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WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 9, 2017

Dave Clawson

Boston, Massachusetts

Wake Forest - 34, Boston College - 10

COACH CLAWSON: Good win. Any time you can go on the road in this conference and find a way to win, it's a great win for your program.

We have a lot of respect for BC. They're very physical football team, and I just think the big difference today is we took care of the football. We created turnovers. We capitalized off turnovers. We had enough of a balance on offense. Certainly, that seven- or eight-minute drive in the fourth quarter with the field goal I really thought was a critical drive of not letting them get back in the game.

Just really proud of our players. I think they had a great effort today. In our mind, we beat a pretty good football team on the road. Really proud of them and will enjoy it for 24 hours and then work on the next one.

Q. What do you think the key was to creating the turnovers today?
COACH CLAWSON: Well, you have to go back, I think some of those throws we had some pressure and maybe the ball was thrown before they wanted to throw it.

I think, too, that we did a pretty good job of defending the run, and that's a lot for a freshman quarterback to have to carry the load by throwing the ball. So, I mean, it's a combination of things. Good plays in the secondary. Good pressure up front, not allowing them to throw it on time. I think all those things add up to interceptions.

Some of it was just a little bit of luck. The one ball at the end of the half, the kid, it just kind of glanced off his hands and into Essang's hands for the touchdown. And obviously, that made it a 14-point lead, which was a really good lead for us.

Q. Prior to that, it kind of seemed like momentum was on the side of Boston College. What kind of went wrong during that stretch to kind of have them seize the momentum?
COACH CLAWSON: It was one drive. I mean, momentum, we had a pass interference. They had a few good runs and they scored a touchdown. But we got the ball back, and then they stopped us. But we punted it and pinned them down tight, and that's a tough two-minute drill at the end of the half.

So I don't know if we lost momentum. I think we gave up one drive. You're going to do that against an ACC football team. We're not going to be perfect. And it is what it is.

Q. There was some disruption that their defense caused when it looked like Landry only got loose for one sack. How pleased were you with the offensive line?
COACH CLAWSON: We ran the ball when we had to. That fourth quarter drive, the big difference in this year's game and last year's game is this year we converted some third and ones and third and twos by running the football.

Last year, every time we did that, we got stuffed. Last year, our third down conversion was awful in this game, and a lot of it was third and one, third and two. This year, you know, Matt Colburn had those two conversions in the second quarter. Those, to me, were the plays a year ago we didn't make that we did make.

Q. He kind of got the bulk of the carries because he was riding the hot hand early?
COACH CLAWSON: Yeah, just riding the hot hand. Some weeks it will be Cade, some weeks it will be Matt, and some it might be Arkeem.

Q. Any special emphasis on forcing turnovers, or is that just the way it worked out?
COACH CLAWSON: That's something that we work on every day. At our practices, there's a segment every day in practice devoted to disrupting the football.

I did that every day when we got no turnovers when we first got there. And to go back and say, well, jeez, you're doing that, that's why you're creating turnovers, I mean, we did that in '14 and I don't think we created, I don't know, 10, 11 turnovers the whole year. A lot of it is just having better players.

Q. How would you assess John's play today?
COACH CLAWSON: Steady. He did what he needed to do for us to win the football game. Some of those plays he made on third downs to keep plays alive. The play he hit on Cade, the play he hit on Chuck on first down with a guy in his face, and he didn't turn the ball over once. I don't know if there was close to being an interception.

So, I mean, he was really efficient, really smart, and he was the winning quarterback. And that's what the starting quarterback -- it's his main job is to win the game.

Q. Greg Dortch, the first freshman to have touchdown catches in his first two games. What did you think of him today?
COACH CLAWSON: Well, I just learned that that's a stat. Greg makes plays. And, again, credit to BC that they did a lot of things to try to bottle him up. It wasn't like he was running around free or didn't get challenged at all, but that was a huge play he made on the first touchdown.

Steve told me that the team that scores first in this series always wins. So that was one of the SID stats I got earlier in the week. I said, I don't want to put any pressure on you, but the team that scores first in this series has won I don't know how many games in a row.

Q. What's your thoughts on starting the ACC slate 1-0, and then, of course, this game is early and beating a team the caliber of Boston College.
COACH CLAWSON: Every league game is huge so it's kind of nice. We don't play another ACC game, I think, three or four weeks. So put out the standings every week, at least for a while we'll be near the top. The goal is to try to stay there longer.

But we'll have a challenge next week against Utah state. It's the nature of coaching. I tell the players 24 hours. I probably enjoy it 24 minutes.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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