Wake Forest Athletics
Weekly Football Press Conference Video & Quotes
10/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening statement...
"We're excited to get back on the field this week. I thought we had a very productive bye week. It allowed us to get some of our guys healthy again. It came at a really good time for us, at the halfway point of the season, and also for Wake Forest - a lot of papers and midterms have been going on this week, so I think this was perfect timing for our players to allow them to refocus and give them time to do the academic work that they have to do. As a coaching staff, we got on the road and did a lot of recruiting, especially in the state. We had some practices, and we gave our younger players a lot of work, so it was good to be able to spend time with them.
We're excited to be back at home. Just the way that the schedule broke for us this year, we don't leave the state of North Carolina for the remainder of the regular season. We've been road warriors and criss-crossed the country, and we're excited to be staying in state and get ready to face a very veteran and physical Syracuse football team. They're good on defense, experienced up front on offense. The one thing that I look at every week is the amount of juniors and seniors in a team's two-deep. This is a team that has 22 seniors in their two-deep and 34 juniors and seniors. This is a veteran football team, an older football team. They'll be young at the quarterback position, but other than that, this is an older group. We expect a very physical, very tough, hard-fought football game. We hope we get a lot of people out there to BB&T Field. Our players take great pride that so far this season we're undefeated at home, and we'd love to make it three in a row."
On returning home...
"You want to play well at home. You want to play well in your openers at home in the ACC. Right now we're 0-2 in the conference. If there's any chance that this team becomes a bowl team, and I'm sure that the people up in Syracuse are saying the same thing, this one we've both got to get. This is a very important football team for us."
On the similarities between Wake Forest and Syracuse...
"For both teams, the formula to win is going to be similar. Our defenses have to play well. The offense cannot give the other team the ball with a short field or give up points. The offense has got to show up and make plays. Whatever team can do that and not turn the ball over, maybe create some big plays or field position in the kicking game, I think that's going to be critical. Right now, I think the formula to win for us is that we've got to play good defense, we have to be good in the kicking game and we've got to be opportunistic on offense and not turn the ball over, and I don't know if their formula right now is much different."
Redshirt Freshman Running Back Dezmond Wortham
On returning home after a few weeks on the road...
[There's] more team bonding, knowing we're playing at home. So far we're undefeated on the season at home and we're trying to protect our home turf. But more importantly, it's an ACC game and we're trying to get back in the win column. Everybody's on the same page with positive attitudes.
On playing his first game of the season at Florida State...
It was just good to play again. Obviously it's been a while [since I] ran the ball in a live situation like that, so it was just good to get out there and see what it felt like to get hit again, and run and make some big plays, it was a good feeling...It definitely boosts my confidence and helps me know I can still do those things.
On what he sees in Syracuse...
They're a good team. Their backers are a good group, they rush to the ball, they're physical, they've got a good secondary and their d-line is good as well. It's a good defense just like every other defense we've played this year, so we're just excited to get out there and play our game.
On how the team used the bye week...
Just to get away and to focus on something else, to focus on the academics a little bit and catch up on sleep, [there really wasn't] any stress. That way, when we got back to practice everybody was excited and in a good mood and really wanting to be there.
Redshirt Junior Punter Alexander Kinal
On balancing exams and playing football...
"It's something you get used to freshman and sophomore year. It's kind of tough but I guess you get better at sleeping less, going for longer, and managing your time really. We get up, we're on campus by seven o'clock kind of done with meetings by eight thirty, eight forty five and I usually take a couple of hours to study before I go to class. So that's what I typically do in the morning, get three or four hours out of the way before I start classes for the day. Then I'll just have some time off to do football and a bit more study at night time if I want. So I don't find it too tough anymore because I've figured out how to work it the last few years."
On difficulty of having a bye week without playing a game...
"I mean I think everyone would prefer playing than going to practice. I mean that's kind of why you do it, but I mean it's just like everything, those guys get banged up, we get banged up as well, a different kind of sore. Hips still hurts, back still hurts all that kind of stuff, it's good to have a little bit of a break, get healthy, and get that power back in your leg. It makes a big difference when you come back after a couple days. I mean we've all enjoyed it, especially enjoyed the last couple of days off and being able to come back and boot the hell out of it, but it's nice."
On state of the team after the bye week...
"I mean we are looking forward to being back home for I guess the majority of what's left of the season, or at least quite a few games left in the season. I think, like Dez [RB Dezmond Wortham] said before it's a one week season. If we keep dwelling on what happened last week, you're really not going to get better. There's a difference between picking up on what you made mistakes on and dwelling and reflecting too much on what you did badly. We've had a few days off and we've still got a few practices in the bye week. We've got to attack them with full steam and that's the only thing you really can do is go for it. Our minds are alright. Like I said we had a really good practice the other day. We were flying around, especially on special teams we are working on, like Dez said, on our fundamentals, doing things like that and just nit picking a little bit just to polish up a few things. The state of the team is fine. We're all ready to go again. So we're good. "
