Postgame Quotes: Wake Forest vs. Gardner-Webb
9/6/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Opening statement...
They need to enjoy the win. It's hard to win football games. I think to a man in that locker room, we do know we need to play better with some of the teams ahead in our schedule. We have a lot of work to do. I thought our defense played well. I wish for their sake that the twos could have kept them out of the end zone. That was a bad roughing the passer penalty - bad on our part, it was a good call by the officials. It was disappointing to let them score late. Offensively, we moved the ball and we were efficient, we just didn't make big plays and we were awful in the red zone. We were in the red zone five times and we had two turnovers, three dropped balls and then two penalties. Fortunately we hit our kicks. I think it was a little bit like last week in that our defense played extremely well. We held a team to under 100 yards through 58 minutes. I don't care who you play, that's playing good defense. Our kicking game, again, was solid. Alex didn't punt the ball as well, but we hit all of our kicks and I thought Adam Centers kicked the ball off extremely well. Offensively, we improved. We moved the football and had close to 400 yards of offense. We just aren't making big plays. You just hope that we hit a slant that splits the safeties or you run a zone play with Orville and he gets to the linebackers and it becomes a 26- or 28-yard play. Those were very workman-like drives. But again, we've got to get better and we'll watch the film and go from there.
On the difference in Wolford week-over-week...
Well we protected him. At all our practices, all camp, if you watch passes where there's not a pass rush and we did protect him, or maybe even the defensive linemen run by him and let him throw the ball, he's been accurate since the day he got here. Last week we didn't protect him; this week we protected him better. Part of that is the level of competition. I think part of that is that the offensive line did play better. Last week we cut people loose and this week we didn't. We played better up front. I was disappointed we didn't get a little more push in the run game, and I thought at times, early in the game, things bottled them up. And then in the second half, as you probably saw, we played faster. At the end of the first half we had that really long drive that ended in a field goal. That's when I thought we started wearing them down a little bit, and we made the decision for the third quarter to play with a little bit more tempo and I thought that really eliminated a lot of their pass rush.
On whether he was pleased with Wolford's decision-making...
Yes - again, some of the picks were tipped balls and I'd have a hard time saying that any of the picks were poor throws or poor decisions. He's six feet, and concerning the tipped balls, we've got to find a way to find those throwing lanes and maybe get people down on the ground in protection a little more and that's one of the functions of playing with a smaller quarterback. You're going to have those balls tipped, but they were just costly. We had great field position in the first quarter and we couldn't capitalize. We turned it over twice inside the ten. When you play a team of similar ability levels, if you turn it over twice inside the 20-yard line that's hard to overcome.
Senior wide receiver Matt James
On quarterback John Wolford...
"He's a professional. He holds himself like an upperclassman. He faced a lot of adversity early in the game and nothing on him that's just us. Whether it's missing a touchdown or dropping a ball or holding that got his touchdown called back. It didn't faze him. He kept us in the game and drove us down the field. He had a phenomenal game; the stats don't really show how well he played."
On the faster pace of the offense in the second half...
"A lot of guys were a little jittery for the first home game and once we got into a rhythm and got a first down, it was just like running it in practice."
On his confidence...
"Every catch helps. Just being out on the field helps with your confidence. There's one I left out there in the first quarter that I wish I could have gotten back but that's just something we rep in practice every day. As the season goes on, that will just be automatic."
Sophomore safety Ryan Janvion
On the play of the defense...
"Definitely think we did well; improved from last week as far as assignments and getting things right and being sound on all of our adjustments. It was definitely tough giving up that touchdown at the end. We've just got to do a better job of bringing along our backups so there's not a big drop off in the way we play when we sub in our backups. At the end of the day, they're a play away from being starters so we've just got to do a better job at developing our young players and a better job at developing our starters."
On the Wake Forest offense maintaining control of possession...
"We were a lot more fresh in the fourth quarter. I'm glad the offense moved the ball and we need to continue to improve every week."
On quarterback John Wolford...
"We definitely knew the moment he stepped foot on to campus that he was good. He definitely showed what he can do today. We have absolute faith in him. He doesn't play like a freshman; he is so far advanced to where he is. He is so calm and poised in the pocket. It's just great to have a quarterback like that. We're excited about the future with him.
Gardner-Webb head coach Carroll McCray
On Wake Forest quarterback John Wolford...
"[Wolford] was much more patient. He had more time to throw the ball tonight than he did in the Monroe game. He got in a rhythm and he proved why he's here at Wake Forest. He's a good rhythm quarterback, has a good arm."
On the Wake Forest defense...
"They played really well for three quarters at Monroe defensively. They've got a good defense - they have some big, athletic guys who can run and two really good corners and they've been good in the kicking game...We had a hard time blocking them up front. They've got some good-looking defensive linemen, really good linebackers. They were very aggressive - they're a high-pressure football team and they brought a lot of blitz on us. We didn't execute against the blitz as well as we needed to to have any success at all."
On the team's approach after starting 0-2...
"It's easy to get frustrated. What we're trying to do in building our program is, as we grow and get better at different spots, I reminded them in the locker room that we're a team and we're trying to win. We want to build a winning program at Gardner-Webb...We're trying to learn to care about each other and be a family."
On playing two quarterbacks...
"[Tyrell Maxwell] is a fine athlete...Tyrell can keep plays alive with his feet. We're in the growing process with him - we knew we would be. It's good for him to play against a very talented defense that can run. You saw the ability he has. He's also got a really fine arm, we dropped two balls that hit us in the hands and one hit us in the facemask. Then he overthrew a couple guys. We're learning together - we're definitely going to keep playing him and Lucas [Beatty] in the ballgame because they both give us different things.
