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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 29, 2018

Dave Clawson

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVE CLAWSON: We've had a really good camp and I think had a lot of development and improvement in our football team from the end of spring practice to where we are now. Looking forward to heading down to New Orleans today and kick the season off against a very improved Tulane football team.

With that I'll take questions.

Q. You spoke on Tulane. What can you say about the coach on the other side? You said a well improved Tulane, talk about Willie Fritz.
DAVE CLAWSON: I think Willie Fritz is one of the most underrated, one of the best football coaches in the country. From junior college to Division II to FCS, Georgia Southern. Everywhere he goes, he wins. He makes his football teams better. His teams play incredibly hard. Great effort. They've gotten better every year.

This is a team that was six inches or perhaps a replay booth camera angle away from being a bowl team a year ago. We played them two years ago, and they really outplayed us and probably should have beat us.

They have a much better team this year. They have a really good senior quarterback. They have nine returning starters. On offense they have good skill. They're big up front. Two years ago they defended us as well as anybody did.

This will be a challenging game. A major reason is because of the head coach on the other sideline, someone who really knows what he's doing, has proven that over and over again.

Q. As far as quarterback, how has he taken everything in stride, looked through fall camp?
DAVE CLAWSON: Again, he was an early enrollee, he went through spring football with us. There's no question that's been a big help. But he's the same person every day. He comes out, he works, improves, he learns the offense. He studies a lot of film.

I mean, I just think in today's football, true freshman quarterbacks, it's not that unusual any more. Seems to be more and more of them popping up. I think part of it is the coaching these guys get at the high school level is better and better. The fact we can get these guys in January and go through spring football is going to help us, too.

Q. Dave, how ready is Jamie Newman to help, given the time that he missed?
DAVE CLAWSON: We'll find out. We're trying to get him ready. He's been doing a little bit more every day. We still have another, whatever, 40 hours before kickoff so we'd like to have him available if we need him. That will probably be a game time decision.

He's been getting better. He's been able to do more. So we're encouraged. We'll know tomorrow night. That's truly going to be a game time decision.

Q. Coach, getting back to Willie Fritz. You listed off a lot of the places he's coached. Somebody that you've known for a while, followed his career?
DAVE CLAWSON: I mean, we're certainly acquaintances. We played two years ago. We have some people that are kind of common friends. I visited with him last year at the convention for a while. Again, just very aware of his rÃ©sumÃ©, what he's done.

Our paths are so much similar. There's not too many people who are Division I head coaches that have kind of worked theirselves through the level, whatever, FCS, mid-major, all that. The guys that have done that, I always find their career path interesting, the different things they've done, how they've adjusted their plans and blueprint at different schools, different levels with different resources.

I think our career paths have a lot in common. Like I said, we have some similar friends in the profession. I have a lot of respect for him. I just think he's a really sharp, organized coach. When you watch the film, coaches always use the clichÃ©, 'they play hard', but these guys do. I'm watching their PAT field goal block unit, they're up 30 points against Tulsa. These guys are playing like the game is on the line. I think those things are coached, it's a reflection of coaching. He's excellent.

Q. Looking back a little bit relating to your own career, you've been to different schools, had different turnaround success. What does it take to be able to do that?
DAVE CLAWSON: I just think you have to have a plan. You have to believe your plan, at times stick to your plan even though you may not have instant success. A lot of times these jobs become available because they're not in a good place. I think also when you're at schools like Tulane and Wake Forest that are private, academic places, you don't have the ability to maybe get some junior college players or transfers that maybe other people can. I think how you build programs at a place like Wake Forest or Tulane is different probably than three quarters of the teams that play Division I football.

Again, I think it's having a plan. Certainly having the ability to tweak your plan as you learn the institution better, but never giving up on your core values or the things that you believe in.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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