	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 MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 17, 2010

Jim Grobe

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to today's ACC football coaches teleconference.
We'll bring on Wake Forest head football coach Jim Grobe. We'll ask for a brief opening statement, then go to questions.
Coach.
COACH GROBE: Thank you.
We played another really good football team this past Saturday in North Carolina State. I was really impressed with their team, especially some of their difference-makers. I thought Russell Wilson played game. We felt like Nate Irving played great. Their football team is very talented.
I thought our kids played good in the first half, not as well in the second half. The encouraging thing for us was that some of our younger players played well and showed some maturity which has been missing this year.
Think we're getting a little bit better, but we'll have to be a lot better to compete with this Clemson team this Saturday.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Troy Calhoun has become a big deal out here. What signs did you see that would make you think he would be a great coach?
COACH GROBE: He went to the Air Force Academy there to begin with. He started there as a player and loved coaching. My first head coaching job, I actually waited on Troy to get out of the Air Force before I hired a quarterback coach so that he could be my guy.
He's got all the attributes that you look for. He's obviously brilliant. You don't go through the academy without being a smart guy. He's really, really smart, has a great love for the game. He has a passion for it. He's a guy that just does all the things that you want a coach to do. Great work ethic, great with the kids, all those kind of things.

Q. Their defense has been rock solid. How do you combat that speed and aggressiveness?
COACH GROBE: Well, it's really, really hard. Their speed and aggressiveness you mentioned, the key they've got up front is some of their guys are nearly unblockable at times, they're just so good in the defensive front. Then their linebackers and secondary support, you talk about fast guys that can rally to the football. You just got a lot of problems.
Your first thought is try to design plays against their scheme, but then you always end up with one-on-one situations, and that's the problem. Da'Quan Bowers is a great player. The other three guys up front, you don't find any of them that you feel comfortable running the football at or protecting in pass coverage.
They're just a really talented group all the way around on defense.

Q. How has Price measured up for you as a quarterback this year?
COACH GROBE: He's done as well as we could hope. I think at times Tanner's problems have been supporting cast. I think you look at a true freshman and you think right away you've got problems. But really some of the times that Tanner hasn't played quite as well you can attribute it as much to the 10 guys around him as to him.
We feel like Tanner has played about as well as we could possibly hope for for a true freshman to play. He's gotten better every week and doing all the things you need to do as a quarterback. He studies lots of film, works real, real hard in practice. We've seen a lot of growth in him from the first time we put him out there until now.
Hopefully these next couple weeks he'll play even better.

Q. You've been in the ACC title game before. The game has been marked by spotty attendance. Is there any reason you can put your thumb on why that's been the case?
COACH GROBE: Well, to be honest with you, I'm not really sure. In some cases if the ACC championship game was going to turn right around and host one of the like the Bowl games that one of the teams was going to go to, or if fans felt like it was hard to travel to Florida and see the championship game, then turn around and maybe head back to Florida for a Bowl game, some fans maybe felt like that was a stretch to make both.
I think it's going to be interesting to see what happens in Charlotte now because it's a little more centrally located and it will be interesting to see if people don't feel like they can make both trips.
But I think that's what I think is a little bit of an issue with the championship game, knowing you're going to be in a Bowl game not too far away.

Q. I wanted to ask you about a more general thing. Hot topic this weekend is the idea of a team faking injury to slow down a fast offense. It's supposed to be unethical, but there's no specific penalty. Is that something you've seen in your career teams trying to do and what is your reaction to that tactic?
COACH GROBE: Well, we've always felt like at times, we felt like when we were at the Air Force Academy running the wishbone stuff, at times kids would lay on the field just to get a break, to try to catch their breath. I don't think they were intentionally trying to do anything wrong or maybe even weren't hurt. We felt at times they just got so gassed out, they had to take a break.
Most kids are not going to lay on the field if they're not really hurt. I think the issue would be maybe if coaches were coaching that. But I would be shocked if that was the case. You always teach your kids to be tough, aggressive, hard-nosed, all those kind of things. I would be shocked if kids were being taught to fake injuries just to slow the game down.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us today. Good luck this weekend. We look forward to talking to you next Tuesday.
COACH GROBE: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297