Everything From Virginia Tech HC Brent Pry After Wednesday's Practice

On how practice has been this week:

"It's been good. I mean, we had an off day yesterday, but they came out today and it looked sharp. We lifted them this morning and good meetings, and a couple guys that are questionable about being healthy enough to play. A couple of them look pretty good to only be Tuesday of game week, so I'm encouraged by that.

On if there is any change to the status of linebacker Caleb Woodson:

"No, sir."

Q: What circumstances do you take into account when you're making a decision like that?

"I think every situation, we look at individually, to be honest. I mean, everything's a little bit different and we got good kids on this team and got good culture, a lot of good mileage with a lot of guys. And I don't make hasty decisions. I like to make sure that you get all your information and I like to call some different head coaches that have been doing it a long time and get their perspective on things and their team, but in the end, it's internally as a family with every situation. That's how we deal with it, coaches, players, any kind of adversity, we kind of approach it that way."

On Jaden Muskrat and where he eventually factors into a rotation:

"Yeah, he's not going to make the trip this week, hopefully Week 2."

Q: Is that because of an injury?

"Yeah, fair question."

On needing to lean on the freshmen and redshirt freshmen:

"Yeah, hopefully, not too much yet. You want to continue to bring these guys along, but [Shamarius "Snook" Peterkin] and [Knahlij Harrell] and [Jordan "Jojo" Crim] and [Jahmari DeLoatch] and these guys are doing some good things. So, we'll see where it gets, but I don't know that outside of maybe one or two of them, is there a plan to play them on offense or defense? We'll see. Right now, when you get these four games in the regular season, you want to make sure you use them on those guys, you know, and even if you get a couple games out of a guy early and then hold two, until later to see what happens. So we're navigating all that, but we got some freshman that can help us in some areas and and they will over the course of the season."

On Layth Ghannam:

"Yeah, Layth has done well. He's grown up a ton. His commitment and his seriousness about football has really, it's where it needs to be. So, he's getting better at a better rate. He's got to clean a couple things up still. He's really like a red shirt freshman out there with the situation he was in. But he's much improved. We tried to go with him last year, if you remember, out the gate and [he] just didn't get it done. He's certainly a much better player right now."

On Arias Nash's shift to defensive end:

"That's a great question. He's a tweener and he was a little undersized to to play inside against the run, but his pass rush was nice. I think he's a guy that can move around from week to week based on our needs and who we're playing against. He's smart. He's experienced. He's got a skill set. I think he's going to help us."

On Deric Dandy, Aycen Stevens and Jason Abbey:

"Obviously, they're behind some experienced guys, yeah, they are. And we went out and got some older kids, kind of older young men to to back up the starters, but but these guys are coming. All three of them, I'm excited about. I'd say Aycen and Abbey are both in a position to play, whereas Deric isn't really in the rotation right now, but it does a lot of good things. I mean, you'll see Ace and Abbey in this ball game."

Q: How much does it help that those two got reps and got many reps last year?

"That's right. It does help them. Yeah, I'm excited about both those guys. They're going to be good football players here."

On if Pry feels he has good options at kick return:

"Yeah, I do. Interesting group of guys. Yeah, PJ [Prioleau]'s done some things back there, but when you look at what [Thomas Williams]' done and his speed, I think we've got four or five candidates back there. Cam Seldon, Ayden [Greene]. I mean, there's just several guys that have worked at it and Tyler Mason, explosive in space and fast. So, it's good. We're going to give a couple guys an opportunity back there."

On if there's been preparation for the environment of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which is a dome:

"Yeah, we have. We've played crowd noise a bunch and worked on some cadences and just being able to handle it. If we know it's going to be loud, if it's louder than expected, we should be ready for that."

Q: Are you expecting or hoping a 50/50 crowd or closer to South Carolina than you?

"Yeah, I think it's a little bit, a little easier for their fanbase than for ours, but I know we'll have a good turnout."

On punter Nick Veltsistas:

"Yeah, Nick has always had a really strong leg and has always impressed us with some boomers, but he's always had that shank about every fourth or fifth kick. And these last two mini camps, I had to compliment him because there wasn't a shank and he hit some some really good punts. We're fortunate we got this indoor facility that you can kick in. I mean, very, very, very, very seldom do we hit the rafters, but he is booming those things. And it's like you said, he's a first-year starter, but he's a he's a veteran. He's been around a long time. And I'm excited for him. I think he's going to go out and I don't know that he'll play perfect, particularly in the first game, but he's going to do some good things for us."

On the new Trackman system:

"Yeah, it's pretty cool. I was very impressed with the presentation from the group that is providing this for us. And the kickers are the ones that came to us first because they've had access to it in camps and different things. They've got buddies in the industry that have it in their program. And it's been about a month or two that this has been going on. And after I got around it and learned more about it and, you know, it just made really good sense for us."

On Veltsistas as the holder:

"Yeah, he's been good. Yeah, Nick's, again, he's an older guy. He's got experience and he's a pretty good athlete, to be honest."

On there being 14 defensive linemen on the depth chart:

"If we can roll three three units out there, we will. I believe in depth on the front and rolling guys and playing dudes up there to keep that first group ready to go. So, when you're in that fourth quarter, they can play. We've got the most depth we've had on the defensive line."

On Isaiah Spencer:

"Yeah, he's gotten better and better this entire camp. Pretty raw when he got here, but a good talent. He's a worker. He's coachable. He wasn't doing a great job early in camp finishing. I don't know if he wasn't taught to do that, or he'd catch a ball and he'd kind of glide. He come up, he wouldn't turn up. He wouldn't knife. He wouldn't and I mean, we talked to him about it for a day or two and man, he has fixed it. And now he's one of the guys finishing the best. So, he's coachable. He's got really good talent. He's smooth. Good ball skills. I like what he's bringing. And honestly, he's just going to get better and better. He's one of those guys that still got a ways to go to reach his potential."