Dabo Swinney – Clemson
Opening Statement: It was a good win last week. I thought our team responded well to an emotional win at Miami and went back to work. For the most part we played well, and it is always good to play a lot of guys. It has been good to have some film to get after some of those backups. I think from that standpoint it was a very productive week.
This week is a conference game so it is a big game for both teams. Our focus continues to be on just trying to get better as a football team and keep working toward our goals. I Look forward to seeing Coach Bowden. He is a legend. I grew up following great coaches like Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno. This opportunity is a thrill.
Offensively this team is extremely dangerous. Their whole team as of late has gotten it to together and is playing great football. They are scoring a lot of points and are the number-one offense in the league. They try to get the ball out quickly and into space and are a talented bunch.
They have a veteran offensive line and it is a talented bunch. They are very impressive when you watch them on film. Christian Ponder is what makes them go. This guy is as good as any we have played. It is just another big challenge for us defensively. He likes to run the football, and that is one thing that worries me. He runs with purpose. He is a tough guy, can make all the throws and doesn’t get sacked very often. We will have to do a great job affecting the quarterback. We have to get him out of his comfort zone.
For us it always starts with stopping the run. In this game, in particular, it will be critical for us to tackle in space. That is a big time factor in this ball game. We always are looking to create turnovers. We have done a good job in that area this year and that has to continue this week. We have to create turnovers and create momentum defensively.
We have to do a good job of managing the chunk plays (long plays, chunks of yardage). That is something we have to do a better job of. It goes back to tackling in space, playing technique and fundamentals, doing the right thing from an alignment standpoint, playing with your eyes and trying to contain those big plays. They are going to make some plays, but we have to make them go the distance. We can’t let them get big scores.
Their defense is very aggressive, athletic and talented. They have outstanding linebackers, and a bunch of veteran guys in the secondary. The defensive line has had some injuries and they have had to play some young guys up front that are very talented. They are getting those guys back together so we will have to execute. We can’t beat ourselves and I think Kyle Parker will need to have another big game, play well, make plays and continue his maturity. This is another great opportunity and hopefully be a big step for him.
Special teams will be critical. Coverage will be important and ball security on special teams will be important.
They are a good team, but it is more about us. We are good enough. We don’t make excuses. We just try to focus on getting better. Just having a great week of focus and preparation is what we are trying to do. The most excited team is not going to win. The most prepared team is going to win and the team that executes the best will win. I tell the guys not to get caught up in the hype of the ball game because we have a job to do.
We are a 5-3 football team that just needs to get better and we have an opportunity to do that. I also think it is important that the kids have some fun. This is a fun game to be a part of. I hope it is a sellout. I will be disappointed if there is an empty seat in Death Valley on Saturday. I hope it is that kind of atmosphere.
I am excited about Lucas Glover running down the hill with us. It is not often that someone from your school wins a major championship.
Update on Da’Quan Bowers:
He looked pretty good yesterday. He seems to be responding well and in great spirits. He wants to play, but I don’t see him playing this week. Beyond that I don’t know, if he keeps improving like he has then I think we will get him back quicker than later. Yesterday was a good day for him.
On guys that have opportunity to step up in Bower’s absence:
If you go back and look at our play counts these guys have played a lot. We roll those guys pretty freely up front. We have been a fortunate football team as far as injuries. Da’Quan is a great player but we do have depth there. Malliciah Goodman has played a lot of meaningful snaps. Kevin Alexander started a bunch of games. Alexander will continue to play what he has been. He and Malliciah will have to man it themselves.
Andre Branch has been playing behind Sapp and he has done a great job for us. He is capable of swinging either side. I think we will be fine. We have good players there. I hate that Bowers can’t play because you want all the good players you can at your disposal but I am very confident in those guys.
Q: Has Michael Palmer gotten back into contact?
Swinney: He will get some today. We were just in vests last night and today he will do some pad work. He will practice today. He has been cleared. You never know until you see how he responds. Scotty Cooper was cleared and he didn’t respond well so you never know. Terrence Ashe will be back. Kantrell Brown is doing much better. They are clearing him to practice this week. They will hold him another ball game because they want to evaluate him after a week of contact.
On Bobby Bowden:
I don’t know all the details about that. I can tell you that Coach Bowden ought to be able to coach as long as he wants to. Florida State wouldn’t be on the map if it weren’t for Bobby Bowden. He is as classy a man as you will ever meet. He started coaching in the 1950s and that is just mind boggling to me. He has been a good father and mentor to people. He is very sharp and witty.
Q: Will there ever be a Paterno or Bowden?
Swinney: Maybe. It will be a lot harder. People just aren’t patient anymore. There is so much more pressure and money. Expectations keep going up, and the time with players keeps getting less, so your opportunity to coach them goes down. With the ups and downs of college football it makes it hard. Now you have scholarship limitations and you will lose some recruits because of that. I think the schools that are patient in the long haul do the best. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
David Cutcliffe – Duke
On the upcoming rivalry game at North Carolina:
I think it’s great for this area that there’s interest on both sides in this ballgame. From what I understand, tickets are beyond scarce – they’re out. That’s a great thing. I’m sure it will be a great atmosphere – a tough atmosphere for us – but a great atmosphere. I think it’s interesting that this is the first time that this hasn’t been the final game. That adds a little fuel to the fire with so much on the line for both teams. It’s a big, big deal.
On what challenges North Carolina poses:
I can’t say enough about North Carolina and their talent and what a great win they had over Virginia Tech. That was a total team victory. They were very physical on offense, timely in their passing game, and their defense just continues to dominate at every angle. They’re terrific up front, and their linebackers, there’s nothing to compare in our league to what they have. Their secondary plays so well together, they’re all veterans and just a lot of good football players. They’re probably the hardest-to-tackle team that we will have played. We’re going to have to tackle very well to stop their offense. We couldn’t tackle them very well a year ago. They’re big and they’re fast and they’ve got a lot of playmakers. They certainly pose a challenge.
On what it will take to come out with a win on Saturday:
We really have to play our best game. We’re going over there into what I would call more than a hostile environment. It will be a great, great gut check from an emotional standpoint, but the biggest thing we have to do is play our best game physically. To get a win against that kind of opponent is a huge challenge. We’ve played really well, but I know we can play better. That’s what it’s going to take – to play really, really good team football to have a chance to win.
On taking on North Carolina’s defense, which is the top defense in the ACC:
I just want to keep from retreating against them. They make plays, they’re big, they’re fast and very dominant. They have a lot of guys that are going to play on Sundays. It’s not an accident that they have, by far, the best defense in our league. You’ve got to like the challenge, though. To me, this is what you do it for, to play against those kinds of teams. I told (offensive coordinator) Kurt (Roper), ‘Sometimes you can’t run it and sometimes you can’t throw it, but you still have to score points. Go figure that one out.’ That’s about what it is when you play that kind of defensive team.”
On the play of Thaddeus Lewis, who has four consecutive 300-yard games:
He’s doing what I thought he would do. He’s so accurate with the ball and so quick with the ball. It’s difficult to rush him, and it’s difficult to fool him. He sees really well, and he knows our offense now. I’m sure he’s told all of you that he’s comfortable, too. It takes confidence, as a quarterback to throw the ball where there’s no one there, and that’s what you’re doing a lot. That’s why I watch from the end zone when I’m studying quarterbacks. I’m watching the stripe on their helmet, I know where their eyes are from behind. That’s how I can tell you that Thad Lewis has improved. He knows what he’s doing in the pocket better. He will have to be great in this one.
On UNC head coach Butch Davis comparing Duke’s offense to that of the Indianapolis Colts:
(Laughs) I don’t see Reggie Wayne out there or Peyton (Manning). We obviously do some similar things because we’re in three-wide (receiver sets) a lot, and (the Colts) use (tight end) Dallas Clark, a great player, to do their three-wide stuff. A lot of things that they do are things that Peyton believes in and things that we’ve done through the years. He’s taken a lot of our pass concepts there with him. In actuality, he’s seen it. A lot of it is the same routes. After I saw that (comments from Davis), I called (Colts President) Bill Polian and asked if I could borrow his five offensive linemen. He turned me down.
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Bobby Bowden – Florida State
Q: If there is a positive for the defense, is it that for the second week in a row, they’ve held up on the other team’s final possession?
Bowden: Yeah, that’s exactly right. And that might be the closest thing to positive that came out of it for the defense. Now, there’s one thing that’s happened. It happened against Miami, it happened against South Florida ? Mickey makes his first substitution [at cornerback], puts a freshman in there, and there he goes. That’s at least twice I can remember that happening. Again, that’s having to play freshmen too early.
About the NC State game:
You know the game with NC State is like all the other ones we have played. We have played 8 ball games and every one of them has come down to the last drive. Either the other team takes it and beats you or either you take it and beat them. Every one of them, this was no different. The last two was just like the rest of them except we won them.”
Q: Like you said the week before against North Carolina, you finally won a fourth quarter?
Bowden: Yeah and we did. You know, we always say you’ve got to win the fourth quarter and that’s what happens. You either win the fourth quarter or you don’t, in a close game. You know this is the most different year I could ever remember, every game has been tight. Usually there is somebody that beats you pretty good, then there is someone you beat pretty good. But this one has been 60 minutes and you can’t tell who is going to win it and that’s different.
Q: You ran the ball well on Saturday, and you also didn’t give up any sacks. Is this offensive line where you thought it would be?
Bowden: They are where you would hope they would be. I’ve really been pleased. If you can keep them from getting our quarterback and open some running holes, you can outscore what they do. It’s kind of who had that ball last, really.
Q: After the NC State game, you gave a lot of credit to the line, probably more than you did to the running backs. But Jermaine Thomas seemed to be running pretty well.
Bowden: And he did. You know, as I sit there on the sidelines, a lot of times I’ll see him run, and I’ll see a lane open over here, and he don’t see it, and he goes another way. And I’m thinking, ‘Dadgummit, why didn’t you slash back?’ Well, you can’t see all that on the field. Then when you look back at the film, you see he’s making better cuts than you realize. He was probably making a lot better cuts than I realized.
Q: Looking at Clemson, C.J. Spiller is really having another great year there. How tough is he to defend?
Bowden: Probably more so than any back in the conference. There’s probably not many backs that are more dangerous than him in going all the way, because he is so fast. You watch him run. Anybody that can run into the line – Peter Warrick could do this – could run into the middle and you have him bottled up, and he still could run for a touchdown all the way around the end. So fast. This guy’s the same way.
Could you talk a little bit about the leadership of Christian Ponder?:
Well, he is the number one leader on our football team both offensively and defensively. All of our boys believe in him. All of our boys know that he is paying a physical price out there; he is not one of these fancy quarterbacks that don’t like to get hit. He gets hit and he will run the ball and stick it up in there. You see him do it time after time. He jeopardizes his body and other kids see that and they will follow it.
About Clemson’s quick players:
C.J. Spiller and Ford, both of them will be seniors this year, both of them are sprint champions and they are dangerous on the long play. I think I read it correctly that Spiller has scored at least one 60 yard one, every game this year. Either kickoff return, punt return, running the ball or catching the ball.”
Q: Could Clemson be one of the best teams in the country?
Bowden: They have won four in a row and they are really on a streak. They beat Miami at Miami and I think that built a lot of confidence up with them. Their game came to the last and they won it. Our game came to the last with them and we lost it. So, they are deserving of their wins and they are really good right now.
Q: Is Spiller the biggest concern going into that game against Clemson?
Bowden: He’s the starting place. The thing that they have done ? the two things I’ve seen this year that really were kind of like having an inside straight [in poker] and you draw it and get it. It’s the quarterback at Boston College. I saw their first two games; it was obvious that quarterback can’t do it. So then they got this [David Shinskie], when I saw him play the week before us, I said, “Uh oh, they found their quarterback.” He can throw. Then I watched Clemson the first of the year. They started a redshirt freshman quarterback, and he was learning the hard way. Then all of a sudden he began to put it together. And I think they’re on a four-game winning streak now. They filled their straight out with that quarterback. Because they’ve got two of the best skill people in the country with [Jacoby] Ford and Spiller.
Q: You haven’t won at Clemson since 2001. It’s been awhile. How tough is it to win there?
Bowden: It’s tough, but you’ve just got to go play your best. That’s all there is to it. You know ? we played Clemson up there in ’97 or ’98, Peter Warrick scores on about an 85-yard punt return. Peter Warrick catches an 80-yard touchdown pass. Peter Warrick runs a short pass for a touchdown. He scores about three times, and we win by seven. Now without Peter Warrick, we wouldn’t have won that dang game. So sometimes, one guy can make you. One guy. Or maybe it’s two. How close are we? I don’t know, but probably a lot closer than we think.
Q: Can you talk about your relationship with Dabo Swinney? Have you gotten to talk to him much since he was moved in to replace Tommy at Clemson?
Bowden: He’s from Birmingham like I am. Of course I’m from another generation. But some of my best friends in Birmingham also know his family pretty good. Of course, Tommy’s the one that helped raise him when Tommy was an assistant at Alabama. And then Tommy took him to Clemson. But he’s going to do a good job. Of course, Kevin Steele is up there too. Brad Scott. Brad Scott’s son is coaching receivers.
Q: Where are you at with the defense? It doesn’t seem like they’ve made any progress, and they’ve struggled against all different types of offenses.
Bowden: You’re at a point where you’re waiting for them to come together. It seems like when the line plays good, the secondary doesn’t play good. When the secondary plays good, the line doesn’t play good. We play bad one half. We play good the next half. When are we going to get 60 minutes of football out of the defense, where it’s all together. And yet, you could turn the thing around and say, “Hold it, what happened to their defense?” Whatever happened to ours also happened to theirs. And then you say, what happened to Southern Cal’s defense. We’re all having problems with the spread. You know, football goes in cycles. The defense for 10 years will play real good. Then the offense will figure out what they’re doing, and then all of a sudden they’ll take over for 10 years. Then the defense will get that figured out and they’ll take over. It seems like it goes in cycles. And right now we’re in a spread cycle. Defenses are having their hands full. Defenses will eventually find out … they’ll come up with a plan that eventually will change what all these dadgum scores are.
Q: With the way the ACC has been so topsy-turvy this season, does that give you hope that you can get back in the championship race?
Bowden: We can only take care of what we can take care of, and that’s who we play. This ballgame coming up is the biggest one. However, if you win it, the next one becomes the biggest one.
Q: How hard would that be for you to coach next year without Mickey?
Bowden: Yeah, if it did happen, it would be the first time in 26 years. Mickey deserves as much of the success as anybody. His great defenses are what really made the difference. Because there’s a lot of good offensive teams in the country. But teams that play defense consistently are probably the ones that keep winning.
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Paul Johnson – Georgia Tech
Opening Statement: We’re back into conference play this week against Wake Forest, who is a good football team. Anyone that had the chance to watch their last game with Miami saw that they kind of dominated the game. It was a tough way for them to lose. They’ve had a few games this year where the ballgame came down to similar situations. The Boston College game, they fought back and got the game into overtime, and then on first and goal from the two-yard line, they dropped the ball and ended up losing the ball game. Against Navy, they played in a driving rainstorm and had some chances. Then last week, they probably should’ve been able to win the game. They’ve got a good team. The game is really important on both sides. Wake Forest is fighting to become bowl eligible and to get back in their race and we’re fighting to stay alive in our race. So, we’ll see what happens.
On concerns of the health of the offensive line:
It’s a concern. Anytime you play 11 straight games, it’s going to be tough. We’re working on our tenth game this week without a break and we have a lot of guys that are banged up and beat up. So, it’s definitely a concern. We met this morning and we’re trying to piece together two units on the offensive line for practice. We are going to have to move some guys around. We’ll know later in the week if any of those guys will be missing the game.
On the health of Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner:
Well, he’s been in the game for them most of the time this year. Riley Skinner is a tremendous player and a great competitor. I was impressed with [Ryan] McManus when he came into the game last week with his arm strength. It’s not like he’s a freshman, he’s a senior. With that, we’re getting ready to play Riley Skinner. We fully expect him to play in the game. They’ve said that he’s not had any symptoms. It sounds like he came out of it ok.
On success in the second half this season:
I think our guys compete. I wasn’t happy at halftime on Saturday and I don’t think any of the other coaches were extremely happy. The bottom line is, in the second half, we didn’t give up as many big plays. In the first half, they killed us with big plays and all except for one was against man coverage. In the second half, other than one tipped ball, we eliminated the big plays, which forced them to drive down the field more and allow our defense to make some plays. The offense was about the same in both halves.
On being ranked in the Top 10 in two major polls this week (USA Today Coaches/BCS):
We still have to finish out. I tell the guys everyday, we haven’t accomplished anything yet. You have to finish, just like a drill in practice. Our main goal this week has to be to beat Wake Forest and if we do that, then we’ll be closer to finishing. It’s still way too early for all of that to make a difference.
On challenges of keeping players focused from week-to-week:
We talk about keeping focused everyday, I hope they don’t look ahead. We tell them every week you’re as good as your last game. As soon as you lose, everybody that had jumped on the bandwagon jumps off. So, you have to take things one game at a time. It’s a one game schedule right now. You can’t worry about some team you’re going to play down the road. You have to take care of what’s at hand.
On the up-and-down season Wake Forest is having:
I think a lot of it can be attributed to just bad luck. The last drive against Miami, Miami converted a fourth and seventeen and the guy from Miami made a great play. Against Boston College, it was kind of a freak thing. If you go back and watch what happened, I think they busted the play on offense and [Riley] Skinner turned around and the defender was right there and slapped the ball out of his hands. Sometimes those things happen. Just like us last week, in the first series of the second half, the ball was tipped a couple of times and their [Vanderbilt] guy ended up with the ball. Sometimes, it just happens and that’s what happened to them.
On the team’s confidence at the moment:
There’s no question that winning breeds winning. When you have some success, your expectation level should rise and you should expect to do things. I don’t know if we’re at that point yet. Certainty at the other two places I coached [Georgia Southern and Navy] the kids expected to win games. I think these kids expect to win every time they go out there. If you don’t think you’re going to win, you’re probably not going to.
On the best time in a season to have a bye week:
It varies, I don’t know when the best time is to have it [a bye week]. I think you would like to have it sometime in the middle of the year, but sometimes you gain momentum and you have it and you tell yourself, “oh man, I wish we didn’t have that off week.” You don’t ever know when the best time is, but you never really want it at the end of the season. At Georgia Southern, we used to have it at the end. We played an 11 game schedule and we would have it after our 11th game because we knew that we’d be getting ready for the playoffs and it gave us a chance to rest up. What we’ve done now is cut practice back. When you get to this point of the season, you have to do that.
On if the fact that Wake Forest played Navy earlier in the season will help in game preparation:
Well, they’ve played Navy like three times in 10 months. They have seen the offense pretty good. They’ll have an idea of where their weak and where they need to shore up things. So, it’s probably a trade-off, it helps them as well. It’s good to be able to look at it.
On what jersey Georgia Tech will wear on Saturday:
Well, we’ll be wearing one. Honestly, I can care less; I’ll let the players decide. It’s either going to be gold or blue, that’s all we’ve got. Normally we’d wear white at home, and the opposing team has to agree to allow you to do that. Every team on our schedule had agreed to that except Wake Forest. That’s certainly within their right to do that, so we’ll just go pick another one.
On if it has been surprising that the Yellow Jackets has found success in his second season as head coach:
I haven’t really given any thought to that at all. I know, it sounds like a cliché, but all I think about is the next game. People always ask me that I don’t seem that emotional after a game and I guess that’s just my nature. I’m always worried about the next team we have to play. I think that being able to compete is what keeps you going. If you’re losing, it’s embarrassing, but if you’re winning, it becomes bigger each week. I never said if we can be x and x by our second year, then that will be good. We can still be a lot better. I said before the season that we could have a better team, but a worse record. You get ready each week, go out and play and evaluate it after it’s over.
When I came to Georgia Tech, I though there were good people here. It’s a place that we wanted to get back to live. I had a great job at Navy and worked with some great kids. But, to me it was a chance to come back. Also, when someone tells me I can’t do something, I want to do it. That’s why I went to Navy. I loved coaching at Georgia Southern, but when Navy came up, everyone said that you couldn’t win there and going up there would be a career ender. Every time someone said that, it made me want to go more. The thing I saw at Georgia Tech was it had a great tradition and location. You play great high school football in the state, so you have a recruiting base. You have a school to sell. So, I felt you can come here, win some games and compete at a high level. Had I not thought we could compete, I wouldn’t have come.
On Jonathan Dwyer’s case for ACC Player of the Year honors:
Certainly, he’s a top player and one of the hardest players in the league to defend. I think part of the reason Jon got so much more publicity last year is because there weren’t so many more guys around him with the kind of numbers that they have. Josh Nesbitt had gotten hurt and missed three or four games; Demaryius Thomas had good numbers, but not as good as this year. If you flipped Roddy Jones and Anthony Allen, they would be fairly similar. The first three games, he didn’t start off with as big of a blast. In the Jacksonville State game he played a little more than a half, against Clemson he probably had 60 or 70 yards and they did a pretty good job containing him and against Miami, he got hurt and had seven yards on national TV. So, everyone just wrote him off. He’s kind of been plugging along since then and if you remember last year, he got better as the season went on. You can make the case for two or three players on our team if we can finish this thing off. There are a lot of great offensive players in this league. I’ll let the media guys figure that out, but I don’t think anyone would have to do that much explaining if Jonathan wins again. He’s that great of a player.
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Ralph Friedgen – Maryland
Opening statement: We had the off-week and I think that helped us get healthy. We had two good practices (last week) and gave them the weekend off and came back and had practice last night and we’ll get into N.C. State tonight.
On the NC State offense:
NC State is playing very well right now offensively. They are ranked 20th in the country (in scoring offense) . They are averaging 31 points per game and 409 yards total offense (135 rushing/271 passing). They have a very big, strong offensive line. Tight end (George Bryan) is up for the Mackey award and is the leading receiver with 34 receptions.
Of course, when you are talking about their offense you have to talk about Russell Wilson who is ranked 17th nationally in passing efficiency. He’s thrown 21 touchdown passes with six interceptions. I believe he had the NCAA record for consecutive throws without an interception earlier this year.
Jarvis Williams is their big play receiver. He has 26 catches. Owen Spencer had a career game last week with 185 yards and three touchdowns against Florida State.
On the NC State defense:
We have our work cut out for us. On defense, they have a couple of guys we really have to deal with. Alan-Michael Cash is a very good d-lineman and he’ll be matched up against our guards. Willie Young has seven sacks this year is an excellent pass rusher. They’ve had some injuries, kind of similar to us.
On NC State’s special teams:
T.J. Graham is an excellent return guy. He didn’t play last week and I don’t know his status this week. He’s averaging 10.4 yards on punt returns and 25 yards on kickoff returns.
On the NC State game:
They’ve lost four straight, we’ve lost three straight. They have a pretty potent offense. We’ve shown improvement on defense the last couple of weeks and that will be tested this week.
On the off-week:
The biggest thing I wanted to do was try to get healthy. (Alex) Wujciak and Cory Jackson…we kind of let them rest all week. Any one that had a nick or a bruise, we tried to let them get rested up also. We worked with our younger players and tried to see what we could improve with them also.
On how is role as a motivator has changed, if at all:
I do it constantly. I’ve been speaking to kids on a daily basis, individually as well as collectively. It’s a very important thing for me to show by example by being up and being aggressive and not being down. I talked to our kids last night about learning some life lessons right now and where they are persevering. Especially when you are working hard and you don’t see the immediate results from that. It’s been my experience to keep working and eventually good things happen and that’s what I plan on doing.
On the focus of coaching staff during the off-week:
We are trying to get our running game going again. Our off-week, we did more stuff from a coaching aspect of what are we doing well, what we are not doing well and why are we not doing it well. We looked at explosive runs, the red zone and passing. Who’s making plays and who isn’t, why we aren’t making sacks and the whole gamut. When you have so many guys that are nicked up, it’s tough to get anything really done on the field because most of the guys you need to get it done with aren’t practicing. So what we try to do is prepare for when they are practicing what we can do better as coaches.
On the strides the defense has made this season:
Defensively we’ve made a lot of strides. I was looking at the ACC stats the other day and they break it down by overall games and then conference games. I think we are (eighth) in the conference in overall games in rushing defense, but when you get to conference games, we are first. There is a dramatic change there. And when you look at our last four games defensively, I think we’ve played pretty good with the exception of the Wake Forest first half. So I see some improvement there.
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Butch Davis – North Carolina
Head Coach Butch Davis – 11/2 Press Conference
Opening statement: We had an opportunity on Friday to get back and grade the film and show the film to the players. They got a chance to have Saturday off, which was well-deserved with the two big Thursday night games. It gave them a chance to decompress a little bit. We got a little bit of an early jumpstart yesterday afternoon. Traditionally, instead of having to use the time on your previous opponent, you got an introduction into Duke.
I will tell you this – Duke, as their record speaks, they are a dramatically improved football team. David Cutcliffe has down a great job generating offense. Thad Lewis is playing extremely well, throwing the ball well. You can just see evidence every single snap of his growth and development. The decision-making that he’s been doing, the routes – they know how to attack defenses. They’re doing an excellent job.
Their defense – when you look at the ACC, they’ve got one of the best defensive lines in the ACC. They are very big, very physical. Fast, athletic linebackers. They don’t give up big plays. And they play very, very sound in the kicking game.
On the Duke game not being at the end of the year:
People have asked several times about the games within the conference [and] N.C. State and Duke being flipped or changed. And I think I would have to tell you that I don’t really think it makes any difference when you play. Certainly with Duke, whether it’s the first game of the season, the middle of the season or the end of the season. These are always going to be traditionally big games because of the proximity of the schools. Duke’s playing very well – you could see that evidence last year. It was extraordinarily hard to beat them last year at their place.
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Tom O’Brien – NC State
Q: What are your plans on the offensive line without R.J. Mattes?
O’Brien: Andy Barbee will start off there at guard there. He ended up finishing the game on Saturday. We’ll take Zach Allen and put him over behind him. Then put Henry Lawson behind Julian at left guard.
Q: How well was R.J. Mattes playing? It seemed like he was having a pretty solid year?
O’Brien: Yeah he was our best first-year guy, a guy we were really excited about. He’s a natural tackle which is where he’ll go back next year, but he helped at guard and he stepped in there, accepted the challenge and kept getting better and better every game. That’s another one of those tough losses for us.”
Q: How do you work around the injuries?
O’Brien: You can’t work around it. You have to understand what’s going on. The kids are fine. I think they are excited about the opportunity to come back home and play a football game. That’s who you worry about the most. I think they’ve kind of accepted the fact they’ve been dealt a bad hand. There’s nothing they can do but fight their way out of it, so we are going to continue to fight and play hard and be the best team we can.
We thought it was bad last year. It’s three times as bad this year as it was last year. It’s got to end sometime before I die here. I don’t know, one or the other. I hope I’m the next one hurt the way we’re going. I’ll take a hit for the team if it’ll keep somebody else healthy.
Q: Is there a date on his surgery?
O’Brien: He has to wait. I don’t want you quoting this because I’m not a doctor, but I believe they have to wait because they have to stop the internal bleeding because if they don’t and it goes to the bottom part of the leg when they do surgery they got all kinds of other problems. That’s what I was told. Take it for what it’s worth. But it will be probably I would expect around the first of December I would expect before they do surgery. Generally it’s four weeks.
Q: Is there anybody that stood out in the FSU game that made progress?
O’Brien: I think the two kids in the boundary corner, C.J. and Jarvis, I think they both as the game went on looked like they were much more comfortable doing what they were asked to do. I think that is huge for us. Hopefully we are going to keep the same group back there. Hopefully we are going to get better this week as we go forward.
I think Dwayne Maddox had a little tough time going to middle linebacker which is understandable because all the reads are so different, but he gave us great effort this year. I think he’ll be hopefully much better this week getting everybody lined up going in the right direction. Those are all things that we can take as positives for those guys out of the football game.
I think a guy like Clem Johnson, I believed played his best game of the year for us back there. If he can build on that and we can build on it, maybe we can get, the biggest thing is to get consistency and continuity. That’s been one of the major problems right now on defense.
Q: Was the offensive line a bright spot?
O’Brien: Yeah, and where you talked about the problems we’ve had on defense with consistency and continuity, we’ve had that on the offensive line. They’ve been getting better and better as time goes on because it’s the same story. The more they work in concert with one another the better they get. Andy went in and did a nice job, but he’s filled in before earlier this year. He’s been in there, but certainly playing against Maryland, they’ve got two guys that are combined 640 pounds at tackle and a 255-pound middle linebacker so we’re going to have to be pretty good up the middle on Saturday.
Q: Can you talk about Alex Wujciak?
O’Brien: He’s the middle linebacker. They’ve changed the schemes. They’ll blitz. They’ll blitz more than any team we’ve played this year. That’s their calling card. It’s a tremendous amount of pressure, try to confuse you, takeaways, especially get you in a third down situation.
Don Brown, I’ve known him since he was at UMass all those years, does a great job figuring out the protection and overloading you. They lead the conference in sacks. They’ve actually gotten better on defense the last two weeks, and now they’ve had an open week to prepare. Might look like 50 guys are coming at us come Saturday. That’s one of the reasons why you would rather have the continuity on the offensive line right now.
Q: Can you elaborate more on Jarvis Byrd’s first game?
O’Brien: I think he was excited for a kid coming out of Pahokee, Fla., to go to Florida State and play that game. I think he showed really good poise. He wasn’t polished by any stretch of the imagination, but he competed. The one third down pass, a little too much cushion, but he came in, made a heck of a tackle and got the guy down right away and that’s something that we need desperately out of that position. Hopefully he can build on that and we can build on it this week cause Maryland will test them deep. They like to throw the ball deep.
Q: Did you try to come out and run the ball?
O’Brien: We wanted at Florida State, with their explosive offense, was to try to control the ball a little more. We’re going to have to run the ball a little more and keep the clock going. Toney Baker did a great job. Florida State, you can’t block them all sometimes, you got so many guys up there, but they couldn’t tackle him. I don’t know how many tackles he ran through, but he had a lot of yards after contact. That was really big for us. I think he was the major reason why we had success in the running game.
O’Brien: Willie Young has not had a sack in three games, but he still makes plays. How well has he played?
O’Brien: I think the strength of the defense is obviously the front eight guys. Willie, he’s been about a step away all the time right now. Playing against good quarterbacks that got that clock in their head and get the ball away, which is what we’re facing right now, generally that’s what happens that you’re about a step away. No quarterback is holding the ball on us. He’s been close, but as you say he’s been doing a lot of other things for us. He’s got to continue to keep pushing and fighting. He’ll get some sacks. They’ll come.
Q: How is the team’s mental psyche?
O’Brien:: I think they’ve been fine. We all keep waiting for a break. Something good has got to happen sometime. We can’t keep going south forever. We just got to hang in there, and as I say we got to circle the wagons, believe in each other and come out firing in all directions. There’s nothing else to do. No sense feeling sorry for ourselves.
Q: They’ve had their backs to the wall before. Can this team win out and be bowl eligible?
O’Brien: Well that’s what the goal is, and that’s what we have to try to do. We get to come back home, hopefully we’ll get some home field advantage and maybe get some home field cooking and maybe we’ll be better. We need something good to happen for us.
Q: Does all-or-nothing help or is it a burden?
O’Brien: If that were to happen it would’ve happened last week because there was no margin for error. They went down and we fought as hard we could, we just wasn’t good enough to win at the end of the football game. That was the story of the game. There’s no sense not to go out and have fun and go play the game. We’ve got four games left. We have been pretty good in November, so let’s see what we can get done.
Q: Have they accepted losing?
O’Brien: That does happen, I’m not saying that it doesn’t happened, but I don’t think that’s happened here.
Q: What have you seen from the defense that has you encouraged?
O’Brien: Like I said we got better play out of the position into the boundary. We got better play out of the boundary safety, which has been two major areas of concern for us as we’ve gone forward. I think Brandan Bishop was getting better as a freshman. He’s going to get better because once again it’s important to him, he works hard, he studies the game. You can only get better if you do those things and it’s important and you play hard.
The Michel thing kind of threw us for a loss last week because we got to go with somebody in the middle and it’s hard to play middle linebacker, I don’t care who you are, what you are. That’s a tough position to play because you got to get people lined up. There’s much more thinking at middle linebacker than there is at the weakside linebacker. You got to line up and go to the ball basically. Middle linebacker you got to get everybody else lined up and then get everybody orchestrated and the gaps are different.
Because we’re going back and we’ve done it against a pretty good football team, hopefully we can be better Saturday. Maryland’s coming in here and pound the ball like they do and throw the ball well. Turner, he’s the leading ball carrier on the football team. They run a lot of quarterback stuff. I remember last year we played in all that run up there in College Park, but he made the run here that went down the boundary in front of our bench that kind of broke the game on us two years ago.
Q: You are hoping for Michel to practice this week?
O’Brien: I’m always hoping to get anybody back. I’ve been praying but it hasn’t been working.
Q: The defense got two turnovers after not having much in the last two games.
O’Brien: Yeah we hadn’t been getting any turnovers, especially against Ponder. He’s thrown one interception all year so we doubled up on him. One was a tipped ball. We’re getting closer, we’re getting closer, we just got to keep fighting and get over the hump somehow. Certainly winning the football game will help that a lot.
Q: Can you talk about the job David Cutcliffe has done at Duke?
O’Brien: I don’t think there’s any question David’s a great coach. I’ve known him for a long time, from the time we were both coordinators and he was at Tennessee and I was at Virginia. We’ve talked a lot. He went to Mississippi. God only knows why they let him go. He’s a good football coach. He’s got some good football players, too. That helps. So he’s done really a fabulous job.
Q: How remarkable is it to see the job he’s done after that long stretch of being so bad?
O’Brien: I think he’s done a good job, but I think Ted Roof did a pretty job recruiting guys, too. There’s some guys on that football team that they didn’t have. They may not be playing the way they are. Thad Lewis has learned a lot in four years. He’s taken his beatings, but four years later he’s dishing out beatings, and that’s all part of growing up and that’s all part of maturity and that’s all part of execution. He’s in a good offense for him, and that’s part of good coaching, too.
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Jim Grobe – Wake Forest
Update on Riley Skinner:
He seems fine. We didn’t practice with him last night. I don’t know how much they’ll let him do today. He seems to be clear-headed, he doesn’t have headaches or dizziness, so hopefully we’ll have him by Saturday. I’m hopeful it’s more than 50-50 whether he’ll play. We’ve listed him as questionable, with head injuries it really is a day-to-day process. My hope is that he’ll play, but certainly his health and well-being are more important than playing Saturday.
On getting over the Miami loss:
Our players bounce back pretty well. Our guys realize we played a really good football team. We certainly gave ourselves a chance to win, we just didn’t make enough plays. We’re on to the next challenge. Hopefully we can get pumped up for another Top 20 team.
We won’t dwell too long on it. We went back last night, went back over all our mistakes, things we could have done better. I don’t think there’s one player on our football team that doesn’t wish he had one play back. Everybody had a chance to make a difference in that football game. But we could not have played harder. Our focus now is hopefully on Georgia Tech, we have to leave that one alone.
On the team’s recent losses:
We’re capable of winning. That’s the thing that we know. We’ve got to have things go right and not much has gone right for this football team. Unfortunately these guys have had some really bad breaks along the way. Obviously we’ve had some plays we could have made that would have made the difference without needing a break. But this is just about the most unlucky football team I’ve coached.
On Ryan McManus:
He’s a coach’s son. He has that feeling about him. He knows what’s going on, he’s a student of the game. He’s really improved quite a bit, with all the reps he’s gotten as a back up to Riley. He’s throwing the ball pretty good right now, he’s a really good decision maker. He’s very good at running our offense. He understands the game and gets us in the right plays, he just doesn’t have the experience. He is very capable but just doesn’t have a lot of experience.
On facing GT’s option spread offense after facing it at Navy earlier in the season:
It does help us. Our players got to play it a couple of weeks ago, so we’ve got a little better understanding of the option. But then that helps Georgia Tech a little bit because they can see how we like to defend it. We’ve played Navy several times lately so they’ve got some pretty good film on it. But our players have a pretty good feel for what we are going to get on Saturday. Now we need to play better against Georgia Tech than we did against Navy and that remains to be seen whether we are able to do that.
On Georgia Tech:
They have a lot of talent. [Jonathan] Dwyer is as good a running back as there is in the conference. They’re using him as their fullback in the wishbone offense. They’ve got a couple of other halfbacks that are really talented and dangerous. They’ve got a wide receiver in Demaryius Thomas, who is possibly the best receiver in the ACC. They run an offense that is nearly impossible to defend, then they throw in the talent that’s there and it’s really an amazing group of athletes.