Virginia Tech's players break down what went wrong in their blowout loss to Duke Friday evening.

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On what has limited the run game thus far:

“I try to let the coaches do their jobs, honestly. That might be a better question for one of the coaches.”

On the team’s mood after a rough performance:

“Ultimately, we still have another game to play. We still have a long season to play. We can’t focus on one game; this game is behind us. It sucks, we’re not happy about it. We prepared; we had a great week of practice. It didn’t go as planned. It didn’t go our way. Now, we’ve got to focus on the next game.”

On what he saw on his career long 45-yard rush:

“I just pretty much stuck to my assignment, my ‘lineman assignment’ technique. I saw the pullers do what I expected them to do. Dalton kicked out, and then I saw the hole open up back side so I just kind of cut the ball back, A-Gap, B-Gap, I just saw it then went backdoor.”

On the communication between the running backs and the offensive line:

“During the game, like while we’re playing, right after a play we’ll give each other feedback. Or if we go to the sideline, I’ll talk to them and let them know what I see, and they’ll tell me what they see. Then, I’ll tell them what I expect for them to do in certain situations and then just kind of try to adjust from there.”

On the status of his hamstring:

“I’m 100 percent now. It was something I was dealing with – hamstring, you all know. Just trying to work back. I’m just grateful to be back now with my teammates.”

On what’s not clicking with the offense:

“I’m not sure. All I try to do is continue to encourage, on and off the field. Run the play that’s been called. I’m not sure what it is. It’s not really up to me to decide. I just do what I’m told to do and try to execute to the best of my abilities.”

On his TD catch:

“The touchdown was cool, but we lost, so I mean it doesn’t really matter. But it did feel good, like you said, to have a positive play so that was good reinforcement, but at the end of the day, we have to make more plays.”

On the challenge of rotating quarterbacks:

“Nah, I don’t think it’s challenging because we’re pretty comfortable with all of the quarterbacks, it’s just the way that practice works. You’re liable to take a rep from anyone in practice, so I’m pretty comfortable with everybody.”

On the illegal blindside block he was flagged for:

“That was on me. It’s kind of my natural instinct. We’ve been coached up not to do that, because of the new rule change, but natural instinct in the midst of a game – that was on me.”

On his communication with the younger receivers during his injury:

“It’s just a family relationship I have with them. Those are my brothers, so whether I’m playing or not, it doesn’t change our relationship. So, I’ll still be there to support and encourage them, texting them about anything you know, tips. Whatever I see on film or whatever it is, I still try to be there and be with them, even if I’m not physically with them.”

On if he’s passed the stage of his hamstring problem where re-injury is no longer a concern:

“I feel like I’m way past that point. Coach [Fuente] and the strength staff did a great job of putting me in those situations so that we could test it out and see if I could open up and run full speed. I have that comfortability in my mind where it’s not my first time trying to open up and run and when I get into that situation in a game, I’ve already done it, so I’m comfortable moving passed the hamstring injury. God willing I’ll stay healthy the rest of the season.”

On what point in the week he knew he would get some playing time:

“At the beginning of the week, we always come in with the mindset of playing. Nothing really changed, I just came in and prepared as the starter; everyone in the room does. Everyone is ready to go.”

On what the vibe of the locker room was:

“The vibe in the locker room is that everyone wants to get better. Keep a positive attitude, keep our head down and work hard.”

On his physical status:

“I would not say that I’m in a lot of pain. Every day I’ve been working to get better and get back to where I once was. My brothers have been supporting me, the [defensive line], the defense and the offense have been supporting me. It feels good to get back out there with my boys.”

On how tough is it to make adjustments going into the second half:

“Adjustments are more like a mental thing. You’ve been practicing and working on something all this week and then in the game they are doing something different that you haven’t seen. We’ve got to be able to handle that and make adjustments. Sometimes it’s a little bit harder when they are doing some things that we probably haven’t practiced for or we haven’t seen.”