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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 13, 2010

Jim Grobe

COACH GROBE: I thought that our football team played really, really hard this past week against a good Navy team. And, again, for two weeks in a row, we weren't able to close it out and lost to what I think is a pretty good football team but we've certainly got a lot to improve on and we've got a greater challenge coming up this Saturday in Blacksburg.

Q. Since you probably feel like you should be or certainly could be and probably should be 4 and 2 at this point. Do you feel like you're on the verge of being a good football team and just coming up short? And, if so, what are the things that could turn you into being one?
COACH GROBE: Well, I think, really, we could be a decent football team. I think one of our issues has been playing at Stanford and then at Florida State and against Georgia Tech and against Navy. We've played four really good football teams that go to Bowl games every year. So we're playing a really tough schedule.
Obviously we've had some issues at the quarterback position. I think we're starting to get those ironed out. We thought Tanner played really well this past Saturday.
But, yeah, I think we can be a good football team, and we might not be as far from that as we think. But our problem is we're just playing good teams every week. We're not getting any chance to catch our breath.
I thought certainly Stanford was an embarrassment, but we know they're a pretty good football team. I thought we competed a little better at Florida State. Thought we competed really well against Georgia Tech and against Navy but came up short.
It's really hard to tell where our football team is, honestly, because we're playing really good teams. So on one hand we're really disappointed that we lost this past Saturday, but we know we're continuing to play good football teams and we may play the best one this Saturday in Blacksburg that we've played so far.

Q. Of course, everybody is aware that the Hokies got off to that slow start, but they certainly seem to have turned things around. What are the things that stand out about them to you?
COACH GROBE: Well, this is a typical Frank Beamer team. I think you look at all three areas, offense, defense and special teams and you can't find weaknesses. I think they've really hit their stride right now.
I think they're playing their best football of the year. They've got the offense cranked up, and Tyrod Taylor is doing a good job with that, and defensively they're starting to play defense like they used to play. Very aggressive, and maybe a little more manned coverage than we're used to seeing, very aggressive, very physical, of course, special teams.
They're continuing to do the stuff that they've always done. Block punts and kicks and cover kicks really well, and of course their return game is special.
So I just think this is the Virginia Tech team we're used to seeing. When you look at all three areas, you really don't find any weaknesses.

Q. A player development question for you. You've had some success at Wake despite not possessing top recruiting classes every year. I wonder if you attribute that to what the coaching staff is able to do from the player development aspect or something else? Just talent evaluation, just wondered if you could give me your secret sauce up there?
COACH GROBE: Obviously, we're not using much of that secret sauce right now. Our problem this year is we don't have many seniors in our program. This is not a strong senior class. I might be wrong, but I think the other night we only started three, maybe four seniors, and that's not good for Wake Forest.
Our niche is to be patient with kids. You know, we've got some kids in the past that have played early, but for the most part we're getting the lion's share of our repetitions out of kids that are juniors and seniors. It's not that way this year.
We're playing a true freshman at quarterback. We're playing a couple of other true freshmen, a red shirt freshman and a bunch of red shirt sophomores right now, and that's typically not what we've been successful with.
So I think there is kind of a formula for Wake Forest, and that is bring in kids, develop them, and count on them when they're juniors and seniors. But this is one of those years where it's kind of upside down. We're really counting on more young guys than we are older guys.

Q. Do you think that formula is similar at Boise State or TCU or some of these major schools that are doing well?
COACH GROBE: I think depending on your talent level, and everybody's different. Nobody's got the same talent level. But I think for us at Wake Forest with our academics, and the restrictions that we have, we typically get really good football players, but they may need some development. You know, they may be just a little undersized or whatever, and they need a couple years to develop.
I think if you look across the country, schools that may not have the recruiting advantages that some people have, but are being very successful, you're probably looking at the rosters and seeing a pretty good number of juniors and seniors in starting positions and even throughout the two-deep. I think that's where teams have an opportunity to compete if you aren't typically getting the talent that some of your opponents have. But you're able to develop them, and be patient, and play, and count on their best football being junior and senior years.
It makes sense that you're a little better off playing 22 and 23-year-old guys than you are 18 and 19-year-old guys.

Q. Yesterday, at his press conference, Coach Beamer was talking about how you two have a relationship that is a little closer, little different than the typical coach-to-coach relationship. I just wanted to know how you would describe your relationship with Coach Beamer and how it's sort of developed over the years?
COACH GROBE: First of all, we like to play golf together. That is one thing. And his wife Cheryl and my wife Holly are good friends. We've just developed a friendship over the years.
We've had friends in coaching that we've worked with, and we've just kind of developed a relationship where there is a mutual respect in the way we run our programs. I don't know that anybody runs a program better than Frank Beamer.
He starts out with treating the kids well, and teaching them values and those type things. So he's always been a guy that I've admired by the way he runs his program, and we just enjoy spending time together.
If I had a son playing college football, there is nobody I'd rather have him playing for than Frank Beamer. So I think we've just kind of developed a good relationship. I wish I could beat him on the golf course, but unfortunately I can't.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Tanner real quick. What did you see out of him last week? Coach Beamer was saying he didn't really look like a freshman last week against Navy. What did you see out of him last week that impressed you and has you looking forward to what he's got in store going forward?
COACH GROBE: Yeah, that was very encouraging this past Saturday. Really coming back we felt like we were going to be an option football team because you never count on a true freshman coming in and being your quarterback.
With that in mind, we really thought that the strengths of our quarterbacks coming in was their ability to run the football and not throw the football.
We knew Tanner had a really good arm, but early in practice he showed the great arm, but not a lot of accuracy. And, quite frankly, we were working a lot on trying to have a quarterback that could run the option and throw the football. So we weren't stressing the throw side as much as we were the run side.
You know, with all the injuries we've had at the quarterback position, we just kind of bit the bullet last week and decided to try to do some things that we felt Tanner would be effective at.
Since he got knocked out at Florida State, we took some of the option out. We still have some option stuff in our offense, but we took some of that out and hung our hat on him throwing the football.
As much improvement as any kid I've had in any of my programs in a week's time. You know, he missed the Florida State game, and came out Saturday just played great. I thought he had good pocket presence. I thought he came out of a couple of good pockets.
But I thought when he did have a pocket collapse, I thought he showed some composure and moving around and trying to keep the playa live and find check downs. You know, he just in literally a week's time, improved as much as any kid that I've seen in that short of time.
Now, our challenges Saturday is much greater than the one we had last Saturday. We're going to go against a really aggressive, tough, physical defense that has great athletes and are very well coached.
His challenge, of course, this week will be greater being on the road in Lane Stadium. That's not going to be easy for a freshman quarterback. But he's exceeded our expectations and done it in a short amount of time.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Tyrod Taylor. Winningest quarterback at Virginia Tech. Kid looks like he can beat you with his feet and his arm, but you don't hear much about the kid. Do you feel he's flying under the radar a little bit? What are your thoughts on Tyrod?
COACH GROBE: I think he's the top-rated passer, if I'm not mistaken, as far as efficiency in the league right now. When we watch him throw the football, I think if you didn't know how good his feet were, you'd watch him throw the football. He puts the ball in good places. I think he's over 60% throwing the ball. Some of those are drops.
So if you just looked at Tyrod and said, okay, can this kid throw the football. You'd be very impressed with his ability and arm strength and touch and all those type things. But when you combine that with his ability to hurt you if the coverage is pretty good, and run out of the pocket, it makes it a nightmare for our defensive coordinator, and our defensive coaches.
I think we've played against some pretty good quarterbacks up until now. We've played against some guys that throw it and run it pretty good. But I think he might be maybe the most dangerous combination, because I think he can go the distance running the football against you.
You've got to expect the throw. It's not one of those deals where you can put everybody in there and keep them from running the football, and hope you can hold up in the throw game. You just can't do it.
We know as a football program, we're going against somebody really, really special. And the good thing for at this Tyrod is he's got a great supporting cast. I like his receivers. Everybody knows they've got a great complement of running backs. But their offensive line is running well. They've got nice tight ends. I mean, the guys around him are doing a good job supporting him, too.

Q. You guys just have an uncanny ability to be playing close games the last two years. Do you notice a trend as to why you're not coming out on the other end of them?
COACH GROBE: Well, obviously, we're not making plays late. Whenever you win, our best teams have been teams that found a way in the fourth quarter to make plays when it counted. We just have not been doing that.
I mentioned a little bit earlier, but one of our problems is every team that we've lost these close games to is a good team. We haven't played one team that we were better than and just went out and messed it up. It's been a deal where all the teams that this is happening with are Bowl teams and good programs.
Part of it, the number one thing, we're not making plays in the fourth quarter. The other thing is we're playing really good teams.

Q. The other question I have for you is in recruiting. Do you think some other teams have sort of caught on to the Wake Forest philosophy? You guys, before, with Alfonso and some of the other guys with Curry are diamonds in the rough. Now that you're on the recruiting trail, do you know of other programs that say, hey, Wake's going after that guy, so maybe we should go after him too?
COACH GROBE: Well, I think that happens in some cases because one of the things that we start with character. We try to find a good kid. Then we start with number two, we go to a kid that we think can graduate from Wake Forest. So that means he's got to be a solid kid in the classroom.
Then we get to the football side of it. And with some of the things you see going on across the nation right now, I think all coaches are more tuned in to kids that have good character, and kids that can graduate from their program.
So I think that's become more of a focus. I think there was a time, maybe, when people spent too much time worrying about the football side and didn't worry too much about the character and academic side. I think there is a trend for people to look a lot more strongly now at the character on the academic side.

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