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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 28, 2016

Dave Clawson

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVE CLAWSON: Yeah, was really pleased with how we played last week. Anytime you can find a way to win on the road against a Power Five team, it's a good day, and the game didn't start out great, but I thought our team just continued to play hard and not look at the scoreboard, so to speak. You know, it was encouraging to see us win the turnover battle the way we did, and it was also very encouraging to see our offense respond as often as they did, that every time it became a one-score game, the offense would get the ball and drive it down the field and get it back to a two-score game. All in all, a very good day, but we have a great challenge ahead of us against a very good NC State team on the road, and they're very talented on both sides of the ball, and they're well-coached.

NC State is always a tough place to play, so we have a very big challenge ahead of us.

Q. Everybody in the ACC has an off week at some point in the season. NC State is coming off an off week going into your game. How big an advantage or disadvantage is it when you have that extra week to prepare?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, I think it's always an advantage, and it's not just the preparation, but you get guys healthy. Even though this is -- the season is only a third over in terms of games, when you look at camp, this is about the halfway point, when guys start getting tired and sore.

But you know, again, we'll get a bye week before an opponent, too. Indiana had a bye week before us, but I'm sure NC State has had a few extra days to prepare for us and get a chance to get some guys healthy, and given the choice of having that or not, I think you'd always rather have that. But again, this happens all the time in college football, that people have different bye weeks, and you just have a week to get ready, so we're on our normal schedule.

Q. I wanted to ask about Wolford. It's just my impression, but it seemed like he had one of his strongest games Saturday. Was any factor of that the fact that he knew the burden was on him, that he wasn't looking over his shoulder to see if there would be a change or anything like that?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, I mean, I don't know. I guess you could get into the psychology of it. John certainly played well the second half at Delaware, and it was his strongest game, and he took care of the football. He made plays with his feet. I think part of it is he's healthy, which he wasn't a year ago, and he's a guy that out of camp won our starting quarterback job, so it's not as if we don't believe he's a good player. We believe John is a very good player. I don't think we were surprised with how he played. We know John is capable of doing that, but I was most pleased with his decision making.

Again, any time you can win the turnover battle 5-0, your quarterback has a lot to do with that. So I thought his decisions of throwing it away, when to run, all that stuff, was really well done.

Q. I know you thought going into the year you might have a bowl team on your hands, but has any certain area of this team performed better than you expected so far this season?
DAVE CLAWSON: I mean, I don't know. I think I expected us to be better. I think I said that before the season, that I felt this was -- certainly this would be the best team we've had during our staff's time here, and I thought we would be much improved, and you know, you hope at some point the record reflects that. Certainly I'm happy with how the offensive line is playing. That needed to happen for us, and it has happened, which is good. But again, we've got a lot of good teams ahead and a lot of good defensive lines, and this week is one of them. NC State to me has one of the best defensive lines in the ACC, if not maybe the best defensive line. They're big, they're athletic, they have depth, and this will be another really good challenge for our guys up front.

Q. You've been to, I guess -- I don't know if you've been to all of the opposing stadiums in the ACC, but you've been to a lot of them. What is it about NC State that makes that a particularly tough place to play?
DAVE CLAWSON: Oh, they draw well, and they're certainly loud, and it's just a very enthusiastic fan base. It makes it a fun place to play, and I'm sure North Carolina State enjoys that, but I think as a visiting team, it's a great atmosphere to play in. You know, it gets loud, and again, they're enthusiastic, and they're into their team. It makes it a great college game day experience.

Q. How are some of your banged-up guys progressing, Kendall Hinton, Cade Carney, guys like that?
DAVE CLAWSON: Kendall and Cade will not play this week, but we think we're getting some other guys back on the D-line. We think we'll get Shelldon Lewinson back. So we're actually probably ahead of the game from where we were a week ago from an injury standpoint, although we're probably at least another week away with Kendall and Cade.

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