ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL KICKOFF

July 27, 2023

Dave Clawson

Mitch Griffis

Chase Jones

Michael Jurgens

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We welcome you back after lunch here inside the grand ballroom, second floor of the Westin in Uptown Charlotte.

We are in the latter half of our 2023 ACC Football Kickoff Media Event. We're happy to welcome Wake Forest, the Demon Deacons to the stage.

Questions for Coach Dave Clawson.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Mitch and his best attribute, you think as he is going to be the full-team starter obviously? What do you like best about Mitch?

DAVE CLAWSON: When you talk about quarterbacks, they have to have more than one attribute. I think with Mitch there's a very complete skill set.

He is extremely accurate. He has good arm strength. He is athletic. He has really good instincts, great work ethic, super teammate, and he is genuine.

You know, he's ready to go, and I think what happened last year when he had to start the first game, that's not anything that anybody wanted, but I think just having that experience of being the starter will help him this year. He's smart. He knows doing it for one game and doing it for 12 consecutive games is a completely different challenge, but I think he's ready to go. He just has a great work ethic.

Q. Every two years since 2016 you all have had exactly 15 wins. Seven wins, then eight, then seven, then eight, then 4-11. You had, I believe it was eight last year. Is that a level of consistency that you're like, hey, this program is good here? Is there another level that you want to take it to? How do you go about accomplishing that with a team that's losing quite a bit of production?

DAVE CLAWSON: Thanks for that stat. I never knew that, that it was 15 every two years. I think there's two parts to the question.

The first is, yes, there is a level of consistency that we want to our program. I said this a few years ago that I hope we get to the point at Wake Forest that in our down years we're still getting seven and eight wins and getting the bowls. Obviously two years ago in '21 when we had 11 wins and played for the ACC Championship, that's always the standard we would like to get to.

But the way that I approach it is that we want to maximize the ability of every team we have. So I think every football team kind of has a range of what they can accomplish, and our goal every year is to maximize that range. We'll start figuring out in the next month during training camp what the range of this football team is.

I think we have a chance to have a really good team. We lost 11 starters, but we're not young. A great example is at left tackle we lost a seventh-year player, Je'Vionte' Nash. Well, Wake is going to be young again. The guy that's starting left tackle for us now is a seventh-year senior, Spencer Clapp. We lost two six-year players on the O-line in Loic Nya and Sean MaGinn. Luke Petitbon in his fourth year is back.

So we have guys that maybe haven't played a lot, but they've been in our program for three, four, five years, and now they're having their opportunity to play.

There's still a maturity of our team. We're not as experienced, but we'll get that experience, and I think we'll be in really good shape.

Q. It feels like a lot of the talk about Wake Forest this offseason isn't about the team, whether it's people you've lost to the transfer portal, the NIL boogeyman coming to try and take some players away. You're replacing a new wide receivers coach, cornerback coach. There's not a whole lot of talk of what's actually on the team. How do you keep the guys sort of focused on, hey, here's who is in the room, here's what we're going to do and keep the focus back on them versus what's not there?

DAVE CLAWSON: You know, this whole narrative, and really Sam Hartman went to Notre Dame. Rondell Bothroyd went to Oklahoma. Those guys spent five years in our program. They did everything right.

What's not talked about is all the players who stayed. You don't think these guys all had offers to go to other schools? We had six to eight players that were tampered with, that were given great NIL opportunities, and they all chose to stay.

I look at it as a positive. We had the second fewest players in the country going into the portal. So like most football teams in the country, yeah, we lost some guys in the portal. I'm more happy about all the guys that stayed.

That doesn't make as good of a headline for a story, but our program has been based on, again, recruiting the right guys, retaining them, and graduating them.

We are still attempting to run a college football program at Wake Forest. We have a collective, and I'm sure all these guys are getting something. It's not like we're ignoring the new age of college football, but our program is still based on retention and graduation.

If you look at the amount of players who went into the portal, I would argue that we're managing this as well as anybody in the country right now.

Q. Talk to me about the opening of the McCreary Football Complex and what it means to the program.

DAVE CLAWSON: It's just another major step in developing a top-flight Power Five program. There's this old narrative that somehow Wake Forest isn't as committed to football as other Power Five schools. Again, that narrative from the 1950s to 2000, I wish it would go away.

In the last seven years we've invested more than $120 million in new facilities. We have a brand new indoor that we opened in '16, the McCreary Fieldhouse. We have the Sutton Sports Performance Center. I would put our weight room, our meeting rooms, our day-to-day facilities up there with anybody in the country.

We just opened up close to a $40 million complex. It's not a locker room, it's a complex. Equipment room, locker room, dining facility, players' lounge. So there is an institutional commitment to football.

I've been very fortunate to be the head coach at Wake Forest during a time that all this investment has been made, and I think the reason we've been successful is we are invested. We do care about football.

Our success on the field, it's not a result of one coach or a handful of players. It's a whole army of people that have sacrificed and allowed us to be in this position. So we're grateful to Bob and all the other donors who allowed us to move into the facility, but if you have been following our program, it's every two or three years we're opening up another $20 million, $30 million, $40 million facility. So come visit us. Visit every other Power Five school, and I think when you look at our facilities, you'll have a hard time saying Wake Forest isn't committed to football.

Q. Going off what you said and what it is, you're one of the longest-tenured coaches that we're seeing in the ACC of over a decade at Wake. What's kept you coming back, and what makes you keep believing in what's being built there and just maybe go a little bit further about the fact that they've banked on you at Wake Forest and continued to extend and believe in your mission and your vision and your culture?

DAVE CLAWSON: First of all, I view myself as very fortunate. In this day and age in college football to be able to live in the same house with your family and your kids to be able to go to schools and be in the same place, I'm fortunate that Wake Forest has allowed me to do that, but I think I'm very philosophically aligned with the place.

The reason I got into coaching college football are all the things we do at Wake Forest. We recruit high-character young men that care about their schoolwork. They graduate. They have very exciting trajectories after Wake Forest, whether it be in the NFL or other professions.

I don't have to fight my conscience going to work every day. That's a great feeling as a football coach that when you go to work every day at a school that your value system aligns with the institution.

My family loves Winston-Salem, and we get good players, and we're supported by our administration. I get to coach, I think, just outstanding young men that are extremely well-rounded.

We went to dinner last night, and the conversations we have with these guys, they're adult conversations. I just love the caliber of student-athlete we get, the relationships we're able to develop, and when we say we're adding value to their lives in ways other than football, it's not a cliche. That's very cliche-ish, and everybody says it. We proactively do those things. So I go to bed every night believing that we're doing these -- we're coaching football for the right reasons.

Now, having said that, you have to win, and if you don't win, all those other things, you don't get an opportunity to do it. We're very driven by competitive success as well.

Q. This is your tenth year at Wake Forest, but it's also four of your assistants' tenth year at Wake Forest. Coach Higgins has been with the program for the entirety of your stay. How valuable is having that program and coaching stability for the guys who are less experienced and trusting them on the field this upcoming season?

DAVE CLAWSON: I mean, I say it all the time. The reason that we've had success as a program is that we've had continuity.

Our head strength coach, Chad Bari, has been with me 13 years. Warren Ruggiero and John Hunter 15 years. Nick Tabacca ten years. Dave Cohen, ten years.

If you are going to be a development program, which we are, I mean, we don't get four and five-star recruits. Somehow we manage to win games because I think our coaches, our strength staff, our nutritionists, our trainers, we do a great job developing players. One of the reasons they develop is from day one when they come in Michael Jurgens, day one as a freshman, his offensive line coach, Nick Tabacca says this is how we get in a stance, this is how we pass set, this is how we zone block.

When you are in your program three, four, five, and in his case six years, and those things never change, you can get really, really good at them. I think that's why we've had success is that we've had a great staff, and I'm fortunate that they've chosen to stay too.

So this job would not be nearly as good as it is or has been if we constantly had a revolving door with assistant coaches. Again, I credit our administration. It's not like these guys, like our players, haven't had opportunities to leave.

The school has stepped up and done things to keep them and allowed us to be successful.

THE MODERATOR: If you would like to switch places with Mitch, Coach, we'll spend about five minutes with our student-athlete.

Questions for Mitch.

Q. Now that Sam is elsewhere, this is undeniably your program, your offense to run. You're the face of it. Is that daunting to you in any way, and if not, why not?

MITCH GRIFFIS: It's not daunting. It's an awesome experience. It's a blessing to be here. It's a dream come true. That's how I treat it.

Q. In terms of this team bringing in so many new faces that maybe are not new to the program, but are new nationally that people may not know about, who are some guys that you think of that you're like, by the end of this season y'all will know this guy or these guys' names?

MITCH GRIFFIS: Yeah, I think a lot of you guys know who justice Ellison is, but I think he is the heartbeat of our football team, especially on offense.

Going into his second or third year starting at tailback for us, but he is a true Swiss Army knife. He is awesome in the pass game blocking, awesome running the football, great out of the back field. Phenomenal teammate. Phenomenal guy. I think he is the most underrated player in the ACC.

I'm really excited for people to get to know him even more this year. I think he is going to have an awesome year.

Q. Over the last four, five years it felt like every quarterback has had their own identity at Wake Forest. Walker was your dual-threat guy. Jamie Newman was a battering ram. Sam Hartman was a gun slinger. What's your identity going to be like for the neck two, three, four years, however long you're at Wake Forest? What kind of freedom is Warren giving you as a signal caller now?

MITCH GRIFFIS: Again, I can't thank Coach R enough for what he has done with our football team and our offense. He has allowed me to be confident in our offense and our play calls just how much time he has poured into me. An adjective I describe myself is I am calculated risk taker. Kind of that gunslinger mentality.

I understand how important it is to protect the football and how turnovers can lose you football games. Calculated risk taker is how I describe myself.

Q. You've had to wait your turn at Wake Forest. We don't see that a lot in college football with the ability to go into the transfer portal and just leave and go somewhere else. We don't see a lot of that competition, so just what you can say about that willingness to wait and that willingness to go through the adversity and actually test yourself and test your meddle and get better.

MITCH GRIFFIS: There's no other person I would rather play for than Coach Clawson and Coach Ruggiero.

I think college football it's rare to find programs that do things the right way in all facets of the program.

Coach is honest with us. He has never lied to me, never done anything wrong to me or to my teammates. I can't thank him enough for that.

There's no one else I would rather play for.

In terms of playing time, it was hard to wait. I'm a competitor. I wanted to play. I wish I could have played earlier, but again, there was no other group of guys I wanted to play with. It was well worth the wait, and I still have three years left, so my career is just getting started.

THE MODERATOR: From the podium. In a clutch moment would you rather run or pass?

MITCH GRIFFIS: Whatever I have to do to be successful (laughing).

THE MODERATOR: I'll ask from the podium here. Explain to us what the term "gain and edge" means for '23?

MITCH GRIFFIS: Gain and edge is a mantra that Coach Clawson gave to our football team this year. I think it's just doing whatever you can every single day to find that extra inch to win the football game. Coach always talks about finding the point. You always have to go into every game thinking you're a one-point underdog. I think that's the kind of the mentality we've had since January, just doing everything we can to find one more point every single day, and get 1% better each day. So when we get to the tight games late in the season, we can find that extra point and come out in those close games.

THE MODERATOR: Mitch, thank you very much. You can switch positions with Chase if you like. We will have five minutes with Mr. Jones, our linebacker from Warren, New Jersey.

Questions for Chase.

Q. In 2021 Wake Forest forced 29 turnovers, and last season was only 16. What steps do you take as a leader of that defense to create more pressure?

CHASE JONES: That's something that we've been working on actively just trying to be more disruptive. I think Coach Lambert has done a really good job implementing drill work, punching at the football and being ball hawks making sure if we get the opportunity to intercept the ball, we come through with it. That's something we've been emphasizing over the offseason and spring ball, and we'll continue to emphasize in fall camp.

That's something that we're working at every day.

Q. Chase, it felt like for a couple of years 2020 and 2021 the linebacker room was kind of we'll see, but this year it feels like the linebacker group might be one of the strongest positions on the team. What's gone on with the turnover in that room, and what has Brad Lambert and Glenn Spencer and even new analyst David Ellison what have they brought to the table here?

CHASE JONES: I think a big credit I would say is the people who came before me. I got to give credit to Luke Masterson and Ryan Smenda laying the ground work of what it means to be a linebacker at Wake Forest, and then Coach Spencer and Ellison and Lambert coming in and bringing that experience of being in college football for so long. It's just a little lesson that they've been able to teach us over the past year now has been really good. I'm really grateful for it. I'm excited for the season.

Q. The home finale win over Syracuse showcased your ability to force quarterback hurries. How do you plan to continue disrupting opponents' offenses and creating turnovers in the 2023 season?

CHASE JONES: Yeah, I think that just comes with just working every day at it. Just taking it one day at a time and trying to be disruptive in practice every day at practice and during fall camp, and it will carry over into the game.

Luckily, I got a really good -- we have really good group up front, and they were disruptive last year, and I think they'll be the same way this year, and I'm excited to play behind them, play alongside them.

Q. Coach briefly touched on earlier the possible preconceived ideas that people have about Wake Forest and about how they might not be committed to football and what not. How do you prove them wrong? How do you prove those people wrong?

CHASE JONES: I think that as a school and as a culture we don't get too caught up in the outside noise. As much as you want to prove people wrong and prove the doubters wrong, I think we're more focused on proving ourselves right. I think everybody in our facility, everybody that wears the black and gold knows what we can do and knows the type of talent we have in the building. We're just trying to prove ourselves right every single day.

Q. You spoke about the coaches and advice, different things that they've given to you. What's the biggest piece of advice or biggest positive that you've been able to take away from the coaching staff that maybe you tell yourself through a practice or being in the weight room when there's that downtime or maybe that moment of adversity that you lean back on?

CHASE JONES: I would say something that Coach Lambert has brought with him since he has been here is just his kind of slogan is "elevate the jersey." That just means that when you are working and you want to quit, look at the guy next to you and understand that you need to keep going so we can keep elevating the jersey. It's bigger than just you.

I would say just understanding that it's not just you in this race. We're all in it together, and everybody is depending on you.

Q. You alluded to Ryan Smenda and what he meant to you a little bit earlier. So two-parter here. Number one, what is your personal leadership style, and number two, when you said they showed you what it's like to be a linebacker at Wake Forest, what does that mean per se?

CHASE JONES: So to answer the first part, me as a leader, I feel like I've always led by example. Over the past few years just getting more and more vocal and more and more confident in that role as a captain and just being more of a vocal leader.

As far as kind of Ryan and Luke and the guys that went before me showing me the way, I think being a linebacker at Wake Forest means you take preparation extremely serious. You can pick any practice over the past two years, turn on the film, and Ryan is flying around like it's the ACC Championship. That's just kind of the standard that we try to live up to every single day and understand that every practice is really important. Watching film is really important. Just taking pride in the preparation side of the game.

THE MODERATOR: Chase, thank you. You can hand off with Michael.

Questions for Michael Jurgens.

Q. Michael, why did you decide to come back when you were thinking about it and all that? What was the major decision in returning?

MICHAEL JURGENS: Yeah, you know, it's like anything, it's a myriad of things. A lot of discussions with Coach Clawson and Tabacca and my family. Really it felt like I had more to give both on and off the field. People like Coach Clawson, my teammates, Coach Tabacca, Chad, they've just put so much into me, and I felt like I had more I could give back to them, and excited to be back.

Q. Being a member of the All-ACC Academic Team and a semifinalist for the Williams B. Campbell Trophy, how do you balance your responsibilities on the field with your academic pursuits, and how does your dedication to education influence your approach to football?

MICHAEL JURGENS: We're at Wake we've been fortunate enough to have the same staff, as you have touched on for ten years. When you have consistency like that, you also have consistency of culture and of teammates. There have kind of just been people ahead of me who have showed me the right way to do things and how to have successful routines.

I think that a saying that we really live out here at Wake Forest is that the way you do anything is the way you do everything. Or maybe the other way around (laughing).

I think that we embody that just as well as any program in the country. It starts up top, and I think our coaches do a really good job of facilitating that. Hopefully older players mentor younger players and do the same.

Q. Two-parter here for you, Michael. Off the field how did you graduate from the hardest major at Wake Forest in three and a half years? I don't understand that. On the field, how have you seen the growth of guys like Luke Petitbone, Nick Sharpe, Matt Gulbin, George Sell. What are those guys going to bring to the table this year?

MICHAEL JURGENS: Yeah, I think for the first part, thank you, but it's kind of just, leak I just said, you have a routine. Coach Clawson says this all the time. That if things are important to you, then you find a way to do it.

If academics is important to you, then you're going to find a way to thrive in it, just like you are in football.

Your second question, yeah, it goes back to what I said again. Having Coach Tabacca in that room for ten years is really something special. He has recruited a certain type of player, the type of people that love football, the type of people that take things seriously and people that can humble themselves and remove their ego and learn from people and be challenged and challenge others.

Guys like Luke and Nick Sharpe and Matt Gulbin and Zach Vaughn and George Sell. It's really special to be able to mentor those guys the same way that Nate Gilliam and Jake Benzinger and Ryan Anderson mentored me.

Q. Michael, you've been named to almost every watch list at interior offensive lineman can be named to, and many people -- when you turn on your film, you're always where you have to be and all that good stuff. With that being said, is the uniqueness of your offense, is the long mesh and all that goes with that, is that a plus or a minus or it doesn't really matter? Y'all could go air raid or triple option, and you would still be the same you. What would that look like for you?

MICHAEL JURGENS: That's a good question. I think that with any style of football that you play, it comes down to your preparation. I think there were three things you can control on the football field, and that's your preparation, your technique, and your effort.

I think that you are on coaching staff does a really good job of pushing us to excel in those three things. It's really what it comes down to.

If you are a football player, you are going to learn what you have to do, and you're going to do it right.

Q. Your coach is a humble guy who doesn't love to talk about himself, but the only ACC coaches in football in 70 years who have won more bowl games than he has won at Wake Forest are guys like Bobby Bowden and Frank Beamer, Hall of Fame type guys. Since he won't brag about himself, how do you put into words after four years with him what makes him such a special and successful coach?

MICHAEL JURGENS: Yeah, six years (laughing). Everything he says he practices what he preaches. It's all those things. It's focusing on those things off the field, those intangibles that translate to on-the-field success.

Really just developing relationships and staying true to who he is, like Mitch said. I don't think anybody in our program will tell you that they've ever been lied to by Coach, which is something that's really special in college football.

I think that you are on culture and our success is an embodiment of him as a coach, and I think that's actions and numbers speak louder than words.

THE MODERATOR: Your last question from the podium. You serve as a mentor and a coach for a Special Olympics bocce ball team? Why bocce ball? Why Special Olympics?

MICHAEL JURGENS: My high school had -- it was my JV football coach. I'm from a small town, and he is kind of like the mayor of the town, if you had to pick someone.

He actually started that program of bocce ball. It was really just the option given to us as a winter sport. I played football and lacrosse and didn't have a winter sport. I have my letterman in bocce ball. A fun fact.

It was a great experience to get to be with fellow classmates with special needs. Just a genuine experience. It's just like any sport. You're competing. You're getting to know everybody. Good stuff.

THE MODERATOR: Michael, thank you. Wake Forest, thank you. Good luck this season.