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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 5, 2012Jim GrobeCOACH GROBE: I felt like Saturday night we were very fortunate to win. We dodged a bullet. I thought the Liberty football team played great. I thought the coaches had a great plan and the game was very close and went right to the wire. We were fortunate enough to get a win. We need to play better, but I also thought Liberty's kids played great. So we've got a lot of work to do to get ready for Carolina this Saturday. Q. You talked about having a lot of work to do. What areas do you need to improve upon coming off that game last week? COACH GROBE: We know, Mark, that our offensive lines work in progress. We're not there yet. We still have some issues. We have some guys that are banged up a little bit, so we're going to be moving some guys around. I think of particular concern is our left tackle spot. I think Devin Bolling has had some knee problems and through his career he has. So we're going to be moving some young guys around a little bit there. We've got to get that squared away. Then we've got to have some receivers step up and be dependable for us, and we didn't have that the other night. Will Campanaro is a good player, but we just don't have any other go‑to guys or guys that are consistent enough that you feel confident in. So we've got to do that. We know our offensive line is an issue, and we knew that going in because we're so young. I think we're talented but very young. I think going in, we need some receivers to step up and help Tanner Price. Tanner's got to play a little better. So I think, you know, some of the concerns that we had going into the game were still concerns at the end of the game. I think probably what we need as much as anything is have the younger guys start to mature and play better. But then we need the older guys to be more solid than they were Saturday night. Q. Wanted to see if you had any update on Josh, Buzz, Camp, those guys that were maybe a little limited Monday night at practice? COACH GROBE: Yeah, I think all those guys are good to go. I think you know some of them are wait and see, but the guys you mentioned, I think Camp practiced yesterday and was fine. Merrill Noel practiced yesterday, I think he's going to be fine. Josh Harris practiced yesterday, he's going to be fine. But it looks like the guys that were banged up should be ready to go. Q. Last year you had trouble with Bernard. Is he more dangerous or less dangerous with the new offense they're running? COACH GROBE: I mean, he's a great player. He had a great game against us last year and of course opened the season averaging over ten yards a carry. He's a great player, no question about it. I would think that one of the issues that we've got with Carolina's offense is they're pushing the pace, which is a problem for defenses because you have to be careful you don't make mental mistakes. You have to get the formations and get lined up and know where you belong whether you're in zone or man coverage. Sometimes you spend so much time getting ready for the throw game that you somewhat ignore their ability to run the football and that's a really dangerous thing. With these guys, I think what you'd like to be able to do is focus on one side or the other and really work on the throw game and then not have to worry about the running game or vice versa. I think in this situation probably the most dangerous thing they do is run the football with a great player like Bernard. We've got a lot of issues. We've got to try to control their game runners. Their quarterback does a great job spreading it out to a lot of talented receivers and tight ends. But you have to pay attention to Gio Bernard, because he can go 80 yards on you in a hurry. He's a great player. Q. You've only had one game to look at that new offense. Is that difficult to figure out or do you feel you've got a good handle on it? COACH GROBE: Well, we had a chance to watch what they did at Southern Miss. So we haven't just gotten one game. The Southern Miss film has helped us quite a bit in preparation and watching them. I think Larry made the statement in the paper that they're pretty basic against Elon, and they'll kind of expand their package when they go further into the season. So I would expect to see more things out of them. But I think we have a good handle on what they do. The problem is you may have a good handle on what they do, but stopping them is another question. Q. When you see your opponent for the following week put up 62 regardless who it's against, how do you react to that? How do you keep your kids from getting wiled by numbers like that? COACH GROBE: It certainly gets your attention when you see somebody score 62 points, like you said on anybody. Like you said, Elon's not a bad football team, just Carolina had a great day against them. 62 is a lot of points. But the thing that got our attention as much as the 62 points is the shutout. In this day and age the talent at every level, SCS included. I know Elon had a nice quarterback, great receiver and had success last year moving the football, and a lot of those kids were back. For Carolina to shut them out was just as impressive as scoring 62 points. I think from a coaching perspective, I'm always impressed when I see somebody score 60‑something points. It's equally impressive if not more impressed with the shutout. So you have good balance and a team that's playing good on both sides of the ball. Q. Do you go in feeling like chances are they're not going to execute like that again? Or do you feel like because you got prepared for everything, preparing that they're going to execute at this their best? COACH GROBE: I think you assume they're going to execute at their best. That's what we saw last week. I was honestly a little bit amazed. I thought that for a first game, even though Larry's got the system down and his coaches have the system down, to see them execute the way they did was really, really impressive. I think you typically assume that a new coach with a new group of players, will struggle early and come on late, but they were hitting on all cylinders on Saturday. I was impressed. Q. You were asked earlier about Bernard, and now he's returning punts for them, and they had a whole bunch of return yardage with the punts last week. Just wondering what you saw on the tape that kind of made them really effective in gaining so many yards there in that area? COACH GROBE: Well, I think they're obviously committed to the kicking game. I think Gio has great foot speed. Not good foot speed but great foot speed. That's what we saw last year when we played him at Chapel Hill. He's got good size, great balance, and he's the ideal guy to be returning punts. You'd like to think that your tailbacks would be talented enough to go back and return punts. But you know I think he's got a good supporting cast. A lot of times you can have a good punt return guy, but if you don't have your other ten guys doing what they're supposed to, it doesn't do you any good. I think he's a guy, and it doesn't surprise me one bit that he would be a great punt return guy because he's got the natural knack for making people miss, and he's got the great foot speed and can outrun everybody. So I think he returned two punts the other day for a hundred yards. So a 50‑yard average for punt return is not too bad. Q. You didn't run the ball particularly well or even very much against Liberty. Was that mostly a function of the offensive line not quite being ready yet or just the way the game unfolded? Obviously, that's an area you want to improve. COACH GROBE: I think a little bit of both to be honest with you. I think the offensive line is young and inexperienced and that was a little bit of a problem. Of course, Josh Harris got hurt early. He had a concussion early in the game, and we ended up going with the freshman, DeAndre Martin for the rest of the game. We did have some good running plays in the game, but I think the young offensive line was an issue.  But I thought Liberty's defense was very aggressive. We were impressed with their talent. I thought they had some really good football players. Especially impressed with their secondary and how well they supported the run. But I think the other issue for us was we had so many three‑and‑outs. We didn't have a lot of opportunities to throw or run the football the other night because we weren't on the field a long time. I think our first three or four possessions of the game were three‑and‑out. So I'd like to say that the offensive line needs to improve and they do. But I think the other issue is that when we throw the football, especially when we do have good protection and get a chance to throw and catch, we've got to be able to do that. So we have to have more possessions and more first downs, more opportunities to run the football. Q. What did Spencer Bishop do to win the tight end job, as a kid that came in as a walk on to be there? COACH GROBE: The number one thing with Spencer is he's just a great kid. He's one of those kids in the program that you never hear anything negative about. Everything, whether it's teachers or academic service people, the weight room, everybody that talks about Spencer Bishop loves the kid. And he brought that same attitude and work ethic to the practice field, and he just earned a scholarship. He just worked so hard that he is not only on scholarship but now he is our starting tight end. He's a good tight end. He's a good player. He's not somebody we just threw a bone to. We really want to reward kids that are deserving. He runs and catches the ball really, really well. We've got to continue to work on his blocking a little bit. He's not the biggest guy around, but we like all the things he does. He's a good athlete. He can run and catch it, and he's a pretty good blocker. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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