Tuesday Football Press Conference Quotes
11/23/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 23, 2004
Head coach Jim Grobe
On Maryland:
"Defensively, they're like all the Maryland teams that we've played in the past. They're real physical, they're very well-coached and they do a nice job of mixing up zone and man coverages. Offensively, I think they've got two really good running backs. They've got a veteran offensive line. They've got talented wide receivers. Physically, they're absolutely capable of getting it done. Their quarterback, Statham, had a really good game against Duke. Their special teams are really good. It's a typical Maryland team that we've seen. They've got a good group of older guys as starters."
On Chris Barclay having a chance at a 1,000 yard season:
"It would be nice if it helps us win. If he runs the football real well and that helps us win the game, then we're for that. But our goal is go win the football game. We aren't really going to be thinking about trying to get Chris to 1,000 (yards) or to be the ACC's leading rusher. Our goal is to go up and win the football game."
On Barclay:
"That guy has had to make more yards after getting hit at the line of scrimmage than anybody in America. He's earned every yard. He's really been pretty remarkable, to be honest. He's done some really good things behind a young and at times inconsistent line.
On Barclay and the offensive line:
"The combination of being young physically and making mental mistakes makes it hard to be consistent. Chris probably understands that better than anybody. At times he gets a little frustrated, but he's a tough guy and he's a winner. When he gets frustrated, he keeps working at it. He's a great kid."
On playing the final game of the season:
"It's most urgent for our seniors, or at least I hope it is. I look at our two-deep right now and we've got 25 freshmen or sophomores out of the top 44. I hope those guys will take a little special pride in trying to send those seniors out with a win. The tendency you have when you're young is to realize that this is not the end of the road. But for the old guys, most of them, this is it. Hopefully our young guys will take that responsibility very seriously."
On the quarterback situation:
"It would be fine with me for one of those guys to step up. It would be fine with me for both of those guys to be playing better. If you have an old guy and a young guy competing for a job, at some point, if there's not a lot of difference, the young guy has the advantage because he's going to be around for a while. That's not necessarily fair, but that's life in football. If you're an older guy, you've got assert yourself and make it a no-brainer that you're the guy. I think Cory has great potential to some great things. He's finally healthy again. At Miami, he was bouncing around and finally looking like he was well. He'll be in a battle in the winter and spring. He knows that. I think Ben is getting better all the time."
On the possibility of the quarterback situation being a distraction:
"If you're winning, it's no big deal. When you have so many tough losses, especially so many close losses as we've had, it probably takes the focus off the other guys. Everyone centers on who is going to play quarterback and so, it takes the focus off the team. You'd like for all the focus to be on the team as a whole. We're doing some really good things in a lot of places, including the quarterback position. The thing I've had the most trouble with is having people realize that it's not just the quarterback position. You've got 10 other supporting guys that have got to help out. We've got a defense that needs to get the ball back to the offense as many times as they can. We've got an offense that doesn't need to be three-and-out as much as we have been. That doesn't all fall on the quarterback. And at times, our special teams have been spotty. Whether we win or lose, it doesn't ever fall completely on the quarterback."
On offensive inconsistencies:
"We're a team that used to a lot of 2nd-and-5 situations. This year, we've looked at a lot of 2nd-and-10. That's not something we're comfortable with. It's kind of changed our approach. We've been dialing up a lot of different offenses this year without Damon McWhite. We've gone to H-Back schemes. That changes not only the running stuff, but your throw game because now you've got wide receivers off the field. At one time, we thought four wideouts was going to be a big part of our offense, and then Jason Anderson goes down now you're struggling to find four healthy wideouts. It's been a year where we've had to re-invent the game every week to find a way to move the football on offense."
Junior Chris Barclay
On Maryland:
"We'll look more at the film this afternoon. But I've seen a couple of their games this season. They're real physical. It's going to be important that we're physical with them. We're going to go up there and play solid football. They play good assignment football. It'll be a good match-up between two teams that have had ups-and-downs this year."
On ending the year on a high note:
"Hopefully guys learned from last season. I think we did. We had great motivation coming into the season because of that. We have to get a win this Saturday for our program to end this season on a positive."
On the possibility of becoming the school's all-time leading rusher:
"James McDougald set the bar pretty high. It would be monumental. It's a dream that still has to come true, but it's not far out of reach. I didn't come here and expect to play as a true freshman, but I did. It's been a story book career for me so far. It's been a blessing. It would mean a lot to me. Records like that make you immortal, in a way, in the program."
On the meaning of reaching 1,000 yards for the season:
"If I get 100 yards this week, and reach 1,000 for the year, that would probably mean we're in a good position to win the game."