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DISCOVER ORANGE BOWL: STANFORD v VIRGINIA TECHDecember 30, 2010Bryan StinespringTyrod TaylorMIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA JASON ALPERT: We will get started with Coach Stinespring up here from Virginia Tech and we also have Tyrod Taylor. Coach, you've been here for a few years now. Is the preparation any different and the schedule any different for this year than past years when you've been to the Discover Orange Bowl? COACH STINESPRING: Not really. We're just excited about being here and pretty fortunate to be playing a great football game. Our schedule, we're pretty much accustomed to how we want to do things down here in Miami and enjoy this great Bowl and make a great preparation against a terrific football team in Stanford. JASON ALPERT: What is the experience in Miami like? What do you like about coming to Miami for a Bowl game? TYROD TAYLOR: Just the nice weather. I don't get out too much. I just stay focused, but the weather is a big thing, considering it's 15 degrees and snowing in Blacksburg. Q. Bryan, the Stanford defensive players, I guess, refer to their new defensive coordinator as an evil genius, and one of them said they'll be playing a game and a lot of times teams do things that they haven't seen on film and in the past they haven't had an adjustment, but now it's like Fangio is sitting in the box next to the opposing offensive coordinator always putting them in the right play. When you look at them on film, do you notice as the game goes along that he's particularly good at making adjustments and sort of figuring out on the fly what the other team is doing and counterpunching? COACH STINESPRING: I think obviously Stanford has done a terrific job on defense. You don't make the improvement that they have from one year to the next defensively unless something is going on there in terms of coaching and playing. And to go from a bottom tier in total defense to the top in their conference and to be 11th in the country in scoring defense, that doesn't just happen by accident. I think it goes back to their defensive personnel and obviously their defensive coaches. And I think from the get-go when we walk onto the field I think they are well prepared for the beginning of the game. When you look at Oregon, at the beginning of the game, especially in the first half of the game, I thought they were very much dialed into how they wanted to defend Oregon, and obviously they're pretty good. And so I think not just as the game goes on, his ability to adjust and try to take away what you do well, but I think from the beginning, I think he has -- their defense is predicated trying to determine on what you're going to do, the foundation of what has gotten you into this position and try to take it away from you and they're going to try to get you into plan B and plan C as much as anything else, and I think they do a terrific job of that. Q. Bryan, regardless of what happens in this game, Tyrod obviously has been a huge difference maker for your offense as long as he's been in the program. When it's all said and done, what do you think his legacy is going to be, and what has he meant to your offense and your program both as a leader and as a player? COACH STINESPRING: A great question. Because when it's all said and done, I don't think it'll ever be done. I think his legacy is we'll always be talking about Tyrod Taylor, and I think that's probably the best compliment I can give somebody, that his time and his eligibility may be over at Virginia Tech, and this is going to be the last game that he plays in a Virginia Tech uniform, but long after this game that we play against Stanford, we'll still be talking about Tyrod Taylor, his fans, his coaches, his people that follow him at Virginia Tech. I can't put in a statement here today what Tyrod Taylor means to us now, what he's meant to us his whole time here. You get a chance to see Tyrod on the field, but that's one part of what he means to this program and what he's meant to this program. But what he does in the locker room, what he does in the weight room, what he does in the hallway when nobody else is watching, I can't put into words what that means. That's a special compliment to hand to somebody because it's easy when the lights are on and the cameras are on and people here are witnessing what you do day in and day out. It's easy to portray yourself one way. But when nobody is watching and nobody is around, when the lights aren't on, what do you do then and how do you handle yourself then I think says a lot. I think he's -- our younger players I think see the way he approaches the game. I think they see the way he approaches his season, the way he conducts himself on and off the field. I think already Logan Thomas will tell you what Tyrod means to him and has meant to him. But what Tyrod said just a few moments ago; what do you think about Miami; I like the weather; I don't go out much. I don't think he's a guy that's been real big on doing a lot of talking or those type things. I think he lets you see who he is 60 minutes on Saturdays, and I think that's all the talking he likes to do. That's a wonderful change of events, I think. Q. Tyrod, as a follow-up to that, when it's all said and done, what do you want your legacy to be at Virginia Tech? TYROD TAYLOR: First off I'd like to say thank you to Coach. But just to be remembered as a great person, one of the better persons that came through the program, of course on the field one of the best quarterbacks to walk through Virginia Tech. Q. How much do you think -- do you think you still need to prove stuff to NFL scouts that you can play quarterback at the next level, and do you think this game will serve as almost like a spotlight for that? How much are you thinking about that? TYROD TAYLOR: I know there's a lot of attention on it. I think I have something to prove every time I step on the field. Myself, it's not just about me when I'm out there on the football field, it's about the other ten guys that's going to be with me. And this is a team sport, so I have to go out there and prepare myself to win like I do every game, put the team first and do what I have to do to win. Hopefully the NFL scouts will see that. Q. I know you have like an ESPN crew following you now, and just with the draft coming up, how do you keep those distractions -- is there anything in particular you do to keep those distractions away so you can focus on the Bowl game? TYROD TAYLOR: I just be myself. I haven't seen them since we left Blacksburg as far as the ESPN crew. But I just be myself, don't change, be the same person throughout the whole situation. Whether it's good or bad, you still have to show character and poise throughout everything. COACH STINESPRING: May I interject for a second? I was asked a question you guys will remember back in Blacksburg to make a statement for Tyrod to the NFL and why he should get a chance to play in the NFL. And really if I would have thought a little quicker, the answer would be quite simple, and I think he's done it. I think he's made a statement about 13 weeks this year and in the weeks before and the year before. I think he makes a statement every time he steps on the field why he has a chance to continue playing, and it's not just his ability in this town. He wins quarterback games. In the end that's how we're all judged, the ability to have success on that field. There's a lot of people wanting to have success on that field that just can't get over the hump. He gives you a chance to win every time he steps on the field. That's the bottom line. Q. I have a question for you, Bryan. I read that you folks had given Tyrod more license to call plays as audibles after the first two losses. What was the thinking behind doing that, how has that worked out, and how often does he change the plays? COACH STINESPRING: Well, I think any time as experience grows within the game and a comfort level within the game from season to season grows, you use that experience. You say, well, this guy has got experience, great, pat him on the back, you want to use that experience as a vehicle for success for you. And I think as Tyrod has garnered that success you have to go back and realize that he wasn't afforded the opportunity to red shirt, he split some time in a dual quarterback system as a sophomore, so I think as that experience level has grown, obviously he is a guy that wants to push the envelope a great deal. He's constantly learning, constantly working to improve himself and constantly wants to do things on the field that makes him a better player and obviously makes us a better football team. It's something that he's always wanted to do, and how successful he has been, we're 11 and 2 and we're in the Orange Bowl. I think as a play caller to be able to give your quarterback the opportunity to get you in a better play or to take advantage of what he sees on the field, I think that's a great asset. So we're going to do that quite a bit. Now, it goes from game to game, but I think it's something that not only going from run to run or run to pass but also within that pass to be able to allow him to change routes based upon what he sees, and I think that's a tremendous advantage. When you have -- if you're calling certain routes and the coverage -- the defense gets to pick last. We've eventually got to snap the ball. They can line up, they can delay lining up, they can move around, they can change the -- stem their front, stem their coverages and disguise, so I think he gets -- he uses that experience of his to be able to try to get you into a more advantageous play, and he's done a terrific job of that because it's important to him, because he wants to be in a position to win the game and to have success out there. And the trust factor, 100 percent. I believe in what he's doing and understand that he's put the time and effort in to handle those type things, so when you have that part of it, you go with it. Q. Bryan, kind of a random question, but over in the coaches' offices the other day, I walked by your office and I noticed you had a thing on the wall, that John Wooden quote, "The choice you make makes you." Where did you get that from? Did someone give that to you? What was the reason for displaying it so prominently in your office? COACH STINESPRING: I think believe it or not I do like to read (laughter), I don't just -- I did teach school at one time. Reading has been one of those things in between the few minutes between practice and recruiting and those type things. But it's just something that struck me for whatever reason reading one summer or whatever it was. And I think in the end, I think you can put all these quotes up on the board, you can put a lot of things on the board that you stand for or stand against or something that really hits you, and I think for all of us, whatever choices you make in life, ultimately they define who you are. And I think Coach Beamer says it. I've heard him use a version of that before, and I think it just resonated well with me, and I think it resonates well with our players. It's something they have to understand because the choices that they make, whatever it is, on the field, off the field, how they apply themselves into school, how they conduct themselves outside the arena, I think in the end they make you. Those choices make who you are, and I think we all need to understand that because sometimes we live from moment to moment and play to play, but there's decisions that you make in life that ultimately define who you are. And I think I like when our players come in and sit down and have a chance to visit, I think when they look past me and see it on the wall, it's a reminder to me but I think it also is a reminder to them, a constant reminder to them, this is not split second decisions help define who you are. It's just something that's resonated with me. Q. So did you have that made or did you go buy it? COACH STINESPRING: Actually -- also in my spare time I like to take things and try to create them and do different types of wall murals and things like that (laughter). No, I had it made (laughter). My wife don't let me pick up a hammer. My wife don't let me do a whole lot from that standpoint. But no, I had it made. It was something that meant a great deal to me. It's certain things that stick out, and that's one that's really resonated one through me. I think it's a good reminder for all of us, including you. Q. Tyrod, back-to-back Bowl wins for the first time in school history, and obviously we're talking about your legacy and what you've done at this program. What would it mean to get a third Bowl win in a row do you think for Virginia Tech football and for yourself? TYROD TAYLOR: It would mean a lot. I think just this season, the way we started off the season was awful. Sorry to say it like that. It just didn't go as planned. I think to finish off the season with a win this year, as far as a senior goes and as far as I go and the team, it would be great. Q. Frank was talking yesterday about sort of the struggles this program has had at times of beating top-five teams in spotlight games, really playing to their potential. What do you think a win over a top-five team like Stanford would do for the program's reputation -- I guess reputation is a bad word because you have a great reputation, but what do you think a win over a top-five team would do? COACH STINESPRING: I think any time you have an opportunity to step on the field against a top-five team and you have an opportunity to win the game I think is very, very important. To say "very, very important" is kind of like "awful;" there's a better word out there and we're searching for it, but you understand what it means. But I think a lot of people get caught up on what our record is against top five and those type things. Depends on how you -- what do you want to look at? Kind of look at 18 straight Bowl games and how many teams have gone to that and how many teams have won ten or more games over the last six or seven years and I look at those things. But then there's going to be those things that you look at that are not so good and that's what we kind of focus on attention on. Right now our attention has been focused on the fact that against top-five teams our record is not very good. But I think when you look at that, we were in a position to win those games. It's not like we've gone into those games and not stood face to face and not had opportunities to win them. The fact that we haven't is something that is the albatross right now in terms of trying to shake it off a little bit. But we need to go out there and win this one. We need to win this one because it's a great Bowl, a great match-up, a great competition, but that record, that's something that obviously people want to focus on and concentrate on, but we understand what we are in terms of our program. That record is just something that is part of it that we've got to try to go out and try to help improve it here in a couple days. It will be difficult. Q. Tyrod, I assume you're not going to be playing any defensive back Monday night so you don't have to worry directly about Andrew Luck, but there will be comparisons between you two leading up to the game and your performance on game night. What's your impression of him and how excited are you about that match-up, indirect though it may be? TYROD TAYLOR: I'm very excited. He's a great player. He's done all the right things for his team to be in the situation they're playing in now. I'm looking forward to the match-up. Like I said, it's not a me thing, not personally me against Luck. It's Stanford against Virginia Tech, and I'm going to go out there to do what I can to put my team in the best situation to win this football game. Q. Tyrod, you referred to after the first two games of the season as "awful." Can you talk about that week, who stepped up on the team, if any individuals did, as leaders, and kind of what they did to show leadership to right the boat? TYROD TAYLOR: The seniors had a meeting. I think the seniors were a key part in our success and our turnaround. Individually I think everyone just focused and regrouped and changed our mindset. The season didn't start out like we wanted it to, so we had to do whatever it took to turn things around, and that's what we did. Like I said, we had a senior meeting and we talked about the things that we felt we weren't doing right and things that we should change. It wasn't like we were playing bad, it just wasn't gelling or hitting on all cylinders like we should. I think over the course of the season you could just see how the offense feeds off the defensive energy and just special teams and everything involved. COACH STINESPRING: One of the things we did, and Tyrod will attest to, is Sunday, the very day after the James Madison game, Tyrod, and who else -- TYROD TAYLOR: Andre, Darren, Ryan -- COACH STINESPRING: Called them, and we all came over to my office, and we sat in the office and visited for a little bit and basically I looked them in the face and I said what do you guys want to do, and I wanted to hear their response. I came out of that 20-minute, 30-minute meeting knowing that we were going to be okay because after the responses that we got from one question, what do you guys want to do, and I just listened to them talk, I knew we were going to be okay. I felt better. I was able to go carry out the day and not going to crawl up on the top of Lane Stadium. I think we started the process that day, and as we talked offensively that afternoon or an Monday, one of the things that we talked about, one of the statements that we said as a football team that carried over is that part of the season was behind us. The season was still in front of us. That's one of the statements that you made. But they went out and approached it that way, too. Q. As a follow-up to that question, given what you guys have done since then, do you think that this is Frank Beamer's best coaching job? COACH STINESPRING: He's had a lot of great coaching jobs, I think. I've been privy to many of them. I go back to '95 when we started 0 and 2 that year, and how he handled that situation I thought was special. I think there was a -- there's not a procedure, there's not a book, there's not a manual that says, step one, in case of crisis. It's not like you get on the plane and all of a sudden an oxygen mask comes down and all those type things that you do from a step-by-step process. There's not one of those deals. But I think that goes by -- and the only reason I say that is because that was the first time that we've dealt with a crisis because you go back the year before, we had not performed very well in the Gator Bowl. We lost to, I think, Virginia the last game of the year in '94. So we had lost a couple in a row to end the season. And then to open up with a loss against Boston College, turn around, a bad loss to Cincinnati at home. I think because that was the first time we were really in a crisis situation like that, I think you go back to that one and say what a terrific job -- a great leader. I think it's easy when all is well. But when things are a little difficult and things are tough, how do you handle those situations. When obstacles arise, how do you handle those situations, because the true test of any man is not what occurs to him but how he responds to it. And I think his response mechanism has been outstanding. That's not to say there hasn't been different responses he's used, I can assure you. But I think his ability to handle those situations is outstanding, things that I think all of us as a staff would put in our memory banks just in case we're ever in those situations. Q. You became a full-time assistant in '93, which I guess through no coincidence, I'm sure in your heart you take full credit for the Bowl streak? COACH STINESPRING: Absolutely, 18 years, 18 straight Bowls, yeah, exactly. Q. I'm sure over the course of those years you've sort of come to depend on having a December session of practices and use it as sort of an early preview going into spring in some years. I don't know if you do that this year because of the importance of the game and the BCS Bowl and all that kind of thing. But have you kind of come to depend on December practices and sort of expecting to be there, and what does this streak mean to you over the course of the years? COACH STINESPRING: I've really changed a little bit quite honestly. It's a great question. I think there's so many times you say okay, we've got all these additional practices, let's start thinking a little bit forward here, getting some of these guys additional reps. I think we do that a little bit in Blacksburg. But I think right now -- and I've got a little older and the way I've approached this a little bit differently is it becomes a day-to-day, get to the next game, the next practice, the next game, and maintain -- as Tyrod said before - I learn a lot from him - you stay focused on the now and what's important now, how you win, and what's important now is having a great Tuesday practice for us and tomorrow having a great Wednesday. So I think that's really the focus on us and for me. I think you just make sure that day is the best that it can be and tomorrow, and then when you have those few moments to forward-think a little bit, you do so. But right now it's not the time. It's having a great Tuesday practice, preparing well for this one, having a great Tuesday and then follow up on that Tuesday. 18 straight Bowls, I think winning is difficult. I know Las Vegas says that you're supposed to do this and do it by this many points. I think winning is difficult. And I think winning over a period of time is even more difficult. And any time you are able to go to 18 straight Bowls consistently -- not only are you going to win from week to week or a year here and a year there, but you've done it 18 straight years against tremendous competition and tremendous Bowl match-ups, I think to sit here and say that you do something over a period of time and you're able to do it well says a lot about not just where you are at that moment but where you are foundation-wise from the very bottom to the very top. And I think it says -- I think it speaks volumes because I can assure you that when you step on that field on Saturday, Friday, Monday, whenever we play anymore, it's a difficult venture to win. And it's not by accident that you do, but it's difficult. And it gets more and more difficult every year. The NCAA has done a tremendous job of creating parity, and it's difficult to win, and to do it like we have been able to do it, I can't emphasize it enough. We might want to talk about a Bowl record against top 25 or top five, but that resonates with all of us on where this program is. Q. This is an off-the-wall question, but our basketball beat writer wanted to know are there any good basketball players on this team that could help in the situation that Seth is in down there with eight players on scholarship? Have you seen anybody? I know you recruit guys that play basketball and you watch them play. COACH STINESPRING: When you said that was a little bit off-the-wall question, you're bouncing off the wall. I think athletes are athletes, and obviously we've had a couple guys that have gone out and helped the basketball team in the past, provided depth, because that's probably what they do, Brian Randall, Jeff King, Maurice. I actually believe we're going to have -- I'm not going to step into Coach Greenberg's court. I'm not going to do that. Seth and I are very close. But I think there is a possibility we will have a football player joining his team. You know me, I was a pretty good shooter. I played basketball up until Dell Curry dunked on me twice up at Fort Defiance High School and then I became a wrestler the next year. True story. Q. Would you have hesitations if it was a younger player or something as opposed to a Randall long in his years? COACH STINESPRING: You know, I probably would have at one time, but I think Randall probably made a believer that being competitive year-round, that's a good thing. And I really thought that Brian came back a step quicker. When you get on the basketball court everything is that first step, drop step, cross over, the whole nine yards, and I thought really for Brian, it probably helped him a little bit. It probably helped him in some regards. I think competition is good no matter where you get it. Our players are going to stay active in terms of they'll play intramural basketball year-round. We don't take them out of that. And I think that enjoy that part of it. They enjoy competition. I think competition and staying in a daily grind, as long as it doesn't interfere with Coach Gentry and the Iron Palace, I think it's a great deal. Q. To what would you attribute Virginia Tech's superlative special teams play over the decades? Is it just a matter of emphasis in practice or is there something special about the way Coach Beamer goes about coaching special teams? COACH STINESPRING: I was going to say our superlative special teams coach would have a lot to do with it, which would be Coach Beamer. I think anything that you emphasize, no matter what it is, whether it's a football game or in life, I think what you emphasize is you probably want to get the rewards from it. There is an emphasis on that part of it. I think early on I think it was such an emphasis because it either gave us an edge as we began to grow this program and to build this program, we needed that third facet of the game to help us approach being a top-20, top-10 program, and I don't think we've forgotten that. That's one of the attributes of this whole program. Where we started enabled us to get to this point. We haven't forgotten that. We still carry our lunchbox to work, to practice every day, the lunch pail, and we haven't forgotten it. Special teams was a big factor in how we got to this point, so we continue to emphasize that. And I think how you got here, you don't forget it, and I think that was a primary reason how we were able to get it all started, and we haven't forgotten that. End of FastScripts |
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