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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 3, 2010

Jim Grobe

THE MODERATOR: We now welcome Wake Forest head football coach Jim Grobe. We'll bring on coach, ask for a brief opening statement, then go to questions.
Coach.
COACH GROBE: Thank you.
Really disappointed this past weekend. I felt really good going into the Maryland game. We'd had a week off. I liked our plan going in. But I thought Maryland played really, really well. I was impressed. I thought they got us in all three areas. I thought they ran the ball well, which kept us off balance defensively. Offensively we didn't play well at all. We didn't run the ball well, threw a couple picks for touchdowns. Special teams, again, they got us in that area. Blocked a couple punts early that really put us behind.
Just really disappointed. Thought our kids were ready to play better than they did. But I thought Maryland, they've kind of hit their stride. They're playing really good on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game.
So I was disappointed that we came away with a loss. But, again, I think for the last six games we've played some really good football teams.

Q. Jim, you're facing Montel Harris of Boston College. Faced him twice already. He's having another excellent year. What is it about him that seems to set him apart from some other runningbacks?
COACH GROBE: Well, I think one thing, he's obviously very talented. I think he's got a really good offensive line up front blocking for him. And the thing I like about him, I think he's a tough guy. Shoot, last week against a pretty stout Clemson group, I think he had 37 carries. I think he's got all of it. He's got the ability. He's got a good supporting cast with him.
Maybe one of his better assets is he's a tough runner and he's durable. He hangs in there and gets the extra yards. He's the whole package, I think.

Q. One of the things he did last week, he caught a touchdown pass coming out of the backfield. Is that one of the things that maybe he's improved on during his career? Do you see some areas where he's better now than he was his first two years?
COACH GROBE: Well, we've always thought he was pretty special, to be honest with you. I think it just shows you how well-rounded he is. I think he's maybe their third leading receiver coming out of the backfield. Of course, that was a big play last week where he caught the ball for a touchdown.
I think it's not surprising that when you see all the things that he does running the football so well, taking care of the football, not turning it over. Being able to come out of the backfield and catch the football makes him that much more dangerous.

Q. Jim, I was curious what you thought of Danny O'Brien, whether he was a kid that you looked at when he was in high school down in North Carolina?
COACH GROBE: Yeah, we did. We liked him a lot. Really, really smart kid. Great character. All the kind of things that you look for from an intangible standpoint. Tall, mobile, threw the ball really, really well. He's playing great right now.
I don't know whether we could have gotten him or not. We've kind of been in a situation where we've been trying to take just one quarterback each year. We didn't like when we had Brett Hodges behind Riley Skinner, both those kids in the same class. We've really tried to settle on one quarterback.
A lot of times it's a matter of who commits first, that kind of stuff. We probably dragged our feet with Danny. I don't know that we could have gotten him away from Maryland. But he's essential playing great for them. Happy for him. Wish we hadn't lost to him, but we're happy to see him doing well.

Q. Will you take a second quarterback if he's a so-called athlete who could play another position?
COACH GROBE: We haven't. As you know, starting the season this year, we really wanted to be more of an option attack. In fact, we hung in there with that until we got all of our quarterbacks banged up.
I think that's what we're still looking for. We're looking for an athletic quarterback. We wouldn't want to pass up a Riley Skinner, a kid that throws the ball that well.
But I think for us, and I think for most people now, you'd like to have an athletic quarterback. Might be primarily a thrower, but if he runs well enough to play another position, that certainly makes his stock go up if you think he's got the ability to play more than one position.

Q. Jim, Boston College hasn't been putting up a lot of points. Do you think you could score more points and take this win?
COACH GROBE: Well, what Boston College is doing a really good job of, they're doing a nice job of running the football. They've got a young quarterback. But he's got a good supporting cast with him. As you watch Boston College, they're continuing to improve.
Our problem right now, we're playing so many young kids, I think we started five freshmen on defense against Maryland this past weekend. As you know, that's not us. We don't want to be in a situation where we're playing that many young kids. But we're going to have to.
If we don't play better defensively, we'll have no chance. And I think one of the issues for us we were not very good against the run against Virginia Tech. I thought we would be better last week against Maryland, but they had a really good day running the football against us. With Montel Harris and this rushing attack, we got our work cut out for us.
I would hope that we can improve, but we have to if we're going to have any chance to win a football game.

Q. Coach, coming off this great week against Virginia Tech, Harris followed up with a little tougher week. Is that a case of maybe opposing defenses waking up to him and game planning him or something else?
COACH GROBE: I'm not sure. To be honest with you, I'm sure that Maryland saw what he did against Virginia Tech. I'm sure that was a guy that they kept their focus on.
Again, with a freshman, you don't know whether it's an up-and-down kind of thing for a freshman. Tanner Price had the great game against Navy, but then turned around the next week and didn't play real, real well.
I think with a freshman, you never know whether it's the defense focuses on him more, which I think was part of it last week, or that possibly the young guys are a little bit more up and down than more veteran players.
I think the offensive line has something to do with that, too. I thought Maryland's defensive front got after our offensive line pretty good. So I'm not so sure. My guess would be, is that Maryland focused on Josh a little bit more and just made a commitment not to let him carry the football.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us.
COACH GROBE: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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