Tech Talk Live Notes: Brent Pry Preview UVa, Mike Young Talks Orlando

On Wednesday, Virginia Tech football head coach Brent Pry and Hokies men’s basketball head coach Mike Young joined Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop on Tech Talk Live. Pry discussed the upcoming game at Virginia on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network) while Young previewed the team’s trip to Orlando.

*Editor’s note: Wednesday’s show was prerecorded due to Thanksgiving and the men’s basketball team’s travel schedule.

Brent Pry

How are you doing?

Obviously disappointed. In a couple different areas, didn’t play consistent enough. Shut out in the first quarter, shut out in the fourth quarter, we gave them too much in between. And it’s a shame because in the film, there’s a lot of things that we can certainly do better and have done better at times, and we’re gonna have to be a better team this Saturday.

It seemed like you guys struggled getting things going. You had 39 yards in the first quarter and only 95 at the half on 18 plays.

Yeah, we couldn’t get it going and they snuffed out a couple plays. We’re bringing some pressure and the play that Da’Quan Felton fell down, I think we’re gonna get five or six there and stay on schedule. Some things like that happened. I don’t know if it was any one item on either side of the ball. But Kyron [Drones] got a little bit antsy with his feet and it just didn’t look like us.

Was it NC State who made an adjustment? It seemed like it moved the ball a little bit better in that second quarter.

Yeah, I tell you what they did, they had some new wrinkles and with their motion, misdirections, did a good job. We lost our eyes at times at the second level. And when you miss something or you get your eyes in the wrong place, looking at the wrong thing, it can be a problem. I think they also did a good job moving 10 [Kevin Concepcion] around. Good player that we will try to have eyes on and make sure we have him taken care of.

A couple of the big plays that they made in the game seemed like the defense was on its heels and was scrambling a little bit. You had some guys banged up and you had guys playing different positions. Is that part of that?

Yeah, that’s a little bit of the issue. We had a couple of breakdowns with Derrick Canteen at safety. Some stuff that you go all the way back to preseason camp with some checks and things that were missed. But he played with great effort. I think the big thing is at halftime, the conversation that Chris [Marve] and I had was, “Hey, they got us yining and yanging and let’s settle down. Let’s be more simple. Don’t worry about 10 right now, let’s just adjust like we know how to adjust,” and we were able to do that after that first drive, kind of get our cleats set and play better football.

That safety spot specifically has been tough this year with so many injuries. As soon as you get somebody back, someone else’s down again. That’s just been kind of a tough run, hasn’t it?

Yeah, it sure has. Nasir Peoples is questionable for this weekend. Jaylen Jones was questionable for this weekend. Jalen Stroman came out of it OK, but we did limit him, played a little more in the second half, but then obviously Canteen having to play multiple positions for us, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta to do at this point the year. We’re a little banged up in some places, but guys gotta tough it out and go get this one.

Keli Lawson got hurt in the first quarter, didn’t come back at all. What’s his status and how does that impact your depth at linebacker?

Yeah, we’re questionable there with him as well. And really, we had a three-man rotation going into the game, and [Jayden] McDonald has been banged up. He’s had a bad wheel and he’s not 100%. So the plan was for [Alan] Tisdale, who also got banged up in the game, McDonald and Keli to get those reps and obviously an adjustment had to be made there. But again, it’s just one of those things. You’re gonna do a great job getting healthy this week. A lot of rehab, a lot of treatment. That’s what it’s been. And we got to finish that out, the rest of this evening tomorrow and all the way to kickoff.

NC State quarterback Brennan Armstrong had 21 carries for 116 yards. It was kind of tough to be able to slow him down at times, wasn’t it?

He’s a good runner, tough runner, big body, competitor, very experienced. Thought he played arguably his best game. And I think his head coach felt the same way.

And then you look at that receiver, KC Concepcion. You mentioned that he was all over the field. He even threw a pass. He’s a handful.

He’s a good football player. He’s one that we had started going into the game and had a plan for him and I think it kind of got us out of sorts a little bit. They do a good job making you defend a lot. I think that’s what helped us offensively as the season unfolded was being able to make people defend more. And when you can do that, you can get the defense in a bind.

Da’Quan Felton has turned into Kyron’s favorite target. He had 10 targets in that game. He caught seven passes, two touchdowns. Those two seem to have a real connection these last couple of weeks.

Yeah, the one Kyron threw, the deep ball right in the breadbasket, is a really pretty throw, a great route. I love Quan, he can eat that grass up. I mean, he’s got great range, and he’s tracking the ball really well right now. I think there’s confidence in several of those receivers, which is a good feeling.

Kyron didn’t seem to run the ball as much as he did against Boston College two weeks ago. Is that just more of an effect of you’re behind and you’ve got to try to catch up?

Yeah, that was it. That’s why Bhayshul [Tuten] didn’t get the touches and Kyron, we felt like we needed to push the ball down the field and that’s the situation we were in, unfortunately.

Walk us through that trick play with Xayvion Turner-Bradshaw that really got things going. He got a lot of excitement at Lane Stadium, but it was a great call at the right time. 

I mean, again, just a great play that coach [Tyler] Bowen and the guys had been working on for a couple of weeks and Xayvion, we know has electric speed and quickness and we’ve just got to keep creating opportunities. … But the deception on it obviously worked because they all chased after Jaylin Lane. And man, when they came back for Xayvion, we had a whole line of offensive lineman over there, as well as Quan and his big body, doing a great job blocking down the field.

You got the score there. It’s 14-7, but NC State comes right back before the half and scores again. That was just a killer.

Two disappointing third downs there. We had a third-and-12 and a third-and-5, a great opportunity to get off the field on either of those. And we don’t execute the way we need to, so some of it was the plan we had in place that we had to make an adjustment at halftime. And so it was just not executing like we needed to. 

Kyron Drones passing wise was 17-of-30, threw that one interception, but I know that we were talking beforehand. That’s one where he wasn’t able to follow through having a defensive lineman in his face at that time.

Yeah, he sure did. I mean, we had a receiver coming open on the post. I believe that would have been a touchdown. But they did a nice job, that D-tackle worked a spin move and was in Kyron’s face so he couldn’t step into the throw.

What was it like at halftime talking to the team you’re faced with that deficit? What did you guys touch on and talk about and how pleased were you with the way the third quarter went? 

Yeah, again, you try to highlight the positives. Good things we did on either side of the ball in the first half. And then you talk about, “Don’t worry about the score. It’s one series, one play at a time. Don’t worry about the score right now, there is more than enough football time left in this game.” And that proved to be true. There were plenty of opportunities down the stretch for us to win the game.

You coached linebackers for a long time throughout your career. Payton Wilson, the linebacker for NC State, is one of the top tacklers in the country. What do you think of seeing his play up close?

Yeah, I thought he played a tremendous game. There’s been times all season where I see a guy and you can tell he’s gonna get out for an explosive play for us. There was at least twice, maybe a third time Saturday that I thought we had that explosive play coming and all sudden he comes in, roll tackles it. He’s got really good speed, can bend really well, he plays aggressive. I told him after the game, he’s got my vote. He’s an All-American-style player to me.

You go to that fourth-down play. You get the free play, get five yards and then you go for it on fourth-and 5 but can’t convert. That could’ve changed that whole game.

That’s it right there. I mean, you convert that or you don’t throw the pick. All of a sudden there’s enough time on the clock. Go get your defensive stop, which we’d gotten four in a row and go score, tie the game up, play to win it.

It seemed like you guys fought all the way to the final whistle.

Yeah, I was super proud of that. We became a resilient group. And I think the coaches did a good job and the leaders on the team preaching it’s never over till it’s over. I mean, even despite the pick, we come back, we use our timeouts, we get a three-and-out. They punt and we score. Now we’re kicking it onside kick and trying to tie the sucker up. So I think it’s a good lesson for the team that we talked about on Sunday. You just can’t worry about the score. You’ve just gotta keep trying to get stops and score points.

Those onside kicks, it’s kind of hard to convert those things when you’ve done it twice. Once you already done it, had one good successful onside kick, it’s kind of hard to mix it up.

Yeah, you almost have to have the perfect kick, right? It’s hard and that was a good kick. It wasn’t perfect, it was good. And they needed to be aligned just a little bit differently. If we’d gotten a little bit hedge out of one guy there a little bit more, I think we would have had a bigger opening.

What was the plan there when they had to call the timeout? Were they expecting you maybe to onside kick there or debating if you’re gonna kick it deep?

Well, we wanted to keep them guessing. And I think they put their prevent team out there. And we showed we’re gonna kick deep. And then they went ahead and went with their return team. At that point, right there, we had our timeouts and I felt like, ‘Hey, we were playing a little better on defense. Let’s kick it, use our timeouts and get the ball back.’

I know down on the sidelines, you had John Love and Kyle Lowe, you were personally rotating them in and out and a little gamesmanship down there.

Well, you have to, you don’t want the eyes in the sky to ID anything. We’ve gotta get better that way as a team, when the defense takes the field and we’re huddled on the sideline, there ought to be all three of our packages in there when the offense is getting ready to take the field during the huddle. There ought to be three tight ends in the huddle and four wide outs and you just want to keep them honest all the way till you have to.

The 3-3-5 defense that NC State plays is a little bit different, you don’t see it that often. Did it cause more problems maybe then you thought of or did the offensive line gray it out?

They grayed it out okay. They did. There are some things we’d like to have back or be better at but honestly, I think it’s the temperament and the pads rolled over in the way North Carolina State that confidence they have in fitting things. They got a lot of speed on a defense. That’s a confident, fast group.

I know one of the question marks coming in was that offensive line, you had a lot of new guys, a lot of people in new different spots that they hadn’t been in before. As you get a chance to be able to look at this offensive line, now 11 games in, what have you thought of the play?

Overall, I would say we’re certainly an improved unit. I don’t question that we’re an improved unit, or where we need to be yet to go compete for a championship in this league. No, we’re not. But we’ve got every one of those guys back. We have recruiting options. We’ve got to keep growing and developing that unit. But I am pleased with the progress we’ve made because as we all know, last year it was hard to get plays even started.

Bhayshul Tuten didn’t have much luck in the running game, but boy, he had a nice kickoff return.

Yeah, sure did. I mean, again, the plan is always to get him 18 to 20 touches and because we were behind on the scoreboard like we were, it kind of changed the plan a little bit, but he’s certainly good with the football. I gave him some grief because he didn’t break a tackle that was blocked up very well. He did break a tackle, but it was on the kicker.

It was Senior Day as well, an opportunity to be able to recognize a lot of those guys. What was that like during the pregame?

We’ve got six or seven guys that have been here a long time, five, six years. They’ve been through a lot and the way they embraced us when we started this thing, myself and the staff. Just so appreciative of that. They took a really mature approach and unselfish approach which gave us the opportunity to earn their trust and respect. And that’s been a driving force in us flipping this culture, getting this team in that locker room to a place where you can compete week in and week out and get to a place where we can have sustained success.

Kind of a touching moment too with Corey Moore being there and Frank Beamer out on the field and having Charley Wiles come over, that was pretty cool.

Oh man, we spent some time with Corey on Friday and again on Saturday, and he came by my office on Sunday with his mom before he left town. I mean, he’s excited about what we’re doing. He’s a big believer. He’s a big advocate. And the feeling’s mutual. What Corey did for Virginia Tech’s defense and for Virginia Tech football in his career here, it’s outstanding and to have him back in the fold. We had a bunch of letterman here for the ballgame. A bunch of guys came back for Corey and came by and saw us and spent time with Phillip Summers, a bunch of guys, George DelRicco. So we’re really trying to strengthen those relationships. Those guys mean everything to us. And Corey is just special.

With those 21 seniors, I know it’s a different time with COVID in that the extra year, keeping track of those guys who will have the option to be able to come back, I believe somewhere around 10 or so. How difficult is that?

There’s a lot of moving pieces. Yeah, there surely is. And you don’t want it to be a distraction. I know they’re thinking about it. Some of them, “Do I go to the NFL, do I want to transfer, do I want to be done with football and move on?” There’s a lot of that for scholarship guys, for walk-on guys. I just tell them, “When in doubt, walk so that you’re sure you get that experience and that celebration from our fans and for your family.” And I said, “When the season’s over, we get done with the Virginia game, we’ve got four or five days there where we’ll sit down and talk. We’ll get all the information. There’ll be conversations with you and your family to help you make the best choice moving forward.”

The Virginia game is kind of like a one-game season. You kind of told the team, “Hey, we want to be 1-0, but this is 1-0 for real, for the chance to go to a bowl.”

That’s exactly right. And that’s what we said. We all want the opportunity to play together again and go have some fun and compete somewhere in a bowl game and enjoy each other’s fellowship for another couple of weeks. So everything’s on the line for this one. Everybody in our program understands what this game means to our football program, to our letterman, to this fanbase, to our community. And they have a good football team. They’re getting better each and every week.

This is a Virginia team that has continued to improve, like you said. What has stood out to you so far on film?

They find a way each and every week. They’ve got different guys making plays defensively. They certainly have a really talented receiving group. They’ve got two guys that jump out with a ton of targets. And then the young quarterback played really well on Saturday. He had a couple of good games, played well against Louisville, played well against Duke. He throws a nice ball, he’s quick, he can run. I think like a lot of teams as the year has unfolded, they kind of form an identity and what they can do well ,and I think that’s where they’re at as a group right now.

You talk about a handful of good receivers. Malik Washington has been good all year long.

He’s had nine or ten games with 100 yards or more. They move him around a bunch. He’s built a little bit like a tailback. He’s a 5-9, 195. So when he catches that ball, even on the short stuff, he’s hard to tackle.

Their freshman quarterback, Anthony Colandrea. When you look at him, what’s impressed you?

I think he’s just a gamer. He’s very confident. We went down, we evaluated him coming out of high school, he threw a really nice ball. The only knock on him was folks thought he was undersized, but he’s got good feet, accuracy, confidence, he’s a smart guy. I think that’s what we’re seeing right now.

When you look at that team, they really only got blown out one time in ACC play, that was by Georgia Tech. All of the other six games that they played in the league were all one-score games.

They were tight in every one of them and this will be a fourth-quarter game. Coach [Tony] Elliott has been playing hard and finishing and they’ve gained some confidence they’ve had guys develop and playmakers show up. The freshmen they have are slowly getting better and then it’s at their place.

Free safety Jonas Sanker has 61 solo tackles, the most in the ACC right now. He’s all over the field. He’s got 90 total tackles. What have you seen out of their defense and him?

They’re playing fast or playing confident. I think the freshman linebacker, Kam Robinson, is doing a nice job. They’ve got some guys that have merited and urged TFLs up front, they are aggressive with their coverage style, so they’ve got a good group.

When you think about it, they should have probably beaten Louisville and then they go down and beat Carolina on the road. I mean, it’s kind of been an up and down year for them, but they put it all together against Duke the other day.

They sure did. You watch that game on film, it wasn’t like Duke gave it to them, they played well enough to win the game.

You’ve obviously been in a lot of rivalry games as a coach. Is there anything special or anything extra you do with the guys when it’s a big rivalry game like this?

Yeah, we’ve got some guys are gonna kind of talk through it a little bit. We ‘vegot a couple things in place to make sure the guys understand what the game means. But there’s plenty of folks on our staff and in the community that understand that. I’m sure the guys are hearing it from all sides right now.

When you think about your team, a lot of these young guys probably don’t know what this rivalry is all about.

Yeah, offensively, we only have three or four that have ever been over there. And few more guys on defense, Mario Kendricks and Norell Pollard and those guys and Alan Tisdale, but we’ve got to make sure we’re ready to go and that everybody understands as we go through the week here, this thing’s gonna be amped up. I expect it to be amped up and have a lot of intensity going into this game.

Mike Young

Coach, how are you doing?

I’m doing very well. A day like today is looking forward to getting to the Sunshine State and seeing a little sunshine, but we’re doing well and look forward to getting there and competing in a really good holiday tournament.

Happy Thanksgiving coach. It’s nice to have the family here with you as well?

It’s a great time of year. We were lucky enough to have both of our children here. They will travel with us tomorrow. Be down there for the weekend. We had dinner together last night and it’s certainly a lot of fun.

What do you guys do with the team? I know you’re doing dinner tonight [Tuesday].

We’re gonna have a Thanksgiving dinner tonight. And I think we’ll do maybe a little something Thanksgiving Day. We play that day at eight against the Broncos, which I’m sure we’ll talk about here shortly. We’ll feed them real well tonight and have a chance to relax and spend a little time together again, while enjoying a really nice meal.

It’s going to be a fun tournament. How about Hunter Cattoor going back home?

It’s going to be a great turnout. I mean, it is a solid deal up and down. Penn State, Texas A&M, It’ll be challenging. There will be a couple of teams coming out there that are NCAA Tournament-caliber teams. But it’ll give us all a chance to see where we are and the improvements that we need to make. I’m certain that the other seven head coaches that will be there all have a bit of trepidation. We’ve got a long way to go but, three games in four days against a really high-level competition will propel us into what lays ahead.

What about Hunter? He’s coming up on that career 3-pointers made, that would be a cool thing to be able to break back inside his home state.

I never said anything to him about it. But he said, “To have done it in Cassell Coliseum would have been the ultimate, but the next best thing would be to do it in Orlando, my hometown with a lot of family and friends there.” I told him I said, Cut it out with that with that talk. Just do your thing. And let’s hope that it happens down there on Thursday.” He only needs three more so he’ll do that on Thursday. We need him to do it on Thursday against Boise State.

He was kind of on a roll in the first half the other day in that game. But the question is could he get enough tickets for being back home and having a lot of family coming?

I stopped messing with those tickets a long, long time ago. I don’t want to share anything about it, that drives me crazy. I’m trying to win a ball game. Knowing his mother and father and how they do everything, I’m certain that is not going to be a problem.

How do you prepare and get ready for the grind of three games in four days coming up so quickly?

I don’t do anything with it. Of course we’ll play either Iowa State, who’s really good, or Virginia Commonwealth. Coach [J.D.] Byers has some familiarity with the Rams. Coach [Kevin] Giltner has Iowa State. So after the eight o’clock game, you get back to the hotel at 10:30, 10:45 and we don’t do anything with the team after Thursday’s game, but as a staff we will go down and there won’t be a lot of rest that night in preparation for Friday. You do have a bit of a break on Saturday. I would like for our team to get over, even if it’s for a couple hours, to Disney and get away from it a little bit. But it’ll be action packed. We’ll have them loaded up with our preparations, but it’s a pretty good learning experience for the ACC Tournament down the road and hopefully the NCAA Tournament. 

The game against Wofford the other night. In the the second half, you guys were just on fire and could not miss shooting, 70 percent. How about the evolution of Lynn Kidd and how he is playing and has he exceeded your expectations?

He has, he’s a man. Mylyjael Poteat is playing well for us too. It’s a pretty good one-two combination, but Lynn has been remarkable. Before the Wofford game, I don’t remember a lot of misses from either one of them. Both those guys were shooting over 80 percent from the field, which that’s breathtaking. Now, a small sample size of games, but that’s ringing the bell. So that emphasis to continue to stick it into the post and let those guys do their thing and coupled with Sean Pedulla and Hunter Cattoor and those others that can really shoot the ball makes us a tough matchup and I’m certain gives other coaches heartburn going into the Hokies.

How big was it to get Tyler Nickel back and his 14 points vs. Wofford?

Yeah, he had a good look. He was sick during the South Carolina game. I didn’t know anything about it. That punch and that threat off the bench as he comes into the game is a luxury. I thought he played very well on both ends. He got touched up once in the first half on a dribble drive, but he’s competing. He’s doing everything that we ask and playing good basketball.

You’ve had the luxury in the past when you think about Grant Basile and Keve Aluma, those guys that were big in the post, they could score as well in and out. What is your expectation for Robbie Beran’s offensive game?

I do think it’ll come around. Their line is almost the same, Mekhi Long and Robbie Beran. Robbie I think started in every game last year at Northwestern on a really good team. I take a lot of responsibility for that. Do I have him in the right spots? What can I do to help him? He’s a talented basketball player. He’s got good hands. A high IQ. I watch Boise State, I watch others that are bringing in two or three transfers, grad transfers, and trying to incorporate those new pieces that are talented pieces and get them to mesh with the Cattoor’s and Pedulla’s and those guys, we’re gonna get there. But again, I take a great deal of responsibility. I’ve got to get those guys going. You got to be able to lace them up and get 13, 14, 15 night-in, night-out and I’m not doing that and we got to get better.

What have you thought of the sophomore MJ Collins?

Playing well defensively, as he always does. His balance is not consistent when he’s shooting the ball. He looks like he’s pressed a little bit and that bothers me, and we’ve had a couple of conversations. Again, another one that I need to come on. We are getting a nice punch from Tyler Nickel at that spot. MJ Collins is a talented player. Had a very good freshman year. A little slow offensively here in his sophomore campaign, but he is doing other things that are helping our team play well and win basketball games.

We talked a little bit about this the other night — Sean Pedulla had 10-and-a-half minutes because of foul trouble in the first half, he only played 23 overall, but he still gets you 19 points. But it’s nice to have that dip there with Brandon Rechsteiner to be able to come in and spell him a little bit so he didn’t so tired.

Sean was a big part of that game. Pedulla picked up his second foul at about nine, I had to get him out of the game. Now, fortunately, in a game like that, you’ve got a tailor-made matchup for Rechsteiner and I think we have the same thing on Thursday. Those two point guards for Boise State are really good players. But Brandon Rechsteiner’s activity on the ball, the ball moves really well when he’s in the game. He got Cattoor a couple of those cracks in the first half. One was off an offensive rebound from Mylyjael. Our motion looks really good with Rechsteiner in the game. He didn’t turn it over. He was responsible defensively. Our team responds well to him being on the floor and that was encouraging to see.

As you turn all that film and be able to look at the Broncos, what stood out to you about this Boise State team?

We spent the majority of our time thus four on the San Francisco game, which was played November 12. We’ll come back this afternoon after practice and watch the Clemson game a couple of times. Clemson guarded a lot different than San Francisco. Guards it differently than we’ll guard some things, but comparable, Clemson is one of the first things we watch when we’re scouting another team in our league. They guard things comparable to how we guard things. As you all know, I have great respect for coach Brad Brownell. But Boise State’s good.

Three consecutive NCAA Tournaments. They’ve got Chibuzo Agbo back, number 11. Tyson Degenhart is probably their best player. Leon Rice, the head coach at Boise State, his son Max Rice is a good player. I’ve got a lot of friends in the Mountain West Conference and talking to some of those guys this summer, they just rave about that program, how they go about their business. They’re well-schooled. They’re tough. Stingy defensively. Be a great game for us again. As I said earlier, we look forward to getting down there and having an opportunity to compete against another really good basketball program.

What’s the logistics of the shootaround times and the practice times down here because obviously it’s a big tournament with a lot of teams.

I feel like I spent half my life in that facility. For the longest time, the AAU national tournament was held in that facility. There’s like 10 floors in the main building where we will play. Next door is another 15 courts, so the facility is not the issue, we’ve got ample time now. I didn’t know that Thanksgiving Day is supposed to be the busiest day of the year for Disney properties. We’re staying about five minutes away from the facility. So what kind of traffic issues we might have, I don’t know. But the property itself is great and I’m certain we got everything squared away. We’ll be fine there.