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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 2, 2016

Dino Babers

Greensboro, North Carolina

COACH BABERS: We're about to play a fine Clemson team and I just don't see any weaknesses offensively; what can you say about them: Probably the Heisman Trophy candidate, fantastic receivers; experienced offensive line, very talented. Running backs that are really, really big.

And then you flip it on defense and you've got draft choices all over the place in the front and outstanding linebackers with DBs that can cover.

Dabo does a great job with them offensively. His two young coordinators, their scheme is outstanding. And, of course Venables, what can you say about him? He's been around a long time and he's always been -- top defenses.

We have a huge task. We are going to play in a hostile environment on Military Appreciation Day, and hopefully we can survive this thing and continue on and try to have the type of season that I think these seniors deserve.

Q. Your quarterback, Dungy, is having a good season, he's only a sophomore. I know he played at Louisville and at Florida State last season, but you haven't really been in a big-time road environment this season. Just wondering how well equipped do you think he is so handle the environment and noise of Death Valley as well as maybe some of your younger players that you have on the squad this year?
COACH BABERS: Well, I think it's something that's already been addressed. I think you're right on. I think that I disagree with one thing. I think we've played in that environment this year when we went and played Notre Dame at Met Life and I didn't think we handled it very well, the noise, the distractions. I thought we were in the game at half-time and we were -- you know, I thought that we didn't handle it well and hopefully we'll handle it a lot better in Death Valley.

Q. I wanted to ask you a little bit about recruiting, given that you had some time to focus on that for the bye week, 2017 classes starting to fill up. Do you have an idea of about how many kids you're going to be able to take and what positions are you trying to harp on as you round it out?
COACH BABERS: When it comes to the positions, we are recruiting a complete team. So you can just pencil in 22 guys all the way across the board. We've got to recruit a complete class based off of how low our numbers are, and then we're not quite sure how that's going to end up and how far we're going to go past that.

Q. Kind of on that topic, obviously can't name the player, but there's a running back recruit who said he was kind of told by the staff that some of the current backs might be moved to different positions and that might be part of why you're taking currently three running backs. Have you talked to any of those guys on the current team for plans for moving them and what do you think about that possibility?
COACH BABERS: First of all, you're talking about something I know nothing about, and the last thing we would do is tell someone who is not in our program things that's going to be going on inside of our program. We're a family. We're Ohana in La Familia (ph). Unless you're inside, you really don't know what's going on.

Q. I know you weren't there last year, but can you speak about Eric's toughness, the gritty display he's displayed since you've been with him?
COACH BABERS: You know, I think that he's a fiery young man, and I think he has -- the team draws energy on the way he battles. We haven't protected him as well as we should and we need to protect him better.

And when you're going to play the type of people that we're going to play down in Death Valley, we're going to have to do a better job of it than we have all year because we would like to keep him around the entire year. I'm sure they have got hostile intentions for our quarterback.

So we need to do a better job. We need to protect him. I do like his fire. I do like his grit.

Q. In your entrails to Bowling Green and Syracuse, as you've taken over a roster that is not used to your tempo offense, what have been the challenges, or how has that gone molding players already on the roster into what you want to do offensively?
COACH BABERS: You know, we try to look at what we have and try to make do. One of the things when you're taking over a program, you have to make a decision; are you going to gear it towards the personnel that you have, or are you going to gear it towards what you want the program to look like or the schemes and the systems that you want to run to bring the recruits in so they can see themselves playing.

And the two previous stops, we geared it towards the personnel we had. And this stop, we have to gear it towards the future; and to be able to show some of the recruits that are recruiting what we are going to try to do and have them visualize seeing themselves in those situations.

Q. With Dungy and just the other offensive players, is it overrated the idea of, well, you have players that are recruited to a certain system and now they have to go up-tempo? Is that overrated or is it an adjustment process?
COACH BABERS: It's an adjustment process for some. Now some players will be able to adapt based off adaptability, but then other ones, it's extremely difficult. So there is some truth to it.

Q. You knocked off Virginia Tech right after they beat North Carolina. Clemson just beat Florida State. Now you have to play them. Using the same philosophy with Clemson as you used with Virginia Tech?
COACH BABERS: You know, I think that Virginia Tech and Clemson are entirely two different football teams. And when you look at Clemson, there's really no weaknesses. You may be talking about the best college football team in America, regardless of how the vote came out.

This team doesn't have any weaknesses.

Q. Along that line, it's pick your poison against Clemson: If you stop the run, the pass kills you; and if you stop the pass, the run kills you. What are you going to try to do, which one?
COACH BABERS: I'm going to try to rotate.

Q. Keep them guessing?
COACH BABERS: Yes, sir.

Q. Watching Clemson on film -- and last question and thank you for your time today. What specific problems does their overall movement on defense, especially stemming the defensive line, create for Dungy?
COACH BABERS: Well, I think anytime you're moving the offensive line, the defensive line around, the offensive line has issues. And if they miscommunicate or they don't see a picture exactly right, you can have one of those big, nasty defensive linemen running through clean and that can be a huge problem for Dungy.

Q. What have you seen these last few weeks to explain, okay, this is why we've won the last few weeks and this is what's changed and improved about our team?
COACH BABERS: I think the biggest thing is just the belief in what's going on. I think the Virginia Tech win solidified the team together as a family, and it enabled us to go out and play a Boston College team where we were not favored to win, and we were playing on their Homecoming Game. To have to find a way to win that game, that was a very difficult game. And based off of what Boston College did the next week versus NC State and what NC State did versus Clemson, you can see how good of a football team not only NC State was, but also Boston College.

I think any time you go into a hostile environment, as long as you're together, you have a chance.

Q. When you look at Clemson's defense on film, is there an area that's, okay, either the secondary or the pass rush that makes you think, okay, this is the biggest test we're going to have this year so far?
COACH BABERS: You know, again, I hate -- this team has no weaknesses. Their D-line; draft choices. Their linebackers; draft choices. Their DBs can cover and they are over six-foot in length and they are fast; draft choices.

Offensively they have a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback, outstanding wide receivers and a very veteran offensive line. And oh, yeah, the running back, he's really, really good, too.

I could talk about the special teams but their No. 2s are better than our walk-ons and our threes who play on our special teams. This is a complete football team. It's going to be a giant task for us to go down there.

Q. I know you said it's a tall task, but what can you say about your offense up against this defense, just what you can see kind of on film from the defense of Clemson and how Eric Dungy and his weapons have been performing up to this point?
COACH BABERS: Well, again, I just think it's going to be a very difficult task. We're going to have -- sometimes we're going to have to run the ball when they think we're going to throw, and sometimes we've got to throw the ball when they think we are going to run.

They match up extremely well with us on that side of the ball and probably overmatch us on that side of the ball. So it's going to be a long, long day.

Q. And as far as the offensive line, I know it's kind of a carousel of moving-around parts due to injury and different players fitting in different places. What can you say about the offensive line at this point going into your ninth game of the season?
COACH BABERS: That they are extremely young and I'm glad that most of them are coming back next year.

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