Virginia Tech, regardless of who’s at quarterback.”