Wake Forest vs. Virginia Tech Postgame Quotes
10/15/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 15, 2011
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Head Coach Jim Grobe
Opening statement...
"I think Virginia Tech started playing in the second quarter and we didn't play very well. I've got to give a lot of credit to them. They're a very good football team with some very good coaching. They're very talented. I think we got beat tonight by a good football team. Once it started to go their way, we never responded. Our defense couldn't get off the field and we were giving up too many big plays. Offensively, we couldn't get a first down for a long time after we went up 10-0. You have to give credit to Virginia Tech. They did some nice things to us tonight and hurt us with some of their man coverage because we couldn't shake loose. They put good pressure on Tanner, and we'll be looking at a lot of those things on film. The bottom line is that we lost to a very good football team tonight."
On the third down struggles...
"I think a big part of being successful on third down is what you do on first and second down. It's the type of third downs that you're facing that are important. We've been okay on third down both offensively and defensively; they haven't been a problem for us. Tonight, Virginia Tech made some great plays to convert third downs on our defense and our offense wasn't really clicking."
On Brandon Pendergrass...
"I really like what he did. I thought he ran the ball very well and I don't think that Brandon was a problem at all. Somebody asked if not having Josh Harris was the problem and I really don't. Brandon played really well, we just couldn't get anything going in the passing game. To a certain extent I feel like we didn't play as well as we needed to, but also Virginia Tech really did a good job defensively against us."
On the Tanner Price interception...
"That was my fault. Tanner does a really good job taking care of the football, and we really thought if we could hit a seam or hit Chris Givens underneath that we could at least chip our way into field goal range. We had three timeouts left, but Tanner got hit in the arm and it got picked. There wasn't a lot of time left, but that decision was just me not taking care of our team. We should've run the football and gotten out of the half at 14-10, that would've been a lot better than 21-10."
On Virginia Tech's defense...
"Obviously I'm pretty impressed. I told our team that we were playing a team that has great players and they've got depth. I don't think as a coaching staff we expected anything less from them defensively. I think they had a good plan and they did some things early that really bothered us. Even once we adjusted a little bit it was still a problem. I think their kids up front just played really well."
Sophomore Quarterback Tanner Price
On the interception...
"I got hit in the arm and it caused the ball to kind of float in the air, and they were able to make a play on the ball"
On the Virginia Tech defense...
"Virginia Tech is a great D and a great team, and we didn't play well. Virginia Tech just played better than us today and it's definitely one of the better defenses we've played against."
Sophomore Nose Guard Nikita Whitlock
On the turnover just before halftime...
"That's what wins the game - turnovers. That turnover was real critical right before half, and honestly it just crushed us."
On not having the same energy as they did in the Florida State win...
"Yeah I felt it but I didn't want to recognize. I hoped we could come out with the same intensity and we did for the first quarter but after that, it kind of just drained off and that's something that we can't have. To be a good team, we have to play hard every day because we don't have the five-star recruits. We have to be tough minded, we have to leave the locker room with a bang and run fast and strip balls and just be nasty and we didn't do that after the first quarter."
Senior running back Brandon Pendergrass
About loss of energy after the first 10 points...
"Looking from the outside in you could say that, but we really just stopped executing and they started playing well and we let a couple things go and we let them gain momentum. You can't let a good team like this build momentum like that. If we are on top, we have to stay on top of them and keep pounding them. But they got the momentum back and made a couple scores and next thing you know we are fighting an uphill battle."
On Virginia Tech locking up the receivers and getting to Tanner Price with blitzes...
"Yes it was stressful. The offensive line did a great job run blocking and pass blocking too. They (Virginia Tech) were throwing together a combination of blitzes and things we hadn't seen befor and it was very, very tricky. That kind of threw us off, especially with pass protection, and that's what we need to give Tanner. We need to give him time to make plays and we just didn't give him enough time tonight."
Virginia Tech Head Coach Frank Beamer
Opening Statement...
"Really proud of our football team. Came in here in a situation where I thought this Wake Forest team was really ready to play us. Sold out crowd. Got down and no one panicked. Everyone kept doing their business. Players kept playing hard. Coaches kept coaching hard. And we found a way to get it done. I can tell you I really admire the program Jim Grobe has got here. He's got good players and they play hard. We beat a good football team. I'm really proud of us hanging in there and not panicking and coming back and getting a win."
On what you said to your team after the first quarter...
"We talk all the time about just playing the next down. Playing the next play. I liked how our coaches reacted. We weren't screaming or blaming. We tried to find the answers and get them coached up. Our players, I can assure you, I tell my coaches this all the time, we just got to be able to put them in the right place because they want to play well. They want to play defense well, they want to play offense well so we just got to be good at putting them in the right place. Our offense did a good job of that and I think our defense did a good job of that."
On being able convert crucial third downs...
"It's answering the bell. I think we have a lot of guys, Logan (Thomas) being one of them, that want to step up and make a play when it's critical that you make a play. We did it at East Carolina. We saw it last week. We saw it this week. There are some good things developing on our football team."
