Weekly Football Press Conference Video & Quotes
11/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening statement...
"Obviously after last Saturday, we've got a lot of work to do. I think our guys are excited to be back at home, it's our seniors' last game and we certainly want to get a lot more out of ourselves this Saturday at home against Virginia Tech than we did last Saturday against NC State. Like I said after the game, we have to play well on defense every week to have a chance to win games. It was probably our worst defensive effort of the year. You give up 362 rushing yards, there is a lot of things you don't do well. Up front we got rooted out of our gaps on the defensive line, our linebackers made mis-fit runs and we missed tackles in the secondary. If you do any one of those three things it's going to be a long day. If you do all three of them, it's going to be a disaster. We just did not fit runs, we did not stay in gaps, we played really poorly on defense, and then on offense there is no relief. I think we had three good drives in the game, and we had a lot of three and outs. Got to get better, and Virginia Tech is certainly a good program, they are 5-5, they've had some ups and downs this year as well. They have some great wins, at the Horseshoe, and they've had some tough losses. But they had a great win last week; they really showed a lot of heart and a lot of backbone in their win against Duke. They willed themselves to win that football game. We've got a good football team coming here, we've got a lot a respect for them, and we've just got to keep moving forward, keep improving and try to find a way."
On concern for lack of defensive effort last week...
"You look on the film and it's hard to say, 'what is effort?'. The physical effort was there, but I thought the focus, attention to detail, was nowhere close to where it's been this season. For whatever reason, we did not come out and play the way we are capable of and really the way we've played for the most part in football games. Why does that happen? I don't know. Are we getting worn down a little bit? We are certainly thin, but to drop off as much as we did, there really is no excuse for that. Credit NC State, they got after us. You look at what their head coach said after the game, he said they're young and they're thin and we're going to try to pound them. And it worked. The bright spot is we held their passing game in check, but part of that is when they started running the football they didn't have to throw it. We actually covered them very well. They were very inefficient throwing it, but usually we are pretty good defending the run and we force people to throw it, and in the second half they just ran the football. The whole sequence at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half was really where you saw us fall off the cliff. Up until that point, it's a 14-3 game and we stop them on third down. At worst it's going to be 14-3. We have the holding call which leads to a touchdown, and then we have the first play in the second half, and that goes from 14-3 to 28-3 in a heartbeat. After that on defense we really played awful."
Graduate Student Wide Receiver E.J. Scott
On the seniors playing their final home game...
"It means a lot. It's the last time for a lot of the guys and we want to end on a good note as a team. We want to go out and get a win in front of our home crowd for the last time...A lot of guys, it's going to be their last game playing college football in the home stadium. No one's packing it up, we've worked too hard and this is the reason why we play. We're going to come out fighting."
On what the team needs to do to turn things around...
"We haven't put full games together. We might have had a good half or good quarter, but we need to play a solid four quarters to win this...No one likes losing - it is frustrating. We've got a chance - two more chances - to turn it around and end on a good note so that's what we're looking to do. It comes down to us. We've had the opportunity to win a lot of the games we were in, they could have gone either way. It's about us, not so much about the other team. We've competed with good teams, like Clemson for example, but it just comes down to us making big plays and finishing."
On what the Deacs expect from Virginia Tech...
"V-Tech is a great team. They're coached very well, they have a great defense. It's a good match-up, but we're looking to come out and get a win this week...They're disciplined. We looked at the film today - we'll be fine as long as we execute so that's what we're looking to do, just worry about us at this point."
