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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 14, 2016

Dave Clawson

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVE CLAWSON: Certainly proud of our team, the way we played at Duke. The game did not get off to a great start for us. We started out three-and-out and gave up a 17-play touchdown drive, but I thought our guys just kept playing hard, and we created some turnovers and were opportunistic on offense and were very fortunate to find a way to win against a very good Duke team, and now we prepare for Delaware.

Delaware is certainly one of the more traditional powers at the FCS level. Having coached in that league for seven years early in my career, Delaware is a very good football program. They have a great tradition. I think this is the best team they've had there in quite a while. They're very physical up front on offense. They're big on the O-line, very athletic in the secondary, and they're off to a really good 2-0 start, so this will be another good challenge for our football team as we try to move forward.

Q. Running back Cade Carney, what you can say about him from game one to game two and kind of how you're assessing him at this point.
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, I'm assessing him pretty well. He's our starting tailback as a true freshman, and Cade makes hard yards, and he pushes the pile forward, and it was nice to see him make an explosive play or two. Again, he's just a really good football player. He's a hard worker. He's strong physically, and he's faster than people think. He's off to a great start for us.

Q. And then as far as your defense, allowing 17 points in the first two games, just what you can say about them at this point.
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, I think we've been very good on defense now for three years, and certainly the Tulane game, that allowed us to win the game, and I thought defensively on Saturday it took us a while to get on track on offense, and our defense kept us in the game with turnovers and not allowing points in the red zone and forcing Duke to attempt field goals that fortunately for us they missed, and that was a really, really big difference in the game because we could have been down two scores early if our defense didn't play so well.

It was another great effort by our defensive staff and team.

Q. You said that you think this is Delaware's best team in a while. What are some of the qualities that they possess that lead you to that opinion?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, I think, number one, how many starters they have back. I think they have 17 starters back on both sides of the football. You know, the whole secondary is very impressive. The corners can cover. The safeties are good tacklers. The linebackers are all excellent players, and they're very deep up front on defense.

And then offensively, the average size of those tackles and guards are probably about 6'6", 290, and then the backs are 210, 220, 230, and they can really get the ball going downhill. They're physical. The quarterback is very dangerous with his legs, and he looks like he has a very live arm, and they've got good receivers, and I just think it's a complete football team.

I know -- I've known Dave Brock for a while, and he's a very good football coach. Sometimes when you get into a place and change the offense, it takes a while for things to kind of set, and it now looks the way I'm sure he wants it to look.

I'm very impressed with them and their physicality, and we've spent some time watching last year's North Carolina game, and they certainly ran the ball very well against them. Again, I think they're extremely well-coached and they have good players, and Delaware has always had good players. I mean, I probably know that league and Delaware as well as anybody in our conference, having spent four years at Richmond and three years at Villanova. Delaware has always had good teams and good programs and good players.

Q. How has your rebuilding at Wake Forest been different or more challenging than some of the rebuilding efforts at your previous stops?
DAVE CLAWSON: Oh, that's a good question. I think every school is different. I think any program you take over, it's at a different place, and every school has different opportunities and different challenges, and I think there's an opportunity to build a good program at a lot of places. I believe that's true at Wake Forest. You know, and I just think in this conference, the mountain you have to climb is pretty high with Clemson and Florida State and the teams in our conference. Those are two of the top three or four programs in the country the last two years.

But again, when I was at Richmond, you had Delaware and James Madison that was winning National Championships.

You know, it's all relative, but there's a lot of similarities, but every school is unique and every team is unique.

Q. Watching the game Saturday, I was struck by how dominant Duke Ejiofor was. Can you talk about the game he played and just his development as an impact defensive lineman?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, he really, the second half of last season, came on strong. He missed the first half of last year with an injury. He came back, and when he came back, he was a difference maker for us. And really as a pass rusher.

And I think now what's happened is his overall game is developed. He's also very good against the run. He's stout. He's physical, and he's also very athletic, and he can edge rush you and he can bull rush you, and now he has some countermoves, and he's just become a complete football player for us.

Q. Were you surprised how easily you took Duke out of the running game?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, we really -- our goal was to make them -- try to make them one-dimensional and take away the running game. When the game was over and I was told they only rushed for 37 yards, I was surprised. It didn't certainly seem like that early. Some of their zone reads got out on us. Again, we tightened down and didn't allow explosive plays in the run game. Duke threw it really well against us, and certainly that was a concern, but again, our goal was to try to make them throw it, and for a while we maybe regretted doing that because they did convert some 3rd downs on us and got open. But again, I was certainly pleased, but when the game was over, I did not realize that we had held them to 37 yards.

Q. Talk about Coach Brock. What type of coach is he because he's turning the Delaware program around. I know the last couple years he's had some off years, but what type of coach is he?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, Dave's reputation is as a really sharp offensive mind. You know, Dave, wherever he's been, this goes back to Hofstra and then North Carolina and then Kansas State and BC and Rutgers, has always done a really good job with the offense. He's a really good quarterback coach, and I think he understands the passing game well, but the other thing about Dave is there's certainly -- the core of it is a very physical downhill run game, and that allows them to get good opportunities in the pass game, whether it be the play action game or the boot game. Again, Dave is a very good football coach and has a very good reputation, and he knows what he's doing.

You can tell it on film. Again, they have a personality and they have an identity.

Q. I know you were watching the film of last year when they played North Carolina and they rushed for like 200 yards against North Carolina. Is that something in the back of your mind that you do not want to see on Saturday?
DAVE CLAWSON: I wouldn't say it's in the back of my mind; it's in the front of my mind. We've watched that tape, and just what gets you is how well they move the front. It wasn't flukey. I mean, they had really good down blocks, and their zone combinations pushed the pile, and they created gaps in space, and then their backs did a nice job once they got in space. Again, it was not gimmicky. It wasn't like reverses or trick plays. It was their core run game. It was their zone stuff, their pin-and-pull stuff, and they're very good at it. Their down blocks are good, their pullers react to linebacker flow very well, and their backs have very good vision on it.

Again, whenever you have a football team that knows what they're doing and how to execute it with good players, that's always a concern.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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