Wake Forest Demon Deacons College Football Pregame Quote, 11/26/2019

To wrap up last Saturday, that was a really good night for Wake Forest football. I first want to say I am really grateful to all of our fans and our students who braved the elements. For people to hang in there with us with as bad as the weather was in the first half, especially the student crowd that we had, it is not the numbers, it’s the ones that came out, and we are so grateful for them. To be able to win a game like that and being able to have a group to celebrate with, that is very meaningful to our football team. We accomplished a lot of goals. Being the Big 4 champions is a big goal of ours. To have the opportunity to play all three teams this year and to sweep the state was a goal in preseason. It was a big deal going into the Duke game. I am really proud of our team for accomplishing that. I know that is really important to our fanbase, our alumni base and our students. We were proud to accomplish that. We finished the home schedule 6-1, which I believe sets a new record for the most home wins ever in a season at Wake Forest. We want to accomplish some goals so our work is not done. The Duke win was a really good win for our program. Like I said, part of the Big 4 is the in-state rivalries.

To beat Duke at home is always a great win for our program. I thought we handled the weather well. When you get weather like that, there is a degree of mental toughness that I think goes with handling that. The fact that we did not turn the ball over once on Saturday and we won the turnover battle 3-0, I think that takes some resiliency and mental toughness, whether you are the center, the quarterback, the running back, the receivers, the kick returners, the holders. For Nick Sciba to go 4-of-4 in that weather, for Dayton Diemel and Dom Maggio, there’s so many opportunities to mishandle a ball and give up a big turnover and we didn’t do it once. We had great balance on offense, 334 yards rushing the football in basically a game, because of the weather, that they knew we were running it. So they have that ability that they know you are going to run it, and still can’t stop you. We ran it for 334. The way that our O-Line, I thought took the game over in the fourth quarter, we haven’t done that as well this year as maybe in the past. I thought Jamie Newman played really well. Kendall Hinton had a big game, but I was really proud of Steven Claude for making a big catch and Waydale Jones got a third-down conversion and the catch that Donavon Greene made on the sideline, and the way that Kenneth Walker ran and Cade Carney ran and the way the O-line played. It was just a really good overall performance on offense. We had balance and converted short yardage plays, which we haven’t in the past. That fourth-and-one late in the game was as big of a play as there was. Jamie goes down and we run Kendall and we are fourth-and-one, we have certainly been stopped on those plays in the past this year. In game 11, to get that type of gain at that time of the game was huge.

I thought our defense played extremely well. The combination of the offense converting third downs and controlling the football, our defense did not have to play a lot of plays. They only played 54 snaps. Most of that was for good reasons. The offense controlled the ball. We converted third downs. Our defense did a fantastic job on third down. We were 10 of 11 on third down conversions. Part of the reason we played so little was for negative reasons. When you score and the defense is about to take the field and you give up a 95-yard-plus kickoff return twice, that also reduces your defensive reps. We won the time of possession. I really thought we controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football. You leave that game feeling great except for kickoff cover. I have never been in a game like that. It was embarrassing. It was not good. That could have very easily cost us the football game. So to dominate the statistics the way that we did and to still be down one point in the fourth quarter because you can’t cover kicks. I have to take responsibility for that. As the year’s gone on and we have gotten banged up, with Luke Masterson and Justin Strnad and then you lose some receivers that help you on special teams, I was really looking forward late in the year to getting some of those redshirt freshmen involved in the units. Quite frankly, I had too many of them on the kickoff team. I wanted to get some guys involved that I thought were ready. I wanted to rest some of our defensive starters that I thought were playing too many snaps. It is a fine balance between getting those guys involved on special teams and taking it a step too far. That is not our special teams coordinator’s fault. That is not the fault of the coach who handles the kickoff team. Those personnel decisions were my decisions to try to get those guys involved and get them playing. I just had too many of them on the unit. That responsibility lies solely with me. These kids were trying and were giving effort, they just didn’t read the return. They went the wrong way on blocks. We just had too many guys out there that aren’t used to making plays. The key to a kickoff is a great takeoff, you’ve got to avoid first-level blocks, have to disengage second-level blocks and you have to finish on the ball carrier. We avoided blocks the wrong way, we didn’t get off them and we certainly didn’t finish on the ball carrier. We have to get that fixed. There is never a guarantee you are going to fix it, but we are certainly looking at everything we are doing and we will do our best to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

Syracuse, they are a very veteran and very talented team. When the year started, pretty much everybody in the country had them pegged as the second-best team in the ACC. They won 10 games a year ago. They had a lot of really good players back. When you look at their two-deep, they have 27 juniors and seniors in their two-deep. Duke was the most veteran team I had seen all year in terms of the amount of upperclassmen in the two-deep, and then Syracuse has one more. They had really high expectations. For injury reasons or other reasons, maybe things haven’t panned out the way they hoped for. When we went into the season, I certainly viewed this game as being one of our most challenging games that we would have. I think they are a very talented football team. Their offensive skill is excellent. Devito is a really an emerging quarterback. He has thrown for 2,300 yards, 63 percent completion percentage, with 19 touchdowns and five interceptions. For a first-time starter, that is really good. He has great arm strength and has great velocity on the football. Their skill players are exceptional. The running backs, the receivers, the tight ends, it is a lot of the guys we faced a year ago with some upgrades. They’re really, really good on the perimeter. Defensively, it is a veteran group. The two defensive ends are as good of two ends that we will play all year. Both of those guys, Robinson and Coleman, are pros. They both have been invited to All-Star games. They are excellent players. It is a very veteran secondary. They have a lot of experience in the back end. On defense, they are starting seven seniors and they have another four seniors in the two-deep. This is a very veteran group. The guys for Syracuse are playing in their last game for senior day. Sometimes senior day can backfire and you can be overly emotional and you don’t play well. There is no doubt for our seniors, the fact that it was senior day on Saturday helped us. I’m sure for Syracuse’s seniors and their football team, this is their last game at home and the Dome is always a tough place to play. On top of that, every year I think Syracuse is the best-coached special teams we face. Their punter is excellent, their kicker is excellent, everything they do on special teams is really well-thought out. Their special teams coordinator, Lustig, is excellent. Every year they are ranked usually at the top, or in the top half of every category. We know this game is going to be a challenge and we have got to have the same energy and focus we had for Duke and hopefully finish up the regular season on a real positive note.

On Syracuse’s special teams:

I’m sure they’re salivating. I’m sure if we would ever kick the ball a yard deep into the end zone or even 10 yards deep, they’re probably telling their guys ‘find where your back foot is, (lean) backwards and against these guys, return every one, no matter where they kick it. They’re really good on the return units. They made a change with their kick returner, they’re playing a young freshman running back, and their kickoff return game against Louisville looked great. In their special teams meetings, they’re licking their chops. I’m sure they feel that will give them a huge advantage. And we’ve got to make sure it doesn’t play out that way. It’s going to be a challenge because they are really well-coached in their kicking game. I remember when he was at Ball State, I always admired his work there. He’s done a great job at Syracuse every year.

Mentality of freshman running back Kenneth Walker:

I think like every freshman, especially true freshmen, they find out it’s a lot harder. And it’s not the ability to carry the ball or catch it or block, it’s the weekly preparation, getting up there, watching the film, knowing the game plan, seeing the rotations, knowing the blitz pick-ups. And they’re at Wake Forest University which isn’t an easy school. So, for those true freshmen, it’s just the grind and the marathon of the season. It’s just hard. And I’ve said it many times, it’s harder here than at most places because of the academic nature of the school. Kids don’t hang out all day in the football building and take on-line courses. They go to every class, they write papers, they’re up late at night for finals. And they’re playing in the ACC in football and they’re playing against Clemson and Florida State and NC State and Louisville and Duke. Our upper classmen are used to it. Essang Bassey’s used to it. Jamie Newman is used to it. Cade Carney is used to it. To Kenneth Walker and Trey Rucker, it’s hard. And I think with true freshmen, their performances are always going to be a little uneven. But the great thing about Kenneth is he went up, kind of went down a little bit, now he’s coming out of it. And that’s encouraging that he keeps fighting the fight, keeps coming back. And if you do that, you will end up having success.

Can you anticipate some of them bouncing back?

Some of them hit that wall and they’re done. Some of them come back out of it. That’s why we try to redshirt. It’s not that these kids aren’t talented, it’s all the other things they’re taking on as a first semester freshman. Being away from home, living in a dorm, managing their own schedule, going to class, going to study hall, going to their tutors, writing their papers, traveling on Fridays to away games, preparing every week to play the teams that we play. It’s not easy and we know it’s not easy. So you anticipate those ups and downs a little bit and you always hope that you can get something from them and you also hope that you don’t have to completely depend on them. This year at running back, we don’t have to completely depend on Kenneth. If he has a great week, it’s a huge advantage. When his hands are on the ball, he’s a difference-maker. Trey Rucker, we’re counting on him. He can’t have a bad week. And freshmen are going to have bad weeks.