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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 20, 2017

Dave Clawson

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVE CLAWSON: We're certainly pleased with how we played a week ago. Defensively we came ready to play with an early interception. On offense we continue to start fast. I'm excited we're being able to make more explosive plays, create longer touchdowns, get ourselves out of bad field position with the ability to do that.

Did some good things on special teams. We had a 75-yard punt return. Our kickoff coverage has been good. Just looking to keep building on that as we play an excellent football team this week in Appalachian State up in Boone.

What they've done the past two and a half, three years is incredible. Last 35 games, they're 29-6. Their only losses have been to Georgia, Tennessee, Clemson, Miami, a 10-win Troy team and a nine-win Arkansas State team.

They're not just a good football team, they're an excellent program. They have a quarterback starting his 40th game. They got the Offensive Player of the Year as a tailback in the conference a year ago. They're very stout on defense. They're extremely well-coached.

This will be a great atmosphere and a really challenging game for us.

Q. Last year you were the lowest-scoring team in the ACC. Then it came out that there were teams that had your playbook. Since the Wikileaks thing came out, you scored more. Is there any correlation to that or is that just coincidence?
DAVE CLAWSON: I don't know if we'll ever know. We know for certain, certain games, that stuff got out. I don't know if we'll ever know the full extent of it. Did it happen 36 times or did it happen six times? We try not to think about it.

I'm just glad we're playing better now. I think we're executing better. That certainly has a lot to do with it. But if other people don't have our game plans and what we're doing on third-and-two, what we're doing in the red zone beforehand, that certainly helps as well.

Q. Do you think there's any kind of psychological thing from your players knowing, Maybe these guys don't know what we're going to do, gives more confidence?
DAVE CLAWSON: I don't know. We don't talk about that as a program. We really tried to move past it last year when it happened. I thought the bowl game, our kids played loose, with a lot of freedom knowing that wasn't going on. We have not talked about it since. The only thing that we share with our team is the importance of keeping things in-house. We always did that. Because of what happened, it takes on additional meaning.

Q. Just from the standpoint of a much better offensive production this year, what are the things that have gone into that? Execution and experience I think would be two. What do you see as the things that have come together offensively this year?
DAVE CLAWSON: Yeah, I mean, I don't want to oversimplify it, but we've been playing freshmen and sophomores for three years. We're basically playing with all the same people we did a year ago, with two new offensive linemen. Everyone else are the same players.

What happens is when individual players get better, your team gets better. But when you have the top 18 guys that played for you, 16 of them are back, they're all improved, that allows you to take a real significant jump.

Very simply, we probably have about 15 to 18 guys on our offense who have played a lot of football the last year or two that have really improved. Them doing that collectively has allowed our offense to take a big jump.

Q. How much of that is just due to the play of John Wolford at quarterback, his ability and experience that he's shown?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, again, is he playing better? Yes. But I also think we've surrounded him with better players. The offensive line is playing better. He has more time to throw the football. We're making more people miss on the perimeter. Our runningbacks are getting more yards after contact.

I certainly think John probably could have done this in the past. I don't know if we had surrounded him with the players that he has now. But the fact that we've done that, and now he has a little bit more time to throw the ball, guys are getting open a little quicker, it certainly allows him to play better and execute better, not have to force as many things.

The fun thing would be to say, This one thing has happened. It's never just one thing. It's collective. John is part of that, but the offensive line is a big part of it. The fact that we're better at tailback is better. The fact that we're more experienced at receiver, probably a little quicker and faster is part of it. All those things kind of stack on top of one another and allows you to take a nice jump.

Q. Did you see this type of start to the season coming as you went through fall practice?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, the one big thing is when you watched us practice in the passing game, the ball was on the ground a lot less. I don't care if it was routes on air, skelly, team. It's our completion percentage and efficiency was so much higher. We were able to protect better. We were getting open quicker. The ball was more accurate. That's the one thing I always gauge in the passing game, is how often is the ball on the ground. How often is a defensive lineman knocking it down. How often is it thrown in front of a guy, behind a guy. How often is it dropped or disrupted.

That was the one thing that really stood out in camp, is the amount of times that when we threw the ball, whatever the stage, individual routes, routes on air, skelly, the ball was on the ground a lot less. I thought that was a really good sign.

A lot of that was against our defense, which has been a pretty good unit for us the last three years. So when we were able to do that against our defense, I certainly felt a lot better going into the season than I had in the past.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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