Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 12 No. 4 | March 2020

18 Inside Hokie Sports Q: How will this defense be different under you than it was under Bud Foster? JH: There will be some differences, and I think you’ll see a lot of similarities, too. I think we’ll do a bit more structurally. The aggressive nature people think of when they think of Coach Foster wasn’t necessarily blitzing as much as it was we were going to have a lot of people involved in the run game. We were going to rely on our secondary to be in coverage, and for the better part of three decades, it [Tech’s defense] was the best in the country. So you can’t just throw that out. There will be aspects of that, but I would like to add to that from what I learned as an [NFL] player and what I’ve learned in coaching and what these guys [the new assistant coaches] have brought in and done. I’d like to change our fit structure systematically within a call to be able to get into a couple of more things and to have some pressures that are similar to what Coach Foster has done, but a little bit different, and then to have some more layers in our defense to where sometimes we will have a bunch of guys around the line of scrimmage, but other times, we’ll have some guys a little deeper than what we’ve been normally … We’re still going to be aggressive. That doesn’t necessarily mean pressure every play. It means play with an aggressive mindset. Q: How much of a transition is there going to be with an entirely new staff? JH: There already has been a lot of transition just with us coming together and talking about what we’ve done, talking about what kids have been coached to do, and guys saying, ‘Oh, we did it this way,’ or ‘We did it that way.’ So that transition has happened. With the kids being around the coaches, there’s been some of that—with us being around them as they finish workouts or start workouts or just around the building coming up to see us, or having lunch or dinner, whatever it is. But the real transition will happen when guys are being coached by those guys and starting to learn personalities. On the field, they’re starting to learn each other. We put a system together, and you go and implement it, and then you watch the film and you think, ‘It might be better if we do this,’ or ‘This would be good if we’re doing this.’ So those things always happen, and there will be some of that, but it’s all been really good. Every person in that room is a critical thinker. If there is a situation that has presented itself, someone will have thought of it and will say it. It’s really good. I’ve told our guys, the “measure twice, cut once” theory, I’m into that. I’m into measuring 25 or 30 times if we have to, and not necessarily cut once, but as few times as we can, so that we build a system of technique and fundamental standards that kids can grow and learn and build on. Q: Your entire defensive line returns for this season, both starters and backups. How excited are you about the possibilities for more production from this group? JH: Very much excited. One of the things, when Coach [Bill] Teerlinck first got here, we were kind of all over the place trying to get settled. But he was watching all the film of this past season, and the thing he said was, “These kids play hard. They play really hard.” And I agree with him. We are a little undersized by standard speak, but when guys play hard and want to be coached and are coachable, then you’ve got a shot … Whether you’re three down or four down, you’ve got to have like a hockey line shift with those guys and that they’re ready to go because the game takes a toll on them. But I’m very excited about those kids, especially allowing them to be aggressive off the ball or in whatever fit they have or whatever rush they have to get them to shine. That’s how we balance it because of not quite having the size of other people. We want to allow people to play fast and aggressive—and we have kids that can do that. Q: How nice is it to have a guy like Rayshard Ashby as the leader of this group? STARTING ERA A NEW Continued from page 17 Devon Hunter had 16 tackles in a reserve role in 2019, and he is looking forward to competing for a starting job at rover following the departure of Reggie Floyd.