Hokies embrace challenge of facing Seminoles in opener

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With a high-profile season opener at Florida State just over six weeks away, Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente spent a lot of time answering questions about the Seminoles on Wednesday at the ACC’s annual kickoff event.

Amid questions about the Hokies, Fuente 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, and how he will prepare an extremely young defense for a difficult test on the road on Labor Day in prime time.

The answers followed nearly 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 Sept. 3.

The Seminoles are implementing new schemes on both sides of the ball and still don’t know who their starting quarterback will be. The Hokies have only three defensive starters returning after linebacker Mook Reynolds, who faces a felony charge of selling or distributing marijuana, was dismissed from the team and cornerback Adonis Alexander was declared academically ineligible.

Fuente concedes the Hokies aren’t 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, Virginia Tech will be reviewing film of Taggart’s offenses at Oregon and South Florida, offensive coordinator Walt Bell’s schemes at Maryland and Arkansas State, and defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett’s defenses at Michigan State.

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

They played against each other when Taggart was at Western Kentucky and Fuente at Murray State. They squared off as assistant coaches when Taggart was at Stanford and Fuente at TCU. And they met as head coaches when Taggart was at USF and Fuente 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 gets his kids ready to play, and they play hard.”