Post Game Quotes
11/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 8, 2008
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On the game...
"I thought especially in the first half we played well. We were a little nervous because we knew Virginia is very talented. We knew if we came out flat it the second half it could have been a problem. To their credit I thought the Virginia kids played great football. They fought back like we expected them to. I thought our kids played really hard in the fourth quarter."
On the score of the game...
"You'd feel a little bit different if they were able to get the two-point conversion. Making it a 10-point game makes you a little bit more uncomfortable because it makes it a little bit easier to get into over time. I'll tell you I didn't feel comfortable with the points towards the end of the game. I expected our defense to step up a little bit more."
On Shane Popham's performance...
"For a freshman he is getting better and better. Once in a while somebody has just got to step up and make a punt; you can't always blitz to somebody. We didn't really need to rely on him today but what a great job punting the football. That was a great opportunity for a young guy to get some experience in the game."
On what's coming up...
"I think we've played enough ACC games now to know that everyone is good in the league. I know going to NC State next week is going to be really tough. Tom [O'Brien] and his staff do a great job. I think they have a lot of talent and healthy players this season. That's the game we need to focus on. We can't do anything about how Maryland plays, but we can do something about how we play."
Virginia Head Coach Al Groh
On the loss to Wake Forest...
"We created a script for ourselves here tonight that as it played out was going to make it very difficult for us to win the game. Between the penalties and the turnovers, we fed the supply line of Wake Forest points - which is what they've done a great job of over the years, turning those circumstances into points - and nullified our opportunities, and the penalties put us in bad position. We all should have done a little better job tonight."
On key plays...
"We lost the game last week when we fell down in double coverage and today we fell down so a few things stand out. That play for a touchdown, the interception for a touchdown and the series on the goal line where we didn't get the ball in. But as even as this conference is, that's what it is. It's those kind of plays there that really determine if you played a good enough game or not."
On what could have been done to execute the series on the goal line...
"Block the other guys plus we probably didn't make the best decision on the third down play. It looked like we probably had a score there if we had handed it off, but that's easy to say from the sideline. I didn't have to be out there making the decision under pressure."
Wake Forest Players
Redshirt Freshman RB Brandon Pendergrass
On how you saw things tonight...
"It's all about me getting comfortable. This is my first year out there on the field, and every game I get more comfortable and more into the game. I am finding myself and my running style as I go along."
On the way the second half felt with Virginia coming back a little...
"We felt we had to come out and make way because we knew they weren't going to lie down. We had a 28-3 lead at halftime, and we knew coming out they were going to play harder than they did in the first half. We just tried to step up and close out the game."
Senior CB Kevin Patterson
On the game...
"We've been going at it all week practicing hard. We just wanted to have a complete game on offense, defense, and special teams. We picked each other up when we were down, and we kept fighting."
On the defense in the fourth quarter...
"Defensively I know we still had time on our side. Virginia is a good football team so we have to give them a lot of credit. We just couldn't panic, we had to settle down and make one or two stops to be able to finish the game off."
