Wake Forest Demon Deacons College Football Pregame Quote, 09/17/2019

Like I said after the (Carolina) game, it was a great college football game. I am really glad we had the opportunity to play them. The atmosphere, the crowd, our student section, that is what you want a home field advantage and environment to feel like. I was really proud of our players. I thought we came out ready to play. It was that good balance of having emotion and enthusiasm and not being out of your minds that you aren’t executing. I thought we really handled that balance well. We jumped out to a 21-0 lead. In the second half we missed some opportunities to put the game away. Credit to North Carolina, we opened the door for them and they came charging through. That last drive, with 6:30 left, was really clutch. To go 12 plays and 60-some yards and take five minutes off the clock, and then (Nick) Sciba’s field goal made it a touchdown game. Our defense came through again on a two-minute drive. In two of our big wins, the defense was on the field and had to stop a two-minute drive and they did. The play by Boogie Basham on first down and the hustle play that he made to keep the quarterback in bounds, then the next play was a tipped ball and a great hustle play to prevent a first down, both of those plays could have stopped the clock. In those situations, I thought we did a lot of little things correctly. Even the last play of the game, you see Justin Strnad trying to keep him in bounds. I am proud we found a way to get to the end. There is some things, like any game, we need to clean up. We were far from perfect, but it was a good win and we will learn from it.

Next up is Elon, who is ranked 22nd in the country in FCS. This will be the highest-ranked FCS team we have played in my time here. We know the staff well and have a lot of respect for them. Coach Trisciani is a guy we have known for years and have a good relationship with their staff. They work our camps and they are outstanding football coaches.

It starts with their quarterback. When the year is over, I would bet we would put Davis Cheek in the upper half of the quarterbacks we will have faced. He is a three-year starter. He was the CAA Rookie of the Year two years ago. He is big, he is physical, he is athletic, he is extremely accurate and he doesn’t take sacks. He has completed 60 percent of his balls and does not turn the ball over. He has thrown for seven touchdowns, including five a week ago against Richmond. I know people in that conference and they just rave about him. He was a guy we looked at out of high school. He was right on the bubble and I thought Elon was smart to take him. He is going to end up being a four-year starter and break a lot of school records. He is a good quarterback who would play at a lot of places around the country.

They have good receivers. (Kortez) Weeks is fast and elusive and quick. Then they have size at receiver. Cole Taylor is 6-3, 210 and has made some of those outside, contested catches that Scotty (Washington) and Sage (Surratt) have made for us. The running back, Jaylan Thomas, was the CAA Rookie of the Year a year ago. They have a big physical offensive line. Defensively, they are very sound. They lost their opener in a last-second game. Then they came back and beat a Citadel team that just beat Georgia Tech. They beat a Richmond team that I have a high opinion of. They are a good program and that wasn’t a competitive football game. We are excited for homecoming and being at home again. It is an interesting history with this game with Peahead Walker. He was probably the most successful coach in history of Wake Forest, he coached 10 years at Elon and 14 years at Wake. It is a neat football connection between the two programs.

On potentially not getting up for a FCS opponent:

I certainly hope not. Like I said, I think that’s human nature but we’ve been in this position before. In some other years, we haven’t been able to close a game the way we should of. What’s the quote, ‘Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it?’ Our challenge to our football team is every week is to be the best version of us. And last week when North Carolina came in with all the hoopla and the two big wins, let’s be the best version of us. We believe that’s good enough to win. I think we have to have that same approach every week. Does our football team have the maturity and the ability to do that? It’s hard to do that in college football. You’re dealing with 18, 22, 23-year-olds. That’s 12 weeks and every week is a season and we can have all the clich√©s but that’s a challenge. It’s the next game. You watch the tape and these guys are good. The quarterback is a really good player. They’re certainly a lot of FBS programs that this guy would start at. He’s accurate and if you look at a year ago, when we played Towson, we gave up over 345 yards passing. And that quarterback who’s a really good player, but wasn’t nearly as experienced as this kid is. Certainly were not in a position to be pounding our chest. If we don’t show up and play, then that game last year against Towson was more of a football game than we wanted it to be, then these guys are just as good, if not better in some areas.

On the running back situation:

Last game was Christian Beal-Smith’s second game as a starter. The Rice game was his first game. Cade got nicked up toward the end of the Utah State game and then Christian started the last two weeks. We’re anticipating Cade is going to come back this week. But we’ve got three good backs right now and we’re very confident when any of these guys are in the game. Cade, if he’s healthy, is the starter but Christian is a very good player and Kenneth Walker’s played really well. And Kenneth gets better every week. That’s a position that right now we have depth, but we have had years where we lose two or three to injury at once. So I’m worried about who’s three, who’s four, who’s fiv¬≠¬≠e. That can always come into play but right now that certainly is a position of strength for us.

On Tyler Williams being on the depth chart:

He’s back in practice today and it’s good to have him back. As the year goes on, you get nicked up in some positions but in some positions you get guys back and certainly having Tyler back will be big for us.