Wake Forest Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Wake Forest vs. #19 Clemson
11/6/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening statement...
"Like I told our team, I'm certainly very proud of the effort. I don't think we back down from anybody. That game is 20-20 in the fourth quarter with a chance to win it. We've been in that position before and the difference is when you get into a 20-20, it's going to come down to a few plays that you either make or don't make. Very simply, if you come up with the fade in the end zone you have a four-point lead. It's 24-20, and then they run a jet sweep and you miss a tackle, and all of a sudden it's a 27-20 game, and then it gets away from us.
We don't make any explosive plays on offense, that's been a problem all year. We're not making those plays. Clemson gets a nice and easy run on a jet sweep, and we never produce a play like that. It's hard to beat a defense like that without any explosiveness. Once again we were opportunistic on offense. We found a way to score points, but once again every time we play an ACC-level defense, we just cannot run the ball. We just get overwhelmed up front. We just give up a lot of penetration, a lot of push. The backs have to make cuts before they can get to the line of scrimmage, and we've run different schemes. But I don't care what run play you run, at some point you've got to get some movement, some push, and that's been an issue all year.
So again, I'm proud that our guys battled. I'm proud that we were in a position to win that game in the fourth quarter. Congratulations to Clemson, they made the plays to win the game. We didn't make plays that we had a chance to make that could have won the game for us. Right now, they deserved to win. I do want to thank our fans and especially want to thank our students. We had a really lively student section tonight, and our whole program appreciates all the students at Wake Forest coming out and supporting us. They were loud and really gave us an edge tonight. We're grateful for that."
On not finishing games this season...
"We were beating Louisville going into the fourth quarter, we were in that thing with Florida State. I mean, our kids play hard. We play physical. Our kids give great effort. We lack explosive playmakers on offense to [get] enough points to beat good football teams, and it happens over and over and over that we don't have the depth on defense. In fourth quarters of games like that, we just get worn down. We're playing kids more snaps than they should play. We're a little undersized to begin with, and we don't have enough players to play to keep guys fresh. There is just such a drop off at some positions from the one to the two. That's been the theme with us. We play hard, we stay in games, we find ways to be in games against good teams, but when it comes down to the fourth quarter, having to make a play or having to get off the field, our lack of depth on defense, our lack of explosiveness on offense, you can't beat good football teams without making an explosive play now and then. "
On the impact of injuries in the game...
"Cam Serigne is our leading receiver, a really good football player, and obviously it hurts to lose him. We lose our starting tailback Dez Wortham at halftime. Antonio Ford is our most experienced and veteran lineman, so we go from a senior, a junior and three sophomores [on the offensive line] to a junior, three sophomores and a freshman."
Redshirt Senior Cornerback Kevin Johnson
On how to keep the team morale up...
"I try to keep the spirits high and letting the guys know that it's okay. I have been there before. You're close to winning games and then you don't come through, that's kind of been the story of my career at Wake Forest. You just have to keep working and control what you can control. They understand you need to put in work to win games because this is the ACC so we just have to keep working to become the best team that we can be."
On the team's overall game versus Clemson...
"It's a sense of urgency. We knew we needed to play a good football game so we wouldn't give away easy points. We played a great game. We have talent and the coaches help us make plays all the time. There wasn't anything that Clemson was doing that we hadn't already seen in practice so we just need to execute those plays. That is what is going to take to win a game."
On his interception...
"It was third down and the tight end broke right into the sticks and I was kind of anticipating that. I peeked at the quarterback and he was looking right at him so I trusted myself and drove. My leg was cramping and once it got hit I couldn't really shake it. So I just need to prepare better and get more fluids in me for next week."
Freshman Quarterback John Wolford
On the game against Clemson...
"We battled hard. That's something Coach [Clawson] always talks about; it comes down to four or five plays against a team like Clemson. It's tough to lose and it's tough when you try as hard as you can. You have to find a way to get up the next day and still bring it...As a team there's always something about playing a night game on ESPN. For us to be great, we have to play like that every game."
Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney
Opening Statement...
"First of all, I really want to compliment Wake Forest and the great effort that they put forth tonight, a great fight. I thought their team played with great effort and a great will to win. But I'm proud of our team, that's six in a row, and it was a weird game. It was a weird game. They only had 119 yards of offense, but we just had a lot of adversity that we had to overcome tonight, big time.
I'm proud of our guys; they found a way to win by a couple of touchdowns and I thought we did a tremendous job in the fourth quarter in particular. The biggest frustration was the two scores off the turnovers. You can't give anybody a short field like we did and those couple of opportunities, the one on the pick, just a poor, poor decision on the punt return. We misplayed the ball. Just let it go. There's no rule that says you've got to catch it. So we made a really big mental error right there and gave a short field and they punched it in twice. Great job by them executing those two scores, but again, I'm proud of our guys because we overcame it.
Cole Stoudt got banged up - wasn't sure if he was going to continue to play, but man he gutted it out. He threw three touchdown passes and we had some big plays in the game. We had some big conversions a couple big fourth downs, one big one for sure. Our offensive line I thought really took the game over when we had to have it. To be able to run the counter in for the long touchdown at the end, we had some excellent blocking without tight ends and got good blocks on the outside, especially the one with Artavis. Again, just a good team win."
