Irish Will Be ‘Most Complete And Talented Team’ Hokies Have Faced In 2018
It was a rough middle of September for the Virginia Tech program.
The Hokies fell 49-35 on the road to in-state foe Old Dominion, a member of Conference USA, while losing starting quarterback Josh Jackson due to injury in the process. The next day, the Hokies dismissed their top defensive end, Trevon Hill, from the team.
But head coach Justin Fuente and his group bounced back last Saturday with a 31-14 road win over then-No. 22 Duke with redshirt junior Ryan Willis taking the helm at quarterback while Jackson recovers.
Now the attention moves to the No. 6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish for Saturday’s prime-time matchup in Blacksburg, Va.
“It will be the most complete and talented team that we’ve played to date,” Fuente stated during his weekly press conference. “They have all things clicking in different areas of the game and have recently made a quarterback change. The last two weeks they’ve been very explosive, averaging 47 points per game.
“Defensively, they’ve played really well the entire year with giving up less than 20 points a game. So, it’s going to be a tremendous challenge for our team. I know we will have a great atmosphere, but we’ve got to do a great job of preparing this young squad heading into this ball game.”
Notre Dame’s defensive line has received much of the attention this year, especially with the group earning the top pass rushing grade (42.2) by Pro Football Focus through five weeks. The Irish are also the lone team that has four players with at least 10 pressures each.
“They’re a movement team and will play a little bit of man coverage in the back end and are pretty darn good at it,” Fuente noted. “They’re good at flying to the football. They’re aggressive and good at making it hard for people to run the football.
“It all starts with that and finding a way to run the football, and people haven’t had much success with that. They have fallen behind the chains and will pin their ears back and get at the quarterback.”
Lane Stadium has quite the reputation across college football for being a rowdy and raucous environment for opposing teams. Despite the noise and atmosphere, ranked teams have not had much trouble taking down the Hokies on the road.
Since defeating a top-25 Miami squad in 2009, Virginia Tech is 0-6 at home against ranked opponents while posting an 8-2 mark on the road. Under Fuente, the Hokies are 1-5 against ranked foes (0-1 at home).
Saturday is a prime-time matchup at 8 p.m. on ABC, and Fuente has zero doubts his group is ready for the task of upsetting the No. 6 Fighting Irish.
“We played in a big prime-time game at the first of this year and the first of the year last year, so the stage shouldn’t change the way we prepare and play,” Fuente said when asked about lessons learned from past experiences. “We’ve played some really good people on big stages and we’ll be ready for this one. I’ve always steered clear of how the stage defines how we prepare.
“I think we’ve got to do a great job, we’ve proven that we can’t handle not doing a good job, not preparing — and if we do a great job, we’ve at least got a chance. We’ll take that same mindset moving forward, regardless of whether the game is on TV or at night or in the morning time or wherever it is, we’ve got to be ready to go.”
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