With UNC's Fast-Paced Offense on Deck, Bud Foster Expects to be "Playing Against Ourselves"

Back when Bud Foster's defense had to go up against Scot Loeffler's methodical pro-style offense in practice, the team had to get awful creative when it came time to simulate playing against North Carolina's up-tempo spread system.

These days, with Justin Fuente's own fast-paced offense providing a sparring partner for Foster's bunch, the longtime DC doesn't have quite the same challenge he once did.

"It's like we're playing against ourselves in a lot of ways," Foster said. "That's beneficial when it's all said and done. With the teams that are the up tempo, that are the run-pass options, they want to be physical and run the football and so do we. Our Tuesday practices and those type of things last week, did a lot a middle drill and a lot of hitting preparing for that part of it.

"At the same time, we've gotta be good about all the bubbles, the screens, getting the ball out in space, taking great angles to the football, making good plays in space, that's part of what this offense is about. We've got to be disciplined with our angles and be good at finishing plays."

Those preparation challenges aside, Foster certainly has a decent track record when it comes to limiting Larry Fedora's offense. After giving up 48 points to the Tar Heels in 2012 (largely courtesy of Giovani Bernard's dominant performance on the ground), Foster's defenses have held UNC to 17, 17 and 30 in the past three years — all of those totals fell below UNC's scoring average for the season.

Yet with the Heels loaded on offense once more — Foster thinks the team may have the most talented group of skill position players the Hokies have faced so far this year — whip linebacker/nickelback Mook Reynolds will likely play an outsized role in Foster's plans for slowing down UNC.

Indeed, Foster expects that the Hokies will keep Reynolds on the field quite a bit, playing their nickel package for the "whole game, pretty much." With UNC's rapid pace, that could prove both mentally and physically taxing for Reynolds, but he says he's up for the task.

"Line up faster," Reynolds said. "Really know what you're doing, 'cause they're gonna be fast. You've gotta know the formations, personnel; fast offenses kind of make you think a little bit more. You're not gonna have time to sit back and look at everything. Everything's gonna be on the fly and you've gotta react to what you see...Just takes a lot more critical thinking, a lot more brains than brawn in a fast tempo offense."

Cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell is no stranger to Fedora or the offenses he typically employs, coaching against him during his days in the Big 12, and he says he has a good idea of what Reynolds and the rest of the secondary can expect from Fedora's bunch.

"The foundation is still there," Mitchell said. "One, let's get as many reps as we possibly can. Two, how can we stress them in space, because this is a spread offense. That's what their primary goal is, to get their playmakers out in space and create some one-on-ones and some mismatches. He hasn't changed that philosophies. Some of the plays have changed a little bit, but the tempo's still the same."

All the talk of tempo aside, the whipping winds and rain of Hurricane Matthew could end up turning the game into a slugfest (if the contest proceeds as scheduled at all). But, as a veteran of all manner of wild weather in the past, Foster said he isn't letting the forecast factor into his gameplan quite yet.

"The game's played outdoors and we've played in all conditions over the years," Foster said. "We have played — some of you guys, I don't know if you were with us — we did play in a hurricane (against) Texas A&M. Rain was blowing sideways. We played in the Music City Bowl when it was an ice storm. It was all different groups, but those are things we can't control. We've emphasized that. All we can focus on is execution and effort and being disciplined in what we need to do. If we do that, we can't worry about what we can't control. That's the bottom line. Let's control the things we can. That's the game."

Bud Foster

ON HAVING SUCCESS SLOWING DOWN THE NORTH CAROLINA OFFENSE YEAR TO YEAR:

"I think our kids get up for these guys, I really do. That's part of it, we've got a lot of respect for what they do. They've done some really good things against us and we've competed well against them. Those games have meant something in the chase for the Coastal Division championship, hopefully this game will be a factor in that this year. We've just gotta go play well and play disciplined. With all of the RPO, the run-pass options, that they do, we've gotta really be great with our eyes. I think we've done a good job with that over the last couple of years."

ON WHAT BRIAN MITCHELL BRINGS TO THE TABLE WITH HIS BIG 12 COACHING EXPERIENCE AGAINST SPREAD TEAMS:

"It varies from week to week who you are playing. This week, these guys are a lot like us. Next week, it's even gonna be faster paced and more like Tulsa. Not that these guys are a slow group, this will be the fastest group that we've played to date. What it forces you to do is be sound fundamentally. I'm fine with that. We've been more technique and fundamental over the years than we have been scheme. Even though we do some things and bring some pressures, that's part of what we do. But at the same time, I like to think we're extremely sound fundamentally. That's what these offenses do now a days, with the up tempo, they maybe take away the defense being able to dictate as much as you'd like to in some situations. That's what we've done over the years. They forced you to be fundamentally sound, and I'd like to think that we are for the most part. When we're good, we are."

ON IF THIS IS THE BEST COLLECTION OF SKILL PLAYERS VIRGINIA TECH HAS PLAYED SO FAR:

"I think so. I think you hit it on the head. I think the quarterback's playing extremely well, spins the ball very good, makes good decisions. He's more mobile than you'd like him to be. He can run, they do run him some. The receiving corps speaks for themselves. You've got three guys with a lot of experience there and then you've got the (Austin) Proehl kid coming in and does some good things. And obviously you've got some running backs. I think where they're better than maybe the teams — other than maybe Tennessee — is their offensive line. They're big and physical up front. They want to be able to run the football. They couldn't against Pitt. I'd like us to be able to — if we can make them one dimensional — I think we can be a little bit more versatile than what Pitt was on the back end. We've got to stop the run and then we can't give them a wide array of explosive plays. We can't allow them to do that. That's what we've been able to do over the years is not let them beat us with those kind of plays."

ON IF HE HEARS THE KIDS TALK ABOUT THE CONDITIONS:

"Naa, you guys are the first ones telling me about that. Maybe it will bounce back out to the coast and who knows, it might be beautiful, you know? That's why you guys are doing what you're doing and not weathermen. We can't control that and it's to our benefit one way or the other because we're gonna be disciplined and control what we can control."

ON IF THERE IS ANY REVENGE FACTOR AFTER NORTH CAROLINA BEAT THEM IN FRANK BEAMER'S LAST GAME:

"Not really. We played a great ballgame. They had a great football team last year. I thought we played well enough to win defensively. We didn't (win). This is a new year. We've got new challenges and obviously this game, this is gonna be a championship-caliber football game. You get to this point in the season and every week, with conference games, they're a factor in the race. Obviously with this being a divisional game, it has a little more weight than maybe some other. But they're all important. This is the most important because it's the next one. We feel like we should be in the mix in this thing. We have been the majority of the years we've been in this league. I'm sure Carolina feels the same way. They've been in the hunt, too. It should be a great matchup. We just need to continue to play like we have. Let's build on what we've done and continue to be consistently good in all aspects and we give ourselves a chance after that."

ON IF HAVING MOOK REYNOLDS PLAYING BOTH WHIP AND THE NICKELBACK HAS AN ADVANTAGE THIS WEEK:

"Yeah, we're gonna be in nickel the whole game, pretty much. There's not gonna be many personnel issues when it's all said and done. We're gonna be in our nickel package."

ON IF HE ACCOMPLISHED THE YARD WORK HE WANTED TO OVER THE WEEKEND:

"You know what, I did cut a couple of limbs down. It was pretty cool. I got an extended chainsaw. You talk about the neighbors coming out when I crank that up. The neighbors came out to make sure I wasn't gonna cut myself, first, or somebody else. That was probably the biggest thing. I didn't mow. But I did get the chainsaw out. It was pretty cool."

ON WHERE HE THINKS MITCH TRUBISKY RANKS IN THE ACC:

"We played against him two years ago. He was young at the time. We got a pick-six, I think, and we didn't see him after that. But what I've seen, just watching him, I see a guy that's really developed into a leader. I see a guy that has developed his skill set. I see a guy that has tremendous poise in the pocket. I see a guy that knows where his receivers are and then where he's gonna check down if things aren't there. Just seen a guy very comfortable in the offense. He can spin it. He can throw it from one hash to the far sideline and get there in a hurry. He's a lot more mobile than you'd probably want him to be. He ran a couple nice plays against Illinois. They'll run some zone read and some power read with him. They're not afraid to run him. I think he's really developed to be one of the better quarterbacks in our conference. And I think our league's pretty good with quarterbacks. I think he'll rate up there with some of the best we'll play."

Brian Mitchell

ON WHAT CHALLENGES NORTH CAROLINA PRESENTS WITH ITS PACE:

"They're very experienced, I would say that first and foremost. Those wide receivers have a ton of reps in the scheme. Larry's been doing a great job. I've been facing Larry since I was in the Big 12 when he was at Oklahoma State. And Southern Miss when I was at East Carolina. So I know the pace at which they're gonna go at. I know the philosophy behind what he thinks team-wise and offensively what they want to get done. They've got some guys with some great tools and they've got a quarterback that can command it."

ON WHAT HE DOES TO PREPARE HIS CORNERBACKS TO FACE THIS TYPE OF TEAM:

"We don't do anything different. You put in the extra work. You put the extra film work in. Let's study route progressions. Let's study Tennessee's, let's study the player that's gonna be in front of you. Put a little bit of extra time in in your position mastery. If you need to take another 10 minutes after practice or 10 minutes before practice, do something extra to gain a competitive advantage."

ON IF MOOK REYNOLDS WILL BE THE NICKELBACK OR IF HE WOULD CONSIDER PLAYING GREG STROMAN, BRANDON FACYSON, AND ADONIS ALEXANDER AT THE SAME TIME:

"No, Mook's the best of both worlds. He can go in there versus 21 personnel, 12 personnel, yet be out in space and cover like a corner. Mook really is a corner, y'all just don't know that. That position requires a guy to be very dynamic and very versatile, and Mook's that."

ON WHO HE WILL START BETWEEN STROMAN AND ALEXANDER:

"I'm gonna play three corners. In this league, you're gonna need as many corners getting as many reps to keep those guys fresh. You saw the up-tempo that we saw at East Carolina. It's gonna be times whatever this game. We need to keep those guys fresh."

ON HOW ALEXANDER HAS COME BACK AFTER HIS OFFSEASON TROUBLE:

"He's a lottery ticket. He's a kid with so much potential that if you keep the focus there day-to-day, he's progressing. That's what we're working on. Today he had a great day of practice. He's had a good week of practice. Moving forward, I don't expect anything less of him. On the football field, he's exactly what you want. He's balancing the social life, the academics, and he's going a great job of balancing that with the football. If I told you what his grades were like, you'd be like, 'OK.' In a great way."

Mook Reynolds

ON IF THE DEFENSE IS AWARE OF FOSTER'S TRACK RECORD AGAINST UNC:

"We haven't really thought about it. They do a lot of things differently in the recent years. Just adapting to the game, every year there's gonna be something different. Everybody watches film, so they pick up on things that they can try to throw you off with. He has a gameplan for every week that's a pretty good game plan every week. Whatever it is, it's just our job to go out and execute and do it."

ON IF LAST YEAR'S UNC LOSS STINGS MORE THAN OTHERS:

"It hurt to lose it for (Beamer). They were a good team. It's the reason they went to the ACC Championship, had a big opportunity to win it. This year, it's a new year, obviously, with us. We've got a lot of new things that we're doing. They've got things that they want to build off of last year and finish off where they left off last year. We want to build a brand for ourselves and make a name for ourselves. It's a new year, it's a completely game. Completely different reasons to go out there and play, different purpose."

ON IF HE SEES THIS GAME AS A SHOWCASE GAME FOR HIS COVERAGE SKILLS:

"I think every game is a showcase game. Just with that position, whatever the need is, or whatever the team's scheme is offensively, you're gonna be where the action is, (no matter) if it's a run team or a pass team. Every game is a showcase game. At the end of the day, I wanna display my skill set, but I can't get out of my character or out of my responsibilities. I've still got assignments."

ON IF THERE'S MORE COMMUNICATION IN A GAME LIKE THIS:

"A little bit of both. I think our job as a unit (is) to make sure everybody's on the same page. If you see somebody that's not on that same page, it's your job as a teammate and as a brother to them, to make sure what they're doing. At the end of the day, it's our job all week to watch film, get our checks in practice, practice like we're supposed to to make sure we don't have those slip-ups, miscommunications on Saturday."

ON IF HE'S CLOSE WITH ANYONE ON THE TEAM AT UNC:

"I played with a couple of guys on their team growing up, a couple of them in high school. I know a couple of guys on the team."

ON IF HE WILL BE LINED UP AGAINST RYAN SWITZER AND WHAT CHALLENGES HE PRESENTS:

"He's a good receiver, but I've played good receivers before. Just gotta go out there and play football."

ON WHO HE KNOWS ON THE ROSTER AT UNC:

"I know T.J. Logan, Carl Tucker, Corey Bell, Jr., Austin Proehl, Anthony Ratliff-Williams, Simeon Gatling, but I don't know that he travels or not. That's all I can think of off the top of my head."

ON IF HE TALKS TO THOSE GUYS DURING THE WEEK:

"Sometimes. I ain't talked to them this week though. I might try to a little later."

ON IF THERE'S BEEN A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN NICKEL AND WHIP FOR HIM:

"Not really, to me, it's all the same. You've kinda got the same responsibilities. Based off how we're playing defense now, it's not much of a difference. It just gives us an advantage to if we want to go to more of a coverage check, we can just do it without making a big move. We can just play what we wanna play in here and just lock up the outsides and lock up the islands. It gives us an advantage in run fits and gives us solidity on the outside in coverage."

ON IF THE TEAM TALKS ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN WITH THE WEATHER:

"We haven't really thought about it right now."