Wake Forest Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Boston College 23, Wake Forest 17
10/25/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening statement...
"I am really proud of how hard the guys competed. At halftime it certainly could have gone in another direction, especially after last week. The foundation of our program is we are guys who go out there and fight and compete and that is certainly a great foundation to build on. Our offense had 260 yards in the second half against one of the best defenses in the ACC but in the first half we had almost no production and you can't wait until the second half. We've got to come out early and move the ball better. As well as we've played on defense that is the third time we've had a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter and didn't do it. We're learning some painful lessons. Again, I'm really proud of how our guys compete and battle and at the end of the day if they do that you have to be proud. We've got a lot of things to clean up. We're early in this process and if we can establish effort as a starting point then we are headed in the right direction."
On establishing the run game...
"We have taken ourselves out of so many games this year because of how much we throw the ball and turn it over. We really wanted to come out and try to establish a running game. We played against a football team that has 33 juniors and seniors in their two-deep that has spent the last three or four summers of their lives lifting weights and they physically overwhelmed us. That's where we are as a program. We aren't as strong or as physical as we need to be. We're very young in a lot of our linemen positions but that is part of a rebuild. We will get a little stronger every year. That takes time, you can't fix that in one week or one month. But we will fix it. We've already taken steps to fix that and it will get better in time."
On atmosphere on the sidelines...
"It's great on the sidelines. The kids are in to the game. Our guys battled and played hard. The crowd was in to the game and it was great to see them give us some energy."
On John Wolford's turnover in the fourth quarter...
"He forced it. And that is a young quarterback. I really like how competitive he is and how much courage he has. He'll push the ball places but that is what's really hard for a young quarterback in a two-minute drill. That wasn't the time to push it. We had two minutes left, three timeouts and it was first down. It is okay to throw it away. That is a valuable lesson he will learn."
Boston College Head Coach Steve Addazio
Opening statement...
"As I told the team in the locker room, it's hard to win on the road in the ACC. It's hard every week. It doesn't matter, and you've got to battle. You've got to battle till the end of the game. We've been in a bunch of these now, it seems like every game. It doesn't matter who, what, where, when, why, it comes down to the final plays and I think our team can really grow from this. Give Wake Forest a lot of credit, they came back in the second half and battled and made some plays and did some great things, and [Wake Forest Head Coach] Dave's [Clawson] done an unbelievable job there. We had too many penalties. We opened the second half with a 15 yard explosive run, penalty. We are not a penalty team and we've got to do a better job and that really hurt us today. And then we had an uncharacteristic turnover at the end on the kickoff return, which is my fault. I had us in a return that I shouldn't have had us in, and so those things have a tendency to lead sometimes to these finishes and these closes, but I think you can build off some of these, and I'm not trying to be positive to be positive, I really do. I think you learn how to hang in there and be resilient. So I'm proud of our team, proud to get a win, and I'm proud that we have win number five and it gives us a chance to get win number six."
On having [John] Wolford hemmed in, but letting him grow up in second half...
"I think he did a great job and I think he's going to be a heck of a player. I think we've got to do a better job of getting more pressure out of a four-man rush and a five man rush. I think what you saw in the second half was we really didn't get that close to him, and that's not our thing. We've got to get there. We've just got to develop better four-man, five-man pressures. We have to go six sometimes and then you hold yourself open into coverage. We missed [Sophomore Cornerback] John Johnson today. John Johnson wasn't able to play and hopefully we can get him back. He was really playing great football and we're just getting younger and younger by the minute. So that's a problem."
On [Junior Defensive Back Justin Simmons] getting the final interception...
"I mean it was huge, and again, part of the growth is, like you just said, he and [Senior Defensive Back Manuel Asprilla] Manny, they've all had a bunch of opportunities, and we finally got one and a critical. Sometimes you can really take something from that, which is great. Doesn't do much for me and your heart's beating like that, but I mean at the end of the day you win the game, you win the game. They all count the same. I've been doing this too long and they all count the same, and they all count the same when you lose them too. You don't get soulless when you say we lost but we should have won, that's happened to us twice already. That doesn't help you. So we won, we got five, and the best thing about when you have five is that it gives you a chance for six, and that's the best thing there is. Do we have to play better and clean up to go on the road to Blacksburg [Virginia], we obviously know that yes. We've got to play a whole lot better and we did pretty damn good in the first half, but we've got to play a whole lot better second half. First half was great. Penalties. Penalties. I don't know how many yards we lost on penalties, and not just the penalties itself, but the yards that came away from it. It had to be damn near 150 yards. It's just crazy."
Redshirt Sophomore Josh Banks
"It was tough. We started a bit slow, but halftime we brought it together, we made a big turn the second half. But, we had to just keep on moving and keep things on our side."
"There was just typical stuff in the first half. They didn't really bring anything to the table there we just had to make sure we saw things in all places, which we did correct in the second half."
On losing the game...
"It was a close game, we just have to tough it up and we need to make sure we are ready for what is coming at us next."
Senior Kevin Johnson
On the loss...
"I would say the morale in the locker room right now is a little frustration because we aren't getting those wins but at the same time we shared a lot of good plays in that game. The second half was hard to come against us. I think we had over 250 yards into the second half. Unfortunately, defense fell back and that was our problem."
On the play of the defense...
"I think that defense held their own, which we all know they do. I think that offense held themselves out really well in the back and played better. We didn't do this in the second half. I mean we had a touchdown, but we still need to go back to the drawing boards and fix what we made mistakes on."
On the upcoming match up with Clemson... "We know that we can play, we have proved that. We know we can play the first half, then we need to hustle it to play the second. That's what we need to take away to play against them."
Freshman John Wolford
On the failed comeback
"Any game the goal is to win. We're disappointed that we lost. You can look at positive things like the comeback but overall, your goal is to win and we weren't able to do that."
On the interception
"I thought I had a back shoulder throw. I was trying to make a play and I forced it. You just wish you could take that play back...I have to learn from that. I have to let it go and move on."
On the change from the first half to the second
"We were really able to open up our passing game. The [offensive] line did a great job. That's the best they've played, I thought, protection wise."
