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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 23, 2010

Jim Grobe

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to today's ACC football coaches teleconference.
Welcome, Coach. We'll start with a brief opening statement and then we'll go to questions.
COACH GROBE: We lost this past Saturday to a really good Clemson football team. I was disappointed that we didn't get a win, but I think we've made some strides with our younger players. I think we're seeing some maturity from our guys now, and we're starting to improve.
Unfortunately, we're out of time. We've got one left at Vanderbilt this Saturday, and I'm hopeful that our young guys will continue to improve and will play better and get a win.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Obviously the season was not good for you guys. I was wondering, did you kind of privately, before the season, think, okay, I'm not going to say this but I think I'm in for a long year here because I could see some certain problems with this team? Did you see this coming privately before the season there?
COACH GROBE: You know, honestly, I think as coaches you always see a silver lining. And you always have that pie-in-the-sky attitude. You feel things are going to work out. And in the past we've always found a way to get our teams to be competitive.
Early in the year we weren't even competitive, and that was a shock to us. But I think our biggest issue, aside from only having four seniors in our two-deep right now is that the quarterbacks that we thought were going to be the guys, Ted Stachitas and Sky Jones, got hurt early in the season, and a lot of the spring preparation and August preparation to be a gun option team kind of went out the window and we ended up scrambling from about the third game of the season on. And I think that was something we didn't foresee.
We felt like going into the season that Ted Stachitas and Sky Jones would be our quarterbacks, and both of those kids were down right at the start of the season. So that got us scrambling, and ultimately we ended up playing a true freshman at quarterback.
So I think that was the unknown. I think going in we felt if we could stay healthy that we could be a competitive football team. But we haven't been able to do that.

Q. A follow-up on that. How do you feel about your quarterback situation moving forward? And how do you think your offense -- how much different will it look next year?
COACH GROBE: Honestly, I feel great about the progress we've made with Tanner. It's not showing in wins right now, but I thought against a really tough physical Clemson defense this past Saturday, Tanner really grew up. We really went in the game almost afraid to throw the football too much, because we didn't know if we could protect him. And we really didn't do a great job of that. I think we gave up three sacks, if I'm not mistaken.
But he showed great poise. He got rid of the ball. He made a couple of mistakes mentally but for the most part, when we did try to throw the football, he was sharp and showed some maturity and made some great decisions.
So I think going forward, I think you're talking about a kid in Tanner that didn't have the benefit of spring practice. And being a true freshman, he's going to improve physically here in the offseason and have the benefit of a good spring practice and another August camp.
And so I couldn't be happier to be honest with you with Tanner Price's development. And I'll tell you the other thing is I think Sky Jones has hung in there pretty good as a back-up and really been a positive for us.
And we haven't had a chance to get him on the field but I feel like going into spring, if Tanner continues to improve, we'll be good with a starter and possibly have a couple of kids backing up that are capable of coming in if something were to happen to Tanner.

Q. How difficult is it given the circumstances of this season and you closed it out going on the road against a nonconference opponent. Do you sense that the kids are still looking forward to games on Saturdays? Can you read that very well?
COACH GROBE: You know, I think a lot of times, when you've lost as many games in a row as we've lost, I think the nine teams we've lost to are all Bowl teams. And several of those teams had quarterbacks that were mentioned for the Heisman Trophy preseason.
So we really have played a really brutal schedule for having a young football team. And I think typically at the end of a year, like we've had, the coaches and the players can't wait to get the season over. But I really have never sensed that. I know our coaches have had a lot of fun here these past few weeks just seeing young guys get better and better and practice hard and go out on Saturday and play hard, even though the results haven't been good.
So I'm hopeful that the players feel about the same way the coaches do. We're just looking forward to playing another game. I didn't feel good in the locker room Saturday after losing to a good Clemson team. But I told the players the blessing is we've still got another chance.
So I'm hoping the players are looking at that. I got a sense that our players still want to play and we'll find out Saturday.

Q. How important is it for all the hard work that they put in to see something tangible on the field?
COACH GROBE: Well, it would be huge. I think that one of our issues, especially in our freshmen and sophomores, and there's a lot of them, I think we've got 13 freshmen in our two-deep right now, those are a lot of guys without a lot of confidence right now. But their work ethic is not diminished at all.
So I think you make a good point, with all the work we've put in -- and we've pressed our guys pretty hard -- it would be huge for us to get a win at the end of the season and see a little bit of reward for all the hard work that we've put in. But we've got to play better than we have.
We haven't played as well on the road as we have at home. And I think our guys are going to have to not only show some improvement on the field, but show some maturity traveling to another team's backyard and just showing a little bit more grit than we have this season.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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