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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 12, 2012Jimbo FisherJIMBO FISHER: We're looking forward to our ACC opener. We have a great challenge in Wake Forest. Wake Forest has a great ball club, had a great game last week versus North Carolina, did a tremendous job on defense, special teams and offensively. Tanner Price taking those guys down for a late score, like he always does, does a great job of competing in the game. Wake is a heck of a ball club. They're playing very hard, very multidimensional and all the looks they give you offensively, defensively, very well‑coached, and it will be a super challenge. We're going to have to bring our "A" game, but we're anxious to get started in ACC play. It's a double whammy because not only do we have a conference game, but it's an interdivisional game, so it'll be‑‑ should be a great ballgame here in Doak Campbell on Saturday. Looking forward to it. Q. Obviously one of the guys who jumps out at you for them is Michael Campanaro. JIMBO FISHER: Oh, no doubt. Q. Just talk a little bit about‑‑ nobody has been able to defend him yet. He's a slot receiver, just finds the creases and cracks. JIMBO FISHER: Well, that's one thing I think you do as a slot, great instincts. I think he has tremendous quickness and ball skills, uses his hands very, very well and obviously very tough because he goes across the middle. But what I see is a guy who understands football, knows how to set holds, knows how to set guys up on routes, has really good burst in his routes and just a heck of a football player, and like you say, he has been a huge problem for the teams he's played and will be for us, also. Q. And their game‑winning drive, he drew a lot of double coverage and has allowed the other receivers to get open, so does that become a concern, also? JIMBO FISHER: Oh, there's no doubt. When you have a great player, great players affect the other guys on the team, and what he's doing by affecting them, he's demanding single coverage for them as he gets double coverage and is making all those players around him that much better, and that's what a great player does. Like I say, he is one heck of a football player. Q. I don't see any games that you guys have scheduled with Florida State coming up, but I guess that's going to change here pretty soon. Just your thoughts on Notre Dame joining the league I guess as a partial member? JIMBO FISHER: I had no idea. Just three seconds before I picked this phone up I received that information. I have talked to no one, know anything. Just got a message, and I don't mean I haven't thought‑‑ they're a great university, and I guess we'll be glad to have them, but I had no recollection of any of that happening. Q. So you don't have any sort of initial‑‑ JIMBO FISHER: No, I don't. I mean, you're the first one‑‑ I literally found out five seconds before I picked the phone up, so I haven't had time to even decipher or think about that. I'm not saying anything‑‑ I refuse the question because I haven't had time to think about it. Q. Not to be bull‑headed, but I had already punched in to ask a question. If Notre Dame joining the league in everything but football but agreeing to play five games a year against ACC schools, would that strike you at all as disappointing that they didn't kind of get on full board? JIMBO FISHER: Again, I don't want to say anything bad about Notre Dame or bad about the‑‑ I don't know‑‑ I'm not even‑‑ I have no idea‑‑ I didn't know they were only playing five games. Literally I had no recollection of any‑‑ I don't know the details of any one thing that's going on in this whole situation. I mean, I literally‑‑ somebody said as I walked in to do my press conference, they come in and said we just got a text or a message. I said, I had no idea. I thought they were joining altogether from the first thing I heard. I did not know they were only playing five games. I'm sorry. Q. They've joined for everything but football and they've agreed to play five games against ACC schools each year. JIMBO FISHER: Oh, okay. I had no‑‑ I'm not being sarcastic. Thank you for telling me that. I had no idea. Q. Not to pile on a dead horse, but maybe if I could ask you a little bit more in a generic way, you talked a good bit last week and earlier in the off‑season about the difficulties of scheduling non‑conference games with a potential nine‑game ACC slate. If you've got a team like Notre Dame that's in that mix that is not an official conference member but will be obviously playing ACC schools, given that you have that annual rivalry game with Florida, as well, is that something that you could see Florida State being able to do, or would it be problematic given the nine‑game ACC schedule plus the Florida game? JIMBO FISHER: Well, I mean, I think it sounds like that we're doing it, so I mean, you have to play them home and home? If it's a home and home, I think you're only going to have six conference games one year, that could be an issue. But again, I haven't thought through it. You know what I'm saying? When it's home, I guess it's wonderful. I have not thought through it because I had no knowledge of the information. But I mean, it's a quality opponent, a great opponent with a great tradition. We played them in the Bowl game last year. Q. When you've got an opponent like that, obviously you talk a lot about the significant economic value of that seventh home game. Is there maybe sort of secondary economic value and certainly recruiting value in playing a national program like that for you guys, though? JIMBO FISHER:  Well, I don't think recruiting wise. We weren't playing them before and we were recruiting very well. So I don't think it'll affect recruiting in any way, shape or form, for us anyway. Q. I was going to ask you the exact same question you were just asked about having to play Notre Dame and Florida as part of your three‑game non‑conference schedule. That's what it would appear, though, would happen, you'd get them, and I'm not sure‑‑ obviously it's not detailed out yet, but I think you just answered the question. JIMBO FISHER: Yeah, I had no knowledge of it. I'd have to think through it. They're a great opponent. It is a great thing for us. That's a great venue and all those things. I'm not saying that. But all the scenarios and what happens and all that, like I said, I literally found out five seconds before I picked the phone up. Q. Chris Thompson starting I guess on Saturday according to the depth charts and has been quite a turnaround for the young man in a year's time since that injury up there? JIMBO FISHER: Yes, it has, and I'm very happy for him. He's had no ramifications, no signs of anything being ill. He's been fully healthy and probably better than I've seen him since he's been here. I'm very excited for him and very happy for him. Q. Are you familiar in all your years of coaching with somebody coming back from an injury like that? JIMBO FISHER: No, I haven't, not one with a back scenario like that one. I haven't. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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