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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 12, 2016

Dave Clawson

Greensboro, North Carolina

COACH CLAWSON: Very pleased with the way we bounced back against Syracuse coming off our first loss of the year. Even within the game, the early snap over the punter's head which put us in the 2-0 hole. We fumbled the ball on the one yard line going in. So we had a lot of adversity early in that game that we caused on our own. I was pleased that we were able to bounce back from that, kind of redirect the ship. I thought our guys, once again, played hard. We were able to win another close game.

Heading this week to Tallahassee. Obviously Florida State is a great program, nationally ranked. Been one of the premier programs in the country. It will be a great challenge for our guys. We're looking forward to it, but we know we're going to have to play extremely well to be competitive with Florida State.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Clawson.

Q. One thing we've seen this week is every three to four years they have the sort of team that's really experienced and can come and challenge. What has been the formula the last three and four years in building this team to when you face teams like FSU, it definitely provides a tough challenge?
COACH CLAWSON: This is only my third year, so I can't speak to the history how it's been done.

We played 18 freshmen last year. We at times started eight freshmen on offense. It was baptism by fire. All those guys now are back. We're still a relatively young team. We don't have a lot of seniors. On offense, it's seven or eight freshmen and sophomores that start for us. But they're experienced. They've played against Florida State and Clemson, Notre Dame, really good programs. I think that experience has helped them. I think they're just going to continue to get better.

We're trying to build a program that's sustainable. Part of our formula of doing that is we end up redshirting probably a greater percentage of players than most programs. Our attrition rate is very low. Hopefully we'll definitely a consistency of play by doing that.

Again, last year's game with Florida State was competitive. We hope we can be very competitive with them down in Tallahassee this week. It certainly was not very competitive two years ago when we were down there.

We're going to have to play very well. A lot of our young guys are going to have to step up.

Q. You speak about those young guys, what they've learned. What have you seen from them in year one to year two? Jimbo says Wake is patient and knows when to take their shots.
COACH CLAWSON: It's certainly nice of him to say that. We have not been able to run the ball here the first two years. Part of it was we were not very good on the O-line our first year, and our second year we were really young. At times last year we started three freshmen on the O-line. Now all those kids are sophomores. We've been able to run the ball better, which allows us to win the time-of-possession battle more than we have before. If you can run the ball, you get more favorable looks to take shots down the field.

There was no reason to really ever out-number the box against us in the past because we couldn't run it. There's less one-on-one matchups on the perimeter, less opportunities for deep shots because the safeties are cheating in there. Now that we're running the ball better, we have opportunities to maybe take those shots a little bit more than we have the past two years.

Q. Last year Dalvin Cook broke a good run against you early. Seeing him on film, how much more varied or dangerous is he this year catching the ball out of the backfield?
COACH CLAWSON: Last year he had I think a 96-yard run and then after that he was hurt. It was not like we slowed him down after that run.

Again, you can make an argument that he's the best tailback in all of college football. I haven't seen them all. I haven't watched every back. I'm sure there's other people that would argue for other people. But from what I've seen on film, if there's anybody better than him, I'm not sure who it is.

He's even become a better blocker. Last year he was a great runningback. This year he's catching the ball out of the backfield. Certainly some of the things they do with him in the screen game is creative. They have different ways of getting him screens or flares. Then with some of their quarterback run game, they're using him as a blocker. He's a tough kid. He doesn't shy away from blocking.

He is a good blocker, good pass catcher, and just a tremendous runningback. I mean, he's a great player. It will be a real challenge.

The other challenge is the quarterback is playing well. They're really gifted at receiver and tight end. They have a bunch of guys capable of making explosive plays.

Q. You played them tough last year. Ended up losing. Playing Florida State tough early in the season, how much did that kind of carry through for confidence the rest of the season?
COACH CLAWSON: I don't know if there was much carryover from it. I think the players in our locker room are very competitive. I don't think they ever take a positive from a loss. I didn't think they walked away from that game saying, Hey, we feel good because we had a chance to beat Florida State with a minute late, came up short. There's that same level of disappointment every time you don't find a way to win.

Again, I don't know if we gained a lot by playing them tight. I think you either find a way to win and you're successful or you don't. We certainly felt we missed some opportunities against them last year. Again, they're a great team. Whenever you play a team the caliber of Florida State, your margin for error is very small.

Q. How difficult is it to play down in Tallahassee? How difficult is it for road teams to function and get out of there with a win?
COACH CLAWSON: I mean, it's very difficult. It starts with the quality of the opponent. I mean, they've got really good players and really good coaches. They have a great tradition and a really strong fan base. It gets loud. So Florida State is a great program. I think anytime a team has really good players and good coaches, it's always hard to go to their home field and beat them.

Q. Your run defense is doing really well this year. Miami tried to stop Dalvin Cook. Is he a different type of runningback?
COACH CLAWSON: I think he's special. He has everything a great runningback needs. He has very good open-field speed. He has really good vision. He has burst. He has the ability to make people miss in tight spaces. He's a home run hitter, but he can also get tough yards. He can push the pile.

There's nothing that he doesn't do exceptionally well.

Q. I looked at the stats and see Wake and Florida State are the two best teams in the conference in turnover margin. Can you talk about how important that is in the ultimate game results.
COACH CLAWSON: I think every year you can look at the end of the year with turnover margin. That stat, there's very few teams that don't win that stat by a large margin that aren't very successful. If you look at the teams that are 1-11, 2-10, 3-9, they're at the bottom of that stat.

I felt last year if we had taken care of the ball better, we would have won a couple more games. It was a major point of emphasis for us. Again, we've played a lot of young guys that maybe didn't value the ball as much as they needed to. We now have enough depth in our program that if you don't take care of the football, you're not going to play.

That is a reason I think we're in the position we're in, is because we have valued the football more. Our turnovers are way down. When you play a team the caliber of Florida State, with the athletes they have, Florida State right now I believe leads our conference in turnovers. They've created the most turnovers of anybody in the conference. If we don't take care of the football, it could get ugly early.

If we can make a few first downs and change field position, make them go long field, that isn't necessarily a bad drive for us. But if we turn it over and give them a short field, it's going to be very tough to win this football game.

Q. Florida State's defense. They were really shredded the three games before Miami. Against Miami, they looked like the old Florida State defense. What do you see on film that changed? What are the problems they present?
COACH CLAWSON: They present a lot of problems. First of all, up front, they're really big. DeMarcus Walker is one of the best defensive ends in the whole country. The two tackles, Christmas and Nnadi, are 308 and 312. They're physical but also athletic. Josh Sweat, 9, is very athletic. He was one of the very best players in the country coming out a few years ago. Their linebackers, their secondary are very athletic and very active.

They close space so quickly. There's plays against them that look like they're going to be 10, 15, 20 yard plays. The space that they close, their ability to get things on the ground so quickly, they're very, very difficult to make big plays against.

They've also played I think five of the top 50 offenses in the country. When you look at who they played, how good those teams are offensively, you can look at stats and teams can be high or low, but certainly the caliber of competition affects that. I don't know if a defense has played more good offenses this year in the whole country than Florida State.

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