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FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: WAKE FOREST v LOUISVILLE

December 31, 2006

Dean Hood

MIAMI, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: Coach Hood, welcome. Thank you for joining us. If you could just start with a comment about your team's preparation over the past couple days with just a few days to go before the Orange Bowl.
COACH DEAN HOOD: Yeah, it's been good. Today has been great. Today is our Thursday. We had a good Thursday practice. Monday and Tuesday went really well, also. I thought our guys were very, very focused, especially our varsity guys. Our young guys I think on Monday, we had to remind them, hey, we're down here to play in a Bowl game, some of our scout team guys, and they picked it up on what was our Tuesday practice and our Wednesday practice.

Q. The big question, how do you stop Brian Brohm?
COACH DEAN HOOD: Well, we approach every game the same, and that is you've got to stop their run first. If we don't stop their run, we have no chance of winning the football game. So every game we play, regardless of the caliber of quarterback, and Brian Brohm is awesome, he's going to be the best quarterback that we've faced all year, but we still approach it the same way. Number one, stop the run, and then when you do stop -- if you can stop the run, then you've got a chance because if Louisville or any team, if you're in a run-pass conflict, especially somebody like Louisville with a quarterback that good, you're going to be in for a long day.
So if you can stop the run, then when it's a sheer passing situation, try to put it on the quarterback as far as changing up your looks, as far as bringing pressure, showing a pressure look and dropping out and fire zone and then playing man, mixing man with two coverage and that type of stuff, then you've got a chance.

Q. I was wondering if you could just talk about the challenge of this offense, which seems to score points on everybody. Have you played a team of this caliber in the last couple years?
COACH DEAN HOOD: You know, we have. Our conference is very talented, so we've played a number of teams that are as talented as Louisville.
But, you know, the problem with them is they're good everywhere. We've played a lot of teams that have Louisville-type talent all over the place, NC State, back when they had Rivers, and Clemson when they had Dantzler and that sort of thing, but I think overall, this is one of the better teams we've played top to bottom, just because they have a good, big offensive line, experienced offensive line, a quarterback that's a great player; they've got three running backs that can all play; they've got wide receivers that create match-up problems with you, not only from a speed standpoint but from a big body standpoint; they have a tight end that can really, really run and catches the ball well; you know, they've got a fullback that's a good blocker and he carries the ball some on some short yardage type plays.
Yeah, we have a team that are as talented as they are, and we have played a few that are like them that they have talent everywhere. You can't look at them and say, yeah, they've got all the skilled guys but they're not very good up front, or they've got skilled guys everywhere but they don't have a quarterback that can get it to them. There's nothing like that you can say, there's no comment you can say like that about Louisville.

Q. Could you talk about the role of the safeties against this offense, and Josh in particular?
COACH DEAN HOOD: Our safeties, I mean, those guys -- I know I look like I'm a little bit tired but I have slept a little bit, and the reason is because of our safeties primarily. That's who I work with is the secondary. Those two kids, if they haven't started every game since they were sophomores, it's pretty close. And those guys are like our quarterbacks. Those are the guys that have allowed me to get some sleep at night. They make all of our coverage adjustments.
They're like having a coach, both those kids, Pat Ghee and Josh Gattis, they're like having a coach on the field. Those are the two that have allowed me to sleep a little bit in the evenings. They understand the game, they understand schematically what we're trying to do, and they get everybody lined up right and make all the calls and all the checks.

Q. Could you talk a little more about Josh and kind of the breakout year he had and maybe what his style is back there as a DB?
COACH DEAN HOOD: You know, Josh really does -- he's the best kid -- I've told some of the pro scouts this, he's the best kid I've ever coached of understanding what you're trying to do schematically. You can tell him something in the first quarter, hey, next time they do this, do that. He won't see it again until the last drive of the game and he'll be on it; he'll call it. I think that's the biggest thing that he brings to the table is that.
And then the other things are obvious. He's got a pro-type body, he's got a big body for a safety and he can fit the run.
I mean, our guys, him and Pat and our young guy, too, Chip Vaughn, we ask those guys to do a lot of those. It's incredible, all the things that they do. They're anywhere from up on the edge, on the line of scrimmage, over the top of a tight end, to bringing them off the edge, to covering a number two slot receiver man-to-man, to playing half field to playing middle third. I mean, we ask those guys to do everything. So they have to be that kind of guy. They've got to be a big enough body to fit the run and play a tight end and they have to have the kind of speed that you need to cover a number two receiver man-to-man. So those guys are really hybrids.
We've been blessed to have three guys that can play that position this year in not only Josh and Pat, but Chip Vaughn has been able to come in and give those guys a bit of a break, keep them fresh down the stretch.

Q. John Abbate had a pretty severe ankle sprain, he went for a few games, but obviously he didn't play like a guy who was hurt in the ACC Championship. When did you start feeling like he was back and how can he build off a game as good as he had against Georgia Tech?
COACH DEAN HOOD: Well, he did play like a guy who was hurt because John is like an animal, and when you hurt an animal they're a little more dangerous, a little more volatile, and that's what he did. No, he is healthy.
He played unbelievable. I mean, the game at Georgia Tech, you just shake your head. You know, I told the guys, probably none of you should print this, but I told the guys, if you want to win the Orange Bowl, you guys go down to Miami and you smoke whatever John Abbate was smoking before that game because he was playing like a wild man.
He just was amazing. It didn't matter, two people on him, three people on him, no people on him, blitz, play the position. It seems he just made every tackle in that football game. He's incredible.
So how can he play any better than that? I don't know, but he is healthier. Him and Josh both, Florida State, we didn't know if they were going to play at all, and they both were looking at us before the game like, hey, if you don't put me in there I'm going to punch you, so we let them play some and they got about 15 or so reps, then they got a little more the next week. But even Josh in the Georgia Tech game was planting off his foot, so he really wasn't 100 percent. But they're both 100 percent ready to go for the game.

Q. I wonder if you could maybe describe what your philosophy is in defense for those of us who aren't that familiar with your team.
COACH DEAN HOOD: The structure of the defense?

Q. Just philosophy.
COACH DEAN HOOD: You know, our defense is basically -- Coach Grobe was at Air Force Academy for a number of years, so when we were first with Coach Grobe at Ohio we were a 3-4 defense, slant-and-angle, 5-0 defense, 3-4 defense, whatever you want to call it. So that's what we did at Ohio and that's what we did, what we carried over when we came to Wake. We really got into a situation where we really didn't have the outside linebackers to play that defense. We jumped around a couple different fronts for two and a half years, and then this is year three playing basically the 5-0 defense, but instead of having three down guys and four linebackers, we have four down guys and three linebackers playing basically the same stuff. So we're a 4-3 -- a version of 4-3 defense is what we are.
And philosophy-wise really is a lot about what I was talking about with the first question. Our philosophy is you've got to stop the run. If you don't stop the run, you're not going to win the football game. It doesn't matter if somebody throws for 500 yards a game, that's their deal, you've still got to stop the run. So that's our thing, try to stop the run first and then try -- when it's a passing situation try to confuse the quarterback and give him a lot of different looks and try to create turnovers.
Our guys do a really good job of creating turnovers, and that's probably the biggest -- besides the score at the end of the game, that's probably the biggest stat in college football is your turnover ratio. We talk to the guys all the time about we want to be plus one in take away the score ratio. If we give up three touchdowns we don't want to hang our head and cry and whine. We want to go out there and take the ball away one more time than that. We want to take it away four times if that's what happened.

End of FastScripts

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