Roddy Jones on 2020 season: The 'most intimidating' college environments 'just are not'

On the lack of “home field” advantages:

"Yeah, I would agree with you. These environments that are normally some of the most intimidating in the country are just not. I mean, you watch the game, Mississippi State and LSU-- and that game was weird for a number of reasons, but not the least of which was the fact that like, you never see Death Valley like that-- the second Death Valley...in Louisiana...Death Valley, Jr. You never see LSU's stadium like that it. It was just a little weird and Mississippi State was not intimidated at all, and then they go out and win the game. So I'm with you.

On zero fans vs. some fans:

“I will say that having a few fans makes a big difference. We've done games with no fans, two of those and done one game with fans and there were only like 8,000 fans, and it made a huge difference. Any sound is better than sort of cavernous echoes that you get from an empty Heinz Field or an empty Kenan Stadium."

On evaluating Miami at this point:

"I think you knew that they were going to be talented on defense, but we're not sure how good they were going to be. The two defensive ends Quincy Roche and Jalen Phillips have been as good as they could have imagined. There are still some questions at linebacker, but the secondaries been pretty good." 

On Miami's offense:

"The story of Miami though is the offense and how they have covered up the issues on the offensive line, how well D'Eriq King has played, the guy still has not thrown an interception. How they utilize the weapons and really found some weapons. You look at Camron Harris, I knew he was a talented running back coming out of high school, but I didn't know he was as fast as he is. He didn't have his best game in the last one against Florida State because they really didn't need him."

On looking ahead to Clemson and Miami:

"I think Clemson will be favored, that's not breaking news. I think they will likely win the game against Miami, but Clemson is gonna have to play well to beat Miami. I think that's a testament to Miami and how far they've come because there are legitimate Top 10 team at this point, even in a normal season with everybody playing."

On D’Eriq King's legs and what they add to that offense:

"It's an extra man if you want to use one of the running backs as a blocker, but also even on the zone-read stuff or the threat of zone-read, anything that looks like his own play where D'Eriq King could possibly pull it, you're essentially blocking a defender without ever touching him because he's got to account for the quarterback. That opens up specifically cutback lanes for running backs. I think it's huge and also his legs have been able to extend some drives for him.”

On Miami’s third-down conversions:

“They have been fantastic on third downs, throughout the season. Some of that's Florida State, but they were great against Louisville and they were really good, obviously against UAB as well. So his legs have been a big part of it. His accuracy has been a big part of it. You've seen the tempo that they've gone with really wore down Louisville, especially, they didn't get to the point where they had to wear down Florida State. But that tempo is gonna create some issues. There's not a lot of teams in the ACC that go that fast, the Wake Forest goes fast, Syracuse goes fast, but outside of that, no one is going to challenge Miami in terms of the speed with which they play and that always presents a challenge for any team."

On where Pitt is in the pecking order of the ACC:

"First of all, they're really good and they are really good on the defensive line. I know this is going to maybe upset some Clemson fans a little bit but Pitt's got the best defensive line in the conference right now."

On Pitt’s defensive linemen (Rashad Weaver & Patrick Jones II):

"Clemson's is really good as well, so I'm not slighting Clemson, but those two guys that Pitt has on the edge are experienced players, they're 6'5 to 270 and they can play anywhere in the conference. If they show up to Clemson, one of them definitely starts and the other one is working in the rotation. Those two dudes are really good. They're really good up the middle."

Pitt’s defense against Louisville: 

"Pitt is another team that kind of shows you how good the league is this year, that defense is fantastic and is played extremely well. They held Louisville to 223 total yards, teams just don't do that against a unit as explosive as Louisville. And Louisville had a 75 yard run in the game, by the way. So you take that out and you're around 150 yards of total offense for the other plays."

On what Pitt can do in the league this year:

"Pitt is going to be a team that will give Clemson or a Notre Dame or a Virginia Tech trouble because of how well they played on the defensive side of the football. It's another one where like Clemson's gonna have to play well to be Pitt. They're gonna have to especially play well on offense to move the ball consistently against Pitt because Pitt is going to play man-to-man coverage, they're gonna challenge your protections. They're not only because they're really good up front, but also they will blitz you. They're really good in coverage."