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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 26, 2011

Jim Grobe

JIM GROBE: We were very fortunate to come away from Durham the other day with the win. We felt like both teams played really, really hard and just felt really fortunate to come away and have a win. And now we've got to go back to Chapel Hill, and haven't played the Tar Heels in a while, but they've certainly got great talent, and it'll be a big, big challenge for our football team.

Q. You mentioned about the Duke game. It seemed like that followed a very familiar script where Duke outplayed you guys for stretches, even out-gained you, and yet somehow come the fourth quarter you guys find a way to win the game. Do you have any rational explanation for how you guys have continued to win close game after close game over Duke?
JIM GROBE: I wish I did, but I can't say that I do. I feel like our kids played hard and made plays when it counted, but at the same time, I think you've got to be a little bit lucky when that happens. We just happened to make a play. Chris Givens made a great individual play at the end of the game, and then our defense had to make a couple stops when it counted.
But there's no real rationale to it. I just think we've had two teams that are both very competitive against each other, and since I've been at Wake Forest, we've had a bunch of those type of outcomes.

Q. You mentioned Givens. What has he done to kind of take that next big leap this season? He's obviously always had the talent but right now he's playing at all-ACC levels.
JIM GROBE: Well, Chris used to be a flashy guy. He used to make some good plays once in a while, but he had good foot speed and he would make a play here or there. But at some point we wanted more consistency out of him, and that's what we're getting, and it's a tribute to the kid. He's worked very, very hard and he's become a very dependable guy. And I think his work ethic is paying off because he's not a guy that makes a play once in a while, he's a guy you start to expect to make big plays.

Q. Kind of an odd question for you, but I saw where Keith Henry, I guess you moved him to special teams as your coordinator. I'm wondering if you can tell me kind of the pros and cons of having a dedicated special teams coach. Seems like teams kind of do it both ways.
JIM GROBE: Yeah, I kind of like it. We've never done it before, to be honest with you. This is our first year trying it. Billy Mitchell, who's been with me all over the place, we were together as assistants at Air Force for Coach DeBerry, and then Mitch came with me to Ohio University. And he had our kickers at the Air Force Academy, then he also did it at Ohio University and he did it here at Wake Forest. But I just really felt like -- felt uncomfortable that our kickers didn't have someone with them every day, kicker, punter, long snapper, holder, those kind of guys. We just kind of used them and we would give them things to do during practice but a lot of that practice time they were pretty much on their own, and I just felt like we needed to give those guys a coach that could be with them all day long and spend all day kind of mapping out what we were going to do on all of our different special teams.
I like it. I think the advantage is you've got somebody keeping an eye on those guys all throughout practice and kind of planning their day. And then you've got somebody each day, when everybody else is breaking down offensive and defensive film, you've got somebody that's focusing just on special teams.
We've never done it before, but I kind of like what we're doing right now.

Q. What to this point was your reservation about doing it?
JIM GROBE: Well, I think, you know, just as much as anything, you pull one guy off one side of the ball or the other. You know, with nine full-time assistants, you've got four on offense, four on defense, and one as a special teams guy, and we've done it both ways. We've had an extra guy on defense before and an extra guy on offense, but I just felt like we could get by with four on each side of the ball. And that's -- usually you keep five on the offensive side, depending on what kind of offensive scheme you've got, so you've got a guy that specifically coaches tight ends, one guy specifically coaches receivers or whatever. We've used two guys with the offensive line and tight ends before. But I just felt like we could get by with four on each side of the ball.

Q. I think you mentioned it, but Coach Henry, he works in a technical sense with the kickers and punters?
JIM GROBE: He does. He actually oversees all of our special teams, so when we meet as a group to go over kickoff coverage and punt protection and all those type things, he oversees those meetings. We still use assistant coaches in the kicking game to help him during each kicking game segment in practice, but what he's got is he's got the kickers, punters, snappers, holders, all those guys work together all during practice under his supervision.

Q. Earlier on this teleconference, Dabo Swinney was talking about his goals for his team and he said one of them was to win the state championship. You guys have beaten NC State and Duke now, you're playing North Carolina. Will that be something you'll talk about or a goal?
JIM GROBE: Yeah, we talked about it yesterday, and the thing I told our kids is that's not important. That's not what we need to be focused on. My biggest concern is all these outside things, you know, the big four and going to a Bowl game, getting Bowl eligible, all those kind of things that really don't matter. We've got North Carolina next, and they're really, really talented and a great football team, so we've got to go play our best football to have a chance to win. I think if we're not careful, you get all that outside stuff going on, people talking about all those other things. My only goal right now is to go play really, really good against North Carolina.

Q. I noticed that except for the one play that turned out to be the game winner, the second half your offense was just shut down by Duke. What was happening with that? And what do you think you may need to correct there offensively?
JIM GROBE: Well, I think two things happened: I think we didn't play our best. We missed a couple of throws. I think we dropped a couple of balls. We didn't run the ball real, real well. But I also think the flipside to that is I thought Duke's kids played with a sense of urgency because they were down 17-3 at half, and they came out with a little bit of a nasty attitude that they were going to get after us. So got to give them a little bit of credit. I thought they played pretty good, and I don't think we played especially well.
But I think the other thing is everybody points at the offense, and obviously I wasn't happy with that many three-and-outs to start the second half. But also our defense has an opportunity to get off the field, and they didn't do that. The defense stayed out there for two or three really long drives in the third and fourth quarters, and as much as I was disappointed in the offense going three-and-out, I reminded our defense that they have an opportunity not to stay out there that long. They could have a few three-and-outs of their own.
So I thought it was a team deal. I thought we didn't play real well defensively. I was really proud of our defense because they hung in there late when we had a pretty tired group. I think we had about 90 plays on the defensive side of the ball, and that's too many. So I was proud of the way that they showed some toughness, and when it got down to crunch time, they played really well the last couple possessions.
But the defense has to give the ball to the offense more than we did, too.

Q. I saw that Nikita Whitlock was shaken up late in the game. Is he okay?
JIM GROBE: He's fine. He's fine. He tweaked his ankle a little bit, and they got him off to the sideline and wrapped him a little bit better and got him back out there. But he's not missing any practice snaps. He's back to healthy and full speed.

Q. This seems to be the year of the sophomore quarterback in our state this year. You've got a lot of chance to talk about Tanner, but what have you seen by Bryn Renner and what impresses you about him?
JIM GROBE: Well, I like the way he's running their offense. He seems very, very comfortable. I think they're doing a good job running the football, and that takes some pressure off him. You know, he's got a really good corps of receivers. I always talk about Tanner Price. When they talk about Tanner's performance, I talk about how important it is that those other ten guys play well. But at North Carolina you just don't see any weaknesses up front. Their offensive line is very good at protecting him. As I mentioned, they're doing a good job with their running backs and offensive line running the football. I think they've got three or four really talented receivers, they get the ball to their tight end. So I think he's got a really, really good supporting cast. He looks really comfortable with those guys out there, so he's running the offense well.
But really impressed with his accuracy. He's a very efficient guy, puts the ball where their guys can go catch it and just really looks good running their offense.

Q. What is Josh Harris' status for this week?
JIM GROBE: He's ready to go. I thought we could have played him against Duke. The trainers and doctors gave us the green light to play him. They felt like he was 100 percent for Duke, but we just felt like Brandon Pendergrass was more prepared because he had practiced all during the week. We're practicing Josh right now and expect him to play Saturday.

Q. How much did that add to your offense having him available?
JIM GROBE: Well, I think it helps us. I think anytime you go into a football game with one running back, it makes you nervous. You know, you're one sore shoulder or sprained ankle away from not having anybody. And Brandon Pendergrass for the Duke game was the only kid we had in Durham that had any experience at all. Now we're back to two experienced running backs, and that expands your comfort zone a little bit when you know you've got two guys that you feel like you can win a game with.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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