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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 6, 2013Jimbo FisherTHE MODERATOR: We're joined now by Jimbo Fisher. COACH FISHER: Again, very proud of our team last week against Miami. Thought it was a very hard fought, great rivalry game, great for our league. Another top 10 matchup. Proud of the way our kids handled that situation and the media attention and things that went with it. It's best to be a home game, which sometimes can be tougher. Guys are handling those situations. Now we've put that one behind us. Look forward to Wake Forest, an outstanding ball club. Jim always does an outstanding job coaching those guys. Tough place to play. They do a great job. Have to bring our A game, need to prepare well and practice well and continue to grow our team and get better each week and hopefully we'll continue to do that and looking forward for a great game with Wake Forest. Questions? Q. Talking about Wake Forest, the last time you played against Wake Forest you lost E.J. Manuel as quarterback that game. What did you show your team this week about that trip the last time you went to Wake Forest? COACH FISHER: Nothing. Just talked about we have to go play our A game. We had a lot of guys out that game and we know Wake has a heck of a ball club. Play tough. They always do. Talented team and well‑coached team. Hopefully we'll continue to practice well and play this week and they'll be ready to play when we get there and we'll have to be ready to go. Q. I know a lot of coaches don't watch the rankings or anything, you just coach the football games, but what's your take on being No. 2 in the BCS plus with the schedule we have left with Syracuse, Wake Forest, Idaho and even the rivalry game against the Gators, will that maybe help us to get to Pasadena? You never know. COACH FISHER: If we continue to play well. I'm very proud of our team for being No. 2. Doesn't mean anything right now. You have to continue to play well the rest of the season. But it is indicative that we have a great conference. People are recognizing that and that we are making progress as a team, an organization, and our conference is in the hunt right now. I'm proud of that. But at the same time we can't worry about that. We have to continue to play well down the stretch. Q. I wanted to ask you, looking at your record and your scores and one thing jumps out at me. Seven of the eight teams you played scored two touchdowns or less against you. Usually less. One team scored 34 points against you. What happened that day at Boston College? Was it their offense? Did you all have some kind of defensive breakdown? It's such an odd‑‑ COACH FISHER: We had a couple of missed assignments and violations we talked about back then. Three plays on, some throw‑back plays. But they did a nice job. Boston College, very physical, ran the ball well, were ready to play. Came out ready to play, and played a very good football game. We're finding out Boston College is a pretty good football team. We've said that all along. We made a couple of mistakes, but they make you make mistakes, and they played well. Q. Again, looking at the results, you must be pretty confident that you've corrected the problems that you saw that afternoon? COACH FISHER: We're growing. I remember Coach Pruitt, the first year defensive coordinator and our team was a first year defense under him. And I think that our team is now understanding what coach wants and how we do it and we were growing in our defense and we're getting better. And we've even learned our players better. Moved some guys‑‑ tweaked some things, moved some guys into different positions, but at the same time take nothing away from Boston College. They did a tremendous job that day played very well and has a very good team. Q. This game is obviously not getting the hype that the Miami game or Clemson got. Is your message to your team this week keep the foot on the gas, don't let up no matter who the opponent is, or you have to recalibrate things because you can't have them with the same amount of pressure every single week? COACH FISHER: Every game is the same amount of pressure. You have to put your foot on the gas, treat Wake with great respect, which we do, our team does. They definitely respect Wake, what they do. Know they're ready to play a great game against us. So we will continue to practice well, play well and hopefully be ready for a great challenge on Saturday. Q. So much at stake for your team nationally and in the conference. Do you embrace that? Do you talk about that with your team, hey, let's keep it up because we're maybe playing for a national title game berth, or do you kind of ignore that and talk about the opponent? COACH FISHER: You know the situations and the media hype you get. But like we tell them, the only thing you can control is how you play this week. What's important for us is to continue to play well, reach our goals in the games of getting better each week, learning to prepare each week and getting better as a team. If we do that, then the results, we'll take the results whatever they may be. Q. I've got to ask about James and the swim thing, any plans at this time to try to get him to wear the contactsduring the game? COACH FISHER: No. He has no problems seeing. A lot of it has to do with the lights and that's the stadium and things. He's fine. He's done it all year. Has no effect on how he plays. His prescription is very minimal. Q. You had for the last four years a great kicker in Dustin Hopkins. Now you've got Roberto Aguayo. What were your expectations of him since he hasn't missed a kick of any kind this year; how do you evaluate his performance? COACH FISHER: Very well. And we expect great things of Roberto. When we signed him, that's why we signed him as a junior, even though we had Roberto. We loved him. He was in a camp of ours. We saw him, thought he had a tremendous future, great young man. We signed him so he could follow Dustin and learn how to prepare and do the things Dustin does, his routines. Roberto is a tremendously hard worker. Does it every day in practice. He's doing what we thought he could do. Q. Scored so many touchdowns, he hasn't had all that many field goal opportunities. But do you feel if a pressure situation comes up, how confident do you think‑‑ what's your confidence level? COACH FISHER: Extremely confident. I watch him do it every day in pressure situations. I know his fundamentals. Feel extremely confident. Q. I just want to follow up. Can you talk to me about Carlos Williams and the move to tailback? He obviously has a lot of potential there. What did you see there? What prompted that and how far can he go? COACH FISHER: I think he can go big time. I really do. I think he can be a tremendous tailback. I felt that way ever since he's been here. He wanted to play defense and he's a great defensive player at the same time, was doing that, and we thought one day, on kick returns and the potential he can do and sometimes, as you grow as a person, he said I would like to try it. He did it and loved it and grown each day and he's a tremendous addition to our offense and our depth and what he does. And I think his future is sky high. Really do. He's doing tremendous right now. Picked things up. Made big plays, pass, block, run, catch, physical, 230 pounds, 10.6 100 meters. And it's off the charts. And I think with another year he has a tremendous future in the game at that position. Q. That's amazing to hear. How often do you find a guy that would rather play safety that you have to talk into playing tailback? COACH FISHER: You'd be surprised. A lot of guys like defense. A lot of guys, they love playing defense. It's fun. It's what he did more in high school. He played running back, but he didn't think of him that way, which he's a great safety. He's a very good safety. But I think he has a greater future at running back. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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