Florida State Game Preview
9/23/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 23, 2010
Video: Game Preview With Jim Grobe 
Game Notes: Wake Forest 
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By Steven Johns, WakeForestSports.com
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - After a disappointing trip to the West Coast last weekend, the Demon Deacons are looking for friendlier confines on the East Coast on Saturday. Wake Forest (2-1, 1-0) is set to square off against ACC Atlantic Division rival Florida State (2-1, 0-0) at 3:30 p.m. at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee.
The Deacons made the longest road trip in school history when they played at No. 16-ranked Stanford last weekend. Behind the arm of star quarterback Andrew Luck, the Cardinal posted a 68-24 defeat of the Deacons.
"Just to get beat that bad was kind of hard on us," said Wake Forest junior safety Cyhl Quarles. "We have to let that go. We have a big season left--a long season at that. We look forward to our next game at Florida State. We have to put that game behind us and learn from it. Correct our mistakes, offensively, defensively, special teams, everything."
Wake Forest will take on a Seminole offense that is very similar to that of Stanford.
"We just played Andrew Luck," said Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe. "He and [FSU quarterback] Christian [Ponder] are very similar quarterbacks. They're both big guys, they both have good arm strength, they both have good touch on their passes, they have a good supporting cast and they both run really well.
"Luck hurt us with his foot speed by making plays when we had good coverage," Grobe said. "Christian Ponder does the same thing. We're facing another great quarterback this week."
Ponder and the Seminoles took down BYU, 34-10, last week in Tallahassee. FSU racked up 427 total yards while only giving up 191 yards.
"(Florida State has) a lot of great speed in their receiving corps and running backs," said Quarles. "Florida State is all about speed. It's going to be a challenge for us."
The Wake Forest defense, which surrendered 303 rushing yards against Stanford, will have to face a FSU running game that amassed 278 rushing yards against BYU.
Despite the sloppy play, Quarles says the team is ready to learn from its mistakes.
"When we go down to Tallahassee, our objective is not to get scored on," said Quarles. "(But) it's going to be hard because they're going to put together a great game plan like every year."
The Demon Deacon offense also has a tough challenge as it faces a stout defense.
"Florida State doesn't have too many weaknesses," said sophomore Chris Givens. "They're a fast team, they're strong, they get to the ball; we just have to go out there and play our best football."
A challenge the Demon Deacons will also face is not on the field, but is the field itself--Doak Campbell Stadium.
"It's always hard to go down there and play, because they always have 80,000 fans that come to the game," said sophomore fullback Tommy Bohanon. "They're always going to be loud. They're always going to bring it, so it's always a tough task to go to their place and play a football game."
Despite a subpar game against Stanford, Givens still feels the offense is improving.
"I feel like we're getting better every week," said Givens. "We still need to work on the little things and not have so many mental errors. We're just trying to get all 11 guys on the same page every play."
Despite the non-conference setback at Stanford, the team is still 2-1 on the season and atop the Atlantic Division with a 1-0 record in ACC play.
"For us, we have got to remember that we are 2-1," said Grobe. "We've won a couple of football games. There are a lot of teams out there right now who haven't played their best football and are 0-3. I think our best football is in front of us, but I tell our team that we aren't playing very well right now." "The bottom line is, Stanford is not the end of the world," said Grobe. "It was a tough loss, but we are 2-1 and we've got some good things to play for down the stretch."
