Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest vs. Nebraska Postgame Quotes
9/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 8, 2007
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Nebraska at Wake Forest
September 8, 2007
Wake Forest Quotes
Head Coach Jim Grobe
On grading the play of Brett Hodges:
"Well again, we'll have to get back and see, obviously he made some mistakes, he made some youthful mistakes. It's not as much youthful, age-wise, but just that he hasn't been there before. This is his first start against Nebraska - it's probably not at the top of the list for any quarterback's first game wish list, but I think that Brett competed really, really hard today. He played as hard as he could possibly could, obviously made a couple mistakes, but those are just things we'll have to work on. He played really, really hard all day. He could play better, he will play better, but I don't know if I could give you a grade right now - he played as hard as he could."
On significance of last play:
"You know, obviously Kenny's [Moore] kind of our go-to guy and we felt like he was interfered with, but that's their call. They get paid to make those calls and we get paid to coach football, but I told the players after the game that we really should be better than that situation."
On fine line between losing and winning - not making the big play:
"I think we've played two pretty good teams and just haven't made enough plays against these good teams. We knew going into the start of the season that we'd play two good teams and as it turns out we've played two Top 25 teams. We came up short, but we had chances against both of them. On one hand, I'm really discouraged that we're down two games right now. On the other hand, I think we had chances, we just didn't make them or take advantage of them and it is about making plays, that's what I told my players today in the locker room. Don't talk about officiating; don't point your finger at any one person. A lot of guys had chances to make plays and we made a lot of plays today - we just didn't make enough."
On Josh Adams:
"I like what he did. I thought had some bursts. I thought he made some nice moves running the football today. He made a couple of really nice catches in the backfield."
On Kenny Moore as a weapon:
"The nice thing about Kenny, it's good and bad - we like him playing at running back and receiver so we have to find a way to get balls to him as much as possible whether it's directly handing the ball or him receiving [the ball]. We've got him back returning punts, we've got him returning kickoffs. He's been very impressive the first few games."
Wake Forest Player Quotes
Quarterback Brett Hodges
On today's play:
"I think I didn't play well enough today. I made some crucial mistakes. At the end of the game I threw that interception and made a bad throw."
On difficulty of preparing for your first week:
"It's pretty difficult. I think the biggest thing is to just get into the game full speed. But our coaches prepared me well, going through all last week. Being here as my third year, I know the offense, it's just more getting the full speed and the game experience for me."
Wide Receiver Kenny Moore
On the possible pass interference:
I haven't even looked at it yet. It was a great play. I feel like he was a little early, but I'm not sure.
On Brett Hodges' performance:
I think he came out and did a great job. He was a little shaky at first, but he made some great completions. Everybody could have done a better job overall as a team. He came in and did what he needed to do.
On getting behind Hodges:
It was very important. The quarterback is the leader, and you have to rally behind him and make him feel comfortable. He's been around for two years, so we weren't really worried.
On Nebraska's defense:
They have a great defense. There were some plays that we could have scored and some turnovers that really hurt us. They had a great game and did what they needed to do to win today.
Cornerback Alphonso Smith
On being 0-2 on the season:
"Well it's not what you want coming into the season. We do have 12 games, we still have 10 more chances, 10 more tries to improve from 0-2. 10-2 is still possible."
Nebraska Quotes
Head Coach Bill Callahan
On playing Wake Forest:
"We knew coming in that it was going be a tough, hard-fought game, and that's what it was. When you had the defending ACC Champions down 0-1 coming home defending their championship, we knew they were going to give us everything they had and they certainly did today. This was a well-fought, very tough, very physical football game on both sides. I'm very proud of our football team, how we responded throughout the course of the game and how we came through at the end finished the fourth quarter."
On the Bowman interception:
"That was huge. There you have a senior co-captain, an experienced player, playing his goal line, managing his responsibilities and being at the right place, right time. He was playing that outside corner. I thought it was a great play, understanding the nature of their coverage and rout distribution and making a play on the ball. It gave us the look we needed to close them out."
On how Keller played:
"I thought well. I think there are a couple plays he'd like to have back. If you go back into that late second quarter in the two-minute drill, that's where I thought he really emerged and made some outstanding plays under duress in the two minute situation, under the gun. He led our team to a score right before the half. He managed the team extremely well. There are two plays I think he'd liked to have back, but besides that, I think he played well throughout the course of the game."
On the passing game:
"We wanted to keep balance like we always do. And we'll mix and match it, in terms of our offense, that's always the goal. Just looking at the numbers, I think we came close to achieving that in terms of running pass distribution."
Wide Receiver Casey Hill
On his first catch:
"It was exciting. That was an excellent throw. He put it in the only place that I could catch it. A perfect throw by Sam."
On taking advantage of opportunities:
"You don't get very many. We got a lot of good tight ends, a lot of good offensive players. When you get out there, you have to make plays, and luckily I got a chance to make a play, and I was happy to make it."
Nose Tackle Ndamukong Suh
On Wake Forest Defense:
"You have to be ready on the snap. Be ready to go back on the field, they were definitely playing as hard on their defensive side and giving our offense some trouble. We knew what we had to get done and we got it done."
On Wake Forest's blocking schemes:
"Basically they stuck with three main plays, because they kept getting us with them. If somebody made a small mistake, they would take advantage of us. They basically didn't give us their whole package, they stuck with what they had and what they had used in the previous game."
On turnovers:
"Our goal going into every game is to get three turnovers, and we're not quite there yet, but we're on our way to accomplishing that."
Senior Cornerback Zach Bowman
On the interception:
"It was just the big play that we needed, offensively and defensively. We got the offense back the ball and it killed some time off the clock and that's what we needed. It was there and I just had to make the catch. I was just doing my job."
On Wake Forest being tough to defend:
"A lot of screens and a lot of speed releases so we just had to go with it."
On Wake Forest quarterback Brett Hodges:
"He played good. I didn't really get a chance to watch him."
On Wake Forest wide receiver Kenny Moore:
"He's fast. He's really fast."
On winning on the road:
"It's important to go in and win especially for next week; it's important for our attitude for next week. It's good to have a win because you have a chip on your shoulder."
Junior Wide Receiver Nate Swift
On being put in as punt returner [to replace Cortney Grixby]:
"Grixby got hurt and tweaked his ankle about halfway through the game and they just put me back there to catch punts. Today was just the day they put me in there."
