Miami Week, Volume 2 (Tackling the Defense edition) ...

So you’ve seen Miami QB Jacory Harris’ passing stats. But here’s one that isn’t talked about enough: Harris has been sacked ... once. Aside from that, opponents have been credited with ... zero other QB hurries.

That’s pretty astounding. That has as much to do with Harris’ 69 percent completion rate and 600-plus passing yards as the guy’s skill level. He has made some ridiculously good throws ... but he has also been doing it with all day long to pick a target, set his feet and get something behind his throw.

The objective for the Hokies this week, then, is clear. Get in Harris’ face.

Below, coaches Bud Foster and Charley Wiles talk about trying to do that, among other things. Pay special attention to what Foster had to say about: 1) Tech’s tackling troubles; 2) His reaction to the defense’s national rankings; 3) Harris against the Hokies last year; and 4) What the defensive guru has done to motivate his players.

Also note what Wiles had to say about injured DT John Graves and ... excuse some serious inside-football verbage that I frankly did not understand but am including because some of you surely know way more about the Xs and Os of the game than I do.

Enjoy ...

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR BUD FOSTER

ON EXTRA TACKLING DRILLS FOR THE DEFENSE TODAY: “We did a couple. We do a (tackling) circuit every Tuesday. We added one other thing in there that we wanted to do that I felt was a technique we needed to get better at, especially for the defensive backs. We worked on that. We’ve done it against dummies, but today we did it against people – which is not something I like to do, but I felt like we needed to do it.”

ON WHETHER THE MISSED TACKLES HAVE BEEN HIS BIGGEST FRUSTRATION SO FAR: “Yeah. You’re going to get a play over top of you every now and then, but right now, for us to be 107th in the nation in rushing is appalling. It’s embarrassing. It’s unacceptable. That’s it. That’s all I’ve got to say about it. It’s about tackling.”

ON THE PROBLEM IT PRESENTS WHEN ONE GUY MISSES A TACKLE: “Our defense is designed to have a free hitter. Not everybody does that. A lot of people have to come off blocks to make plays. Ours is designed to spill the ball to a free hitter. That’s the thing that’s disappointing. The free hitter has not made the play. The structure of the defense is there. Now we have to make sure the guys are doing their job.”

ON MIAMI QB JACORY HARRIS HAVING NOT BEEN PRESSURED MUCH: “I think their offensive line is very, very good. They’re big. They’re athletic. They’re physical. They do a lot of 7- and 8-man protection of him. They do it a lot on early downs and they’re a two-back offense primarily. They’re protecting him. You’ve got to pick your poison. If you want to bring straight-up man pressures, then all the sudden you’re putting your corners on an island against some very talented receivers. If you bring a fifth man, they’re going to be able to block it. If you bring a sixth man, they might be able to block it. But we’re going to look at doing some things, potentially, to get some pressure. Our sack numbers haven’t been where we want, but we’ve been able to put pressure on quarterbacks. ... We’ve played some quarterbacks here early that are mobile guys and have good pocket presence and escapability and Jacory is the same kind of guy. He’s a 6-4 kid that can overlook people, but he’s got some movement.”

ON HARRIS’ POISE IN THE POCKET: “I’ve been real impressed by the poise he’s had. He stepped in the game last year against us and he kind of dribbled down his leg, so to speak. They played him one series and got him out. This year, you just see a guy with a lot more confidence. They’re a group that’s playing with a lot of confidence. The receiving corps is playing well. They’ve got a great tailback tandem. So they’ve got a chance to stretch you in a lot of ways.”

ON EXPECTING TO HAVE CB STEPHAN VIRGIL BACK: “Yeah, he’s back. He’s practiced this week, which is good. Stephan has been a guy that’s a consistent tackler for us. Rock had one missed tackle (against Nebraska), but it was a big one. All their points came off big plays. But the one thing I was proud of: We buckled down and didn’t let them in the end zone. To me, the ultimate stat is third downs, getting off the field, scoring defense and that won-loss column. We’ve been fortunate that we’ve been in the premiere defenses in the country, and we expect to do that every year. But you’re not going to do it every year, in a realistic manner. That’s not me throwing in the towel. I’m not. I expect us to be a heckuva lot better.”

ON MOTIVATING HIS PLAYERS THIS WEEK: “I put a note up in front of all the defensive kids’ lockers this week. (Had the defense’s rankings the last few years on it.) I said, ‘It’s your responsibility to uphold the tradition we have here.’ I don’t play. There’s guys out there who’ve done it before and need to do it again. We take pride in how we play the game here on our side of the ball, so we’re not satisfied. We’ve practiced that way. I’m proud of how our kids have worked. I want guys that hate to lose and are disappointed when they don’t play well.”

ON HOW HARRIS WILL REACT IF HE GETS HIT IN THE MOUTH: “We’ll find out. I’m hoping we’re going to be one of the teams that do it, and I think we can be. Jason Worilds is a dynamic pass rusher. He’s a guy that’s been putting pressure on people all year long. If he doesn’t create pressure, like the other day, he caused a couple holding penalties that knocked them out of field goal range. That’s just the same as a sack, or even bigger. Those are kind of hidden yards and things he’s done – and some other guys have done – that make a difference.”

ON HARRIS THROWING THE BALL: “He throws a nice ball. He’s very accurate. There were some great throws against (FSU) where you couldn’t put the ball in a better place. I don’t care if you were Peyton Manning or Jacory Harris. The kid, to me, I’ve been very, very impressed with him.”

D-LINE COACH CHARLEY WILES

ON MIAMI QB JACORY HARRIS HAVING SO MUCH TIME TO THROW: “He looks comfortable back there, doesn’t he? I haven’t seen him get touched, really. A couple times. They have a nice scheme and they’re able to run the football. When you’re able to run the football, now you’ve got everybody up front playing run instead of rushing the passer. They’re not behind the sticks. Everything’s first-and-10, as you break them down. Very few third-and-longs. Where he’s hitting a lot of balls is a lot of first-and-10 plays. You understand where Coach Shannon, why he was passionate about playing this kid. Wow, he’s impressive.”

ON HOW THEY SCHEME AGAINST DEFENSES: “They do a lot of unbalanced. They use their backs well. A lot of two- and three-man routes. They’ve got dynamic wideouts. When you’ve got time, it’s hard.”

ON HOW TECH REACTS TO THEIR UNBALANCED LINE SCHEMES: “Well, now you’ve got to ... we’re a 7-technique as opposed to a 9-technique, so now that guy’s got you in a phone booth the whole time. And we’re going to play some 9-technique as well, but our standard set-up is a 7, 3, 2 and 5. Now over where the tight end is, they’re getting a back over there to help him out. Or they get him out in play-action and pull a guard, get a back on that guy. Then your other good, dynamic pass rusher, they’ve got a tackle and a tackle on him. They’re doubling your good pass-rush guy.”

ON ALL THAT SOUNDING LIKE ANOTHER LANGUAGE: “Well, they’re able to double your end guys. They’ve got two tackles (on one) and then a tight end and a pulling guard. All off play-action stuff.”

ON PUTTING SOME OF THE RESPONSIBILITY, THEN, ON THE INTERIOR D-LINEMEN: “Yeah. You’ve got three (blockers) on two (rushers) in there. Most of the night, rushing the passer with these guys, it’s eight (blockers) on four (rushers). Even playing good zone coverage, you can buy time. They’ve got good wideouts and they create some spots. He’s able to move around a little bit, and he’s thrown some good balls on time, too. It’s not like he’s sitting back there with it all the time. They’ve been able to mix it up real well. You’d love to be able to run the football and then throw it on first-and-10, not when everybody in the stadium knows you have to throw the football.”

ON THE MAIN OBJECTIVE, THEN, FOR GETTING PRESSURE ON MIAMI: “Win our one-on-one battles, whoever is in the one-on-one battles. We’ve got to win those. We’ve got to stop the run, make them have to throw the football. It’s a simple formula. We’ve got to stop the run and we can’t miss tackles. If we do that ... we could show you a bunch of film where we’ve played really, really well, and there’s probably seven plays that are ugly. Everybody that we’re playing has good players, man. On defense, one play you might be OK. Two or three (big ones), you get beat. We’ve been fortunate to be 2-1. We realize that. We’re playing hard and we’re getting better. There’s some youth at some spots, guys that are learning and improving. We’ve been real proud of how we’ve competed. We just have to get rid of the bad plays.”

ON HOW HOPEFUL HE IS THAT D-TACKLE JOHN GRAVES WILL PLAY DESPITE HIS ANKLE SPRAIN: “I’m real hopeful. It gets into your depth a little bit. He’s such a competitor, been in a lot of big games. I feel comfortable with Demetrius. You’re just taking one of your good players away, one of your weapons. So you want him back in there.”

ON THE LIKELIHOOD GRAVES WILL PLAY: “Oh, I think he’ll make it back. I’m just going on what Mike (Goforth) is thinking. But if he’s not, he’s not, and we’ll go. I know Demetrius and Kwamaine and Antoine and Cordarrow will play hard.”

ON KWAMAINE BATTLE BEING THE NO. 2 AT THAT SPOT IF GRAVES DIDN’T PLAY: “And should’ve played more last week, where John was hobbling around out there and I didn’t know that. Although I appreciated John’s toughness and all that ... you’ve got to be full-speed. You might get hurt even worse and you don’t want to hurt the football team.”

ON THE D-LINE ONLY HAVE THREE SACKS SO FAR: “I tell you what: We’ve had a lot of hits on the quarterback. The guys are getting rid of the football. I know the other day, we hit the quarterback 10 times. We didn’t have a sack. The guy was 10 of 31 ... getting rid of the football. We’re coming free. We’re hitting the quarterback. He’s just coached up, getting rid of the football.”

ON D-END JASON WORILDS SEEMING TO GET HELD A LOT: “That deal last week, oh my God. Cordarrow ... the holding call on him on that touchdown ... it was the guard, he had his hand around his throat. But there’s a lot of that goes on. Alabama game was the same thing. I’m sure it’s the same on both sides. But you’d like to get a few more calls. They called that one, and it was a big one.”

ON WHETHER HE TRIES TO TALK TO OFFICIALS BEFORE THE GAME: “I definitely say, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ You want to be nice. You get more with sugar than you do with vinegar.”

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