Alabama Week, Volume 3 (You're looking LIVE! edition) ...

You are looking LIVE! at Hokies practice. Ah, yes, it is really, truly football season. Why? Because I just finished talking to ABC’s Brent Musberger on the sideline here at practice ... and his voice, to me, means football.

Now, he’s not quite Keith Jackson in my book. If I heard that guy’s voice, I would’ve run out onto the field and asked Kam Chancellor to please, please de-cleat me. Still, I like Mussy.

Funny thing is, he talks in conversation just exactly the way he does on TV. Coach Frank Beamer had Musberger talk to the team today before practice.

“I just told them how happy we are to have them” on ABC’s Sept. 5 broadcast, Musberger said. “This is one of my favorite weekends in college football and this is such a great opening game. I told them how impressed I am with their attention to detail.”

He then talked about what a stunning stat it is that Tech has had 103 non-offensive touchdowns in its last 191 games ... and that a team like Maryland has fewer than 40 in the same span.

“I admire the way they do things here,” Musberger said. “I told them that if they wind up in the national championship game, we would be happy to have them.”

After the professional portion of that interview was over, I had to bite my tongue. I really wanted to ask Brent to record a new voicemail message for me: “You’re looking LIVE! at Kyle’s phone ...”

Sadly, no such luck.

Now for a few other practice tidbits:

* Scouts for the Lions, Ravens, Redskins and Cowboys were scribbling notes today. The pros have been busy this camp checking out the Hokies.

* Former star LB Vince Hall was back at practice again today. He was here last week, too, lending a little advice to Tech’s new, young linebacker corps.

*  Back-up linebacker Bruce Taylor is in a blue, no-contact jersey today with an ankle injury. Trainer Mike Goforth said the staff would decide tonight whether Taylor will be available for Saturday’s game.

* The Hokies’ defense is clearly concerned with Julio Jones’ jump-ball ability. They spent significant time working on those today, with DBs coach Torrian Gray lofting balls to scout-team receivers and having his players alternate between leaping to make interceptions and making blind break-ups on which the read the receiver instead of the ball to prevent a completion. FS Kam Chancellor and CB Cris Hill really thrived in winning those jump-ball battles. True freshman CB Jayron Hosley, a talented but tiny guy, struggled a bit.

That’s about all I can give you folks. So I’ll let the players take it from here. They’re better at talking about how they plan to stop Julio than I am ...

CB STEPHAN VIRGIL

ON WHAT MAKES BUD FOSTER SUCH A GREAT DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR: “Oh, man, he works so hard at what he does. He works for perfection. We see that, and we see his enthusiasm and intensity when he comes out to practice, how he gets on us. We just run with it. We love him. When he gets on us and pushes us to our best, he just wants to see the best out of his players. He’s going to find a way to get it out of you.”

ON FOSTER GIVING THE DEFENSE A MISSION STATEMENT BEFORE EVERY SEASON: “Right, and everybody signs it and that goes in the lunch pail. We’re going to go by it. That’s like our law. Do the right things on and off the field. Be the best you can be on and off the field. Do everything you’re told to do. Play hard, give it all for your brother.”

ON WHETHER THE DEFENSE LICKS ITS CHOPS AT A ROOKIE QB: “Yeah, we do sometimes. But at the same time, you’ve got to be aware. You don’t really know what he can do because you don’t have much to go by on a new quarterback in his first start. So you really have to be your best at the technique and learn the other positions – the receivers and running backs – and what they do on certain plays. You have to learn what they do and know what to expect.”

ON FACING WR JULIO JONES: “He’s a big, strong, physical guy. I remember the LSU game, it took about five or six guys to take him down on one play. You’ve got to bring it when you’re going up against Julio Jones. He’s going to bring his 100 (percent). I’m going to bring my 100. My guys behind me on the defense, they’re going to bring their 100, too. So we’re going to be ready for Julio.”

ON BEING EXCITED TO SHOWCASE HIS SKILLS AGAINST JONES: “I love competition and from film it looks like he loves competition, too. He plays his best when he has competition. It’s going to be a great match-up come Saturday.”

ON THE EXCITEMENT SURROUNDING THIS GAME: “Oh, I’m already hyped. I’ve been hyped since I saw this on the schedule. This is my senior year and I want to go out with a bang. What better way to start it off than with Julio Jones.”

ON WHETHER THERE’S ANY CHANCE TECH SLIPS IN THIS OPENER LIKE CLEMSON DID LAST SEASON: “Nah. No Clemson slip. We’re going to be Virginia Tech. This is Blacksburg, Va. No orange and purple here. It’s going to be orange and maroon come Saturday night.”

ON THE KEYS TO STOPPING THIS NEW QB: “We’ve got to be sound on our techniques and our key reads the whole game. We can’t have a drop-off. That’s the way we can win this game.”

ON FOSTER BEING ESPECIALLY CREATIVE FOR NEW QBS: “Oh, yeah. Coach Foster, he’s the best at what he does. He’s going to find a way to make adjustments to what the new quarterback at Alabama is going to do.”

ON WHETHER THERE ARE NEW WRINKLES FOR THE TIDE: “It’s going to be the same stuff: Pressure, pressure, pressure. All night. From the front four, the back four or five, linebackers, we’re bringing pressure all night.”

ON EVERY PLAYER ON DEFENSE HAVING THE POTENTIAL TO BLITZ THE QB AT SOME POINT: “Oh, yeah. We might work that out. (Foster) might sneak that in as an adjustment on the sideline.”

ON WHAT THIS GAME REALLY MEANS TO THE PROGRAM: “It’s Game 1. It’s a big game. It’s the start of a season for us. Win or lose, we’re going to learn from this game. It’s just the first game.”

ON WHAT A WIN WOULD DO, THOUGH: “A win, it’s sort of like the same thing. We’re going to be excited for the win, but come next week, we’ve got Marshall.”

ON WHETHER THE PROGRAM NEEDS TO BEAT A BIG-TIME OPPONENT: “We need this win to go to the next level. But at the same time, to go to the next level, we also need a national championship. The road to the national championship starts with Game 1, which is Alabama.”

SS DORIAN PORCH

ON HOW THE TEAM WILL STAY FOCUSED WITH ALL THE HYPE SURROUNDING THIS GAME: “The way we do that is we focus on what’s important right now. What’s important right now is us coming out here working together, getting better. That’s a great program (Bama). It’s hard not to think about it. but when you come out here to work, you’ve got to think about your assignment for that play and just do the best you can for that play and move to the next one. That’s kind of how we take practice: every play has got to be great.”

ON THE DEFENSE’S NUMBERS AGAINST ROOKIE QBS AND WHETHER THEY LICK THEIR CHOPS: “The way we look at that ... We watched a little film on him and he’s a great quarterback. But going into any competition, one of our defense’s goals is to dominate the quarterback, no matter who it is. I think we’ll be moving around a little more trying to confuse him some and give him some different looks ... trying to get him to throw us a pick. But we go in like any other game: ready to attack.”

ON FOSTER BEING GOOD AT DISGUISES: “Oh, yeah. Coach Foster is a great scheme guy. He coaches us so hard. When we’re out there, we’re learning offense if you understand what I’m saying. It’s not like we’re trying to learn our position. We know what we’ve got to do to the point that we can expect something to happen and kind of playing offense on the defensive side of the ball.”

ON WHETHER THIS KIND OF GAME EXCITES HIM PERSONALLY: “It doesn’t get much bigger than this. They are a great program. When you look at their history, they have a great tradition there. The atmosphere, the energy is going to be amazing. Everything we punt into this all summer, all spring, getting ready for this time right now, I think it will show up on Saturday.”

ON WHAT IT DOES FOR A TEAM’S PRESEASON PREPARATION TO OPEN AGAINST A TOP OPPONENT LIKE BAMA: “Finding out we’d be playing Alabama, it’s a motivator. You want to work. Sometimes you have an off day, but you know can’t have an off day when you’re getting ready to open against a team like that.”

ON BEAMER SAYING REPEATEDLY THAT THIS GAME WON’T MAKE OR BREAK THE SEASON: “It’s a very important game. When he says that, what he means is you can’t let this decide how the rest of your season is going to be win or lose. You can win the game and say, ‘Oh, we beat Alabama and the next week we can just go beat the next person’ or, ‘Oh, we lost and now we might as well not try.’ It’s a business trip and we need to go take care of business. Both teams are going to come play great football. It’s kind of who makes the least mistakes. When (Beamer) says that, it’s like he doesn’t want us to go in thinking if we win this game our season’s going to be great and if we lose it’s going to suck. Because that’s not how it’s going to go.”

ON HOW A WIN WOULD HELP THE PROGRAM AND CONFERENCE’S PERCEPTION NATIONALLY: “I don’t feel like it’s ACC vs. SEC. I kind of look at this as Virginia Tech vs. Alabama. Not every team in the ACC is the same and not every team in the SEC is the same. When we come out on the field, it’s going to be Virginia Tech vs. Alabama.”

CB RASHAD CARMICHAEL

ON LOSING HIS FATHER RIGHT BEFORE LAST SEASON AND THE IMPACT THAT HAD: “My dad passed away July 13, before last season. The ECU game was Sept. 4 or 5. My dad’s birthday is Sept. 3. That being my first start, I remember that whole night it was hard trying to mentally be ready to do what I needed to do. It was kind of tough. But now, going through it a year, having my teammates – they’ve built a strong foundation around me and behind me. I know those guys are here for me. Coach Foster and Coach Gray, they call me, check on me, make sure I’m sleeping and eating right. They make sure I’m doing alright. It’s been a year now and I feel like I’ve grown a lot. That helped me prepare mentally for how big a game this is, because I feel like I’ve been through a little bit.”

ON WHETHER THERE’S A LOT LESS WEIGHT ON HIM GOING INTO THIS SEASON COMPARED TO LAST: “Oh, yeah, definitely. My father not being there to see my first start – he was always there for me – that was a little pressure on me. But I look at it like I got my nerves out last year. I got all those jitters out. I’m ready to play ball now. There’s a big weight lifted off my shoulders.”

ON WHAT HE’LL DO TO STOP OR BRING DOWN A HUGE RECEIVER LIKE JULIO JONES: “Just technique. The better your technique is, the less advantage anyone can have against you. My game plan, my strong point, is my technique and being focused, playing the game mentally. Know downs and distance, know situations. We watch a lot of film, pick up tendencies. That’s going to help balance the height-weight disadvantage a little bit.”

ON HOW HE PREVENTS THE BIG PLAY ON A GUY LIKE JONES: “I’ve got to go back: You’re technique is what keeps you from getting beat. There’s going to be some catches, some routes that are going to go against the defense that we’re giving up. We’ve just got to go tackle and make the play. (Foster) doesn’t want us missing tackles or letting Julio sling us around.”

ON WHO HAS BEEN JULIO JONES ON THE SCOUT TEAM: “We’ve got a couple Julio Jones on the scout team. It depends on what route they run. If it’s a double-post or a deep ball, jump ball, they’ll put Prince Parker out there, because he’s taller. We’ve got to get ready for that fight, to go up and get the ball. Austin Fuller is a nice-sized receiver with good, strong hands that makes all the catches. Those are our two Julio Jones guys for this week.”

ON NEITHER OF THOSE GUYS, THOUGH, COMPARING RIGHT NOW TO JONES AND WHETHER IT’S EVEN POSSIBLE TO PREPARE FOR A GUY LIKE THAT: “I mean ... I mean ... nah. It’s hard. It’s hard to prepare for a guy like that. He has great hands, decent speed. He’s a big-time receiver. We know what he’s going to do. We’ve just got to prepare.”

ON HOW KEY IT’LL BE FOR THE TECH D-LINE TO GET PRESSURE ON THE QB: “That will definitely help us out. With a quarterback starting for the first time, that’ll hopefully get him to throw a few off balls.”

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