Postgame Quotes - Wake Forest 24, Stanford 17
9/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 12, 2009
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Wake Forest Head Coach Jim Grobe
Thoughts on the game... "We were really upset at halftime. We really had gone six quarters not playing very good football, not playing like us. We're young, we're inexperienced all those types of things. But the excuses run out after a while.
I think Stanford is a really good football team. But the first half I didn't think we played very well. As far as halves go, it may have been one of our worst halves. But that second half might be one of the best we've played. We're capable of doing it we just have to play a little better. I was really proud of those players, I think our coaches did a good job, but the second half it was all the players wanting to find a way to win."
On Riley Skinner... "I thought Riley Skinner from the start of the game until the end was really focused. But the second half he was just in the zone. The guy was really on a mission. I've never seen him any better as far as focused on getting the job done. He made some huge plays with pressure on him, he was really impressive. That's what we expect out of him. We'd wondered where it'd gone, but it's back.
On Josh Adams... "I think Josh [Adams] last week was really disappointed because he didn't show all that dancing around in summer practice and looked tentative against Baylor. Today he got the ball, made a couple of really nice runs when we had to have them to get first downs. It was fun seeing him back. That's a real positive coming out of today."
On the defense changes from the first half to the second... "I thought defensively in the first half we were just playing patty cake. We looked like we were afraid to rush, afraid to hit our gaps. A lot of our defensive front people stayed at the line of scrimmage. We came out in the second half, after we'd given up 17 points, and our guys thought 'what the heck, we might as well turn it loose.' And I think they found that's a better way to play defense.
On the offense in the first half... "We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times in the first half, we had drives going but they petered out and we didn't get anything out of them. We really felt like our offensive line was OK, we just weren't taking advantage of opportunities. I thought our offensive line played well most of the day but were pretty special in the second half."
On Standford's 284 yards in the first half and 104 in the second... "The 284 felt like more. It's a total team game. The thing that happened to us in the second half, the defense played better but they got a lot of rest because our offense stayed on the field longer. We had good long drives. I thought Coach Lobo and our offensive coaches did a great job of mixing throws and runs. It gave our defense a chance to rest.
We held our breath every time they took a snap in the second half because they are so dangerous. Defensively I think the thing that helped them as much as anything was offense controlling the ball."
On the decision not to kick a field goal at 4th and 9 in the fourth quarter... "If we hadn't missed a field goal earlier I think we might have kicked a field goal. As a coach you try to get a feel for who's doing what best. At that point you have to worry about confidence. So you think we had good field position, if we didn't come up with the down and distance then we had a good way to go if we didn't get it. We probably should have gone for one earlier in the first half but I didn't know we were going to struggle as much as we did on defense in the first half. I felt like we could punt it down and play good defense and they ended up driving 80 yards and scoring. So basically I didn't want to kick a field goal. I thought a missed field goal would be more demoralizing to us than if we didn't get the first down."
Wake Forest wide receiver Jordan Williams
On his performance today after last week's... "I was so eager to get back out there today just to prove what I could do... I was just glad to go out there and show what I could do."
On practice this week... "Well, I had a concussion so at the beginning of the week, I was out. I was watching people practicing and not being able to be out there was tough. I wanted to be out there and get better. When I came back, I just wanted to practice as hard as I could and hopefully it would carry over to the game, and it did."
On the feeling after catching the touchdown pass... "Oh, it was great! I was asking Coach Lobo to run that play. I was like, 'Just give it a shot.'"
Wake Forest defensive tackle John Russell
On defense's performance in the second half... "Well, I mean we really stunk it up in the first half. We weren't tackling nearly as well as we should have been and that was something we really wanted to come in and focus on this week in practice. They've got a great runner in No. 7, [Toby] Gerhart. He was a tough guy to bring down but we were missing calls and doing a lot of the same sort of things we did last game. And then at halftime, we just came together and said, 'Guys, get your heads together. We're as talented as anybody out there on the field, we've just got to be in the right spots and make the plays when they come to us. But, thankfully, it all came together in the second half. People were where they needed to be."
On if that turnaround was more mental or physical... "It was more mental. We really had to focus and buckle down. Guys would have good focus on third down but it'd be like guys would be asleep on first and second down. Every play's important so don't lose you head out there. We always have great effort but I think the guys fought really hard the second half."
Stanford Head Coach Jim Harbaugh
On the Chris Marinelli penalty... "I got a good look at it. It was a good block from my perspective. He made the block, ran about 10 yards and then the flag came out. It looked like a clean block to me. We did a good job converting on third down and they would find something to throw the flag about. It took two touchdowns off the (score)board and it needed to be won decisively."
On letting Wake Forest score at the end to conserve time... "The clock almost ran out. We called a timeout to conserve some time. We would rather make them earn it or block a field goal."
On Andrew Luck's play in the first half... "He played excellent. He threw for 276 yards on 23-of-34. He had a touchdown pass taken off the board but I thought he did a good job."
On his view of the final Wake Forest touchdown play... "I couldn't see anything. I couldn't tell from my perspective."
On rushing the ball... "We were running the ball. We didn't get as many yards as we would've liked and we gave up too many to Wake Forest and we couldn't generate scoring drives in the second half."
On the Wake Forest 44 yard pass completion late in the game... "We let somebody get behind our secondary. You have to stay as deep as the deepest (receiver) and we didn't do that."
