Here are the thoughts from Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring, who answered questions this morning:
Coach, if you want to open up about being here in Miami and preparations leading to the game.
COACH STINESPRING: We're awfully excited to be here. It's a great bowl, and great opportunity for our program to be able to go against a team like Kansas that's had a terrific year and playing very well. Just a great opportunity for us. Great challenge for us. We certainly like coming down to Miami. Weather's always nice to us down here. We're glad we were able to bring some sun from Blacksburg. We're just excited to be here. Practice has gone well until this point in time. And we know we're going to have a terrific challenge in front of us when playing Kansas. When you look at their football team, they've got some terrific football players, playing with a lot of confidence. They're very physical on the defensive side. They remind us a lot of ourselves. They fly around, they pursue to the football, and so you got to work at it. You got to work at it hard. So we're looking forward to it.
Q. I wondered if you could talk about Sean Glennon and the year he had. Loses his job, and comes back real strong. What was the difference between the first couple of games and the end of the season?
COACH STINESPRING: I think that's a good question. I think there is a story here about Sean Glennon, because I think he's taught us all a little bit of a lesson, that you may not be able to pitch it right away. There's a story about having to battle back from adversity to disappointment to being able to step back to a starting role to be able to come to the ACC championship game. He was player of the game. I think we all understand. We can see that part of it. But I think there is another part, and I think he taught us all a little bit that the biggest difference that I can see is sometimes you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders. In this game that we play in this arena that we play in with the lights and the cameras, and all these things, there's already that pressure that surrounds this game. And sometimes, I think we all forget to go out and enjoy playing the game, to have fun. That's what it's intended to do. And I think Sean Glennon taught us. He went back out there and had the opportunity to play, to start, to get back on the field. I think he had fun. He enjoyed the moment, enjoyed the opportunity. And I think it taught us all a little bit. We have a tendency to forget that this is a game, it's meant to have fun. And enjoy the opportunity, and just always feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, that every opportunity you have is a mistake waiting to happen or trying to prevent a mistake from happening. So I think we all were able to take a little bit from that and just watch a guy go out and enjoy the chance to play a game.
Q. Just wanted to ask you the two quarterback system you've been using lately, why is it so successful? I know other teams have used it in the past, but for you guys it's working well?
COACH STINESPRING: I think that question is going to be answered by the two men you're going to visit with here in a little bit. I think the mentality that Sean Glennon and Tyrod Taylor have, in terms of the understanding they have, why we're doing it, and the reasons why we're doing it. I think that's very, very important. That you've got to have two players that are quarterbacks that like being out there for every snap, and they understand. They're committed to it. Not involved, but committed to the idea that we want to have our opportunities to have our best players on the field whatever you bring to the table, whatever each individual can bring to the table. Have an opportunity to bring it on the field and give you a chance to win. Or give you an opportunity to become more dimensional in your offense and pose your problems for defense. And I think they bought into it. I know they did. If they didn't, it wouldn't work. I just think the communication, when we first started out to do this, we went to them first. We sat down as a staff, obviously, but we felt like we needed to go down and, myself, just sit down with Tyrod, sit down with Sean and let them know why, what we were hoping to do. What we were attempting to accomplish and understanding of one key element here was the fact that they weren't being judged from snap to snap or series to series. This was the way we were going to approach it. That we felt we had two starting quarterbacks. Each brought different things to the table. Each of them gave us an opportunity to win ballgames and why not go that route? They were not being why'd from play to play. To sit down and explain the process and what we were hoping to accomplish with it, I think was really important from that standpoint for all of us. Then we sat down with our individual positions as coaches and let them know, our offense, just to let them know what we were hoping to get accomplished and what we were doing. Get everybody on the same page. I think it's worked out well. It's not an easy venture, I can assure you that. If it was, I think more people would do it. But it's something that in this trial and error through this whole process. But it forces you to be a little bit trying to stay a little bit ahead in a series from snap to snap. It forces you to do that. In some regards, that's a benefit. The further you can stay ahead, the better off you are.
Q. I was wondering, could you talk about what you see in Aqib Talib and what challenges of your passing offense?
COACH STINESPRING: I think he's a terrific football player. Obviously, when you're an All American you're pretty good at what you do. You have a guy that has a tendency to run well. As most defensive backs can do. But then you have a defensive back that is well schooled. Seems like he has great understanding of schemes. Looks like to me watching him from week to week and their seconds in general, they do a great job in their film study. They don't sit around to watch film just to watch film. They've got a great combination of routes. So he's a learned guy on the field. Then you have a combination of a guy that understands his position. Understands what an offense is attempting to try to do in the passing game and can run well. But now he's got height, he's physical. So he can play a lot of different ways. He's not just I'm not going to rely on speed, I'm not going to rely on quickness. But I can physically match up with your receivers. If you feel like you have a receiving corps or particular receiver that can run well or, b, gives a physical, you hope, gives you a physical advantage. He can nullify pretty much everything that you can throw out there.
Q. Is it game situation the way you decide who plays when, what series? You kind of explained a while ago, but just elaborate on that?
COACH STINESPRING: Really, I try to script the night before the game. I'll actually create a 25-play script. And I'll always see what you're calling by down and distance and the personnel grouping that you have in the game. But in order to get it done with the quarterback situation, you've got to kind of tag those people into those situations, too. Because as a guy that has to call the plays, you have to get the personnel grouping, you've got to understand the down and distance, the high mark, and then call the play in that situation that you're looking to run. But now you have to match it up with the quarterback you like to have in that situation. So to script the day before or the night before, gets you off and running, so to speak, in terms of making the questionable changes. Because that's an easy element to say I want to put another quarterback in or change quarterbacks. So you script it out a little bit. We're going to go gunning, we're going this personnel, we're going to go this play. Two plays later and I've looked and created a situation to change quarterbacks. Okay, let's go. On deck, let's get Tyrod, he's in.
Q. How do you say this guy's in, this is the kind of play they run. This guy's in, because they're already keyed off? Is there an overlap between what these two quarterbacks do?
COACH STINESPRING: Absolutely. Is one person going to run this play and this play only? No. Is this person going to throw this route and only this route? No. This is where Sean and his experience and understanding of the game. The fact that he's been a starter for us and played in a lot of ballgames. If you get caught, the whole package, the whole playbook, Sean's got a grasp of. So if you want to go this situation and call this play, you get caught without a position to go, whether it's just a situation or your thought process or a quick start by an official you don't want to make the quarterback change and Sean's in there, you know you have an opportunity to call whatever's in the toolbox you're able to pull out for that situation. But certainly there are certain things that we'd like to be in a situation to have one quarterback in as opposed to the other. It may be a situation, a specific play that we feel like the quarterback's assets brings the best out of that particular play.
Q. Everyone is talking about this game being the Virginia Tech defense versus Kansas offense as far as the story line. Is the Virginia Tech offense versus the Kansas defense being overlooked or underestimated? And the second part is what would you say the most significant thing about the Kansas defense that could be a factor in this game is?
COACH STINESPRING: I think it's Virginia Tech versus the University of Kansas. However, somebody else wants to parlay the game into offense versus defense. We play the game with three components of a game. There's defense, there's offense, and we know we have to be successful in all three areas. However, we want to say the Kansas offense versus our defense. It's going to take all three facets of the game to win this ballgame. It will take all three of them, not just one. So however you look at it, that is one aspect of it. So we understand that we better be successful in three factors of this ballgame. We better able to run the ball in certain defense. If we're three-and-outs and their offense stays on the field, we'll be in trouble. But we need to be able to move the ball. When you look at their defense, again, as I said, there is some carryover in terms of what our defense prides itself on, what their defense prides itself on. They rally to the ball. When we're running the ball, we have to be very good about trying to sustain our blocks. If we're not sustaining our blocks and allowing them to continue on their pursuit and if there's a hole, it's going to close down quickly. So we're going to have to play with a lot of intensity, play with a lot of effort, and we're going to have to try to match their intensity and their physical attributes up front.
Q. You've kind of answered this already. But it would seem like well, like yesterday when one guy's in they pass, when the other guy's in they run. I know it's be that simple. But aren't you concerned with some very smart coaches who are going to be studying your game film morning, noon and night for a month. That they're not going to be able to pick up when this quarterback is in, they run this play or these kind of plays. When that guy's in this is what they like to run? It would seem like there have to be patterns, reasons why one guy plays when the other guy doesn't. Is that not a concern? COACH STINESPRING: Absolutely, it is. From week to week, you're talking about a six-week venture that we're undertaking here or seven weeks. From week to week, I don't think there was a pattern. If you go from a defensive standpoint looking offensively maybe early on,but when you're seven games into it and they're looking one game to the next game, I don't think it was an opportunity to create a pattern. As this thing has unfolded, I feel like if you went back and looked at the last six games, you can being probably see a pattern develop about which quarterback is running which plays. Is there a common denominator for each quarterback? I think so. In that regard as we've exited the ACC Championship game and started to prepare for this game, we've gone back. We've had an opportunity to go back and look. And we've highlighted which plays which quarterback has actually run. That's a different deal, too. Because you normally look at what you've run in these situations, what your run pass percentage. Not just the other type of tendencies that you may have. But now you have to go back and look at it from a quarterback perspective. So we've looked at that pretty good. I think we understand there are some tendencies, which, obviously, there are going to be. I think if you look at Florida a couple of years ago, I don't think it took a genius to figure out when Tebow was in there is a pretty good percentage that he was may run the ball as opposed to Leek. I'm sure it was skewed a little bit that way. But when you have a guy like Tyrod, you can say well, he ran it, he ran it. Well, there are some times that he's run it that not necessarily a run was called. He has a tendency if it doesn't look good, and doesn't look good early, he's not afraid to pull it down and take off with it. So some of those tendencies may be. But I don't think it's nearly as simple as one when guy's in we're going to throw it and one guy's out we're going to run it. I don't think it's that simple. We've worked after the regular season to go back and make sure. Because this is an opportunity to study tendencies, as you get prepared for a bowl game. You can do that now. So we had to go back and make sure what we were doing with each quarterback. What was the percentage of run-pass. What was the percentage of what types of runs, 1, 2, 3, and each tendency. We had to change that up a little bit. I tell you, I think Kansas does a terrific job week in and week out of studying what you do. Formation wise, situation wise, and attacking what you do. I think they take your base 1, 2, 3 runs, your base 1, 2, 3 passes and they do a great job of defending your money plays.
Q. Can you talk about how this time you've had helps you prepare as well as -- could you describe your offense for somebody who may not have been able to see you play this season?
COACH STINESPRING: I think our offense right now, we're a balanced offense. We try to be equal running it and throwing it. We give you more looks personnel-wise than we ever have. I think we can be in a pro-set. I think we can be in a three-wide set, two-wide set, two tighten set. So we try to be multi-dimensional in terms of the number of looks we'll give you. But basically we'll try to run the ball from tackle tight end to tackle box in the series of zone plays, and we try to play action off of that. That's our bread and butter. To be able to show run, and whatever we run, to have a pass off of it. Sometimes it may be shorter play action throws. But sometimes it's a lot of the play action, try to get the ball down the field, too. Then when we want to try to spread it around, we can get in a little bit of a west coast look and try to throw the ball and dink and dunk it with three and four wides. And look for and always have the opportunity in any of our three and four-wide sets to always have at least one looky. When we talk about a looky, a shot throw, if it's not there, we have some type of underneath throws. We'll always try to throw the ball down the field. And if it's not there, have the ability to get the ball underneath a little bit. So really, truthfully, one to run the ball, play action off of it. And try to diversify in the quality types of looks that we're going to give our defendant or our opponent and to keep them all from that standpoint.
Q. You took some criticism early this season, since the two-quarterback system. Not so much criticism, a lot more praise. Sean Glennon your quarterback kind of compared it to when you're taking a test. He said sometimes your first instinct is the right one and maybe that's been beneficial to you to not have time to overthink or second guess yourself. But to go, go, go, and maybe your first instincts are your best ones. Is there something to that from a play calling standpoint? C
OACH STINESPRING: You kind of looked into this question, haven't you? I don't think so. If there's anything early on. If you have injuries up front and situations where we've had some injuries, where we weren't running the ball as well as we needed to run the ball as early in the season for whatever reason, I think when you call a play, you've got to concern yourself not only with the play that you're calling but the defense that you're calling it against. And in the back of your mind you have to be keenly aware of what you're asking each individual on your offense to be able to do. What task are you asking them to perform? So if there's any type of concern or questioning, I think you've got to take all of those into account. When you take all of those into account, it can be a little nerve-racking back there sometimes. But going back to it, when we got healthy up front and had the two quarterback situation, you have to call the play. And I think the scripting part of it has helped, because it's getting the play in, the quarterback in, the situation in, when you've got it going that way, you're not so worry, can a right guard do this, left guard do that, tight end do that. You've got to call the play and go.
Q. I was wondering if you could talk about after the shootings in April? Do you have any sense that football has been something different on the campus to the players, the fans to everyone than it did before?
COACH STINESPRING: I don't know. That's a difficult question because I think April 16th affected us all in a in a lot of different ways. I don't like to speak about how an individual on our team may have felt. All I know is this: I think all of us had our hearts broken before or we thought we had our hearts broken. But not until April 16 we truly feel what it meant to have your heart broken. And I think we carried with us the idea that a lot of people following that incident that had to carry the flag a little bit. Compassion and caring and reaching out towards others in pride and we all felt like there was going to be a point in time that we would be asked to carry the flag a little bit, and I think we did so. Obviously, we had a very significant loss early in the season. But I think we were not going to let that break us, and we were not going to let that be the telling story for the season. Part of what happened was we were able to pick ourselves back up as we did after April 16. We were able to rise back up again, and we did. Just as our university as our community and our student population, just as our state picked itself up, we were able to do so, and, I think, carry on. I think this season or immediately after we won the ACC Championship, I think coach Beamer said we won this ACC Championship in remembrance of those who lost their lives and the families of the April 16 tragedy. That tragedy has never been very far from our minds.
Q. I know you've been around for most of coach Beamer's tenure. Kind of two parts, what's kept you there and what attributes does coach Beamer possess that are probably most key to maintaining the success that Virginia Tech has had over the last 15 years?
COACH STINESPRING: I think coach Beamer's attributes, I'm not, I don't mean to make light of it. Other than my father has been the single biggest influence of me in my life. Not just as a football coach but as a person. I think the way you conduct yourself personally, professionally. I think he's been a tremendous role model for us as coaches. And I'd say therefore, I think, it's easy to understand why our players do as well as they do. If he has that type of affect on grown and mature men. Imagine what he does for those young people he's in charge of. The best accolade I could tell you is I hope one day my son who is 13 ever has a chance to play college football, I certainly hope he could play for Coach Beamer. I know he's going to be a better man, better player, and better person because of him.
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