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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 23, 2013Jim GrobeJIM GROBE: We were happy to get a win this past weekend against Maryland, and looking forward to going down and playing Miami, a great opportunity, but at the same time a great challenge for our football team. Another top 10 team on our schedule. The last time we played a top 10 team it didn't turn out very well, so hopefully that our guys will go down and compete better than they did against Clemson. Q. It's obviously somewhat unusual week at Miami after the NCAA stuff appeared to come to some sort of resolution yesterday. Do you address the emotional part of what that team might be going through with your kids at all, and in an effort to maybe try to prepare them? Like I said, it is going to be a somewhat unusual circumstance for this team, and emotions probably are going to play a big role on Saturday. JIM GROBE: Honestly, our focus has got to be on what we're doing. You know, we got a little bit too carried away going down to Clemson, I think, a couple weeks ago and played really poorly, and I thought Clemson played great. I don't want to downplay their effort. But we didn't play very well. So we're really just trying to take care of Wake Forest right now. The things that we do know is we're playing a very talented Miami team, a very well‑coached Miami team, and a team that's deservedly ranked in the top 10, and so all the things that have been going on with them and the NCAA really don't affect us right now. We're just trying to play better football for ourselves. Q. And is there something that you can point to about‑‑ just as far as a reason why things seem to have turned around so dramatically for you the last couple weeks, or is it as simple as you guys just executing a little bit better now? JIM GROBE: Well, we're playing better, I don't think there's any question about that. I think first and foremost, I thought we played poorly at the beginning of the year, and I think our guys kind of woke up. Probably Clemson was the best wake‑up call we had. But I think as much as anything we've gotten a little bit more focused on what we can ask Tanner Price to do. We were probably asking Tanner to do some things early in the year that he wasn't very comfortable with, and I think our team is playing better now, but I think our quarterback is more comfortable with what we're asking him to do. Q. We in the media like to talk a lot about things like trap games and all, but I was wondering as a coach, does any of that mean anything? Is there really such a thing as a trap game? JIM GROBE: Well, you know, I kind of thought‑‑ I think that happens once in a while. I thought Miami's trap game was last week against North Carolina. I think North Carolina has got a really, really talented group of kids, and I really thought that was going to be a tough game for Miami, and it turned out to be that way unfortunately for the Deacs. I think they're wide awake right now, so I've got a feeling we'll be taking their best shot. Q. Even with Florida State coming up next week and the whole NCAA thing going down, is there anything as a coach that you can do to kind of maximize that if you feel like you've got a team in that situation? JIM GROBE: No, we don't expect that. I really think Al and his staff do a great job with those kids, and like I said, I think once in a while you get a wake‑up call, and I think theirs was last week at Carolina. Carolina had a great chance to win and Miami got the win and got out of there, and so I thought that's going to be their wake‑up call. I wish it would have come a week later, but I think we're going to get their best shot. I think after last week we'll get a team that's focused on playing one at a time. Q. Up here two hours away we only get to see you once every couple years, but was there a time in your career when you would have cringed at the thought of winning a game with 47 yards rushing? JIM GROBE: (Laughing) You know the answer to that one. That's always where we start. We want to be able to run the football better. But we just kind of quit beating our head against the wall to be honest. We came into the season with the idea that that would really help us, and I think it would. I don't think there's any question if we could run the ball better it would really help us. But we probably asked Tanner to do some things in the down‑the‑line option stuff, the ride‑and‑decide stuff, that he wasn't comfortable with, so we've finally gotten away from that. We've still got a lot of read stuff in our offense, but we're really not asking him to pull out of a dive fake and get to the perimeter and pitch the football. I think that's helped him. He's more comfortable now. I'd like to run the ball better, but at some point if you're better throwing it, you've just got to go with what you're best at. Q. Quarterback Stephen Morris has struggled of late, although he did have that great ending drive last week. What do you notice in his play that might have changed in watching some of the past few games? JIM GROBE: Well, I think it's just the way college football is from week to week. The thing that you know is that you're not going to have your best performance every time out, and we know we're playing a very talented quarterback, a guy that manages their offense very, very well, and they've got a great mix of run and pass. So we're expecting a great performance out of him. He's obviously very, very talented, and they're undefeated, and you don't go undefeated without a quarterback that's getting the job done. I think our expectations probably are when we know that a guy is very talented, our expectations typically are that every time out they're going to shoot the lights out. We've got a talented kid in Tanner Price, and I think we get to the point where we sometimes take him for granted because we expect a great performance every week, but you're going to have ups and downs throughout the course of a season, but the bottom line is do you come away with wins. Q. The other thing I wanted to ask you is, and I know you talk about this right off the bat, but even knowing that UM's NCAA announcement doesn't affect you guys, your team, do you believe it could affect the Hurricanes, knowing that it's behind them when they go out there on their home field, the relief or whatever? Could it affect them, the way they come out? JIM GROBE: Well, I think the best thing would be that that's a distraction that's not a part of the equation anymore. I think with players, I know our coaches and coaches throughout the country worry about keeping players focused on just playing football, and you have a lot of things going on, class work and all different kinds of things socially that you worry about, and I think with what they've had to deal with with the NCAA, I think it would certainly be a relief to coaches and players alike that that's behind them now and they can really spend more time focusing on football. Q. I know this is kind of an irrelevant question for you at this point because you know you're looking ahead to Miami, but looking a little farther ahead you do play against Florida State in a few weeks in your next home game, and I'm working on a story about Jameis Winston and I wanted to ask you about him quickly. Looking at ACC quarterbacks, maybe not just from this year but from past years, you've been around the ACC for a while now. Where does he rank in what you've seen on tape and maybe starting to build a game plan, what is maybe some advice you'd give to Coach Doeren coming up this week? JIM GROBE: Well, I think in watching the kid in a couple of the games that I've been able to see, the thing that's really impressive for a young guy is his poise. I think coming into the season there was a lot of talk about his ability, but I think the thing that impresses me the most is the poise that he has, and of course I think his supporting cast helps him with that because he knows he's got‑‑ if he takes care of the football, they're going to move it because they've got talented players everywhere. But that would be the thing that I see the most. I think your thoughts going into games with young quarterbacks, try to figure out ways to get them off balance. But I haven't seen anybody be able to do that with him yet. He's just very, very impressive. Obviously came into the season with a lot of expectations from a talent standpoint, but I don't know that Jimbo or anybody realized how nice a job he would do just managing the game and keeping his composure and showing a lot of maturity that most young guys don't get without a lot of experience. Q. Any guys that you could maybe compare him to in the past that you've seen before? JIM GROBE: Well, any of the quarterbacks you pull out that have the ability to throw the football and have the athleticism to run with it when they need to. You know, just hard to pick one. We've been here at Wake now, this is our 13th year at Wake Forest and we've seen a lot of great quarterbacks. But I think one of the things that you see in several quarterbacks right now across the country, you see leading teams that are undefeated, and that's the bottom line. All good quarterbacks, the guys that probably get the reputation for being the best, are the ones that win. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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