	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 19, 2018

Dave Clawson

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVE CLAWSON: We're looking to bounce back after a hard-fought but tough loss to BC. BC played really well and deserved to win the football game, and we've got to bounce back. We're doing that against an excellent Notre Dame football team. They're undefeated. They're playing really well on defense. They have yet to give up over 17 points. Offensively they've got a great O-line, an experienced quarterback, and really good skill. So we're excited to be home again on a nationally televised game, but it'll be a great challenge against a very well-coached and good football team.

Q. Can you just talk about your approach to Kendall now and how you see using him and how that's going to unfold?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, I mean, there's a lot of different things Kendall can do. He's a very talented athlete. He's a very explosive player, and we've got to find different ways to get him involved. There's a number of different ways we can do it. He can play quarterback or receiver or get involved in special teams, but we've got to get him involved, and it's obviously a big plus for us to get him back.

Q. How has he handled the whole situation?
DAVE CLAWSON: He's handled it well. I think he was excited Thursday night when that game was over. It was hard for him to not be with his teammates. He was looking forward to the end of that game, and the next day he was lifting, and now he's involved in the game plan, and now he's like everybody else. I think that was a date he was looking forward to, and now we move forward.

Q. In terms of his physical conditioning and his shape, how is he?
DAVE CLAWSON: He's good. I mean, he's got the freshest legs on the team right now, so he's in good shape and he's been practicing, and he hasn't got hit at all in three weeks, so he feels like the kids at the beginning of the season when they're relatively fresh.

Q. You've had experience with this, so I'm going to ask you the same question I did with Coach Fuente. With the cancellation of games due to weather issues, does the NCAA need to start the season a week early and leave that week before Championship Saturday as a national makeup date?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, I think it would be nice, but you really have to look at how much football kids are playing, how long the season is. This year they canceled four practices so kids wouldn't have to start camp in July. And then if you create that bye week at the end of the year for cancellation games, you're just completely undoing the reason that you pushed practice back. I just think we get to the point here in college football that however many years ago the season was 10 games, then it became 11, and now it becomes 12, and then there's a conference championship game, and then there's potentially a bowl game or a playoff game and the National Championship game, and we don't have as many scholarships as they had 30 years ago when there were 10 games.

So I just think the impact on student-athlete welfare -- how much football do you want guys playing, how long is the season -- like I said, we just this past year went from 29 practices to 25 so that kids wouldn't have to start camp in July. And if you do that, you're basically completely undoing that role and now starting camp in July again. Again, it would make it convenient for scheduling, but is that really in the best interest of the student-athletes? I don't think it is if you feel it's important they don't start camp until August.

Q. Talk about Notre Dame's quarterback Wimbush; what do you see from him? He's good with his legs and he can also beat you with his arms. What do you see from him this week?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, you said it. He had a career game against us a year ago. I mean, he's, first of all, an extremely dynamic athlete. He's probably one of the best running backs we've faced this year as a running quarterback. He can make people miss, he can run through people, he can run around people. He can go from a horizontal to a vertical cut. He's very elusive, and he throws a really great deep ball, and they've got five or six receivers that can go up and get it. This is one of the most talented and skilled quarterbacks that we'll play all season.

Q. Talk about the crowd this weekend because Notre Dame doesn't really come to North Carolina that much, and they haven't been to you guys in a very long time. Talk about what you'd like to see from the crowd, and if it's going to be one of those exciting weekends there in Winston-Salem.
DAVE CLAWSON: It is. I think we're either at a sellout or close to a sellout, and we just want it to be a lot of black and gold. That's our deal.

Q. This week the ACC and the CFP are celebrating Extra Yard For Teachers. Can you talk about what role or impact teachers had in your life?
DAVE CLAWSON: Well, I don't think you want to become a football coach unless teachers had an impact on your life. I think at heart, we are teachers. We just happen to teach a subject that guys wear shoulder pads and helmets and throw a ball. But I can look back and there's a handful of people in my life that were teachers and coaches that I thought were really stand-out people and role models that made me want to become a coach. So I'm grateful for the teachers that I had in my life, and they're the reason I do what I do and I am where I am.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297