Kendall Fuller
On how much he enjoyed playing his first college game: “The coaches gave us a good gameplan, and it was fun. It felt like a long game, but other than that…I was telling Bonner and Kyle that it was one of the most fun games of my life.”
On whether it was frustrating for Bama to score before the defense ever got on the field: “Adversity happens in games. We’ve just got to stick together and keep fighting from start to finish.”
On how the defense played: “I think we played very well. We prepared, trained and worked hard throughout camp and the preseason. It kind of showed right there in that game.”
More on the performance of the defense: “I think it was a very good performance, defensive wise. Special teams and offense, you know, it’s something we’ve got to work on, but we’ve got 13 more games left, so we’re just going to try and get better each week.”
On the punt return where Kyle Fuller leveled a Bama player, and then Kendall got leveled in return: “Kyle is a communicator. When he thinks he’s got a good block set up, he’ll say something. I heard him, I cut back, I guess he got a good block, but [the Bama player in coverage] got a nice little shot on me.”
Trey Edmunds
On playing well in his first college game: “To start off, for my first college game, the atmosphere was crazy. Coming in here and seeing all the fans, and how wild it was. On the long run, all I did was run behind my offensive line. My offensive line made it easy for me tonight.”
On what the 77 yard run felt like: “Exciting. The offensive line, like I said, blocked everything well. I stayed behind them, saw the crease and I took it.”
On pulling away from the secondary and whether he thought he would be caught: “I couldn’t really tell [if he was going to be caught]. I never turned around. But I was hoping I wouldn’t.”
On running with power and leg drive on his other runs: “Just going against our defense every day in practice.”
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I loved Trey’s TD run. Kind of reminded me of that scene in Forrest Gump where he’s being chased by the guy’s in the pick-up truck: head back, running for his life.
Nicely done!
Yes,special teams will improve but I still hold my breath every time we try to block a punt anymore. Much better chance of roughing the kicker than getting a kick blocked. Not sure what the difference is anymore.
Anyone else see that Fuller said we have 13 more games left? He’s implying that we’re going ACC championship there…gotta like the confidence!
Of all the problems that could have been discovered against a team like Bama, special team needing to use more starters, and receivers needing to catch the ball are the two I saw as biggest. These two can both be fixed. Easy to fix special teams with a re-staffing of players. The receivers will get better. Most were rookie jitters. Knowles can catch the ball. He will get it fixed. I am more proud of our Hokies now than before they played the game. We will win a lot of games. Remember, it will be awhile before we have 5 star players three deep. Walkons are still welcome at VT.
I fully agree. I was afraid that we’d be totally outclassed up front, and that’s something that you can only fix with time and better recruiting. But VT was more than a match up front against the #1 team in the country on both sides of the ball. If we can tighten up our kick coverage unit and find some WRs that can hold on to the ball, we could have a pretty darn good season this year.
ummmm…. we will NEVER have 4 or 5 star players even 1 deep… But I like your optimism!
Our future is bright with these two. High quality, high character, and driven — couldn’t ask for anything more!
You got To Love the spirit from these two Young Men! VT’s program was made by players like these two. Thanks for a very good article.
I really do appreciate it when our players are referred to as Young men instead of kids. Burns my bum when our coaches pass up the opportunity to show due respect for these players. It surely is taken as a compliment by the players to be given proper reference. GO HOKIES
Need to hire a new SPECIAL TEAMS COACH !!! IT.S not the players !!!
We’ve covered this 100 billion times throughout the years. VT can’t hire anymore coaches unless they fire someone, because the NCAA only allows a certain number of coaches. Like just about every other team in college football, the special teams coaching is divided amongst all coaches. Frank handles the punt team and the punt return/block team. Other coaches handle kickoff, kickoff return, field goal block and field goal protection.
What we need to do is get more starters on special teams. Because of all the attrition we’ve recently suffered, we have fewer options amongst our backups. The first place depth problems show up are on special teams. Frank said immediately after the game that they need to review the personnel on special teams. Expect different guys out there for Western Carolina.
So, what are you trying to say? Kidding..do you think they will risk starters in there against WC. I am sure there will be different players, but I wonder how different for this game.
It depends. I don’t see the need for a bunch of changes on the kickoff team. Though I’d make a couple on the punt team. I’ll explain in a TSL Pass article either tomorrow or Wednesday.
Honestly, if some of those starters are going to come from the offense I’d rather they wait until a few more games in. Let those guys focus on their primary responsibilities (and by extension the lions share of the snaps they’ll take) for a few games. As another poster said, we won’t see talent like Bama’s 22 for a while, so we may be able to clean some things up in the short term without sacrificing offensive preparation.
A good response.
It’s not the players? Who threw the pick 6 and who “let up” on the long TD kick-off return? No way you can blame the coaches on 2 of the 3 non-offensive TDs.
You obviously did a lot of homework before making that post, go hokies ! Special teams will get better .