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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 12, 2018

Dave Clawson

Greensboro, North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: Now we're joined by Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson. Coach, if you could please give us an opening statement, then we'll open it up for questions.

DAVE CLAWSON: First of off, all of our thoughts and prayers are with all the families along the coast. We hope everybody is safe in their travels. We're concerned about a lot of people in the Carolinas and Georgia and the southeast through the hurricane. Obviously that played a factor this week in the scheduling of our game. There was a lot of conference calls involving the ACC and BC and Wake Forest. The decision was made to move the game up and play it. We're optimistic we're going to have good conditions and be able to play the football game.

Aside from the weather, obviously Boston College as a team and a program presents a great challenge to us. They've been one of the hottest teams in the ACC over the last second half of last season and this year. Won five of their last seven, seven of their last nine. Offensively they've just exploded. They have a really good physical, O-line. The quarterback, Brown, has really improved from when we played them a year ago. He started that improvement the second half of last year and has looked great this year.

A.J. Dillon is one of the elite runningbacks in the country. The tight end Sweeney is just I think one of the best tight ends in the ACC if not the country. They're really good.

Defensively BC is always good. Extremely well-coached. They play hard, physical, hard to move, excellent in the secondary. This game will be a great challenge for us. But we're excited. Looks like we're going to be able to play it. I know our guys are looking forward to being on national television.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. As you look at Michael Walker, how dangerous is he? What is it that makes him good in that role?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, he's just one of those guys that has the ability to make you miss in space. He does a lot of things for them. He's a good receiver for them. He's a good kick returner, good punt returner. I think with all good returners, it's the ability to make that first guy miss, then get vertical and get up the field. He can make the first guy miss. He's fast and elusive enough to make other people miss and pull away from people. He's a weapon. He's very good. He's also a really good all-purpose player. He's also on their punt team. He's a guy, along with Jeff Smith, they'll run a lot of the reverses and speed sweeps with.

I think as a whole, BC is just one of the most improved teams in our conference. Certainly Michael Walker is one of the reasons, but Kobay White, Jeff Smith, their collection of receivers have all stepped up for them.

Q. Big picture, with the NCAA rule change, you can fair catch the kickoff, what is your thought on that? How have you seen it used or not used so far this season?
DAVE CLAWSON: I don't know if it's been utilized as much as I thought it would be. I mean, certainly we look a lot more at hang time now than we used to. I think there's that gray area between the five and the goal line, depending on the height of the kick, of whether you want to take it out or fair catch it.

There's also the risk with the fair catch that if you call for the fair catch and don't catch it clean, you're stuck with the ball at the one or two yard line. You got to get really good at practicing those fair catches because the penalty for not handling the fair catch is severe.

We haven't seen it play out much. We had a strategy going into the year with it. But it really hasn't kind of displayed itself yet. We've only played two games. Due to the kicks we've got, it really hasn't played a factor yet.

Q. I'm sure there were a bunch of options on the table for the game tomorrow night. Give us some insight as to why the decision was made to move up the kick.
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, I mean, first of all, football coaches aren't responsible for making those decisions. We shouldn't be. I mean, those are game operations and travel considerations. It was very apparent that BC wanted to travel down here, wanted to play the game. They did not express any hesitation in doing that. Then it was just a matter of is it prudent and is it safe. It was just a matter of kind of delaying the decision until we learned more about the storm track and what the conditions look like, make sure it was safe for BC to get here and get out, make sure it would be safe for the players and the fans. A decision was made yesterday to play it. But we reconvened today to make sure that was still the best decision.

I guess the weather moved in a way that they felt it was still good to play. That was really the only thing on the table, was whether we were going to play the game or not.

Q. Comment on the advances you've seen from the BC ground game from last September when you played them.
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, it just felt like last year earlier in the year they were kind of finding themselves on offense. They were in a lot more spread personnel groups, in a lot more what we would call 11 personnel. They were trying to go up-tempo. It was sometime after our game that I just think they kind of found their identity of going back to being BC. That's being a downhill run team, big backs, multiple tight ends. They're still very multiple. They just do it in a different way.

The amount of tight end sets, unbalanced sets, their speed sweeps, their play-action game, they've gotten very creative, but just with heavier personnel groups. I think their offensive coordinator, Scot Loeffler, is just really one of the more underrated coaches in the conference. I think he does a great job utilizing his personnel. I think the improvement in their quarterback, Anthony Brown, I watched him play our game a year ago, then I watched him later in the season, now you watch him this year, the incremental improvement is very obvious, how comfortable he is in the offense, how much more decisive he is, how much more accurate he's become.

You combine that play-action game with a back like Dillon, who when this guy gets his shoulders north and south, 245 pounds coming downhill, he's got great vision. I think they've done a really nice job of designing their offense around the skill set of their personnel.

Q. I was asking Coach Addazio about Hartman today. What do you see in him. He said I see John Wolford. Is that a comparison?
DAVE CLAWSON: I think they wear the same number, maybe they get confused in the cut-ups.

I mean, there's definitely some similar qualities in terms of their intangibles and decision making. But John was a fourth year senior starter last year when we played BC. Some of those decisions that John made as a freshman and a sophomore, he was able to learn and grow from. Sam is going to be starting his third game.

Having said that, I think Sam has handled it so far really well. He's the same person every day. He's got a really good work ethic. He loves football. Those are a lot of the qualities we loved about John Wolford. There are some similarities, but to say they're carbon copies of one another, that's not exactly true. They're both good players. We were fortunate to have John. We're glad we have Sam.

Q. What kind of an emphasis have you had this week on limiting turnovers there? What has been the emphasis to pull that off?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, we've turned it over too much this year. We've turned it over five times already this year, after turning it over 13 times the whole year a year ago. Last year we averaged one turnover a game. This year we're averaging two and a half. If that habit doesn't die, it's going to become very costly for us.

This game a year ago at BC, if you look at the yardage and all that stuff, was a fairly even game. The difference was that we won the turnover battle 4-0. We've done a lot of good things this year, but protecting the football isn't one of them. If we don't learn to do it, it's going to cost us.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.

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