Monday Afternoon Press Conference Recap: East Carolina

As hard as it may be to believe, Virginia Tech still has ten more games on their schedule. Today, Kyshoen Jarrett, Caleb Farris, Michael Brewer and Frank Beamer all spoke to the media to discuss Tech's win over Ohio State as well as their upcoming game against East Carolina.

First thing's first, Tech beat the Buckeyes, and Brewer had a cool story about walking onto the field at Ohio Stadium for the first time.

"I told coach Loeffler before the game, walked out there and said 'hey, you know, you were right this place is pretty crazy'," Brewer said. "[Loeffler] said 'I told you', [Brewer then said] 'yeah the crazy thing is that field is still 100 yards."

That's a quarterback who knew that he was about to make some plays during the next 60 minutes of football.

Brewer earned a lot of fans not just with his play, but with his demeanor on the field against the Buckeyes. That being said, what did he feel like he learned most about his unit on Saturday?

"Just the heart," Brewer said, "You really don't know, until you're put into a situation like that, you know, our offensive line going up against a defensive line that's arguably probably a top-two unit in the country, how they fought their tails off the whole game. And then of course running backs in protection was awesome to watch.

"And then our defense just coming out there and just making hit after hit after hit. They'd hit a big play, didn't matter, defense would come right back up and step up to the plate. And that was a big part that we talked about throughout the week, riding the waves. There was going to be a lot of ups and lots of downs in a big game like this on the road. If we could just manage them and not get too high or too low and take care of ourselves and do what we were coached to do, we'd be fine."

As many of you know, the Hokies were greeted by a large group of fans when they got back to Blacksburg in the middle of the night. This was noted by every single person during the press conference, players and coach Beamer included.

"It was definitely a great experience," Jarrett said. "First time I've ever experienced it being here. And I definitely enjoyed it, it seemed like everyone else did, especially coach Beamer as well and all the coaches."

When Brewer was asked if he did any celebrating post-Columbus the first thing he mentioned was about the fan welcoming party.

"Well we got back from Columbus at about 3:45, I think is when we showed up back to the facility," Brewer said. "And we were greeted by about three, four hundred happy fans. And that was really cool, seeing all those people who stayed up to congratulate us and see how happy they were. But yeah, after that I took myself home and went to sleep, I needed some sleep."

Tech turned some heads this weekend, does the way this team is nationally perceived change the way that they look at themselves?

"I don't believe so," Jarrett said. "A lot of people didn't know what this team had in store, because all the young guys and all the veterans that left last year. Nobody didn't know what to expect, and I feel like we definitely made a statement out there on Saturday on one of the biggest stages in college football. And the young guys being able to step up, being able to listen to the leaders of the team and kind of just go with it. It definitely showed great value on this team going forward."

"We knew that people were doubting us, that we didn't have necessarily high expectations from the outside looking in," Brewer said. "But, you know the thing of it is, in that small circle we didn't really care what people were thinking.

"We still don't care what people are thinking, we understand that we just beat Ohio State in Columbus and now everybody thinks that we're the greatest thing to play football, and that's not the case. You've got to stay level headed through this course, and if not a team like East Carolina will come into your back yard and beat you."

Obviously coming off a big win such as the one last weekend, the words "trap game" were thrown around a lot during the press conference. The players, it seems, aren't worried about how a team as young as Tech would respond the week after such a big game.

"Well the same way we looked at Ohio State, ECU could be looking at us," Jarrett said. "Coming into our stadium and try to silence our crowd. What we have to do, and what the seniors have to do is gather everybody around and make sure that they don't get complacent. That was only week two, we're on week three now and we have to go play ECU with a full head of steam."

"You know, that's one thing about this young group we have now, and what's really special about this team we have this year is that they don't really need too much of a rah-rah kind of guy," Caleb Farris said.

"We come in each day, we put in the work at practice, put in the work in the film room and things like that. Even the young guys really understand that you can't really slack off. Just because we beat Ohio State last week doesn't mean this next game is a given. ECU played well last week against South Carolina, we watched that film as a group and we've got to come out and play.

"I feel like the old guys obviously understand that that you've got to be mentally prepared for this next game, and it's not a given. But the young guys really understand it also, which is really important as a team that the young guys understand that. But being a leader, and we have a lot of great leaders on this team we've got to really get these guys going and make sure everybody understands that, but i don't think it will be a problem."

A couple of final notes:

Beamer said that special teamer Sean Huelskamp "tore his knee up", making it sound like the walk-on will miss significant time.

Beamer was also asked about the health of tight end Kalvin Cline.

"I'd say he's doubtful to play this week for sure, and we'll see about the future."

While that's not a positive note, it sounds like the Hokies came out of Columbus relatively healthy Beamer said that Kendall Fuller is fine, and that they're still waiting to hear an official word on Corey Marshall, but that "hopefully he's okay".

With the health of the team in good shape and certain leaders looking to prevent a slip up this week, it sounds like the Hokies are definitely ready to take on the Pirates.