Wake Forest Athletics
Tuesday Football Press Conference Quotes
9/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 2, 2008
Press Conference Video: Coach Grobe | Brinkman | Robinson | Russell | Wooster
Head Coach Jim Grobe
On the win at Baylor...
"I was pleased. We have a lot of things we can improve on. For a first game, to have no penalties offensively is good. We took pretty good care of the ball. I was disappointed with the fumbles. Riley (Skinner) took care of the ball really well, which was different from last year when we opened at Boston College. I thought our defense played really aggressively. We had a couple of lulls during the game where we weren't as sharp as we needed to be. I thought Sam (Swank) and our special teams did a pretty good job. We got a lot of things we can improve on. For a first game, on the road, I'm pretty pleased."
On the ACC's performance in the first week...
"I think you just have to take a look at who they played. I don't know that there are too many teams in the country or too many coaches in the country that would choose to open with Alabama, Southern Cal, East Carolina or South Carolina. If coaches had their druthers, they'd open with junior high teams and make sure they get a win under their belt. I think you need to use a little common sense and look who most people played in the top 25 and you'll see that there's a difference."
On the excitement of opening the home season...
"Good weather or bad weather, I'm looking forward to going into our stadium. It's nice to be back home. We have a really tough opponent in Ole Miss that will be a great challenge for us. It's fun to be back home. Hopefully the weather will hold up. I think that will help our crowd if it does. It should be an exciting time."
On his concerns with Ole Miss...
"Talent. They're a very talented football team. They've had some great recruiting classes and they have an outstanding coach in Houston Nutt, who has brought in a really good staff. They're a typical SEC team. They have big, physical linemen and skill guys that can all run. They have a quarterback, who transferred from Texas, that's really talented. They have a lot of ability on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game and they have a coaching staff that's doing really good things."
On what the team has to work on most between week one and week two...
"The things that we did well last week, we need to hold on to and stay consistent. I was disappointed that we fumbled the football a couple of times. We have to cut back on turnovers. You never feel comfortable with your kicking game and you got to continue working on that. More than anything else, we have a really good football team coming in. We've got to improve over last week because we're playing a more talented team this week."
Senior wide receiver Chip Brinkman
On watching the struggles of the other ACC teams on Saturday...
"Wow. I sat there on Saturday and watched all of those games. In the past, you used to root against them and I was glad to see them lose. Not anymore. Everyone is coming down on the ACC and we really need to step it up. I was kind of shocked to see a good team like Clemson lose because I know they're a good football team. I think later on down their road, they're going to be a lot better."
On the possible weather conditions this Saturday...
"We're well prepared for the weather. We practice when we have inclement weather and that has helped us be really well prepared. It just makes us focus that much better. If it's raining come game time, I think we'll be fine. Our receivers can catch the ball and we will all be out there blocking and I think the running game will step it up."
On coach Steed Lobotzke and his offensive scheme...
"I really like what coach Lobo is doing this year. He is really opening up the offense. Once we get into the five wide receivers sets, it really puts a lot of pressure on the opposing defense. With all of the motion and the different personal, it makes things complicated for the other team's defensive coordinator. Coach Lobo understands that. He does a great job and I think he is one of the smartest guys I've ever been around."
On the challenge of doing things differently this year without Kenny Moore in the offense...
"Last year Kenny Moore had his own package for when he was at quarterback. He had a lot of balls thrown to him and our offense was mainly based around him. Now, we have a diverse group of wide receivers where anyone of us can make plays. It really balances our offense out well."
On his concerns about Ole Miss...
"We watched film yesterday and looking at their defensive secondary, we see that they have a group of guys that have played a lot of snaps together. They are also very physical and the safeties stop the run well. They do a lot of press-man coverage and that's something we have to beat. Further on down the line, if we don't beat the press-man this week, other schools are going to key on that and see that as a weakness. We just have to gout out there and compete and win every snap."
On the excitement of the home opener and how it will be to play in that atmosphere...
"I can't even tell you how excited I am right now. That new pressbox is something else. It's really cool just being here and seeing how our school has developed. It's an amazing time to be here. I'm pumped up. I know a lot of my friends are pumped up for the home opener. Once I get out there and see the crowd react when we run out of those gates, it will probably take me a second to calm down and realize that this is a game and we need to focus."
On being part of the resurgence of Wake Forest football...
"I think our first year won only four or five games and we were always getting picked dead last in the ACC. Just the other day I was watching ESPN and Lou Holtz picked us to win the ACC. That's a huge target on our back and it puts a lot of pressure on us that we haven't had before. At the same time however, it's an unbelievable experience to be part of such a growing tradition and I'm really proud to say that I'm a Wake Forest Demon Deacon."
Junior tight end Ben Wooster
On the way the offense played at Baylor...
It was exciting to see how the offense played. We moved the ball really well. Riley (Skinner) had a tremendous game. It was good to see him play at the level. We have a lot of things to work on both in the running and passing games but we felt pretty good coming out of Baylor.
On whether playing a team with a new coach like Baylor, helped the team prepare for playing Ole Miss and its new coach Houston Nutt...
It was great preparation in that we covered everything because we didn't know what Baylor was going to throw at us. So in that, we covered a little bit of what we think Ole Miss is going to do. So hopefully we will be pretty well prepared but we still have a lot of work to do.
On the best part of playing in an offense that is run by coach Lobotzke...
You never know what he is going to throw at you next. He's constantly changing what's going on and scheming what other defenses might do. It's also really good being a tight end because he's incorporated us in the offense so much recently. It's been great to be able to move around and catch the football but still be able to block.
Junior defensive tackle John Russell
On the Baylor game...
"I thought the defense did a pretty good job. For the most part, I think we held our own and did okay. Of course, I thought looking back on tape that we had to knock off some of the rust. You play a lot during the summer but then again, you're playing against your own offense. It's different when you get out there against new opponents. But once we got everything rolling, we started to get a good feeling of what they were going to do and we played a little better. We still have a long way to go but, overall, I'd say we did pretty well."
On facing Ole Miss this Saturday...
"It will be tough to play against them because they are such a physical team. We still know they're going to have some tricks up their sleeves and a few things they may not have brought out of the bag last week that they'll probably bring out for us. We've just got to be ready to play ball."
On the ACC's performance in the first week of nonconference action...
"It's kind of disappointing. You want to see guys in the conference do well outside of the conference. As much as we battle against each week in and week out once we start conference play, I think everyone wants to see the others do well against nonconference opponents. But at the same time, we can only take care of what we do. We can only handle what we do when we play and just go out there and represent our school and our staff the best that we can. It was kind of disappointing to see such a performance of the conference as a whole, but that's something that we can't control. We can only control us and we're only going to focus on us."
On the Ole Miss football program...
"The first thing I notice is how physical they are. They are the most physical team I've seen probably in about two years of watching film. That's just a testament to Coach Nutt. That's not the same team that we played down there two years ago. [Ole Miss] has a lot of great players on the offensive line, and I think the thing that just scares you the most is the athletes. They've got athletes everywhere you look. Everybody can play football, so I think it's going to be important for us to target them as best as we can and play our best game."
On the impact of adverse weather on Saturday's game for Ole Miss...
"I think they're a tough-minded team. I think they're going to be like us where it doesn't really matter; you just come out and play ball either way. Rain or shine, you're going to have to come and bring your `A-game.' Regardless of how the weather is, we've got to play as best as we can because we've got a great team coming up on Saturday."
On the first home game of this year's season...
"It's going to be exciting and it's definitely going to be a great atmosphere. Everybody's going to be watching and expecting big things. It's the ACC versus the SEC. We can only hope to come out and play our best and to live up to the hype of what people think about us and give our best effort."
Junior defensive tackle Boo Robinson
On last week's victory at Baylor...
"We had a pretty good outing. Everybody flew around pretty well. We had a few personal fouls that we have to eliminate but other than that we had a pretty good outing."
On playing Ole Miss again after the two teams met on Sept. 23, 2006...
"It's a completely different team. The offensive line coach did a good job and Coach Nutt came in there and instilled in those guys the mentality that they're going to come in here and try to run the ball on us a little bit. They've got a good running back and the offensive line is playing really physical now."
On this week's game against Ole Miss...
"We've just got to be focused a little bit more. Ole Miss is going to bring a more physical team out here. We've got to be focused and be assignment-sharp, and we've got to cut out personal fouls."
On the ACC...
"It was a tough first week for the ACC but I think everybody's going to come around. It was the first week and everybody's nervous, has a few jitters and the adrenaline's pumping really hard. But I think as the season goes on, the ACC is going to be okay."
On the keys to this Saturday's game...
"I think we already know what they're going to bring in here. They're going to come in here really physical with their offensive line and run the ball on us a fair amount. We've got to put them in some tough positions so they have to pass a little bit on us. [Ole Miss' quarterback] is throwing the ball pretty well and they're running the offense pretty well. We've got to work on the penalties that we had, keep the same game plan and come back with a lot more mental focus than we had last week."
On the new Deacon Tower and the excitement surrounding the football program...
"I think it's been a long time coming and it gives the fans something to be really excited about. I think everybody's been waiting for this season more than any other season, so we're going to have to come out and have a good showing at home."
