Quotes from All ACC Press Conferences |
CLEMSON - TOMMY BOWDEN The importance of other players stepping up their play when Brandon Streeter got hurt: "There is no doubt that what the other players were able to do when Streeter got hurt was very important. I thought Woody did an excellent job. Playing well in an ACC game in front of a packed house and on TV was a huge confidence boost for not only Woody but also for the rest of our team." he tempo of the Clemson offense and the effect the fast pace had on the North Carolina defense: "With the pace we use on offense, we try to eliminate the other team's defensive coordinator and the defensive leaders from the game. Jeff Davis brought up interesting point to me the other day. A defensive captain usually has good leadership skills and the huddle is his time to jump on the other guys that are not getting the job done. By not huddling we try to eliminate that aspect of the game for opposing defenses. I don't know if conditioning was a factor for North Carolina or not. All I know is that conditioning has not been a factor for us in any of our four games." The special teams of NC State: "The fact that they have blocked something like five punts and have returned three of them for touchdowns and one for a safety definitely gets your attention. If we get one blocked it will not be because we were not prepared for it. From the minute I took this job we began working on kick protection. We are not going to be able to increase the time we spend on kick protection but knowing what they have done in the past forces us to make our preparation time more efficient." The Clemson offense under Woodrow Dantlzer as opposed to Brandon Streeter: "There will be a few wrinkles put in the offense because of Woody's running ability. There is always the possibility of running the option when you have a guy like that at quarterback. Alot of his scrambling will come naturally though and in this offense he will have the opportunity to make some big plays. That run he made against North Carolina was really an impressive run. He broke alot of tackles and he ran like a tailback." Facing an experienced NC State secondary: "One of their base defensive fronts is to rush three and drop eight. The most you can have is five receivers. Eight defenders can cover five receivers pretty well. That is one of the main reasons they are so good against the pass and have alot of interceptions this year. There are not many good routes you can run when they have eight people guarding your receivers. They have a very good secondary. They probably have the best secondary that we have seen so far this year." The importance of Clemson getting its first road win: "As I have mentioned a couple of times, there are certain steps that you have to take when you are building a program. One of those steps is being able to win on the road. With only five home games, it would be very good for us to win at least a couple of these road games." DUKE - CARL FRANKS Reflecting on the Florida State Game: "(Safety) Darius Clark for the second week in a row, we had him down for 13 total tackles, 11 unassisted. One tackle for a loss. A quarterback hit. Two interceptions. Knocked a pass down. He had two blocks on the interception that (cornerback) Ronnie Hamilton had. (Defensive Lineman) Charles Porter had four tackles. One for a loss. Caused an interception and had one sack. (Outside Linebacker) Kevin Lewis played very well and made a lot things happen. He didn*t have the sheer number of tackles, but he had four tackles, three assists. He had one of them for a loss. Hit the quarterback twice. Had two pressures and made the quarterback alter the pass a couple of times. Knocked a pass down and had a big hit. So we did have some guys that were pretty productive. Offensively, (Tight Ends) Terrence Dupree and Ben Watson played well. The defense helped us set up some of our points. Sixteen of our points came off of turnovers. (Kicker) Sims Lenhardt, obviously, continues to do well. He had three long field goals." On Virginia: "Virginia is a team that Duke has not traditionally played very well as of late. They*ve got the leading rusher (Thomas Jones) in the conference and I think he*s No. 8 in the country. So they present another big challenge for our defense. We*ve got a big challenge in front of us playing at the University of Virginia. George Welsh never lost to Duke up there. I remember the last time I was there as a coach, they never punted that night. They usually play very well at home and we expect them to continue that. We*re going to have to get to where we can play a little bit better offensively, especially running the football. We ran it 33 times last week and didn*t get many yards to show for it. We*re about next to last in the country in rushing. We*re going have to do some things to help that if we*re going to have a chance the rest of the year." On the Possible Return of Spencer Romine: "I think Spencer will be able to play this week. We*ll know pretty quickly how healthy he is. We*ll wait and see. I haven*t had the time to sit down and talk with those guys (Spencer, trainer and doctors) about what decision we*ll make. I*d rather have a chance to visit with him before I tell everybody else." On UVa Running Back Thomas Jones: "He*s a significant part of their offense. He accounts for about 140 yards a game for them. He*s averaging five yards a carry. Anytime you have a running back that*s averaging five yards a carry, you figure you give to him twice, you got yourself a first down. That*s going to be a significant part of your offense and it*s going to be important to you." BOBBY BOWDEN "As far as Jared Jones (sprained left elbow) is concerned, we plan to play him. If he starts to miss some games, we might apply for a medical hardship. When we sub one at a time, we seem to be okay. But when we substitute whole groups, 11 for 11, we struggle. Our second unit isn't as good as other teams first. I think yesterday, Duke had a lot to do with that. They kept on fighting in the second half and mixed up their defenses well. "Since the Georgia Tech game, our defense has been very good. Anytime a team gets the ball in your territory, it is hard for them not to score. We stopped them (Duke) a couple of times after turnovers but they have a very good field goal kicker who converted. Our offense, really our second offense, certainly didn't help our defense yesterday. I don't think it is anything to get alarmed about. I was pleased with the goalline stand. I can't think of the last time we had a goalline stand where the opponent didn't get any points. "I thought Chris Weinke looked better than he has. He threw the ball very well. I hope he continues to come on like he did last year. We seem so much farther along this year than we did last year at this time on offense. "To me, Miami is a 4-0 ball club. They are so close to being undefeated instead of 2-2. They are on their way back to being where they used to be - in the Top 10. "Peter Warrick is having such a great year. He plays a year older than he did last year. He has made continuous improvement each year since he got here. He has improved in the way he handles himself on the field and off the field as a leader. "The week off has given them (Miami) plenty of time to get ready for us. I don't know how they will respond to the East Carolina loss. You will see how much resolve they have this week. I know they will come back, I just hope it itsn't this week. Kenny Kelly has a lot of ability, but sometimes his inexperience shows up. I think Miami - along with Georgia Tech - will be the best team we have faced so far this season. Miami is probably a little better on defense than Georgia Tech, but Georgia Tech is better on offense. This team can beat us. We need to be prepared. It's not fun to play a wounded team. I wouldn't want to play Florida this week after they lost and Miami is wounded too. "Miami has beaten us when everything was riding on it - they won the national championship when we could have won it. We can't be overconfident because they have lost twice. Our coaches are sure aware that they can beat us. The cycle (in the series) is kind of going our way but it can change. We know we are going to be in a battle. Our guys will see the film - they should have beaten Penn State and East Carolina. "I think in a good rivalry, the best team doesn't always win. The 1989 game (versus Miami) is a good indicator of that. We had lost twice entering the game and they were undefeated. We beat them 24-10 but they went on to win the national championship even though we beat them. If we didn't lose our first game to Southern Miss we porbably would have won the national championship. "I feel like we (the ACC) could control the whole eastern seaboard if we got Boston College, Syracuse and Miami. That is just me talking though. I don't know if they (Miami) have been approached." GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH GEORGE O'LEARY Opening remarks about North Carolina: I've had the opportunity to watch a lot of tape on North Carolina. From an offense standpoint I think Ronald Curry is an outstanding athlete. I really think he's going to be an outstanding quarterback who can do it all. Right now it amazes me, seeing some of the innovative things he does on the field. I think it's a typical North Carolina team that has a lot of outstanding athletes on it but has has had some poor luck. I think their kicking game is sound. It's a game that I worry about from the standpoint of athletes. "Offensively they run a lot of different formations. I think they've got outstanding backs. I think basically what's happening is they're young where we're young on defense. They're playing catch up a little bit more than they want to do. I think when you watch Curry on film, he's just a really good athlete that makes a lot of people miss, a lot of good athletes miss. He's just an outstanding player. They have some big backs that can hit the inside and have some speed outside. Athletically, I think they're a talented team. They're probably a lot like us. The defense is young, with good athletes who are in a learning situation." Injury situation: "Travares Tillman (back) is day to day as is Felipe Claybrooks (ankle) in terms of playing this game. I would doubt they'll practice today, but I hope that one or both will practice tomorrow. On the play of FS Cory Collins: "I think [FS Cory Collins] did really well. What I like about him is I think he has great vision. A lot of those young kids when you start to play them, they don't see anything else except what's outside their helmet. He sees the field. Playing him last week has really helped him from a confidence standpoint and from a standpoint of just seeing things and then reacting to them." On the play of the defense: "As long as they're back on the field after a score, I don't have a problem. It's when they're back on the field after a turnover, I have a problem. That's what happened in the Maryland game. We had two interceptions and two turnovers. When you look at the defense and break it down, they're back on the field four extra possessions. That's 17 possessions, and on 10 of the 17 possesions, they were three and out. Right now, as long as we can put points on the board and keep doing what we're doing offensively, and keep moving, defense is where we need to pick up the slack. "I saw improvement [against Maryland}, and I'm as critical as anybody. I saw guys getting to the point better and faster and reacting faster. There were some things that were mental mistakes, a lapse or lack of concentration, and that's what concerned me. I think the defensive staff is doing a good job getting people active and knowing the position to play. I left the field Thursday saying, *Boy, the big plays,' but when I looked at it, the big plays were things that I thought were over-aggressiveness on some people's part. One case was a lack of responsibility and inexperience, but that's improved in practice. I think the way to approach it is you've got to keep coaching them up and hopefully they see the field and not just certain segments of the field." "When you look at the scores across the country, everbody is putting a lot of points on the board. Once they legalized the use of the hand on offense, it became a two-hand touch game. That's neutralized a lot of things right now from a defensive standpoint, and that's why people are going to more man coverage and locking in on guys because you can't get to the quarterback as much as you had. They're throwing on time, they're getting the ball off quickly and they're good enough athletes where if nothing is open, they take off running on you. I think the pressure really comes on the front four or front five with your defense. They get so much more happening to them right away than in years back." On the play of C Noah King "I think it's been smooth. Noah played some center for us last year. He played a lot of plays last year and ended up starting at guard. I think the transition has been good. I think that position is critical in our scheme because he sets the line and what direction we're heading. I think he's done a better than average job, but I think he still has his best games ahead of him." On moving Jermaine Crenshaw from quarterback to wide receiver: "He's a very good athlete. I just thought he had a little tougher time grasping what we were trying to get done. I thought that he was too good of an athlete not to utilize him this year. That's why I approached him about moving to wide receiver. I just thought he would be a good athlete that could play this year and help us. He wants to play. He's a good athlete who needs to get on the field and help us win this year. At quarterback right now I didn't see that happening. He accepted it very well. I'm really just trying to get him some playing time and get him on the field because he's already sat a year. He doesn't need to sit this year again. We need to see if he can do some of the things we want to get done." MARYLAND - RON VANDERLINDEN On the game against Georgia Tech last Thursday: "We made big plays and scored our share of points, but we did not run the ball effectively. We created turnovers on defense but we did not limit the number of explosion plays. I really felt we would play Georgia Tech better defensively. I have a lot of confidence in our defense and I really think we are capable of playing much better than we did last Thursday." On Wake Forest: "They are a very good team. They have 24 fifth-year seniors and are a very confident football team. They are similar to where we are in rushing and scoring defense. They are a very physical football team." "We are going to have our hands full this week against a very formidable opponent on the road." On the state of the Maryland football program: "I am very encouraged with how we have improved so far this season. We have improved in every area of our football team. Offensively, we are much more able to make plays and score points. I feel really good about this team and hopefully we will be able to keep making progress." NORTH CAROLINA - CARL TORBUSH "I was disappointed with our inability in the second half against Clemson to hold on to the 17-10 lead. I felt like we had momentum in our hands and to give up a big play on a long pass several plays after that really was disappointing. I do think that a lot of the same things that happened against Florida State happened against Clemson. It's like a four or five- minute sequence of events where you get yourself in a hole and you can't dig yourself out. We gave up two big plays on the quarterback run and the big pass play, and that really cut our heart out. We also can't afford to turn the ball over and realistically expect to have a chance to win. "We've got to play a lot better on both sides of the ball with a more consistent mode than we've been able to do, especially the last two weeks. I don't think we give ourselves the opportunities we need to give ourselves if we're going to win. It's our inability to make some plays when we need to make them. "Two things offensively that have hurt us have been our inability to make big plays when we've had opportunities and the turnover margin. The turnover ratio is very important and we've just not done a very good job with that. "Defensively, our inability to tackle and our inconsistency as far as giving up big plays has hurt. Those have been our Achilles heel. If you look back at it over the last several weeks, one thing we feel like we've got to do is to be successful on first and third down situations. And right now we're not picking up enough yardage on first down offensively, and we're giving up too much yardage on first down defensively. Both of those put you in a hole. "I do feel like we've played four pretty good football teams. I think Clemson will prove that they're going to be a good team. We know how good Florida State is. Indiana is a lot better than a lot of people thought they would be, especially on offense. And Virginia is a solid football team. We knew going into the season that the first five games would determine a great deal about the personality and make-up of this team and what kind of year we could have. That's the reason this game is very important. We've still got a lot of football ahead of us and I think it's really important that we as coaches and our team keep our head up in a very positive manner. We've got a big game this week and we've got a lot of big games during the season. I think we've got a lot of winnable games and the thing we've got to do is maintain a good mental focus as well as stay healthy physically. If we do that I do feel like you'll see a lot of improvement from this point until the end of the season. "Georgia Tech has a great offensive scheme. Joe Hamilton has a tremendous amount of confidence in his ability and he knows what they're trying to get accomplished on offense. The versatility in their attack is really what makes them dangerous. I've been impressed with Georgia Tech offensively with their foot speed. We always felt like Dez White was an excellent receiver but they've surrounded him with some other receivers who can really run. I've been impressed with their foot speed at the skill positions offensively, and that's not even counting Joe Hamilton who I think is as good as there is in the country. Joe Hamilton has great touch on the ball. It's amazing how many really good deep balls he's thrown in the last two years. He knows where the cavities are on a defense." NC STATE - MIKE O'CAIN On the practices during the off week: "We didn't get any work done outside this past week. We had all sorts of plans to go outside and work on some fundamental things, some things you don't normally get to practice on in a game week, we were going to get some scrimmage time in with the younger players, but we just couldn't do that this week (because of the weather). We did get a lot of good mental work in preparing for Clemson. We watched a lot of film, actually more than we normally look at during a week. Since we were so banged up, maybe it was a blessing that we didn't get to go out and someone else might have been banged up. We were able to go out yesterday (Sunday) afternoon and have a very good workout. It was very enthusiastic and I was very pleased." On Clemson's type of playing style: "Tommy (Bowden) has a certain coaching philosophy, and that is something he believes in and I think that is important to have as a coach and work with that. Obviously he walked into a position where he has talent at the position that you need to be talented. At wide receiver they have kids that are catching the ball very well, four or five good receivers. They have one quality back, and other decent backs. Their quarterback was playing really well. The one place where they are probably not as talented as they would like to be is in the offensive line, and that is only because of their lack of experience. They are doing things though that helps utilize the skills that those guys have and they are successful. It's a great scheme. It's very tough to defend, they spread you out, it's very quarterback oriented. If you get the quarterback to be off a little bit you struggle, but if he's hot then it becomes hard to defend." On Clemson's new starting quarterback: "We really don't know what kind of approach they will take. Obviously last week they took a different type of approach in the second half with using more of an I-formation and Pro-Set. So know there is the question of are they going to continue to do that, or are they going to go back to what they were doing. Now they have an entire week to get their new quarterback ready, and we have to prepare for some different. We have to prepare for the I-formation, the Pro-Set, and the spread out type offense. What (Woodrow) Dantzler brings to the table is he's a better athlete, not necessarily a better quarterback, but a better athlete. He's going to pull the ball down and run with the football., and beat you with that and that makes us bring a different element into the game in terms of pass rush. We have to be able to contain him in the pocket, because if he gets out and breaks a tackle he could go down the sideline for a touchdown. He just brings a whole different element to the game." GEORGE WELSH "What was the game plan going into the Virginia Tech game: "To do it the way we did it. We called 37 passes. I knew we weren't going to get 250 yards against them, but we were hoping to get a little bit more than what we got. We didn¹t get any field position. We had them backed up a couple of times if we can stop them and make them punt, but our defense isn¹t doing that this year. They always manage to get first downs and come out of the hole." On being 3-2 thus far in the season: "I was hoping to be 4-1. I really was, but we couldn¹t steal one in there somewhere, whether it was Clemson or Virginia Tech. Maybe we did steal one at BYU. We could have been 2-3. So we're not in the worst position, but we¹re not in the best position. We have to be able to go one game at a time and be focused. We can¹t be thinking ahead or adding up wins or losses. We have to think about getting better on the practice field and practicing for the opposition for that week." On the amount of injuries to the team: "I don't ever remember a year with this many injuries. I think we've had this many injuries before, but this year, they¹re all on one side of the ball this year (defense). And all those people that were suspended-all of them were on defense. That's why it¹s difficult to execute." About upcoming opponent, Duke: "We should not overlook them, not in our situation. They¹ve given us fits defensively. Our offense has struggled against them for two years now. It is our defense that has played well and has kept us in the game. We don't have the defense this year that we¹ve had the last two years." About the return of starting middle linebacker Yubrenal Isabelle after the death of his mother: "That¹s going to be up to him, his choice. I don't want him playing if his mind isn't right because then, he's going to get hurt. I don¹t think I'll know if he¹ll play until Wednesday." About the offensive line: "I think their pass protection has improved. They did a decent job on Tech's pass rush. Some teams like Clemson just have too many guys on the ball--you can¹t block them all. They're improved. I think Brad Barnes is the most improved player in the line and we're getting good production out of most of them." WAKE FOREST - JIM CALDWELL On the team's focus: "I think overall, our team's focus has been pretty steady in terms of our next opponent. We were certainly focused in on Rutgers because we knew they were a good, solid football team. The same goes for this team as well. We're moving on in the season. You've got two teams with identical records - it's a conference game, we're playing at home, television game - I think all those things add to it. It's an important game for us. Overall it is important for us to get better. Sometimes if the team starts looking at other things that don't matter that much in terms of looking down the road, where we'll be at the end of the season, they lose focus. We try to keep our focus and look at the team we're playing." On the running game, offensive line : "We still have the ability to be better than what we are presently. We're not consistent enough, but it certainly makes a difference for us in terms of being able to control the clock and begin to establish field position. That's been of great value to us. George Belu does an excellent job with those guys up front. The guys up front have been a pretty consistent bunch. They're working together and we have some youth along with some experience. We've got (Brian) Wolverton and (Sam) Settar in there. Michael Collins has played a lot of football for us. Vince Azzolina is maybe a guy people don't talk about often, but he is very good. He does a real good job of sorting things out along the interior. He's like a quarterback on the line of scrimmage. He's a bright guy and has a real mean streak in him as well. All in all, they're playing well together." On Morgan Kane: "He actually strained a hamstring last Thursday, prior to the game. We're giving him the ball a little bit more often. I think if you look back over the years in ball games that we were able to give him the ball 25-30 times, he'd get you 100+ yards. Obviously I think the overall emphasis of our offense has certainly enabled him to come forward a little bit. We do a few more things on the perimeter with him because he is a guy who has speed to get outside and we're giving him the opportunity to do that a little more often." On the kicking game: "Last week we just felt we had to open it up and give some guys the opportunity. We have a good nucleus of place kickers and we just had to open it up and see who would kick the best. It so happened that Kevin Church kicked best throughout the week. It wasn't close, actually. So we gave him the opportunity. This week we're going to kick it again and see what happens. Kevin Church is a very good place kicker. We were hoping he might get an opportunity to kick an extra point before kicking a field goal, just to get his feet wet a little bit. Unfortunately that didn't happen. I just felt I had to go back to the guy that had been in there before in a tight game and let him come through and see what he could do. Matt (Burdick) certainly did a nice job for us. That field goal kick was a very important field goal." On Maryland: "Field position and time of possession will be important. They obviously have a lot of the same strengths that I think a lot of good teams do. They run the ball well with a heck of a back. Lamont Jordan is good. They've got a good, solid kicking game and a good, hard-nosed defense. One of the big things you notice right away about when you watch them on film is that their defense can run. They're fast. They'll give us all kinds of problems and we have to be able to run the ball consistently. We're going to have to throw it with some reg
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