Postgame Quotes
10/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening Statement…
"I really want to thank our fans and our students today. That was a great home section. It was filled and I apologize that we didn't come out ready to play better early. That was a great crowd, it was great energy, and we did not live up to our end of the deal. It was a 12 o'clock kickoff today, and our football team showed up at 12:45. You would have thought we were the team off the bye week. After one quarter, it's 28-0 and they have 348 yards on offense and we had about 24. And then we showed up, and the rest of the way it's 17-7 and we outgained them 200 to whatever they had. That's a team that we should be able to play with, but credit to them. Dave [Doeren] had them ready to go, and they were sharp early, and we were really, really bad early. We just could not tackle the back and we got the ball over our head twice. They gunned after us and they embarrassed us."
On defensive struggles in the last two games…
"Right now we're not tackling well in the secondary. They did a good job of getting the ball in space and making our guys tackle. Two weeks in a row their backs have made our safeties miss. When your safeties miss, it's not good. When your safeties miss, you're going to give up 60 and 70-yard plays, the lights are going to go off, fireworks are going off, and the band is playing. When you don't tackle at safety, it's going to be a long day. We knew going into this game that was going to be the key to the game, just like we did against North Carolina. Right now we are a really poor tackling team against good people. Teams that have an elite back right now, we're just not tackling them."
On the change at quarterback in the second quarter…
"I watched John [Wolford], and in the first 10 plays he got hit seven times. The very first play of the game, he got hit. The second play, he got hit. The third play, he got hit. He looked very jumpy, and then on the one he rolled out, he looked like he couldn't move. We gave him the quarter and it was 28 points, and I just thought this is not a good game to play with an immobile quarterback because we weren't protecting. For John to be effective when he's not healthy, we have to protect well and we better get open. We weren't protecting, and we weren't getting open. We had to get the quarterback run game open. I thought Kendall [Hinton] potentially could give us some dynamic plays running the ball, and he did that. I feel bad for John, but he was getting hit and I did not think he was avoiding the rush well, and he didn't look mobile. It's hard to play quarterback with a bum ankle. When he's been healthy this year, he's played at a really high level. You look at the Elon game, you look at the first half at Syracuse, you look at the first half last week at North Carolina, and when he's healthy, he's really, really good. Like any quarterback, it's hard to play well on a bum wheel."
NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren
Opening Statement…
"Obviously excited to get the victory today. To get to five wins, it was a great team effort. I thought the first quarter we came out blazing on both sides of the ball. We really did a nice job getting 28 points, having some explosive plays. The run game here with Matt [Dayes], and the pass game with Maurice [Trowell] and Nyheim [Hines]. Two guys got their first career touchdowns today that are good players for us. Matt got his longest touchdown run. Then, with the defense, when things didn't go well for the offense after the first quarter, our defense hung in there and you can count on them to do everything they can to secure the score. Then, our special teams won it for us. They put the nail in the coffin at the end. Great return by Bra'Lon [Cherry]. I was really excited that he was able to bust one because he's really worked hard. Offensively, we didn't turn the football over all day. Defensively, we got a takeaway and we finished plus one. Overall, a lot of positive things, some things that we need to get better, so we just need to get on the film and get ready for a great team next week."
Wake Forest Freshman Quarterback Kendall Hinton
On the second half…
"Coming in with the deficit we had, we knew we had to score fast. We were going to have to fight through adversity, because we did not play our best in the first quarter. We had to come back with a different mindset."
On being a team that can make a comeback...
"We have to come together as a team, and know we are never out of it. It is about getting more mature as a team."
On watching from the sidelines during first quarter…
"We noticed a lot of running lanes. The DBs had their backs turned. We saw they were giving us one-on-ones and we had to exploit those. And we struggled today with that today."
Wake Forest Senior Linebacker Brandon Chubb
On the game in Chapel Hill extending into today's game…
"It did. We have to each do our job. If one or two people do not do their job, it does not work. The same thing happened with the first quarter touchdowns. We as a team realized that once it was a little too late."
Wake Forest Senior Linebacker Hunter Williams
On the overall team performance…
"The first quarter was dismal. It was just big play after big play [for NC State]. We have to come out better. We cannot give up big plays. It is the same thing that happened last week. Regardless of how young we are, we should be performing."
Wake Forest Junior Cornerback Brad Watson
On the slow start…
"We just have to get back to the drawing board. I try to get everybody hyped before the game, but it just a matter of coming out and playing football and doing what we love. We have to eliminate the big problems."
