Philip Montgomery could not have had a better start as the interim coach at Virginia Tech with the Hokies rolling to a 38-6 victory over Wofford at Lane Stadium on Saturday afternoon. After the game, he took the podium to answer some questions, and here are some of the things he said, with our thoughts on the quote.
Montgomery on the game plan from defensive coordinator Sam Siefkes
"Yeah, I don't know if he really made it simpler, or any of that part of it,'' said Montgomery. "I thought our defensive coaches and Sam had a good defensive game plan. I thought our guys did a really good job of going out and executing that game plan.''
Let's be honest, it wasn't hard to execute a game plan against a 0-3 FCS opponent that was undermanned. Four sacks and 12 tackles for loss, along with minus-1 yard rushing for Wofford, is nothing more than a confidence builder for the Hokies' defense.
Montgomery on the balanced offense against the Terriers
"I thought our offense was more balanced,'' Montgomery said. "I thought we did a nice job in the run game. I thought we were trying to take our shots when we could. Knew it was going to be difficult in their style of defense, but I thought we did a nice job of checking things down, staying ahead of the chains, and doing those things."
Virginia Tech did what they wanted on offense, and Kyron Drones didn't throw balls into coverage or force throws downfield as he had in previous weeks. Again, when you take care of the ball, the game is easier for you.
Montgomery on Terion Stewart not playing
"Yeah, he's working through some stuff,'' said Montgomery. "He's in a good spot. I would foresee him to be back next week, but as he continues to kind of progress, we'll see how that goes. But I know he wanted to be out there today, just wasn't available, and the other guys stepped up and did a nice job.''
It hasn't been a great first month in terms of health for the Bowling Green transfer, but hopefully he can get healthy and be a part of the offense beginning next week.
Montgomery on the reason why a handful of key players didn't play
"No, I mean, we're going through all of that with all of them,'' said Montgomery. "As we continue to keep evaluating in those conversations, that's kind of as we work. But as we kind of get through that part of it, that right now is going to be kind of us talking about it and us working through it. There's some injury things in that. There's some other things, so we'll be fine. They just weren't available today, OK."
He was referring to Caleb Woodson, James Djonkam, Quentin Reddish and Caleb Brown not playing. There are some redshirt opportunities there for some of these players, and we will likely find out a lot more this week about their absence from the lineup against Wofford.