Hokies Discuss Quarterback Position Heading into Furman Game

Scot Loeffler, Zohn Burden, Brenden Motley and Augie Conte speak on Ohio State, Furman and the outlook at quarterback.

Brendan Motley attempts to evade an Ohio State defender. [Mark Umansky]

Virginia Tech lost its starting quarterback for up to 8 weeks when Michael Brewer broke his collarbone in the third quarter against Ohio State. And while a portion of Hokie Nation is desperate to see Dwayne Lawson or Chris Durkin get their shot as QB1, offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler made it clear Wednesday evening that there is no quarterback controversy in Blacksburg.

"This is where we're at with the whole thing. Brenden Motley is our starting quarterback," Loeffler emphasized.

After Motley, the depth chart is murkier. The Hokies have two talented dual threat options, but neither have taken a single collegiate snap. Redshirt freshman Chris Durkin may have a slight experience edge over true freshman Dwayne Lawson, but Lawson, a highly touted 4-star recruit from the class of 2015, has drawn rave reviews throughout preseason camp. Wide receivers coach Zohn Burden joined the fun this evening, clearly enamored with the potential of the Tampa, Florida product.

"He's got a long arm, a strong arm," Burden said of Lawson. "Very accurate. He's got some attributes that some other guys don't have. He's athletic, he can run. He runs like a wide receiver, so he's special, special talent. Just got to come along mentally."

On Tuesday, head coach Frank Beamer said he never really was considering redshirting Lawson.

"He had a couple packages going and we talked about him playing some even in the Ohio State game, but we were concerned that it might be a little too much too soon," Beamer said. "The other side of those is those guys that have it and I think he has it; you can't put them on a big enough stage. No stage is too big. Michael Vick was that way, Tyrod Taylor, Bryan Randall was that way and I could go on and on with those guys we've had here. We'll see, it'll be an interesting week to see how he handles things, but the other two, Motley too how he handles things. I just saw Motley and Durkin walking down the hall. They're in a different situation this week than they've ever been in. Someone's got a chance to be the guy. It's just a different deal."

Loeffler, however, is keeping the depth chart behind Brenden Motley close to the vest.

"We are not going to disclose anything about the No. 2 position. Not at all," said Loeffler. "We've got a really good plan with the whole deal, but that plan can change daily. That's just where we're at right now and that's the way we're going to keep it."

While Motley struggled to move the football consistently against No. 1 Ohio State in the second half, Loeffler says the entire program remains confident in the redshirt junior's abilities.

"We're in good shape right now," said Loeffler. "(Brenden) Motley has put in the time. He's a guy that it's really important to. We've got a bunch of good character guys that are going to rally around him. It is what it is. Like I said, we were excited about Michael (Brewer) and I thought he played his best football...but the fact of the matter is that we've got a No. 2 guy that we're very, very confident in and his teammates are confident in him. So we've got a shot."

Speaking after the Hokies loss to Ohio State, Loeffler commented that he was hesitant to fully utilize Motley's running abilities due to the possibility of another injury at the quarterback position. But as the Hokies enter into Week 2, that concern has vanished.

"Oh yeah, now you can't do that," said Loeffler. "Really (we) were careful when the game got out of hand at the end, but we've got to win football games. Regardless of what it takes to win a game, regardless of what we have to do, we're going to do it to give ourselves a chance."

In 2013, after the Hokies fell to UCLA in the Sun Bowl, Loeffler was somewhat critical of how he had prepared his backup quarterbacks for game action. Likely not expecting a quarterback the size of Logan Thomas to get knocked out of a game, Loeffler felt he hadn't properly equipped Mark Leal with the tools to succeed. But now in his third year presiding over the offense in Blacksburg, Loeffler expects everyone in his quarterback room to be ready for live action.

"Well you've just got more time," said of the difference between 2013 and now. "When you walked in the door, you were trying to implement a whole new offense. You were trying to teach your staff the terminology. I was trying to figure things out. And trying to get a draft-pick quarterback (Logan Thomas) ready and make him better. Now things are in stone. We know who we are. We know what we want to be. Do we have to adjust a little bit now? Yes, of course...but it is what it is. We're fine. (Brenden) Motley is going to be just fine."

But Loeffler doesn't just expect Motley to come in and manage the offense. He expects him to lead.

"He's been around a while. He's been around 4 years," Loeffler said of Motley. "It's not like you're walking in a freshman or a redshirt freshman that's playing. Whenever you're an older guy that's been around the block, that's seen Logan Thomases of the world come through here, watch Michael, I think you're the leader. You've got to be the leader. You're a fourth year guy and that's what we expect out him."

While Motley said his preparation remains the same regardless of where he sits on the depth chart, he did concede that he expects improved timing after practicing with the first-team for a week.

"It's always good," said Motley of getting No. 1 reps. "You get timing down, based on the game plan whatever it is that week, you get timing down with the receivers. Communication is always key with the offensive lineman and also with the running backs. It is good getting those (No.) 1 reps."

With Motley's first career start inching closer each day, his focus has shifted from the disappointment of Monday night to the opportunity that awaits on Saturday.

"Yesterday we watched the film. We learned from it. What we did wrong, what we did right. And you've got to move on," said Motley. "You can't stick on that Monday night game. Yeah, it was a tough one, but we got a sour taste in our mouth right now and we're ready to move on and get it out."

Additional Quotes

Scot Loeffler

ON FURMAN AND THE HOKIES PREPARATION FOR THIS WEEKEND:

"Think they're a good football team. Predominately an over-under front team, they're a 4 down front team. They play disciplined football. Think they're well-coached. I think we'll go out there and I think we'll play really, really hard and we're going to rally around our new guy (Brenden Motley). We've got a bad taste in our mouth. The fact of the matter is that we were in a good situation at halftime, and we didn't finish it in the second half. Regardless if that was the No. 1 team in America or not, we don't take losses very easily around here. Those guys right now, they've practiced their tails off. Their preparation reminds me exactly like it was last week, which is a great sign. Most of the time whenever you come off playing the No. 1 team in America and you're getting ready to go play another opponent, you don't prep that same way. These kids, they're prepping the way they're supposed to prep whenever you're a winning team."

ON WHAT WENT WRONG IN THE FIRST QUARTER AGAINST OHIO STATE:

"I think the first couple drives of the game. We started out really slow. We made some mistakes early in the game that we didn't in the second quarter...On the first third down, they ran a bear front, they scraped the mike, and that was just a good call. They caught us in the right protection. But we had a few others earlier that we could have made the blocks and had a completion...A couple times we had some missed assignments in the run game early. We started really slow and then started getting going and ended up having a really good second quarter in my opinion. That's what we wanted to see in the first quarter. We just couldn't get anything going. We had some really good deceptive ideas and some good play-action passes that we wanted to use in the first quarter, but we could never get to because we were behind the sticks and just couldn't get it going. Those first two drives, we wanted to be more aggressive but really couldn't get in the aggressive mode. And then we started getting things going in the second (quarter). We started moving the ball a little bit. Mixed in some tempo and started to hit some play-action passes and the throwback. That's what we wanted to do in the first quarter. The first two drives were disappointing."

ON YOSUAH NIJMAN GETTING EARLY PLAYING TIME:

"We said that we were going to play (Yosuah) Nijman early regardless. It wasn't a decision based on who was playing well. It was we were going to get him some experience."

ON CAM PHILLIPS/ISAIAH FORD PLAYING LARGE NUMBER OF SNAPS:

"We said in this game, we were going to play our very, very best players. Play them every snap. That's what we did. We're very confident in our backups, but the fact of the matter is, we were playing a secondary that probably has 2 or 3 NFL guys, a linebacking corps that has 3 NFL guys and probably two defensive lineman that are going to play in the NFL."

ON RUN GAME AGAINST OHIO STATE:

"Heck, you're playing a team that averaged 140 yards rushing (against). If you take out the sacks, and again, I know that all factors in, we rushed for almost 170 some yards if you take out the sacks. Did we want to run the ball better? We always want to run the ball better. We run for 200 yards around here and we'll want to run the ball better because that's a very important part of our program. The fact of the matter is we did some good things, we did some bad things. Was it perfect? No. But there was some really positive things, too."

Brenden Motley

ON MICHAEL BREWER'S INJURY:

"It was really unfortunate. We all feel for Mike (Brewer). He's a great guy. Hard-worker, very hard-worker. Like I said, it was unfortunate what happened to him but you have to move on. Hopefully we'll see him towards the end of the season. "

ON PREPARATION DIFFERING BETWEEN NO. 1 AND NO. 2:

"If you're a No. 1 or a No. 2, if the No. 1 is out there getting reps, the No. 2 should be right behind him getting the same mental reps, taking the drops, taking footwork. Doing exactly what the No. 1 is doing."

ON TEAM LEADERS:

"There's multiple leaders on the team. There's not one leader, the quarterbacks not always the leader. We have plenty of seniors out there. Some guys like Sam Rogers, Ryan Malleck, all of the offensive line. There's multiple leaders on offense and multiple leaders on defense."

Augie Conte

ON MICHAEL BREWER AND MOVING FORWARD WITH BRENDEN MOTLEY:

"Obviously losing (Michael) Brewer is a hit to the team but we're going to rally around (Brenden) Motley. Everybody's fully confident in his abilities and his ability to step up as a quarterback and a leader. We're going to work as hard as we did, with or without (Michael) Brewer. Obviously I'm going to miss him, but he'll be back."

ON HOW THE O-LINE PLAYED AGAINST OHIO STATE:

"I definitely think we're taking steps in the right direction. We still have a lot more to learn. The run game was good, but it can get better. I think we definitely learned a lot from playing Ohio State. You always learn a lot going from your first game to your second game, just because you have real game action."

ON YOSUAH NIJMAN'S FIRST GAME COMING AGAINST OHIO STATE:

"It's a heck of an introduction. It's trial by fire, playing your first game against the No. 1 team in the country. But he played well. He's definitely got some stuff to learn, but he definitely stepped up in a big-time game."

ON IMPRESSIONS OF OHIO STATE:

"They were big, they were physical, they were everything you'd expect from a No. 1 team in the country, defending national champions. I definitely think we hung in there with them. We had a couple breakdowns there in the second half, but we definitely learned a lot from it. They were a good team and I think they'll do well this year."

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