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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 5, 2018

Dino Babers

Greensboro, North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: Coach, could you make an opening statement, then we'll take questions.

DINO BABERS: Wagner is a fine football team. We're looking forward to have an opportunity to play another good football team from the state of New York on Saturday.

Questions.

Q. We hear all the time the theory that teams make their biggest improvement from week one to week two. Is that a theory you subscribe to? Why do you think that may be the case?
DINO BABERS: I think it's definitely the case from our first game. If you look at our game in three parts, the first part we came out and played a very, very fine game the first half. Obviously the third quarter was a part that did not go our way. There was a huge momentum change. The way we came back in the fourth quarter, took the game back out of their control, put it back in our hands shows the amount of learning that can go on in a first contest.

Obviously Western Michigan was a fine football team. You normally don't want to play a team that good, that's capable of beating you coming out of the gates. If you come away with a win, it's a fantastic learning experience, and we'll have a lot of growth from it.

Q. Is it possible to know much about sort of the mettle or resolve of your team until they're tested? Is it nice to get a little bit of a test out of the way in the opener?
DINO BABERS: The answer is, I don't think so to the first part of your question. It was nice to see that test, to see them be in control, first of all, which is always good. Then to let it get a little bit out of control, and for them to regroup and refocus, put out the fire, so to speak. It was encouraging to see that.

Q. To look at Tommy DeVito, obviously he got some reps out there and had some opportunities. What could you say about what you took from his time out on the field, looking back at the film?
DINO BABERS: Well, I thought all our young people played exactly the same on the film. They did some good things, they did some bad things. We have a freshman free safety in the game that came up with a fantastic pick I believe on the first or second series of the game. Later on he let two balls go over his head for touchdowns. We had another freshman playing in the game that did some things where he wasn't really close enough to the receiver to challenge him. Then he came back and Trill Williams did some fantastic things later on, being more competitive against those wide receivers. No different than Tommy DeVito. He had a situation where one situation on third-and-short, he didn't do very well. Another situation where he threw the ball down the middle of the football field, looked very, very good.

The whole thing about is you have to get them out there. The football game is going to be faster than they've ever seen it. Really good athletes will adjust to it. All three of those freshmen will adjust to it and they'll all get better.

Q. As far as Moe Neal, 28 carries in the game. Given the opportunities to the backfield, seeing what they can do, what did you take away from the backfield in general and 30 carries to Moe Neal?
DINO BABERS: I think that's -- Strickland was a little bit out of camp. He had some alleys in camp. Moe went through the whole camp. We don't gear up our carries like that. That's just a happening that Moe Neal got more.

I think the most important thing between both of those backs is they didn't turn the football over. They gave us an opportunity to continue to pound. They didn't turn the ball over. There were some tough runs. I want to say both of them had receptions, which was good for the throwing game, see their hands coming out of the backfield. They did a fabulous job in pass protection. They're complete backs and will continue to share the load until we can figure out one is a lot better than the other one. If that's the case, we'll play them both.

Q. Talk about the play of your quarterback, Eric Dungey, named ACC quarterback of the week.
DINO BABERS: First of all, how do you start? Courageous, no fear obviously, one of the leaders of our football team. When you're a quarterback and you rush for 200 yards, you look at the other four guys that have done it in ACC history, the guys that are on the list, you can take roll with that. Those are some fabulous names.

I believe Eric deserves to be on that list. When you think about what he's done with his legs in the first football game, what he's done with his arm in the previous two years, I'm not sure there's another runner-passer combination in college football that can do some of the things that Eric can do with his arms and his legs.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.

DINO BABERS: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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