Tech Talk Live Notes: Mike Young On Brooklyn, J.C. Price On UVa

On Monday, Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Mike Young and interim football coach J.C. Price hopped on Tech Talk Live to chat with Jon Laaser and Mike Burnop. Young discussed the Hokies’ trip to Brooklyn, while Price talked about bringing the Commonwealth Cup back to Blacksburg.

Mike Young

On his passion for supporting Virginia Tech football:

I don’t know a lot about football. I know a lot about athletics. And the job that coach Price, our football staff and our team, what they did over the last couple weeks, certainly this past weekend in Charlottesville, was so impressive. I watched every snap, loved every second of it. I commend them, I applaud them, I am thrilled to be a Hokie. Proud to be a part of those guys.

On the past weekend in Brooklyn – what he learned, what he liked and disliked:

I’m not sure we can play a whole lot worse and could’ve won both, Mike. It’s November, let’s hang in there. We’ve got another big test on Wednesday against Maryland and then league play Saturday. We’ve got a lot to look forward to. A little bump in the road and I feel bad about it, our team feels bad about it, but we’ve had a couple of real good practices and look forward to getting to College Park tomorrow.

On ‘having work to do’:

There’s a little tighter focus when you get your ears pinned back. I thought our practices leading up to Brooklyn were not quite as sharp as what we’re accustomed to, but I hate to learn a lot of lessons after losing a ball game. I think this team, they’re old and mature, they know what it looks like and what it’s all about. We got some things corrected and I look forward to seeing it in full force on Wednesday.

On Memphis’s athleticism, so long and athletic:

They knocked us off of what we wanted to do. I thought we guarded really well, but we couldn’t get the ball to where we need to get the ball. We’ll make improvements there, we’ll figure it out.

On rotations, Sean Pedulla:

I thought he played really well. Hits a big three, takes a charge during that portion of the game. I thought he did an admirable job on… the young man’s name escapes me, No. 5. I thought he did a really good job there. He earned himself a couple of more licks as we head into Maryland. He’s playing five, six, seven, and that could go to ten, 11, we’ll see. But Sean helped himself, he helped our team.

On Xavier’s Nate Johnson:

Well, we helped him. We didn’t do as good a job of getting to him in the first half and that thing starts to look like your bathtub, it’s so big, the basket, that is. He just had his way with us, he squares us up, fakes and gets in the air. We were No. 1 in the country going into that game in three-point field goal percentage defense and Nate Johnson is a really good player, we knew that going in, makes seven. It’s something we’ve harped on here a lot over the last couple of days.

Participating in Big Ten/ACC Challenge and representing the ACC:

I do, I do [enjoy participating in it]. I wasn’t real excited about participating in it my first year and we caught a break and didn’t play. I guess they have 14 schools, we have 15, so somebody sits out. But I didn’t enjoy last year very much, either, with Penn State. We were playing so well. The Nittany Lions came in here and flattened our nose. I look forward to going to College Park. Maryland’s got another really good team.

I can’t tell you how many times through the years I’ve watched Maryland in the Atlantic Coast Conference back many, many years ago. I’ve never played there. I’ve never taken a team into Maryland to play, so that’ll be a lot of fun. I know they’ve got a beautiful facility, I know they’re expecting a big crowd and we look forward to getting up there and getting the finishing touches done on our preparation.

On the Penn State last year and the physical backcourt; Similar this season with a test vs. Memphis ahead of Maryland:

Yes, I certainly think so, Jon, and we worked on a couple of things to lighten it up and get some things initiated that are very important to us. We’ll be better on Wednesday.

On Nahiem Alleyne’s weekend:

I didn’t think he played very well on Wednesday against Memphis, he’d be the first to tell ya. But he’s defending well, he’s playing really good basketball. I thought he was really good against Xavier. Hunter Cattoor is doing great, Mike. He’s guarding the other team’s best player night-in, night-out.

I still think through seven games Paul Scruggs from Xavier is the best pound-for-pound kid we’ve played against, and Cattoor battled tooth and nail and got the better of that matchup on that end of the floor. At the same time, he’s continuing to bang shots. He’s playing awful well for us.

On Storm Murphy’s responsibility, messaging to him going forward:

Keep going. You had two bad games. You are my guy, you’ve been my guy since you came to the college level. Those two are on me, I’ve got to do a better job putting him in places to knock out all of the outside bologna and be Storm Murphy. I think he’s trying to prove that he can score at this level. He doesn’t have anything to prove – he’s won a lot of games, he’s going to be fine.

Depth on the bench:

[Darius] Maddox is playing good basketball for us. He’s averaging 16, 17 minutes a game, he’s shooting 55, 56% from the field. [David] N’Guessan has been tight, his back’s been tight. You can really see it restrict his movement, he’s not moving very freely, if you will. I didn’t think I had a match for John [Ojiako] the other night with [Xavier center Jack] Nunge, that can really space off of a ball screen.

They were playing with such funky lineups. I couldn’t find him a matchup out there that I could play him against. He could play against the freshman, Edwards, from South Carolina, who’s not very good now, he’s going to be, but he was in for just a click and by the time I wanted to get John in the game, he was gone, and Nunge’s back on the floor. Again, I just didn’t think that was the right matchup for our team.

On the Brooklyn experience:

We try to do that every chance we get. I think we’re in D.C. next year. We play preseason, maybe a one-game deal in D.C. I think that’s healthy, wise for us to do. I hope we had better luck up there [Brooklyn] in March than in November.

Do you wish Maryland was in the ACC still?

Mike, I’m not going to get all up into that. They don’t ask my opinion, I don’t offer it very often. Maryland not in the ACC is a mistake. West Virginia, Big 12, we’re just all over the place. But your question about Maryland, the ACC, I just so relate Maryland, the Terrapins and Lefty Driesell and all of those great Maryland teams and players with the Atlantic Coast Conference. I wish they were still a part of it.

On Mark Turgeon’s team, this Maryland group:

They haven’t shot the ball very well. [Eric] Ayala is a knockout shooter. Even Ayala, as good as he is, his numbers are paltry right now, he’s down around 28, 29, maybe 30%. Fatts Russell, transfer from Rhode Island, is really dynamic and fast as he can be in the open floor, is only 4-17 from three. No. 13 [Hakim Hart], their small forward, is a kid that can get going, but he’s struggled here a bit late.

[Qudus] Wahab is a load in the post. I think that’s a favorable matchup. As good as he is, he’s a Georgetown transfer. As good as he is, we think he’ll have as much trouble guarding Keve [Aluma] as we’ll have guarding him. I think No. 24 [Donta Scott], Mutts is a good matchup for us. It’s Maryland, it’s the Big Ten, very well coached. We’ll have our hands full, but we feel good about it going up there.

On Maryland getting to the line frequently:

They do, Mike, and a lot of that is generated in transition or off of ball screen actions. They’ve got some different things going on that we haven’t seen much of to this point this year, but we spent an inordinate amount of time today and I think we’ll be ready to go for it on Wednesday.

On playing in the Big Ten/ACC title and representing the conference:

We have a text chain with all of the ACC head coaches. Our league officials and some of our coaches that have been around than a lot longer than I’ve been around made it very clear how important these games are to us, our league and our teams need to play well and represent the Atlantic Coast conference in a positive fashion, so that’s our intention.

On being back in a full Cassell Coliseum on Saturday vs. Wake Forest and Steve Forbes:

That’ll be great to get back to Cassell. First league game. Wake Forest has improved. I haven’t seen them at all yet. I know they have a couple of new pieces that have made them a more difficult out. They had LSU last night, maybe Saturday night, in a tournament. Old friend down there that’s a whale of a coach. We’ll get this Maryland game behind us, we’ll turn our attention to that one Wednesday after the game and get ready to go. It’ll be great to get back in Cassell.

On having his family up in Brooklyn with him:

You’re going at it and trying to figure things out and win a ball game but I had a bunch of family there. Nieces and nephews and brothers-in-law and two sisters-in-law. My daughter, who’s living in the West Village, was around the whole weekend. That was a lot of fun. It was great to see them. We spent a little time together the night before the Xavier game. It was awesome. Great to see my family.

Biggest keys this week:

Our offense has got to be smoother, and we’re going to get that straight. We got outrebounded, but not by much, but we’ve got to do a better job on the glass. Our transition defense, I think, on Wednesday with Fatts Russell and the Terrapins, is of critical importance. We’ve got to be able to corral him with a trail big and get him cooled off and now we can guard him in the halfcourt. Wake Forest, they’re playing lot of motion. We’re typically really, really good in that regard. As evidence by Xavier, we can’t allow nine made three-point baskets. That’s sinful and we’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the arc.

J.C. Price

On the water and Gatorade baths postgame and his thoughts when the liquid hit him:

Oooh, that’s cold. Now I know how Coach Beamer felt. It’s funny you say that, I actually sent Coach Beamer that in a text message of that before coming here tonight.

On his phone blowing up, the celebration, the bus ride home:

I think the total text messages I received after the postgame was up to 325. I literally did not look up the entire ride home because I always want to answer everybody. I don’t want to leave anybody on read or think that I’m ignoring them. Anybody that texted me, I answered all 325. That was the easy part. The hard part is when the 325 want to hold a conversation. That’s when it gets difficult.

Diagnosing how this group got it done vs. UVA

It’s really what we talked about all week. I told the story about ’95 when we were down up there and me and Cornell [Brown] basically had a conversation just us two on the sideline that someone had to just go make up their minds that we weren’t going to lose today. That’s what those kids did. It wasn’t just one person. It was several people. It was Tae Daley, it was Braxton Burmeister, it was a bunch of guys who just decided, ‘You know what, we’re not going to lose this game today.’ They made plays and just continued to play hard and make everyone proud.

On winning the pregame toss, taking the ball to start on offense and trying to set the tone?

When you talk to football guys, when you’re the road team and you’re facing a prolific offense like we were there, you want to take the ball and set the tone. We were going to try to do whatever we could to gain the extra possession. It got scary there at the end where we thought they were going to start the second half with possession and [end] the second quarter with possession.”

Trickery offensively with the “Philly Special,” Robinson’s pass to Burmeister:

I told you last week, I left the coordinators alone. Corn was calling the game, I knew the play was called because we had been practicing it all season. Just like I told coach Shibest, we work with these fake punts and if the opportunity is there, we’ll call it. It was just all part of the drive. I told him we needed to score a touchdown and he had four downs, it was just let it all hang out.

Peter Moore roughed while punting from his end zone led to a field goal on that possession:

What a momentum swing that was. I was holding my breath because that easily could’ve been us giving them a short field. He hit a good punt, but it was still to the UVA 40, and that’s still technically a short field. Could’ve been 28-14 at half; instead, it was 21-17. That was a huge call that allowed us to get out of the half down less than a touchdown.

Brock Hoffman and his level of toughness:

That guy is a true warrior. We were wearing all white and he actually came to me and was concerned that I wasn’t going to let him wear his black shoe that had been basically carved out and fit with all of the padding and braces that he needed to wear. I said, ‘You wear whatever you want, brother.’ That guy is a straight-up warrior.

I saw my wife and she said, ‘what’s all of this black stuff on your face?’ I immediately thought to myself, ‘that was Brock’s face paint.’ That was his road warrior face paint he had on. That guy is a true Hokie. I don’t think anyone cares more about the program than he does.

On rushing for over 300 yards:

I can tell you this – I haven’t been a head coach for long, and I might only have one more shot at it, but I will take 320 yards rushing over 320 yards passing every day of the week.

Braxton Burmeister and him using his arm and legs, plus catching a touchdown pass:

Every player goes through up and downs during the season, the ebb and flow. You have good games, you have bad games. When you play the quarterback position, you get too much credit, too much blame. He knows that and it goes along with the position. I always tell people, ‘if my mom is watching the game, she doesn’t know if the d-tackle got blocked or not. But she knows if the quarterback throws an interception, she knows if the cornerback gets beat.’ There are certain positions that have a mental toughness, a mental aspect that you have to be able to forget and move on, as opposed to the physical aspect like the line of scrimmage. Every position has its own challenges, and QB1 is definitely mental, and he showed off his fortitude and toughness by just continuing to play.

71-yard run for Burmeister, red zone no points there, then Tae Daley forced fumble:

That was a big stop. I think that was the only stop we had in the half. The way the thing was going, I thought this was going to be a video game, they were going to score every time they touched the ball. That was a huge play of momentum. We went for it on fourth. Corn thought he had the right play and he did. We just didn’t execute. It was open, it was there. I didn’t mind because you figure you give a team a 99-yard field drive that they’re going to find a way to mess it up.

No matter what you do in football, you can pretty it up all you want, you can call it the spread offense all you want, it’s still about field position. The game is still fundamentally about where they start their drives, where take over, was it a turnover, a short field, a long field. Coaches like me have been doing this so long, you know the percentage of them scoring dramatically decreases the further out they take the ball. Being at the one-yard line, I thought even if we didn’t score the touchdown, we’d get the ball back in a great situation with field position.

On Tre Turner not playing until making the recovery on the onside kick:

There were several people that charged the field after the game, and there were two or three that asked me why I had Amare Barno recovering an onside kick, but no. He came to us and said, ‘coach, I want to help anyway I can.’ We decided that he was healthy, but if we’re not in this for our player’s safety and their No. 1 health concerns, we were all on the same page with Tre not playing. For him to come to us, ‘coach, I want to be out there and end this for us.’ ‘Go ahead. You’ve got it, big fella.’

On him barking at the coaches and asking to play offense back in the day:

No, I never asked about offense. I did ask Billy Hite if I could run down a kickoff. I always wanted to run down a kickoff. I thought that, and then I did it in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers and was horrible at it. I’m thankful I didn’t have to do that in college, probably would’ve gotten cut.

In control of the game, resilience after Blumrick’s fumble:

Once again, I will shout to the rooftops how mentally tough and how strong this team is and how tight they are and how much adversity they’ve had to overcome, whether it’s off the field, on the field, coming up short early. Those things were behind us and all we were focused on was trying to get one more win, try to get one more game together. Those guys found a way at the end, and they kind of helped us out with that third down play, I can tell you that.

On storming the field, smoking cigars:

It was the same way it was in ’95, I’m not sure where it came from. All of a sudden, someone handed me a cigar so I just went with it. Just like in ’95 when I was listening to coach Beamer talk, I had a cigar and he just kind of looked at me. This time, I was talking with the cigar. The kids liked it, they got a kick out of it. I really wasn’t sure where it came from, to be honest with you.

On James Mitchell, though he couldn’t play, wearing Frank Beamer’s No. 25:

I know no player had ever gotten 25 that was injured, but if there’s one person that exemplifies what Virginia Tech is and what he’s meant to our school, it’s that guy. I went back and forth. I had conversations with the coaches, I had a conversation with my wife about it. I just searched in my heart about what was the right thing to do and the right thing to do was let him wear 25.

Postgame interview – “This is my school. This is my home. That’s it.”

When you put the time and effort that goes into everyday life, school, lifting. They say 20 hours a week and I’m sure on paper it’s 20, but it’s probably a little bit more. There’s something special about this place. It’s the town, it’s the fans, it’s the people that live here. It’s the small-town atmosphere, we’re the only show in town. There’s no pro team. We’re the most popular social media outlet, Virginia Tech football. Because of that, I wouldn’t have it any other way, to be honest with you.

Nobody’s ever been undefeated except Billy Hite, who coached one game in 1989 for coach Beamer:

If you look back on the picture where we dumped coach Beamer in RFK, you can see Billy in the background with big eyes and a wide mouth because none of us knew he had that procedure. So Billy was actually scared for his life because of the shock to his body. Nah, Billy recruited me here and I wouldn’t be here without Billy. I was a young knucklehead and Billy and my high school coach were very close friends and I really didn’t know a lot about Virginia Tech when he came to recruit me, but the little bit I knew between him and my high school coach, there really was no chance with me going anywhere else.

Practicing, recruiting, schedule over the next week:

The staff will stay back and do a lot of the planning. We’ll have our first practice on Thursday. But until we really have an opponent, practice is going to be scaled back. It’s going to be a light practice, just get them out running around, get them in formations, used to being in stances again and just working some fundamentals, whether it be special teams fundamentals, offense or defense. It’s not going to be very taxing, but it’s going to be important that they get their bodies reacclimated to running around.