Weekly Press Conference Video & Quotes: Oct. 6
10/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Ahead of this week's road matchup against Boston College, Wake Forest head football coach Dave Clawson, offensive lineman Josh Harris and linebacker Brandon Chubb met with the media to wrap up the Florida State game and talk about the Eagles.
Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening statement..."
"Just going back to Florida State, we saw a lot of good things on the film. Progress is being made, but the bottom line is we still came up short. We've got to take all the things we learned last week in terms of our effort during practice, our preparation, our focus that we had. Last week, our guys were fired up. We got an effort level and focus level in the meetings that's probably as good as we've had. That's the way we have to conduct our program. If we continue to do that, I think we have bright days ahead. This week will be another great challenge. We go on the road again in the ACC. We play a Boston College team that is a tough, physical, hard-nosed football team. That's what you'd expect with a Steve Addazio-coached team. They are the No. 1 defense in the country. They're the No. 1 rush defense, the No. 1 pass defense, the No. 1 pass efficiency defense, the No. 3 scoring defense, if not the top third down defense in the country. They have NFL players at every level of this defense. Donnie Brown is one of the best defensive coordinators in all of college football. I've known Coach Brown for close to 20 years. I don't know how many times our teams have gone against one another in some role. He has those guys playing at an extremely high level. They play hard, they're fundamentally sound. He attacks you. They're really good at all three levels. Offensively, they're going to be physical. You can tell that Steve is very involved with the offense philosophically. They run a lot of tight formations with tight ends and fullbacks. They're going to have a million formations and they're going to try to pound you. They've got a lot going on that side of the ball. It's like going against an option team. They're just going to run, run, run, and as soon as you over-commit, they'll find a creative way to get into the play-action game. If your eyes aren't in the right place, the ball is going over your head. This is a great matchup, it's a great game between two institutions that are very philosophically aligned. It's going to be a great challenge for our guys. We look forward to getting up there and try to get a win in the ACC."
On the production of the running back corps...
"It was very encouraging that we got rushing production, and it wasn't from the quarterback position. In the previous two weeks, we had good rushing numbers, but a lot of it was from the quarterback position on draws or scrambles. It was really encouraging to see Tyler Bell and Matt Colburn rip off runs against a very good defense. Tyler Bell continues to get better. Matt Colburn continues to get better. It's a work in progress, but those guys are making progress. That's the most important factor."
On the quarterback situation and DL Duke Ejiofor's injury...
"I will go out and make those decisions today. Nothing has changed since Saturday. We didn't do much on Sunday and they had yesterday off. Both of those situations are probably day-to-day. We'll see how John [Wolford] and Duke look this week, and we may have them or we may not."
On gaining ground in strength and conditioning...
"I think that's a gap that we're closing. Whether we've closed the gap or partially closed the gap, we'll find out Saturday. Certainly, looking at the Florida State game, I don't think that you can say that we controlled the line of scrimmage or man-handled them. But from a year ago, we clearly closed the gap up front. So again, those things are going to be incremental things. I know from a year ago, we've gained on the rest of the league. We'll find out next Saturday and for the next seven games."
Offensive Lineman Josh Harris
On the team's mindset heading into this week's game against Boston College…
"Certainly, these last two weeks have been tough, emotional losses. We fought back in the last seconds of the game and came up short. We haven't lost confidence in our offense and our defense and our ability to perform, so we're very confident about heading up to Boston this week and being able to perform."
On playing the top ranked defense in the country in Boston College…
"It's a big task. They have a great defense—at every level, they have great players. We're certainly excited and can't wait to get out there and prove that we can go toe-to-toe with them. It's going to take a great week of practice—we have to be locked in every day and ready to go, but we're excited about the opportunity."
Redshirt senior linebacker Brandon Chubb
On preparing to play Boston College after two straight losses…
"We came close to wins in the previous two ACC games we played and in the non-conference game with Indiana. It's the realization that we're almost there. We're right on the cusp. We saw that with losing to Florida State by eight points and being 20 yards away from taking the game to overtime. We have to start the way we finish…and that's what we're going to do against Boston College. They have one of the top defenses in the nation. Our offense is going to have to move the ball and score in the red zone, and the defense can help our offense by getting takeaways, which is something we haven't gotten all season yet."
On the defense's inability to produce a turnover yet this season…
"Our coaches stress it a lot, but now it's more important than ever. Every team is getting takeaways against us, and we've got to return the favor. You see how that's helping the teams we are playing against us, so if we could do the same for our offense, or even score on them, that would be even better. Those takeaways are important, and as soon as we get them I think you'll see a dramatic difference in the scoreboard."
