Giovani Bernard
On only having 10 yards receiving, while rushing for 262 total yards
“I think we did a great job up front. For the most part, the passing routes weren’t there for me too much, but the running routes were definitely there. It was all phases. We did a great job out there today. All credit goes to the offensive line. They protected me and Bryn tremendously today, and it showed out there.”
On the game being a statement for the team as a whole
“Definitely. It’s definitely a statement game. Such a great team like V. Tech, I mean, people are probably going to say they’re having an off year or whatnot, but for us it doesn’t matter. We just wanted to show everybody what we can do. We knew what we could do and it definitely showed out there. We came out with a ‘W’ and that’s what we wanted.”
On the 4th and 1 play
“They just came in crashing. They were expecting a QB sneak because earlier in the game we did a QB sneak with Bryn. They kind of jammed it up a little bit, but we knew we had someone off tackle and we took it 60-some, Idon’t know how long it was, but we did a good job up front.”
On having 15 penalties but still putting up 48 points
“It means we’re clumsy, but for the most part, things like that happen. It’s part of football. We’re definitely going to go into film tomorrow and try to work on the things we need to work on. For the most part, we did a great job. We came out with a win and that’s number one. We just wanted to win this game and be 1-0 after it.”
Larry Fedora
“We had just a great overall team effort today. Whether it was the offense, the defense, special teams. We constantly made plays when we had to make plays. We gave up some plays in some situations, but what our guys did — they never blinked in the face ofadversity. The just kept playing. They kept going. Nobody got down when something bad happened. They just kept going. That was probably the best thing about today.”
On game-changing plays by special teams
“No doubt about it. You go — I don’t know what the distance was — but you take it the distance on kickoff return team. We felt like this year we’re just one player away, one block away. They bounced the ball back there, and I’m sure that threw their timing off a little bit, and he handled it clean and our guys got on everybody. He made one guy miss, and then he outran them. That does — that ignites your team. Our guys, they expect to make plays in the kicking game now. They expect it. They expect a big time play. That’s half of it. That’s more than half of it because if you believe it’s going to happen, it usually happens.”
On making a statement
“It’s still early in the year, but this was a great measuring stick for us. This is Virginia Tech. They’ve dominated the Coastal Division. We needed to go out and play a complete game against them and really, we talked about it being error-free. I don’t know, we had, what, 87 penalties and we still came out on top. I can’t say enough about the effort of our football team.”
On scoring 48 points and rushing for 339 yards
“That’s just a great overall effort by our offensive line, our tight ends, our receivers, our running backs, our quarterback, our offensive staff. They just did a tremendous job. They really did. We talked about fighting and scratching and clawing for every inch of soil out there, and that’s what they did today.”
On containing Logan Thomas
“I thought they did a great job all day. There were some times where they didn’t get to him and it seemed like he sat back there, but let me tell you, that guy’s a big guy now. Y’all see him down there on the field? When you’ve got Sylvester standing up next to him and Sylvester looks small, you know, that’s a big guy. He really is and he’s a good football player. If you give him time, he can make some plays on you. He can throw the football. He’s shown that. But I thought the guys did a nice job getting to him when they did.”
