Wake Forest Athletics
Tuesday's Football Press Conference Quotes
9/7/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 7, 2004
Head coach Jim Grobe:
On moving on after the loss:
"Our guys are disappointed that we didn't win, but we've got ten more opportunities left in the regular season to do some good stuff, so hopefully we'll get better. You need to look really hard to find a guy that wasn't playing pretty good. We had two or three guys that we feel could improve quite a bit, but our guys played pretty hard on Saturday. There is going to be pressure on the next 10 games we play. Every game is critical, and you can't afford to lose any games really if you want to play past the regular season, so for us it's a critical game. I don't think that's going to change all year long, everyone is going to be big."
On watching the Clemson game on film:
"We probably played better than I thought. I thought coming back I was going to be a little disappointed with our offensive line but we really played better up front than I imagined. I thought we didn't handle pressure very well, and a couple times I thought our quarterbacks should have thrown the outlet pass rather than take a sack or allow the pressure to flush them [out of the pocket]. I thought the line played better than I thought, and I was pleasantly surprised because I thought we had guys flying around pretty good for four quarters. I don't know if we could have played much harder."
On playing in Greenville, NC:
"We talked to the guys last night and most of the old guys who've been there know what I'm talking about. We think that it's tough to go to Death Valley [Clemson] to play, but I think that anybody who has played at East Carolina realizes that it's just as crazy there as it is at Clemson. Any time you play an in-state team it's a big game. A lot of the guys from East Carolina's team have played with some of our guys in high school or against some of our guys in high school, so there is familiarity between the kids. Anytime you have that, it develops into a rivalry."
On Cory Randolph and Ben Mauk:
"I'm pleased with Ben, and Cory did some good things. I think Cory played better than the stats show, he had two or three balls dropped, four or five times he was flushed from the pocket and had to get rid of the ball, so his completion percentage was not very good. It is still a little deceiving to look at the stats. Obviously when you throw an 85-yard touchdown pass on your first play you have to feel pretty good about that, and then he completed a couple balls on the next drive and took us in for a score. I thought we wanted to play him more in the second half, but when we got to the fourth quarter we felt we had to go with the veteran guy. He deserved to play more, he should have gotten at least a series in the fourth quarter, and we'll try to balance that out more as long as both quarterbacks continue to play well. I like the position we're in right now with our quarterback."
On Chris Barclay's 50-yard touchdown scamper:
"I thought he did a great job, I was concerned that we weren't going to get the first down. It didn't look like we had the play blocked very well, more important Clemson defended it pretty well, and it didn't look like there was much there. I thought we were going to have to punt the football. He lowered his shoulder and got enough for the first [down], and I felt pretty good about getting the first down. All of a sudden he squirts out and runs it in, that was exciting and that was a great point in the game, and really from then on I thought we had a great opportunity to win the game, but we didn't make it happen down the stretch."
On the abundance of penalties:
"I was very disappointed in the lopsided total of penalties at the end of the game. That is something that we have some control over. We had a couple dumb penalties that we didn't need to have, so we have to be smarter on some of those things. When you look at it that was a huge swing, we had 410 yards of total offense to their 370, but when you tack on 125 yards for penalties to their side, it makes it look lopsided the other way."
On Marcus McGruder:
"The first time when Marcus was called for interference, he was playing about the way we want him to play it. We don't want him to get his back to the receiver. There is no face guarding penalty in college, and that is exactly the position we want him to be in and when the ball gets to the receiver we want him to get his hand up to get the ball out. After he got called for interference on the first one, he changed his technique and he played the way we don't want him to play the second time in the jump ball situation. Our thoughts are with the defensive backs, especially if we don't have the height advantage, is to let the receiver go up for the ball and on his way down take it out. We didn't do that the second time. He'll probably take more heat for the interference on the first play, but we wanted him to play that way the second time."
Wide Receiver Jason Anderson
On the Clemson game:
"We played hard, we played well, and to lose like that in double overtime its heart breaking. We went back and watched the tape and saw a few plays where we can improve. Actually, I saw a lot of plays where I could improve, a lot of little things. We have the next few days to work real hard and see what happens. We know we have East Carolina coming up, but that feeling is still in the back of our heads."
"We had problems in the preseason of getting lined up and knowing where we were going and getting our splits right. On the first few pass plays we were a little shaky, but after the first quarter we settled down."
On his 85-yard touchdown reception from Ben Mauk:
"If he didn't put the ball where it was, I don't think I would have been able to get it. I didn't realize that I got behind the defense and I just came back to the ball and jumped for it and got lucky. It is a big moment for him, and its special for him to have his first play be a touchdown pass like that, I feel real good for him."
On quarterbacks Cory Randolph and Ben Mauk:
"Cory is the starter, but they're both great quarterbacks. They both run and they both throw and they both are smart guys. Cory has been the guy; he was the guy last year, so it's his job. Ben is still learning and is in a great position. He has Cory in front of him to help teach him, and that has helped Cory out because it's made him work harder. It is good for both of them."
Defensive End Jyles Tucker
On the defense vs. Clemson:
"I thought the defense played very well. We stepped up to the challenge, but unfortunately we were unable to come out with the victory. I think this 4-3 defense is really going to work for us. It gives us the chance to make plays week in and week out and that's what we're going to have to do to win."
On improvements:
"There are a lot of things that we can improve on, especially rushing the passer, making our tackles, catching the ball, throwing, blocking, everything. There is always something to work on, you're never perfect."
On playing a close game against a ranked team:
"If you don't know that you can play with anybody then this is not the game for you. Knowing that you can play with a team that's in the top-20 that is good because we play about four or five teams like that this year. It is going to be a tough challenge for us, and we're going to step up to the plate. I want everyone to come at us because we're going to come after them."
On the offense:
"Our running back corps is pretty good. That is what we do, run the ball. We have great running backs and we have quarterbacks that can also throw the ball. Our running game keeps us in every game. We try and stuff the ball down everybody's throat. This year we have a young offensive line, but they're very good."
