Virginia Tech Hokies College Football Media Day Quote, 07/21/2021

A more prominent role for you this season. How would you describe yourself as a leader? What can you say about truly taking over this offense?

Yeah, no doubt. This off-season has really helped with that whole process. Having spring ball this year, being around my guys every single day, I think that I’ve really evolved as a leader, learned how to communicate better, kind of take ownership of the whole offense. I think the guys around me see that and are giving me that opportunity to do so.

West Coast football, East Coast football, what did you find as being similar and different?

West Coast football, I feel like it’s more speed-based. East Coast football has definitely been physical and more physical.

Coach talked about how irreplaceable Khalil was. You got all your receivers back. Talk about ways that Virginia Tech’s offense will be different this year. You led the league in rushing last year.

Yeah, no, we definitely have all of our receivers back. That’s huge. James Mitchell is a big target that can go out, flex out at receiver, can play tight end, blocks really well.

Tayvion Robinson and Tre Turner also have played a ton of football and get open, get separation. Whenever our defense plays man coverage, they do a great job separating. It makes my job easy passing them the ball. I think that’s going to help our offense a lot, kind of set up the run game as well.

You just touched on the receivers. Can you talk about how important it is to build the chemistry since you’ve been away, to develop that heading into an opening game where there could be a lot of points scored?

Yeah, chemistry is a huge deal, especially this off-season being able to get with the guys, that’s something that we’ve communicated often. We get out there. We have a skills and drills, play and run practice two times a week. Some of our guys try to get together another two times a week. We’re really throwing four times a week.

I think it’s really going to benefit us and show throughout the season.

Your body language on the field indicates a great deal of confidence. What contributes to you being confident as a quarterback?

Our coaches do a great job of having us ready to go. It’s kind of like walking into a test. If you know the answers to the test before the test starts, you’re going to feel confident, you’re going to be relaxed and ready to roll. That’s kind of how I feel going into games.

What was your biggest emphasis once you got to spring ball that you wanted to work on from last year coming into this season?

Definitely getting more comfortable with our receivers and building that chemistry, building timing. We throw a lot of timing routes, a lot of quick outs, a lot of 10-yard outs. And feeling comfortable to really rip those outs and throw them hard and just being on time with the guys.