Postgame Quotes
10/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening remarks…
"Well it's a beautiful night in Winston-Salem. I want to thank all the fans, every single one of them, that came out during the storm and supported their Deacons. I'm grateful for all the people that were here. It was bad weather and we had some loyal people show up to support us. I'm really grateful for all the fans that were out here tonight and the students who came. It's a really good win for us. It's one of those wins that wasn't always pretty. It started out rough but it just seems that every time we had to respond, we responded. Whether it was on offense, if we needed a drive we got it. On defense, if we needed a stop we got it. That's a heck of an offense they have over there. A lot of it had to do earlier with weather but in the second half the conditions weren't too bad. Our guys made plays and I thought they came ready to play. We had a great week of prep and it's a really good ACC win for us. I'm proud of our team and now we move on."
On finding ways to win games late…
"A lot of our guys have grown up and sometimes you have to be in that situation once before, then you have success in it. Last year we played a lot of young guys and I really hope the benefit of doing that would come this year. In a lot of ways it has. I'm really proud of our players. Nothing comes easy to us. It's not like we go out there and hit a 75-yard bomb or get a punt return. It just seems like every win we get is a grind but that's the nature of our team. Nothing has come easy and that goes from year-one to year-three. But our guys are starting to get rewarded for all their work. That's what I'm really happy about. I'm really happy for them and our staff. Our staff has worked hard."
On Syracuse having just one long drive…
"Our defense played well tonight. They Played really well tonight. We certainly had concerns going into it because the other power five teams we played have all thrown the ball against us and got off to fast starts. We preached a fast start all week then we sail the snap over his head. I don't know what Dom (Maggio) was thinking. We dodged a bullet on that one. It could of been 7-0."
On importance of Amari Henderson's interception…
"Huge! You're going from a lead at the half and you're about to go down two. When I saw that guy open I'm like ‘Oh man, they got it,' and he just jumped up and made a play. So visions of Indiana's Hail Mary were in my mind and he caught the sucker this time though. So that was good."
Syracuse Head Coach Dino Babers
Opening Statement…
"It was a hard-fought game. We knew when the game started, that with the weather, the game was going to come down to turnovers and who was going to be able to execute and stay patient the longest. It was a tight game all the way to the fourth quarter. We thought we had an opportunity to win in the end. We had some costly turnovers, three-and-outs, and some bad situations. Those really forced us to do some things down the stretch to put it back into their favor."
On praise of Coach Dave Clawson…
"You have to take your hat off to Coach Clawson and his staff. In the third year of their program you can see that this is a different Wake Forest team. I'm looking forward to getting my program to the stages he has in his third year."
On true freshman Moe Neal's impact…
"Moe Neal is doing really well. We thought earlier in the game with all the rain and type of running that it wasn't his surface. We were hoping that it would dry up so we could get him in there. Obviously once it dried up we put him in there, and you can see what he can do for our team."
On Wake Forests' defensive prowess…
"They were blitzing a lot on first down, stressing some personal that's been young in their development and we had trouble with it. They were getting to the quarterback and getting shots. We had some guys open, but our quarterback can't throw it to them if he can't see them."
Wake Forest junior quarterback John Wolford
On if his arm impacted in throwing…
"It didn't affect me too much. They're might have been a few throws, but I think the rain factored in too. So once it loosens up it's not bad, and I've got to be able to make some of those throws too. I think I missed a few throws out there."
On the final scoring drive…
"I think that was huge, I think in the first half it was difficult to throw the ball considering the conditions, and in the second half we had that little lull in the 3rd quarter, but to go out and go 78 yards, with a big drive, big play action by Cam (Serigne), big play by Chuck (wade), all that stuff, those are the types of drives that you really push for and I don't think you've really seen before from Wake Forest where you close out a game. So that was very encouraging for us, with all things, the weather and other variables, considered."
Wake Forest freshman running back Cade Carney
On the final scoring drive...
"You know that's the mentality when we get in the fourth quarter late like that, and especially playing with a lead, we don't want to be the team that tries to milk it out. We remind ourselves to still play to win. You know, run to win, run to win, and not run to play out the clock. So we felt we ran to win, the offensive line blocked to win, the receivers blocked to win, John (Wolford) ran to win, and when you put that together, you get what we have right now, and we feel good about it."
On the conditions…
"I think we did as good as we could have. As far as on the ground, we held onto the ball, and watching the games earlier today, you saw teams putting it on the ground left and right and giving it to each other. I really think we didn't let that be an excuse to have turnovers, and we bought into the fact that we wouldn't turn over the ball, and we believed we would not turn over the ball. I think we did an alright job with that."
Wake Forest redshirt freshman cornerback Amari Henderson
On the defensive adjustments made in the second half…
"We put in some other base calls that we had. They were using the tight ends a lot, which we didn't expect, as they didn't show that on film. So we made some adjustments to that, and that's pretty much it. It was just communicating, getting the calls right, setting our feet, and playing ball."
