Wake Forest Athletics
Football Weekly Press Conference Quotes
10/22/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 22, 2002
Wake Forest Football
Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2002
Head Coach Jim Grobe
On Chris Barclay/reactions to fumble in Clemson game:
"First of all, you need to be thankful that you got him. You thank the Lord he's on your team because he??s going to be a great player and is doing a really great job playing for us right now. If we make a better block on the perimeter, that corner never gets there. Chris doesn't see him coming. There was some conversation about him trying to switch hands with the ball. He's really trying to cover the ball up. He feels it a little bit too late and doesn't get the ball secure, and he??s running a little bit high. He needed to be down, but I really think he felt that he was going to scoot into the end zone. He doesn't expect the contact to come as quick. I think he was in a position where the [defender] made a good play, if he doesn't get the ball, he's not going to tackle [Barclay]. I think it was just a good play on their part, and Chris was certainly going full speed trying to get in the end zone. [The defender] caught him off guard, Chris expected to get in the end zone. We worked hard last night [in practice] on hanging onto the football. We always do, we emphasize taking care of the football."
"We never get on our players very much. We work during the week as hard as we can on fundamentals, then go out and play as hard as we can on Saturday. If I thought that Chris Barclay put the ball on the ground because he didn't care, it'd be a different story, he wouldn't be out there. We've got guys that care and there's probably not anyone on the team that cares any more than he does. That just happened to be one of five turnovers, so he can't take all the credit. We've had about a million mistakes, and he just happened to make one of them. We can live with one out of a million."
On running vs. passing game:
"I think we go into every game with balance in mind. We're going to try to find ways to throw the football, we're going to try to find ways to run the football, we'll be creative as best we can to balance a little bit. Certainly we're a better running team than a throwing team. Throwing the football got us in a little bit of trouble at Clemson, hopefully, we can take care of the ball a little bit better. We go into every game with the same thought, we're going to try to take what they give us. We're going to try to find a way to both run and throw the football. Certainly through the year and last year we've been a better running team than a throwing team, so I would assume on Saturday we're going to try our best to run the ball."
On UNC quarterback C.J. Stephens:
"It's a little scary because we know he's a great player. He wouldn't have been on scholarship at Florida if he wasn't a great player. We just haven't seen a lot on him. I've broken in a lot of quarterbacks in my coaching career, guys that we didn't know about that all of a sudden splashed on the scene. We're nervous and a little bit uneasy because we knew Darian Durant is a great player, and we had a lot of film on him. You could see all the things he was doing and get a feel for him. We don't get that opportunity with C.J. We're going to have to find out as the game goes what his strengths are. He's got a fine arm, did a really nice job against Virginia after Darian got hurt. He's a guy that completes a lot of his passes, and of course he's got, if not the best receiving corps in the league, then one of the very best.??
Sophomore Defensive Back Caron Bracy
On the Clemson game:
"We were all sad that we lost the game. In retrospect, we thought we played well and had a good game. The offensive line had a good game, just at the end we didn't make enough plays to win. It was a very good ball game, and they (Clemson) did what they needed to do to win the game."
"If you look at our team, we are still pretty young. I really can't tell if the crowd got to us. But, Clemson played a good game, their defense is one of the top defenses in the ACC, and they came out and did what they had to do."
On Chris Barclay??s fumble:
"It's a team game, and we can't just leave it in Chris' hands. He was trying to make a play and put us into a position to win the game. But it shouldn't have had to come down to that point, it is not all Chris. It is definitely a team game."
On bouncing back:
"Every week we come in trying to play hard and we are learning how to bounce back from a loss. North Carolina is going to come in, and they have a great ball team. We are just going to have to play great and step up."
Junior Offensive Tackle Mark Moroz
On the loss at Clemson:
"It was just a really silent drive on the ride home. The team was very upset, I mean, it just wasn't one person, the whole team felt the loss."
On Chris Barclay:
"We wouldn't even be in our position if he wasn't on the team. He made a lot of great runs, and we wouldn't have been in the game if he hadn't been in there making those plays."
On looking ahead to UNC:
"We are looking forward to this game and the opportunity to show what we can do. Looking forward to the excitement, they (UNC) are going to be fired up after last year and it should bring a lot more to the game, and we are expecting that. It should be a pretty tough game."
On looking at the big picture of the season:
"All of the games are important at the beginning of the season, but as the season is running down, they become more important, especially the last four games. We need to get a couple more wins to become bowl eligible. We went 6-5 last year, and obviously that was not good enough, so we need to step it up."
