Weekly Press Conference Video & Quotes: Sept. 8
9/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeFB)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Heading into Saturday's ACC-opener at Syracuse, Wake Forest head football coach Dave Clawson and punter Alexander Kinal met with the media on Tuesday.
Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening statement...
"Just wrapping up Elon, it was a good effort from our guys. It's always great to get the first win. Overall, I was just happy with the level of execution that we had. I thought on both sides of the ball, we executed at a high level. Offensively, we had balance, we made explosive plays. Those are all things where we have to do a better job this year, and it was encouraging to see that happening in game one. Defensively, I thought our third down defense was really good. We were 12-of-13 on third downs, getting off the field. Probably the one area where I was most disappointed was that I think we didn't play well on special teams. We didn't handle some punts early. That gave us poor field position. The kickoff early that got us tackled inside the 10 was very disappointing. You look at last year and special teams was an area where we excelled, and in the opening game, where you play well on offense and defense, you really think special teams will make an impact, and I thought Elon outplayed us on special teams. But the positive is that we had a lot of players on the field. We had 64 guys on our football team play snaps. A number of guys played their first football game ever at the college level, and I think that's an investment that will help us moving forward.
"Looking ahead to Syracuse, this is a very big game for us so early in the ACC, on the road. Syracuse is an excellent defensive football team. Just look at their coaching staff…they're just an extremely well coached defense. They've got some really good players up front. Their linebackers are good. They can cover you in the perimeter. You look at last year, and we really struggled to move the ball against them. They're a combination of good players who are well coached. Offensively, it's a very unique system. They run a hybrid, double-slot, double-tight end offense. They can really get into a variety of formations very quickly. For them, it starts up front. I always look at another team's offensive line. When you start four seniors and a junior, they're an older, experienced group, and they've got very good skill. They made as many big plays against us as any team we played against last year. They had the long run where Bud [Merrill Noel] made the tackle, and their wideouts really showed up and played well against us a year ago, and they were all young kids a year ago. So we need to improve from last week to this week, and it's a lot of the challenges we talk about. It's getting better every day, and becoming a football team that can win on the road and can find ways to win in the fourth quarter. If we're going to be successful this week, we're going to have to be better than we were a week ago. We are going to have to go on the road and play well, which we certainly didn't do last year. We've got to get this thing to the fourth quarter and find a way to win it. So that'll be our challenge against Syracuse."
Redshirt Senior Punter Alex Kinal
On the mentality of the team headed into ACC play...
"We always talk about it being a one-week season. What that means is just a one-game-at-a-time kind of a thing. That's the way you've got to look at it to properly prepare to be able to execute against your opponent every week. We were focusing on Elon last week and now we're focusing on Syracuse. It's one week at a time, just as hard as it was last week. The preparation is going to be the same."
On his own game so far this season...
"I think I played okay [last week against Elon.] They weren't my best lot of kicks, nowhere near close to as good as I can do. I had a nice 70-yarder that was close to getting blocked, but we fixed that. It's a real technical kind of position. It's all mechanical. It's not so much of what's happening on the outside, because usually everyone's kind of blocking everybody. You're really by yourself for that one second. I just go out there and do my job."
On the importance of special teams in ACC play...
"It's really hidden yardage. If I stuff up a punt like I did the other day [against Elon] and it's a 38-yarder, that was only one first down into field goal range. That's the reason they scored, whereas that one punt I had near the end zone completely flipped the field. It's those little things. People look over it and personally I don't really care. You can look over it if you want. But especially on punting, I realize that the defense does get pretty hyped up when you give them a lot of field to work with. That's all I really worry about, making my mates' jobs easier."
