Virginia offensive coordinator Des Kitchings and defensive coordinator John Rudzinski preview the Miami game.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00was called, how much of that was scramble, breakdown?
00:04Give or take.
00:05Give or take, half was called and the other half was scrambled.
00:09Like the one long run there in the fourth quarter really got us out from back up.
00:12That was just a boot that he broke and tamed and had it covered and
00:16he made a play for us there.
00:17So that was off of our boot action play on that one.
00:21Are you encouraging him to keep it more, to tuck it more, and
00:24then kind of get some easy yards when they're there?
00:27Yeah, it gives us an advantage against the defense, right?
00:31Get one half, get an extra blocker in the running game, that sort of stuff.
00:34But again, in the passing game, he's going through his progressions.
00:38And if it's not there, just go, just go, right?
00:41Don't sit there, hold a ball in the pocket, if it's not there, just play long.
00:46How would you evaluate your traditional run down, what you're getting from the laps?
00:50Yeah, it's hot and cold, honestly, and there's a lot of factors into that.
00:55There's sometimes we're outnumbered in the box and
00:58our guys gotta win a one on one as a back, and we haven't done that.
01:01And there's times where we've had some leakage, the alignment block.
01:05And so it's been a variation of things for guys, so we gotta get it cleaned up.
01:10Obviously, as you get it to late October and November,
01:13you have to be able to run the football effectively.
01:16They've gotta go run for 200 yards,
01:17they've gotta be able to convert third down situations.
01:20Mudie Chazel, first time with the run game, it comes from the left hand side.
01:24This Miami front, what stands out about the group that we get to the quarterback?
01:29Yeah, I mean, yeah, you turn on the film and those guys are athletic and twitchy.
01:35They play with really good fundamentals, great fundamentals.
01:37They do a great job playing with their hands and separating from blocks.
01:40No pass rushing their edge guys and pass rushing.
01:44So we just gotta do a great job fundamentally in a run game and
01:46a passing game and blocking.
01:48Coach Elliott said that Wicks is having some of his best practices in recent weeks.
01:51What changed for him?
01:53I mean, he's always been a worker.
01:55I don't think anything's changed.
01:57I mean, he's caught the ball better in practice, so that's a positive, right?
02:00But no, he's been a worker for us since we've been here, and that's been cool.
02:04I think it's really, good things have been happening for him, right?
02:06He's catching the ball in practice, so obviously, he's more upbeat, and
02:09things go well with the practice when that happens.
02:11He said he called him Vintage Wicks last Thursday, guys.
02:15Yeah, it seems like forever.
02:16But how close is he getting back to that kind of form?
02:20I mean, I don't know what Vintage Wicks is.
02:22I just want the guy to make plays, right?
02:24And he did that Saturday night.
02:26He called it the two deep balls force, which that's what he's supposed to do.
02:29And he did that, and then he broke tackles in the open field and
02:32got us a touchdown.
02:32So I mean, that's the expectations of him.
02:34We just gotta have it more consistently.
02:36He said that during the bye week, he kinda took some time to reflect.
02:39Did you say anything to him?
02:41Did any coaches say anything to him, or did you try to stay away from-
02:44No, I mean, I remember talking to you guys about it.
02:46We all look back at it and reflect.
02:47And at that point, we had 39 drops, and I think he had a large number of those.
02:51So self-reflection, looking at that and trying to eliminate that.
02:55I guess there's a positive, we had three drops Thursday night.
03:00There was still three costly drops.
03:02One ended up in a tip pick, and the other one was a drop touchdown.
03:06And the other one was a first down conversion.
03:08So we just gotta continue to progress and keep pushing and getting better.
03:13It's actually his own recording.
03:15Yep.
03:16Do you see anything different there that's causing problems, or
03:18is it just more of the things that you're seeing overall?
03:21Same things overall, right?
03:22It's offense, like I said before, offense, all 11 guys.
03:26Unfortunately, all 11 guys have to play together, unlike on defense, right?
03:30D-line can miss a tackle, the linebacker can tackle, right?
03:35Up front, if the O-line miss a block, it's probably gonna impact everything.
03:38So they block it great, then the running back slips, that impacts everything.
03:42Or they block it great, we throw it and we drop it.
03:44So everybody has to do their job,
03:46cuz you don't know when you're gonna be at the point of attack as a skill player.
03:50Obviously, the offensive lineman, you're at the point of attack every play.
03:53So you gotta win your one-on-one, you gotta do your job.
03:55And that's the beauty of playing offensive football.
03:57And we've shown some really good flashes of all 11 guys doing that.
04:01We've shown flashes when there's been nine guys doing it, but
04:03it just hasn't impacted us cuz the other two guys didn't do their job.
04:06But we don't know when it's gonna come to that.
04:09You gotta be prepared, you gotta be ready, you gotta execute your job.
04:13Do the false starts frustrate you more?
04:15Yeah, that's a lack of focus.
04:16That's a lack of focus.
04:18Again, that's another example, right?
04:20We get a short turnover, right?
04:21We got the ball, what, on the nine-yard line.
04:23We come off the sideline, and we have a missed phone, right?
04:27And then the next play, we get some yardage back.
04:30Then on third down, it's a false start.
04:32So now it's third down to 11, 15, then we have to drop.
04:36I mean, you just can't make that up.
04:37I mean, are we purposely trying to do that?
04:39No.
04:40Are we coaching that?
04:41No, but it's happening.
04:42We gotta fix it.
04:43We gotta get it fixed.
04:44Coaches have players.
04:46The dip in Brennan's completion percentage, you mentioned the drops.
04:49There's a lot that goes into it.
04:52How would you evaluate his accuracy?
04:54There was some throws he missed Thursday night.
04:56We had Billy open twice across the middle of the field.
04:59You could see his hips are a little way, he's trying to go across his body.
05:03So that's gonna lead to some inaccuracy, right?
05:05And he got a little bit of pressure early in the game.
05:08Probably got moving in the pocket more so than he had been early.
05:11Just still trust the pocket and deliver the football.
05:13Coach Elliott talked about Jay Wilcook and
05:16having maybe more of an expanded role.
05:17I know he talked a lot about punt return, but
05:19he also said getting touches on the perimeter too.
05:21Do y'all see his role beyond just the backup quarterback?
05:24Yeah, I mean, we had a plan for him against Tech.
05:26And unfortunately, he wasn't able to play.
05:29So that plan was obviously erased out of the mix.
05:32I mean, here we are, we're sitting with five games left.
05:34We got four of them, all five in state, right, four of them at home, right?
05:38And our goal is still to get to a bowl game.
05:40So however we can manipulate, score points, right?
05:44If that means Jay Wilcook's gotta come out there and play another position,
05:46he's gonna play another position.
05:47You gotta go return punts.
05:49We're trying to exhaust every opportunity to go win these games to get us
05:52a bowl eligible.
05:54Is there any common thread?
05:55Miami's giving up some big pass plays, long touchdowns.
05:58Any common thread there with what's gone wrong for them there that you guys see?
06:02No, I mean, their corners are freaking good now.
06:04I mean, number two, he's probably the best guy we've gone against.
06:08Middle Tennessee took shots down the field and they caught them all.
06:12They caught them all, right?
06:13There's other guys took shots out of the field, maybe not had made the plays.
06:16Hopefully when we take our shots and we make our plays,
06:19because we need that, right?
06:20We gotta create an explosive play somewhere.
06:23Not live the hard life trying to drive at 12 plays and somebody false starts or
06:27whatever the case may be that's happened for us for seven games, right?
06:30I like it when Wicks catches one, breaks a couple of tackles for a touchdown,
06:33and everybody on the sideline, life is good.
06:36Yeah.
06:39Yeah, no, I think we collectively all take pride in our individual
06:43responsibilities and I know how important it is for
06:47the young men in this program to perform at their highest level.
06:52And so that's the goal this week, and we'll continue the goals.
06:57We're gonna have one game, one play mentality, we'll prepare the right way.
07:02And that's the challenge we have this week.
07:04Miami always has athletes on the edge, a lot of speed downfield.
07:09Another quarterback situation is iffy, but what kind of challenges does that present?
07:13Yeah, no, I mean, they've got a really good football team.
07:17They're athletic at all positions.
07:20You look at receivers, you look at running backs, offensive line,
07:24they play with power, and so it'll be a great challenge this week.
07:29But the tight end Mallory, what kind of problems does he present?
07:32Yeah, no, he catches the ball like a receiver, runs really well.
07:37So super talented right now.
07:39Your D-line this year, you probably knew you had some athletes there.
07:43Has it come together as you thought it would?
07:46Has it maybe surpassed your expectations for the year?
07:49We'll have to put it on film on Saturday.
07:52I mean, we've gotta just continue to make sure that
07:59what we put on film is who we are.
08:00And so the challenge is this week to do it one more time.
08:03How do you feel about the depth of options that you have along the defensive line?
08:07Cuz it seemed like there are a lot of different guys that were getting it done
08:10last Thursday.
08:11Yeah, no, I think what we do is to be a good football team,
08:15you've gotta create good competitive depth.
08:17We've got a bunch of young men that have worked hard.
08:19Some young guys have emerged.
08:20And so it's fun to be able to come out and
08:23watch practice where guys wanna go compete.
08:26Coach mentioned Aaron Kamui over the penalties.
08:30How did Aaron handle that and respond going forward?
08:33Yeah, no, he responded like a pro, and you'd expect no less.
08:38Have you been pleased with what you've seen in terms of the discipline,
08:41not just from him, but from the whole unit kind of since that early?
08:45Yeah, what we can't do is we can't beat ourselves at penalties.
08:49And especially in this game, the details matter.
08:52The details matter in life, and so these are all life lessons that we want
08:56the young men in the program to take, not only from their experience with football,
09:00but to be able to translate this to bigger life.
09:04Anthony Johnson, what's the impact he's had on the secondary as a whole,
09:08not only the trust on the field, but maybe leadership-wise, too?
09:11Yeah, AJ does a really nice job as far as his preparation.
09:16And then with his over 500 snaps he's had so
09:19far this season, has done a really nice job of going out and competing.
09:23So I know it's important to him, and what we need to see him do, though,
09:26is down the stretch, play our best ball.
09:28And that's what we gotta do as a defense.
09:30We've gotta really play great ball this weekend, and
09:35we've gotta prepare here the rest of the week to get ready for
09:37a really good Miami team.
09:38He's such a high-energy, emotional guy.
09:41How do you either harness that, keep it in check?
09:45How does that work with this game?
09:47Yeah, I think when you open up that spigot, you gotta let the water flow.
09:51So I'll tell you what, sometimes it's a drip with some guys,
09:56and sometimes it's a whole fire hydrant.
09:59So you've gotta take advantage of that energy and let him be who he is.
10:05And we'll let each of our coaches and
10:06players be their own personalities within the framework of Coach Elliott's program.
10:12Have you had many personalities like his?
10:14Yeah, no, I think throughout, my experience is that's the blessing of
10:19being able to work with 18 to 23-year-olds is, I tell you what,
10:24you definitely see some personalities, and trust me, we have plenty of them in our
10:27locker room, but have a bunch of them that end up bleeding for
10:32the University of Virginia, and that it's important to be a student-athlete here.
10:36And Trell, on the other side, has he improved, too, as this year has gone along?
10:40Yeah, he's done a great job.
10:41He plays, he's playing sudden, he's got really good feet,
10:47he's tackling really well.
10:49And so another guy that probably would be the yin and
10:53yang personality role-wise in that room, but does an unbelievable job and
10:57has an unbelievable football future.