Hokies 'embrace' challenge of opening season at Florida State

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – With a high-profile season opener at Florida State slated to take place in just over six weeks, Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente fielded at least a dozen questions about the Seminoles on Wednesday at ACC Kickoff.

Probably more.

He was asked about his familiarity with first-year FSU coach Willie Taggart, what he expects to see from the Seminoles under a new coaching staff, how he will prepare an extremely young defense for a difficult test on the road on Labor Day night, and more.

The answers almost all followed the same pattern -- the Hokies are well aware of the looming test and have great respect for Florida State, but they’re certainly not backing down.

“It's a tremendous challenge, but I love it,” Fuente said. “I think our players will embrace it. They're excited to bust out a bunch of new guys out there, and we'll see how it goes. There's no sense in us just dipping our toe in the shallow end. We might as well cannonball in the deep end, so that's what we're going to do.

"Our guys will embrace that challenge. We've got to get them up to speed and playing at a high level in a really short amount of time, but we're looking forward to that challenge.”

Both teams will have hurdles to clear to claim a season-opening victory on Sept. 3.

Florida State’s players are implementing new schemes on both sides of the ball and still don’t know who their starting quarterback will be. Virginia Tech has just three starters returning on defense, and they’re not exactly sure what they’re going to see from the Seminoles.

“We’ll prepare for the players by watching Florida State film -- the personnel,” Fuente said. “Then we’ll prepare for the scheme by watching the coordinators’ and the head coaches’ previous places. … Usually, you can see the scheme and the players in the same spot. So it just adds a little more work.”

In this case, Fuente said, they’ll be reviewing film of Taggart’s offenses at Oregon and USF, offensive coordinator Walt Bell’s previous schemes at Maryland and Arkansas State, and defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett’s defenses at Michigan State.

Aside from those uncertainties, Fuente does have a great deal of personal history with Taggart.

They played against each other when Taggart was at Western Kentucky and Fuente was at Murray State. They squared off as assistant coaches when Taggart was at Stanford and Fuente was at TCU. And they met as head coaches when Taggart was at USF and Fuente was at Memphis.

When asked to describe what he expects to see from Taggart’s offense at Florida State, Fuente said the only thing he knows for certain is that the Seminoles will be physical. He said that has been a common thread every time they’ve met up.

“They were always tough, hard-nosed football games,” said Fuente, whose Hokies went 9-4 last season and 10-4 in 2016. “He's a fantastic coach. He's going to do a great job at Florida State. … He's a fine coach, does a good job. He gets his kids ready to play, and they play hard.”