Wake Forest Athletics
Weekly Press Conference Quotes
9/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 15, 2009
Press Conference Video: Grobe | Givens | Griffin | Haynes | Orange
Head Coach Jim Grobe
On his halftime talk during the Stanford game...
"There are no gimmicks. My guys know I don't play games with them. They just needed to know they weren't playing very well. At times you use inexperience as an excuse, but after a while you just need to start playing well. We just didn't play very well in the first half and I just pointed that out to them and they chose to play better in the second half."
"Once in a while guys need to understand that you are disappointed in them. It's no different than having your own children not do as well as they could in class or socially or whatever. When things aren't going right you have to point it out. The worst thing is to put your head in the sand and accept it. Especially when you have kids that want to do well, they just aren't realizing they aren't achieving as well as they could. It's our job as coaches to make sure our guys do the best they can."
On turning around the Stanford game...
"From my perspective the real key was the players deciding that they weren't happy with their first half performance. When we got in the locker room I probably didn't have to say much because our players were disappointed. The thing that they had to understand was that there were only two quarters left to play. That wasn't enough against Baylor. The one thing that I didn't want to see was improved play in the second half but not enough to get a win. I felt like I needed to rev them up a little bit to get them to realize the seriousness of the situation we were in, that playing a little better in the second half was not going to be enough. I give all the credit to our players. That win really is a players win. They found a way to reach down and find a way to win a football game against a really good football team."
"I think we were floundering in really three halves of football, two against Baylor and one against Stanford. We were a talented football team making too many mistakes and not playing very hard. The second half against Stanford was an indication to our players of what's possible if we play at a high level. I think our players now know what it takes and that we can be a good football team, but there's no guarantee. We have to go out and make it happen. It was a great learning experience."
On preparing for Elon...
"We've pointed out about fifteen games this season already where I-AA teams have either beaten I-A teams or been within a field goal or a touchdown. Everyone made a big deal out of Appalachian State beating Michigan a couple of years ago, but I think we've gotten to the point now where a I-AA beating a I-A team is not an upset anymore. It's something that's almost become expected. Our guys need to understand that this is an 11th-ranked Elon team that is very talented and would like to come in here to beat us."
"I don't know that we're heavily favored. I would think people would look at what's happened with all the Top 25 I-AA teams. They've all acquitted themselves very well and in some cases beating I-A teams and in some cases playing them right to the wire. I really believe that we're in a situation where we're playing a really good football team. I think our players understand that. We have to play hard to have a chance to win. We have a heck of a football team coming to town."
"We had a couple of things going on Saturday against Stanford. Our effort was not real good in the first half. In some cases we were running around pretty fast but we weren't going where we were supposed to go. Secondly, we didn't play very fundamentally. Some of our kids lost their focus and we didn't play very good technical football. We've got a couple of issues for Saturday. Number one, we have to play hard for four quarters. One part of starting fast and playing hard for four quarters is knowing where you belong, knowing your assignments and dong what you're coached to do. We didn't do much of anything well in the first half. We got a little bit better in the second half but only because we played harder. We still didn't play really well fundamentally so we have a lot work on."
Scouting Elon...
"We were a disaster in the first half against Stanford. We gave up almost 300 yards of offense against Stanford. I don't think we have a defensive football team that's patting themselves on the back even though we won and didn't give up any points in the second half. It's very easy to turn the video on and see that Elon is very talented. They have a great quarterback, a great wide out, five offensive linemen that started every game last year that are all back. Not just a couple of great players, a lot of good players. You have a tendency to look at the quarterback, look at the receiver and talk a lot about them, but if you look around you see a lot of great players on the team."
"Some schools quite frankly have played some teams that couldn't challenge them very much. This is not one of those situations. This is a team that is ranked 11th in the country and could beat a lot of 1-A teams, including us. The players understand that. This is not a game that you are looking forward to as a coach because this is a heck of a football team. If your players perceive Elon as being any different than Baylor or Stanford than you've got a problem."
On the importance of confidence...
"I think it starts with fundamentals. You can have false confidence if you go out and you're not a well-coached fundamental football team. It doesn't matter how much confidence you have, you aren't going to play well. But certainly our job is to let the players know what kind of challenge they face every week. I told our team before the season that we are going to play 12 games in the regular season that we're capable of winning. But there are 12 teams capable of beating us, and that includes Elon and our players understand that. We're not looking at Elon any differently than we would any other team on schedule. Especially a team that's ranked 11th in the country at that level. Our players understand they have a great challenge. That's not going to be the issue. The issue is whether we can block and tackle well enough to win a football game."
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On Riley Skinner and the offense against Stanford...
"Riley [Skinner] played really well in the second half. All we had to do was give him some time, which we didn't do well in the first half. Once we did that we saw what he could do, gunning down our receivers and making some big plays. We just have to make sure we work really hard this week because Elon is a great team. Hopefully we'll make play start off faster and not get behind in the first half."
On offensive strategy...
"Coaches are putting us in the right spots, especially offensively. We just need to come out and start firing better. When we're in the red zone we need to score touchdowns."
On Jim Grobe's talk in the locker room during halftime against Stanford...
"It's been awhile since I've seen him like that. He wasn't as mad as he was when we played Vanderbilt back in 2005 and Jay Cutler beat us up a little bit. But he was pretty upset. I think it was good, it got us fired up. We came back and beat Stanford so I'm sure he was excited about that."
"I think he knows when to do that and when not to do that. I think it was the right time, we weren't scoring touchdowns, we missed a kick. Our defense gave up a lot of yards in the first half, and then in the second half we came out on fire. I think it's all about showing effort, as long as we show a hard effort I think he'll be excited about how we play."
Preparing for Elon...
"We know that every team on our schedule we can beat them and they can definitely beat us. I was here when we played Liberty back in 2006. They had some players and I got beat a couple of guys on their team. I know first hand that these guys have great players. You have to go into every game preparing really hard and that's what we're doing this week. Elon's good at stopping the run pretty well. We have to ramp it up this week and start out faster than we have in the past couple of games. They have a good front seven.
"We're not overlooking anybody. We know everybody in this country has good players and Elon definitely does. The coaches have already talked about how good their players are. We have to get ready and prepare well for a good team."
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On last week's comeback...
"We really came out in the second half and played well as a team. Coach Grobe really lit a fire under us at halftime. Having a lot of the new and young guys step on the field, it brings about a lot of new feelings. We really came together as a team. It was a great experience and I think we can build off of that."
On what Coach Grobe said at halftime last week...
"He definitely knows how to get under your skin. He's the type of coach you want to play hard for and succeed for. He really knows how to motivate his players. Nothing really had to be said at halftime. We knew we had to play better and step it up as a team, so I'm glad everyone came together and we were able to do that."
On what the team needs to do get the intensity from the start and now wait till the second half...
"In football, it's all about how long you can stay at that level where you need to be. It's a challenge and for a lot of us, it's our mindset. We were playing a great team too in Stanford. You have to give those guys credit. They took it to us in the beginning. I think if we can get settled in and stop making so many mental errors it should show on the field."
On building confidence from the Stanford win...
"When you're talking wins like that and the confidence you get from coming from behind and winning a game like that it just gives you confidence and shows you the level you need to be at to win those games."
On not overlooking Elon...
"With the way these FCS teams are playing and the athletes they have now, nothing really needs to be said. They have a great team coming in. We're not overlooking them at all. They have great players, great coaches and a great program. So we have to take them as just any other great team coming into town who, to be honest, isn't going to be intimidated by us. They want to beat us just like anyone else does."
On Elon coming in with nothing to lose...
"They do have something to lose. This is just another game to them just like everything else, it's a win or a loss on their record. Being a football player, I know exactly what their thinking. They take every game they're playing just as serious no matter who they are playing. They're a great team coming in and they're not scared of us."
On Elon's offense...
"They have great athletes that work in a great system with great coaches. It's a team full of great players. They have an exciting offense which will give us a challenge. We have to come out and we really have to play with high intensity to play with these guys."
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On what Coach Grobe said at halftime...
"It was something I have never seen before and I liked it. I liked how we responded to it as a team and that second half is something we can really build off of. I think the second half is what he was looking for out of the team because he knows we are capable of doing better than what we did in the first half. We really felt like we let him down and that's a hard feeling for an athlete when you feel like you let your coach down. So we had to come out in second half and prove that we were a better team."
On the differences between the first and second half...
"In the first half, we weren't as intense and didn't execute like we should have. In the second half, we came out with a purpose and I think it showed."
On playing Elon, a FCS school...
"We try not to think about that. We're trying to treat this like Florida State is coming in here. We're going to prepare hard, work hard, practice hard and study film because we know Elon is a team that can beat us so we're not going to take them lightly."
On the success of FCS schools against the ACC so far...
"It just shows that any given Saturday, any team can be beat. Elon is a great team. They have great athletes on both sides of the ball so we're going to have to prepare well and play to the best of our abilities."
On the offense's success in the second half against Stanford...
"We've known we had that ability to put up points since the summer. Summer 7-on-7s and camp went real well for us. We know we can play at that ability so we just have to go out there and perform. If we execute, we feel like we can play four quarters at the same level we did in the second half against Stanford."
On what the team needs to do to put a whole game together...
"We need to execute. We know we can do it so we have to go out there every play and give it all we have and execute. If we do that, then I'm sure can accomplish the things we want to accomplish as a team."
On being out on the field this season after red-shirting last year...
"I'm having a lot of fun. It's like a dream come true to me. Every game I play like it's my last and I'm sure other guys are too."
On being a big part of the offense...
"I'm just doing want the coaches want me to do. I just want to go out there and perform. I try to give it everything I have every play and try to make the best of every play."
On what the comeback victory does for the team's confidence...
"It shows us that when we execute, we can play to our abilities. It gives us a lot of momentum and just shows us what we're capable of."
