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Oct. 4, 2005
Al Groh’s Press Conference
October 4, 2005
Could you talk a little bit about Boston College’s defense? A lot of people make a lot of complaints about their offensive line, but I think this is a bigger issue.
Well, it is; they’re second in the country in stopping the run. And, obviously they’re way down there in points allowed, which, as we’ve discussed on other occasions, is the only really significant statistic. And, that is impressive in that they’ve played against two teams who obviously have scoring power, Florida State and Clemson. I think Florida State had 27, 14 of which were directly a result of defensive scores. So, Florida State ended up with 13 offensive points against them, Clemson with 13 offensive points. That’s two teams that, from our own experience, we know have strong capability to score. You’re right, the offense gets a lot of attention, but what’s really important in being a solid team week-in and week-out is being able to keep your opponents down, and they’re really good at that.
You spoke after the game Saturday about the importance of the team not fragmenting externally or internally. How do you get a read on that the following week in practice and what can you do about it?
There’s no formula for it. You just keep your eyes and ears open. But, in this particular case, I don’t think it requires any due diligence. The players, from the start, have been very alert and very resolute in the fact that part of our formula this year is going to have to be team power. It’s not going to be individual or unit brilliance. That’s just not the make-up of the team, at least at this present moment. It’s going to have to come from the overall power of the team, the intangible nature of that, and the coordinated performance of the three units, that is, when it’s a 7-3 game or a 45-33 game. One side might be pulling more of a productive load than the other side. Maybe it’s a game that we win with two special teams scores, and they’re only interested in ending up with more points than the other guy, and whatever it takes to get.
With the 2002 team, it felt like the goal was to take the game into the fourth quarter and then you’d have a chance. You had some playmakers who were the guys who could then help you win. Is this team similar in that regard, where you feel like you’re not going to be able to blow out most teams?
Yeah, there certainly are some similarities there, I would say. Obviously, many of those players who were playing pretty significant roles on that team then matured later in their career to more dominant-type players, whether they were former DE Chris Canty or former NT Andrew Hoffman or OT D’Brickashaw Ferguson or OT Brad Butler, those kind of guys, so there certainly is a similarity there.
What can you say about Boston College’s big defensive end, Mathias Kiwanuka?
He’s kind of a defensive version of our guy, D’Brickashaw Ferguson. That is, he’s very tall. He’s rangy. He’s a little lean for his position. He runs way beyond the norm for his position. I’m sure that if they were standing next to each that they would look quite similar. Whatever his number is, he’s in that real tall range, and he can really run. Just as… Say, for example, when the N.F.L. scouts come in and we talk about D’Brickashaw, I say to them, here’s an indication of his skills: you know that with the limited roster in the N.F.L.–45 guys at the game–the tight end issue, how many are you going to carry and just have enough on the goal line is an issue. It’s easy to say to them, “Look, if D’Brickashaw is on your team, you can easily put another guy in at offensive tackle on the goal line, and he could play tight end for you.” Well, I think that would be the case for this player. He can be a defensive end, but he can play tight end on the goal line. At that size, he’d have enough size to block on the edge, but he’d be able to run so they could throw him play-action or whatnot. He’s really quick off the edge. He’s a terrific individual pass rusher, but, because of his speed, they also run a lot of gains with him, where they loop him and bring him, which, at his speed, is difficult to deal with. But, he’s an impressive player.
What’s the biggest threat that you think Boston College poses for you?
I don’t think a meeting is ever defined in terms of the “biggest threat.” It’s a combination of different things that you put together to size up what has to be dealt with and how to play the game. But, one of the biggest is just size and power. That’s the nature of their game; that’s how they’re geared… to play with size and power, to try to overwhelm the other team physically with size and with numbers.
Ideally, I imagine you’d like to play LB Ahmad Brooks more this week, or are you still trying to bring him along slowly?
I don’t recall what his play count was last week, probably 34 or 35 plays. I think if we got to that many plays… I think it’d be unrealistic to think we could go too far beyond that many plays.
Are you looking to keep him on the outside, or would you rather him on the inside?
We were obviously missing one of our players. We had need at that position. And, here’s the way we’re dealing with Ahmad’s situation. I’ll draw parallels, since we’re going to Boston, to Curt Schilling. Here’s a player who was obviously an outstanding player last year, who missed all of training camp because of his off-season surgery. When he was certified as medically ready to go, the Red Sox sent him down to Pawtucket for two weeks, now that he was ready to try to get his game in shape. Well, we don’t have Pawtucket. There’s a lot of catching up here to do with Ahmad’s game, the things that he hasn’t done since August 5 to improve and polish his game. So, we’re solving a need as well as trying to get him some action, you know, get him a little time there at Pawtucket. That’s a little bit less… When you’re on one side of the ball and not trying to go through your reads, there are a few less intricate reads outside than there are inside. So, it was the combination. If we had not had the need outside, we certainly would have done that to put him outside to get him ready. But, it just seemed a way to get him some game action, which is going to be necessary, as well as to take care of a particular circumstance.
He kind of gets lost in the shuffle, but how much of a weapon is PK Kurt Smith to your team? He had several touchbacks in the game last weekend at Maryland.
Oh yeah, I guess I say this so many times that I’m subconscious of it. This whole idea of field position is something that’s really not very interesting to fans. They just want to know about the plays. It’s like talking about tires and batteries. You know, just talk to me about upholstery and what kind of sound system do we have in the car, not the tires and the batteries. But, that’s what field position is. You know, since the game is all about ball movement-where you get it and where you can move it-our special teams have given us a significant field position advantage in every game, as far as each particular kick and hidden yardage that comes from it. And, Kurt Smith has obviously been a big factor in that; he certainly was a tremendous factor the other day with six of his eight kickoffs not being returned and the other two being, really if they’re not going to be returned, they’re exactly where we want them, which is right on the decision line for the returner-should I stay in by a yard, should I go out high-it gives us time to get down the field. We’ve got some guys putting a lot of effort into coverage. So, he’s been real good for us, real good.
On that, in coverage, there was a tackle last week made by S Ryan Best, who’s a name that some of us remember from the soccer team. How did the process work, did he say to you, “I want to play football now,” or how did he come to your team?
It’s interesting, I didn’t think anything of it when it occurred, but there were a number of occasions a couple of years ago, where I’d be downstairs working out, and maybe the soccer team would be in there, as a group, lifting. And, this one kid, in kind of a shy manner, would kind of say, “Hi, Coach.” And, for a while I think he had a broken arm when he wasn’t participating, and I remember asking, “Gee, what happened?” And, I didn’t think anything of it. Then, two summers ago, I was in here in July, a day when nobody else was in, and the secretary said, “Coach, there’s some player out here who wants to see you, and I don’t really know who it is.” It was for good reason; she had never seen him before. I went out to see who it was, and Ryan said he wanted to talk to me about coming out for football. He explained his situation, being a recruited soccer player. And, we talked about all the ramifications. When we came to do a little more research, we found out that he had a very productive high school football career. And, apparently, he was recruited by a number of schools, I can’t tell you who or on what level, but was recruited by a number of schools, none of whom he or his family deemed to be the same educational experience as Virginia. So, in order to come to the University of Virginia, he accepted the soccer scholarship. But, he’s one of these guys that said, “Hey, my heart’s in football, and I’m willing to give up my soccer scholarship to play football.” And, he’s been a great story for us. He had a form of lymphatic cancer here, earlier this year, which some of you may or may not be aware of. And, he was a great inspiration to the players and coaches. And, on those days where he had to take chemo and radiation frequently and was at practice that day, sometimes the cumulative effect would cause him to miss the next day. But, the times where he was inactive in the program was minimal. And, it took a tremendous amount of courage on his part, and certainly confirmed to everybody what his resolve was to be a part of this. And, kind of based to a large degree on that and on some needs, we could see here in training camp, that while he certainly showed some really nice skills at running back, there was a fairly long line over there. And, he could be able to practice and practice and practice and show good improvement and still maybe not get some deserved time. We were looking for a little bit of help at safety, so we asked him if he’d be interested. There might be a shorter line over there, particularly with substitution teams–the nickel, the dime, and all that stuff–and the special teams. And, as you would expect from a guy who’s paid the prices that he has just to be a part of the team, he said, “Hey, whatever.” So, he’s working himself into a nice role now.
With your offensive line, it looks like, for a lot of the guys, that inexperience is more of an issue than sheer size. Do you feel like if you can get them healthy and get them playing together, that as the season goes along, they’ll be more typical of lines you’re used to having?
Yeah, I think so. I hope so, certainly. This Boston College line that we looked at, one of the things that I noted is that most of them, with all of the size that they have and so forth, is the efficiency right now. I mean, they’re a good looking line, not just physically. They’re very good technique-wise. They execute well. They’re really in synch. You can see what they’re trying to do… what they’re being told to do. I mean, there’s real evidence of coaching and development with them. But, as I recall looking at their biographies and so forth, almost all of them are red-shirts. So, they’ve had that. OT D’Brickashaw Ferguson didn’t have that luxury. OT Brad Butler didn’t have that luxury. OGs Eugene Monroe and Branden Albert don’t have that luxury. And there were certain things that we were able to establish that we were able to do last year. Now, because of a different set of circumstances, we’re having to re-establish our ability to do those things.
You’ve had a chance to look at game film from the Maryland game. Obviously, you’re going up against maybe the biggest offensive line that you’ll see. You have to expect them to pretty much come after you like pretty much every team they face. Was it technique last week? Was it more of just getting physically beaten up front? Is there anything you could do, as a coach, when you’re team’s being beaten like that?
There certainly were some match-up issues that we were dealing with. And, there were some scheme issues at the same time. We were trying to apply a number of different solutions at the same time, whether they mere scheme solutions or match-up solutions. Now, with some of the little more veteran players the last couple of times we played against a similar type of scheme, we were able to not have much trouble with it. But, we were playing against different players with different players. Those were the things we were dealing with there. I’m sure that some of those issues might come up, so we’re just trying to have better solutions next time.
Obviously, they’re going to attack you. More than any other game, is that what this game is going to be dictated by?
I think that their track record shows that that’s going to be the case, whether it’s the University of Virginia or the University of Argentina that they’re playing. That’s the way they’re going to play. It’s the way they played everybody last year. It’s the way they’ve played everybody this year. It’s a dedicated, downhill running game. It’s unusual that balls go to the outside. You can see the backs are coached to keep the ball inside and get upfield. One of the things that’s pretty eye-catching is that for the number of carries that their two tailbacks have had this year in five games, they’ve only had 13 yards of losses, which tells you that whether the ball is gaining any yards or not, it’s getting right back up to the line of scrimmage in a hurry. So, it’s either going to be zero or plus, but it’s not going to be minus. Of course, the only way you can get it to the line of scrimmage in a real hurry is stay between the tackles and go downhill with it.
TB Wali Lundy’s production the last couple of weeks, is that more to do with the ground game or the O-line, or is he still bothered by his injury?
He’s still bothered. It’s starting to get… For the first time last evening, we started to see the player that we saw in training camp. It’s probably pretty much the case that the absence of three or four of those guys that he got used to running behind last year might be a contributing factor, but I think his injury situation was it more than anything.
Because of what he’s gone through in his life personally, is he able to keep focus more in perspective?
Wali has got a very good perspective on life. Those of you who’ve spoken with him certainly are aware of that. But, this is very important to him. I think he’s dealt with those things in the past. It’s given him perspective, but that’s the past. This is the present, and he’s got a lot invested in it and the future. He’s put a lot into getting ready for this season, and I feel for him. I’ve said this in response to questions about Wali way back last spring. I want to clarify that when I say that Wali really stepped it up for this season is not to imply that he was not with it before, because he was one of the most diligent players on the team for three years. But, he took it to another level this year. So, I feel for him and his circumstances. What he’s looking at, at the best set of circumstances, is a half a season, basically. But, that’s life. That’s the way things go. We all suffer setbacks and disappointments. Whether your team falls behind at the half, or your season doesn’t get started until the half, that’s just the way it goes.
Coach on Nate Lyles on Saturday night took obviously a couple of highlight type hits how much do you like his instincts and his aggressiveness?
Yeah, he has given us a lot of both and given us very physical play. Interception was a very aggressive play for the ball and was one of those a little bit downing that things could lay back safe on the man but we missed the opportunity to step in front and try to get something done for the team as well good his physical play. Plays every man so only his fourth game he playing safety it was a very positive game for him. Probably one of the few positives on either side of the ball.
How close are you to Tom O’Brien?
I know Tom fairly well it’s just. Right around the same time frame as when I started at Wake Forest is when Coach Welsh and his staff came to Virginia. So we are all kind of starting out at the same time. Tom did a lot of recruiting in Virginia, so I can’t say I spent a lot of time with him but in going in out recruiting I really got to know him, spoke with him off and on that way then the whole time that my son Michael was playingOf course Tom was coaching for a couple of years was his positions coach and I would come down whenever I could as an alumnus or parent. And then go in the offices and talk to people and so it’s certainly probably to know on that basis Tom I would guess I know probably longer than the coaches in league. Appreciate and respect the work that he does I know a little bit more from the inside just because I have been invited into the offices when I visited and talking to the coaches.