Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest - Navy Postgame Quotes
11/23/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 23, 2002
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Wake Forest - Navy Game - November 23, 2002
Wake Forest Quotes
Wake Forest Head Coach Jim Grobe
"We were rusty and did not play well, but I do not want to take anything away from Navy. They were coming off an embarrassing loss week at UConn and when I was at Airforce, we always played our best football after a bad loss. So I was scared to death. I tried to tell our guys, but I don't think they believe me that we were in a dogfight until the third quarter. But I am proud of our team for winning. It got down to crunch time and we pulled right out. We're a little banged up right now. Jason Pratt missed some practice because of a funeral. We lost Chris Owen to a knee injury last week. Jamie Scott did not recover form his neck injury in the Florida State game. And then, Quinton Williams went down early in today's game. We only had five guys dressed out. Jamal Argrow ended up playing the whole game and did a great job."
"They played great academy football. I know because I lived that for 11 years. It's a real possession type game and they never back down. Their coaches did an outstanding job of getting them prepared. I thought their offensive line did a great job. My hat is off to them. I am really proud of those Navy kids."
"I think the three weeks off actually hurt us and I would have liked to have one week off to prepare for Navy, but in that second week off, our guys were just bored with practice. I don't think our guys realized how hard-nosed and tough Navy would be, but they found out pretty quick."
"There have been a few distractions this week with talk of me and other jobs. I am not planning on going anywhere. I love Wake Forest. I don't think it really distracted our guys...they probably wanted me to leave after the last two weeks of practices that they have been through. If other people are interested in me, then it is a compliment to our players. I told them if they don't want my name coming up with others jobs, then just go 2-9."
WFU Wide Receiver Fabian Davis
On being bowl eligible:
"It feels really good, but we know what happened last year when we won just six games, so we want to come out of this 7-5. We want to have a good week of practice and go and play Maryland tough. 7-5 would be much better than 6-6.
On playing in close games: "That's just the way that we play. I t seems like we're always involved in close games. That's the way that we like it. We work really hard in conditioning and we think those in close games a lot of times our conditioning takes over.
WFU Offensive Lineman Blake Henry:
"That final drive we just ran right at them. Everybody on offensive was really focused. But Navy is amazing. They never quit. The longer the game went on, the more confidence they seemed to get."
WFU Running Back Tarence Williams:
On the Navy defense:
"I was just telling James MacPherson that I thought that Navy was the hardest, toughest defense I've played against. The same player you juke or run over is the same player that gets up and tackles you. Its like they had 14 guys out there instead of 11."
