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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 18, 2017

Bobby Petrino

Greensboro, North Carolina

BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, we're looking forward to traveling to Tallahassee and playing a very good Florida State team.

As you watch them, they continue to get better on offense. We know their quarterback James Blackman really well. We had him a couple years ago at our quarterback academy, very, very talented with the big arm and very intelligent player, also.

Defensively, they are a good football team. They have a great defensive line, speed at linebackers and big, physical secondary. It will be a great challenge for us but we're looking forward to it.

Q. Urban Meyer expressed last week he thought there should be a limit on how many road night games teams have to play each year. I believe you played three last year and two already this year. Do you have any thoughts on that in regards to whether there should be rules in place so that teams don't have to play too many road night games each year?
BOBBY PETRINO: You know, I've never really thought about it. I've thought about when you have to travel and play on Thursday night; that you should not have to play, you know, a Saturday night game because that is a quick turnaround and real hard.

We seem to be playing a lot of noon games in our conference right now. So it's something you have to get used to, getting up early and getting going.

Q. With the way your defense has been playing lately, how much stress and pressure is your offense feeling when you always need to make something happen every series because you don't know what's going to happen when the other team gets the ball?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, well, offensively, we have to have the mindset that we're going to go score every time we touch the ball. We have to be more consistent doing that. It helps us when we're running the ball and mixing it around. But we have been able to make big plays but not consistently drive the football. So that's what we're working on, our execution, and everybody doing their job on every play.

But defensively, we need to improve, we did some good things in the first half but did not do a good job in the second half.

Q. Did you have some concerns before the season about the defense; that there could be some weaknesses there that could be exposed this year, or was it something you were taken by surprise this year with the defense?
BOBBY PETRINO: Well, I think the team has changed a little bit with some of the early injuries that we had on defense and losing a couple guys before the season started.

But we need to expecting to out there and perform and play well. One of the things that would really help that is our ability to tackle. So we've been working extremely hard at that.

Q. As a follow-up to that, the tackling issues, what kinds of things are you able to do or practice during practice to be able to shore that up and get better?
BOBBY PETRINO: Well, first, closing to the running back and do what we call, you know, shuffle, run, shuffle, so we're in good body position to be able to strike the ball and then getting more guys to the ball. Working extremely hard at getting everybody to run full-speed to the football.

Q. What has been the mood or the mindset of theme week at practice as you guys try to put what happened this past weekend behind you and look forward to Florida State?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, it was a hard loss, there's no question about that. Something that we didn't expect to have happen. Got in a position where we could still come back and win the game and then had a real bad turnover.

But our guys came back and practiced well and put a lot of effort in, and working hard on our preparation. It's just one of those things that you have to overcome adversity. It's one of the things that football is supposed to teach student athletes. We're going to stick together as a team, have a positive attitude, a lot of energy and go out and practice hard.

Q. As lopsided a game as you had last year against Florida State, do you address that or do players know that inherently from experience playing football?
BOBBY PETRINO: Really what you do is put it behind you. It's always a new team, new year, new players, new momentum. You try and prepare and get ready for this year's team and what we're going to face from Florida State.

Q. Following up about last year's game. When you look back on that, you guys ended up having the year that you did, and that seemed like kind of the launching point of Florida State being a really good team, winning ten games. To look back on that as maybe one of the bigger -- to beat a No. 2 team by 43 points, maybe one of the bigger wins in program history; what stands out to you about looking back at that game at what went so right and what went so well for your team?
BOBBY PETRINO: Well, really, when you watch it, it's the effort and the enthusiasm that we played with, and everybody making plays. We had offensive guys making plays, defensive guys making plays, and we played extremely fast which meant we were prepared for the game.

Now we've got to try to get down there and match that effort and match that speed.

Q. You guys have had a couple of big wins against Florida State, that one and back in 2002, I think on a Thursday night. When you play against an opponent of this calibre, especially in this conference, how big of a game is that and how important is it to compete against them for your program?
BOBBY PETRINO: Well, I think it's a great game for our players because a lot of guys on their team know a lot of the players on our team. Some of them played against each other growing up. It's a good rivalry for us, and you know, it's been fun going down there and playing a couple years ago and it's always been a good match up when we've been up here.

I think we've got to get in a position where we have an opportunity to win it in the fourth quarter.

Q. Last one for you, real quick one. James Blackman at the camp up here, was that last summer, 2016?
BOBBY PETRINO: No. It was two summers ago he was up here at our quarterback academy. He was I think going into his junior year. It was fun. He's a very good young man and a really good player and was really into it. You could see his motivation and how much he concentrated and how hard he practiced.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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