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FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: WAKE FOREST v LOUISVILLEDecember 28, 2006Jim GrobeMIAMI, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: This is coach Jim Grobe from Wake Forest, the ACC Champs. Just begin with an opening statement about being here in south Florida for the Orange Bowl. COACH JIM GROBE: Well, we're really excited to be here. Obviously when we got in yesterday we had a great reception from the Orange Bowl Committee. Players are very appreciative of everything the Orange Bowl people have done. We've been welcomed with open arms, and we're excited about playing football. Hopefully we'll have some good practices this week and be ready to go. Q. Did you get all your players in last night, everybody here now? Yesterday at the Orange Bowl when you came in you said you had some guys traveling here on their own. COACH JIM GROBE: We did. We had one of our kids, I think, had some problems with luggage and whatnot, but we finally got him settled and had everybody at breakfast this morning at 6:30. So we're getting ready. Q. What's Kevin Harris' status, and are there any other injuries that we should be aware of? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, I think Kevin is okay for the game. He practiced last week, was not full speed but was able to go through all of our practices. We're hopeful that by the time we play, he'll be ready to go. Of course we're very hopeful that Kenny Moore will be full speed. That's a real key for us is having Kenny ready to go. I would hope that we wouldn't have to play Kevin a whole lot in the game, but we'll see how that turns out. And Nate Morton is probably a concern for us with his finger. He had the compound dislocation in practice catching a football and had to have some stitches and whatnot. We think he's going to be ready to go. We'll know a little bit more as he's able to practice this week, see what he's able to do as far as blocking and catching the football. Q. Just some general thoughts about your program, where it is right now, the opportunity this game presents for you guys and this more or less meteoric rise to where you are now. COACH JIM GROBE: I'm not sure that we can actually tell what it means for our future. I think it certainly bodes well. We've never had a problem selling Wake Forest. We've got one of the best schools in the country. I don't know that we've ever lost a parent in recruiting. Moms and dads want their kids to come to Wake Forest. The problem for us has always been selling football, that kids can come to Wake Forest and do all the things they dream about on the football field, and I think now that we've won an ACC Championship and we're in the Orange Bowl, that's going to be obviously a much easier sell. Q. What are your impressions of Brian Brohm from the film you've watched, I mean, his strengths and what you're going to have to do to kind of contain him? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, he's probably the best quarterback we've faced. I thought Boston College's quarterback was very good. But Brian has all the throws. He really manages the offense well, he has all the underneath stuff, but he's got the arm strength to get the ball down the field. You know, he's got a great supporting cast, really fine offensive line and great skill players. Brian Brohm is really, really special, but in addition to having a great quarterback, they've got a lot of kids around him that make plays. It keeps our defensive staff up late at night. Q. Can you talk about Zach McDowell's role as scout team quarterback and how you go about programming him to imitate Brohm? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, we're really excited about Zach MacDowall. He's a pretty good-sized kid and has really good arm strength. All year long he's been a challenge for our defense. You know, he does some really, really good things. I don't know that anybody can simulate Brian Brohm. There's just no way to do it. But I think Zach does a great job for us and really has all year. He's got the big-time arm and really challenges our defensive kids. Q. Talk about, without giving away too many trade secrets, what's the secret to your success? Why do you think both this year specifically but also in general you've been able to build this program? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, this is a year that has really been special for me as a coach. This is our first year with a fully recruited fifth year senior class, and I think most of the credit has to go to our players. We've got a more mature football team, we've got a little bit more depth than we've had in the past. I would say that we really don't have a superstar on our football team. I don't know that we have a readily recognizable name on our football team right now. But we've got a really good football team. It's just been one of those groups that you enjoy getting to work in the morning, you enjoy going to practice, you love taking the field with those guys on Saturday, and without any all-solar-system type guys, we've just got a good group of kids that like to play football. Q. You guys are tied for the most interceptions in the country this year. Can you talk about just why you're so successful with that? Is that something you teach? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, I think all coaches would like to say that they teach that stuff, and we certainly work hard to try to force turnovers on defense, whether it be interceptions, fumbles, whatever. We've got some older players on our defensive football team, and I think we've maybe just been fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. I think a lot of interceptions come as a result of facing a lot of teams that like to throw the football, and we certainly faced a lot of teams throughout the year that tried to put it in the air a lot. So that has a lot to do with it. Again, I think it goes back to our players. We've been very fortunate that we've not had -- not only had opportunities, but our players have taken advantage of opportunities, and so it's just one of those years where I think we've had it bounce our way a few times. Q. Where do you see Louisville's offensive system and the high potency that they've been able to produce with Bobby Petrino just compared with other great offenses in college football history? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, I think the thing that's so scary about Louisville's offense is they have the ability to score points in bunches. You know, you can be playing pretty good against those guys, and the next thing you know you're down 21 points. I think their big play ability is what scares you the most. The thing that they've done a nice job of, though, is they've done a nice job replacing the running back. When the Bush kid went down, I think that everybody thought that spelled disaster for the Cardinals. But the running backs that they're playing with are really, really talented. That's what drives you crazy on defense. They have the big play ability throwing the football, but they do a nice job running the ball. So they're not a one-dimensional offense, and I think that's what drives all defenses crazy is when you've got a team that has some balance to it that can run it and throw it, and I think a lot of times you forget how good they play defense and have a great kicker, really good special teams, and when you're pretty good on defense you give the offense a lot of opportunities. So I think that's what gives offenses a chance to have a lot of yards and score a lot of points is when the defense is playing pretty good, you get a lot more opportunities. So I think sometimes that's the missing element here. You know, they're a pretty good defensive football team, too. Q. Just wondering, much has been made this season about how Riley has come in and played so well as a red shirt freshman. What effect has Ben Mauk had on him? Has he been a positive influence? And how have you prevented him from feeling left out of all the success this season? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, I think Ben is a big part of our success this year, simply because of his attitude. He's grown up a lot. Ben was just our guy. I mean, there was no doubt when we started the season Ben Mauk was our quarterback. He had grown up a lot, not only as a player, but his attitude was just totally team-oriented, and I think that rubbed off on the younger players. And when Riley had a chance to step in, I think the best thing that Ben Mauk did was let Riley be the quarterback. He kind of has been around but not tried to kind of micromanage the young guy. I think the best thing that Ben has done is let Riley be the quarterback. Q. You spoke earlier about this being your first fully recruited fifth year class. In your grand master plan to build a Wake Forest program, has that worked out the way you kind of envisioned it when you took this job? COACH JIM GROBE: Yeah, I think most coaches come into the program, especially if you're trying to build a program, and you've got a plan. I mean, you've got some idea for how you want to make things happen. We learned a lot at Ohio University, my first head coaching job. We played too many true freshman when we were at Ohio University, and some of our very best players were fourth year guys for us, and we always wondered what it would be like to have those guys as fifth year seniors. So that became a foundation for us at Wake Forest. We felt that to be competitive in the Atlantic Coast Conference we were going to have to have an older, more mature football team. So the nice thing at Wake Forest, our athletic director bought into that plan. I think sometimes at some schools the athletic director is in his office and he's got a plan for the future and the football coach is in his office and he's got a plan for the future, but the two haven't talked about their plans for the future. So in this case I'm really blessed that I've got an athletic director that will meet with me at least once a week, and we talk about where we're going and what we need to do. Everything that Ron Wellman has told me he would do, he's added to that. He's done more than he promised. So we've got just a really, I think in some cases, unique and fun situation in that the head football coach and the athletic director were on the same page about what needed to happen at Wake Forest. Now, you never know how it's going to turn out, but so far it's turned out pretty good. Q. It must be satisfying for you to see it's turned out the way you had hoped. COACH JIM GROBE: Absolutely. You have a lot of sleepless nights. The last couple years we've really played too many red shirt freshman and red shirt sophomores. I think a couple years ago we looked out on the field, we were playing Florida State at our place, and I guess it would have been three years ago -- we've played Florida State twice in Tallahassee in a row. But three years ago looked out on the field, and at one time on offense we had eight red shirt freshman on the field at the same time, and that doesn't bode real well against the 'Noles. That's not really a real good plan. But that was part of being patient. We could have used some true freshmen that year. That would have really helped us. But I don't think we could have gotten to point where we're at today. It's very rewarding to see the plan start to develop, but there have been a lot of sleepless nights wondering if we were ever going to get to where we wanted to be. Q. Obviously this game is a big deal in Louisville and Winston-Salem, but nationally do you see the appeal there? Do you see the interest being that neither school is a traditional power of college football? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, to me Louisville is about as strong as it gets. I think you're talking about a football team that's been to several Bowl games now in a row. You've got a team that's literally been talked about for a while now as one of the premier programs in college football, and I think Wake Forest is kind of new to this role. You know, we felt like we were going to have a good football team this year. I think we felt like we were capable of going to a Bowl game this year, especially with the loss of Ben Mauk and Micah Andrews, our quarterback and running back. I don't think anybody planned on winning an ACC Championship and being in the Orange Bowl. So I think it's a very interesting match-up. I think we are playing a football program in Louisville that has the respect that we've been striving for, and you've got kind of an upstart program in Wake Forest, so I think it's got a lot of interesting appeal nationally. Q. There's a semi-joke in Louisville that basketball was the king and now football is. Does that same thing go on at Wake Forest, and how does all that play out because for a long time it was known just for football, and Louisville it's been a running line. COACH JIM GROBE: That's fun for us at Wake Forest is we're starting to do our part. We've always had great basketball teams at Wake Forest. There's not a better basketball coach in the country than Skip Prosser, but not just basketball, all of our sports at Wake Forest have been really, really good. Football has been kind of the sport that has not done their part. So it's just fun for us to do our part. I made the statement earlier in the year that we'd like to be a football team that the field hockey team is proud of. We won several National Championships in field hockey. So I think we're starting to fit in a little bit. I think if you went and talked to the other coaches at Wake Forest, if you talked to a guy like Skip Prosser in the basketball program, he's probably as excited to see football playing well as anybody at Wake Forest. So we've just got a really nice community in the athletic department and I'm proud that we're starting to pull our own weight a little bit. Q. You talked about the maturity and the experience of your players. Is that one of the reasons why you were able to go undefeated on the road and maybe you're not worried about the trappings of Bowl week, maybe experiencing new things this week and you know they'll be focused on the game? COACH JIM GROBE: Obviously I'm still worried about the Bowl trappings this week. But it's been obviously great for us to have an older group of players. I think typically what has happened to us, if you follow Wake Forest the last two or three years, a lot of the games that we won this year on the last play of the game or last series of the game, we lost in the past. And so I think this season is kind of the culmination of a lot of heartbreak. We've had so many games over the past two or three years that have gone right to the wire that we didn't come out on top. We've won some big games, we've won some close games, but we just didn't win our share. So I think when you look at this season if you've followed Wake for the past two or three years, you can see so many instances where the game could have gone either way, and I think the older players found a way to win for us, and I think a lot of that is just due to experience. You know, we've been in those situations so many times in the past that this year we just found a way to get it done. Q. Your program has recruited Kentucky fairly hard the last few years and obviously Chris Barclay graduated last year and he was a pretty good one from Louisville. Can you talk about that, and then specifically speak on R.B. Jones? He was a big-time player coming out of Kentucky when you recruited him. COACH JIM GROBE: You know, we talk about our plan to try to red shirt young players, and basically our rule is we just want to give you about 25 or 30 snaps a game if you're going to play as a true freshman. We really are not opposed to true freshmen playing, and Chris Barclay played for us as a true freshman, and I can promise you we wish we had him this year as a fifth year senior. I think Chris returned for a little over 700 yards for us as a true freshman so it was worthwhile, but we sure wish we could have put a shirt on Chris. And then R.B. Jones is just a fighter. You know, what a really good kid, a little bit undersized. We knew he was very athletic as an offensive lineman. We've had some issues with R.B. trying to keep weight on him because he's a guy that's got a high energy level, works really hard in the weight room and practice, those kind of things. But just a really, really solid player and has been a solid player for us for a long time now. But I think he's playing his best football right now as a fifth year senior. You know, we've got some good players out of the state of Kentucky. One of the things that we have to do at Wake Forest, because of academics, we have to expand a little bit. We can't make a living in North Carolina. North Carolina is our base and we try to recruit as many kids in-state as possible, but because of not only what we need from a football standpoint to play in the Atlantic Coast Conference but what we need academically at Wake Forest, we have to go find players wherever they are, and it's nice we've been able to find guys like Chris Barclay and R.B. Jones. Q. This is Brian Piccolo's home town. Could you talk about his legacy and the impact maybe he still has on the program? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, obviously we're awfully proud of Brian Piccolo, and I think that it's hard to put into words his impact at Wake Forest because throughout the years without having a lot of success year in and year out as a team, not having the opportunity to go to a lot of Bowl games and do things as a team that you're proud of, a lot of times it falls back on individual players that you have to draw pride from, and I think Brian Piccolo is one of those guys that's always been one of the guys that stands out in our minds as one of our great, great players. So we're awful proud of Brian Piccolo, and he's been great for our football program as far as recruiting and tradition. Q. As you were talking about your team and where they started and where you are now this year, it made me wonder, did you see their attitude change as you went through this season, their expectations of themselves? COACH JIM GROBE: What we've noticed with this football team, it's just been a really easy football team to coach. We noticed that last year and when our workouts as we went into spring football practice, a lot of the things over the past two or three years we've had to be pretty demanding about, you know, work ethic and practice habits and playing four quarters, all those kind of things, we've not had to say very much to this football team. And so I think it's been rewarding from a coaching standpoint to see guys that have paid quite a bit of dues and had a lot of good things happen about a lot of setbacks along the way, just put it all together in one season where we've got a football team that we don't have a lot of little cliquey groups on this football team, not a lot of self-interest guys. We've got guys that like each other, guys that like to lift weights together, like to practice together, like to play on Saturday together, and I think that's all a factor of experience and being in a program for a while. Q. Do you have an opinion on if there should be like a trophy case or a display generally in Bridger or somewhere else chronicling this season, and what should be in it, if so? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, honestly I haven't thought too much about that right now. Maybe when we get the Orange Bowl game behind us we'll have an opportunity to think about those things. But I know Ron Wellman has thought long and hard about a way to not only chronicle the football success of this season but all our sports teams. We've done a lot of cool stuff with the other sports teams. We've talked about trying to move something on campus. You know, right now everything is over at Bridger, and being off campus makes it a little difficult for fans and people that have interest in seeing some of the memorabilia. So we've talked about finding a way to bring that on campus, but I don't know how far along Ron is in his thoughts there. Q. You've kind of become known for running a lot of reverses and counter-plays. Is that a philosophy you've had for a long time or is that something that's come up recently? Or talk about where that comes from. COACH JIM GROBE: What I'm really proud of is our coaching staff has done a really good job of finding ways for our kids to be successful, and that's our only thought. You know, we really lost some ability when we lost Micah Andrews in the third game this year, to do some of the things in the running game that we had counted on Micah to be able to take care of. So I think from that standpoint we had to find different ways to do things that we weren't capable of doing after we lost Micah. So that has just meant allowing more wide receivers to run the football. So what I think the coaching staff has done a good job of, we tried to not ask players to do things scheme-wise that they're just not capable of doing. So our offense has evolved quite a bit from what we thought it would be in the spring and in the summer. We spent all of our time in the shotgun run and spread option offense. We thought Ben Mauk was going to be a kid that would carry the ball 10 or 15 times a game. We really thought Micah Andrews would be a back that could carry a ball 30 times a game, and that was pretty much our thought, and a lot of that would be reading out of the shotgun. When Ben got hurt in the first game, the whole offense went out the window, and then of course in the third game when we lost Micah, it changed all of our thoughts about how we needed to move the football. So the things that you see us do right now are really out of necessity. It's not anything that is rocket science-type stuff. We're just trying to get kids in positions to make 1st downs and score some points when we can, and our number one thought is take care of the football. What you see for us offensively has kind of evolved to what we're doing right now, and I think that's something we'll continue to do as our talent level changes from year to year, our offense will evolve and change with it. Q. You kind of touched on a little bit earlier, but you mentioned that you did a lot of cutting of your teeth at Ohio University, learned some things that you were able to bring to Wake Forest, and I'm kind of wondering if you could elaborate on just what some of those things were. COACH JIM GROBE: Well, I think first and foremost, we learned that we're going to be better if we play older players. We did some really nice things at Ohio University but in some cases did not use our personnel very wisely, especially freshmen. We probably played too many true freshmen and really decided when we came to Wake Forest that that was a lesson -- that we wouldn't make that mistake twice. So we've been more patient at Wake Forest. I think patience is something that you learn over time. I think the other thing that we learned, we started out at Ohio University and we were primarily an option football team. A lot of guys or a lot of people called us Air Force East when we first went to Ohio University because we were so option-oriented. We ran a lot of midline inside veer-type stuff. We kind of weaned ourselves a way from that as our talent level changed, and I think that option experience really helped us in designing offenses that could move the football a little bit without being as risky as you are in the option offense, and I think that's one reason we've done a pretty good job this year taking care of the football is we kind of cut our teeth on option football and have gotten away from that, but some of those principles we still use in our offense, but I think we're doing a better job taking care of the football. And I think we also did a good job at Ohio University using our talent defensively. You know, we were kind of a slant-and-angle defense at Ohio University, and as we evolved at Wake Forest, we didn't have the players to be a slant-and-angle defense, and we've been in a lot of different looks defensively, but we finally settled into four-man front stuff primarily, and we'll do a little bit of three-man front stuff. I think what we did at Ohio University was I think as much as anything learn how to manage our personnel and try to be flexible as coaches and not try to force the kids into a scheme just because we understood a certain scheme. If we didn't feel like we had the players to play it, we've made adjustments, and I have to give a lot of credit to our coaching staff for best utilizing our personnel, and I think we learned that kind of stuff at Ohio University. Q. Let me ask the question. You do whatever you want with it. There have been times when you've dropped a lot of players into defensive secondary, and I'm wondering with Louisville's passing game, they go both deep, they've got the short game, the quick game and a run game, might we see a lot of those players back in the defensive secondary again? COACH JIM GROBE: You might (laughter). I think what we try to do is as much as possible keep things mixed up. I think honestly it's a roll of the dice. I think they're going to have a plan offensively, not just Louisville but anybody when you play any offense, they're going to come into the game with a plan and they're going to like certain things against certain looks on defense, and I think your key defensively, not just in this game but every game, is to try to keep things mixed up so you can give the quarterback a little different something to look at play in and play out. At times it involves trying to bring a lot of pressure and at times it involves trying to play coverages and get more people in coverage, and I think disguising what you do is really, really important. I think Brian does a really nice job of reading defenses, and so I think disguise becomes very important. So I think there will be times when we're -- what we'd like to do is have about eight guys in coverage every snap and be able to bring about eight. If we could do that, I think we'd be pretty good. But unfortunately they'll only let us play with 11. So I think the key is just trying to mix things up. At times you want to bring some heat, and at times you want to have more guys back there. And as I mentioned before, they do such a nice job with the intermediate throws and then the underneath stuff and then have all the ability in the world to go on top. So you've got to just be careful and hope that you dial up some looks that will give them problems. It's not real easy. It's not something that any of our defensive coaches feel real comfortable about right now. Q. Can you assess the importance of turnover margin in this game as opposed to a normal game? More important, less important, same? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, I think certainly what I alluded to a little earlier is I think Louisville has got a good defensive football team, and that gives their offense more opportunities, and of course their offense is one of the most explosive in college football right now. So I think a key is not giving them more opportunities by turning the football over. So I think it's a huge factor for us offensively to not only try to find a way to make 1st downs and spend some time on the field if we can, but especially not to turn the football over because that gives Louisville more opportunities. And then from a defensive standpoint, I think if you can turn the ball over a little bit, certainly you limit their chances to score points. One of the things we've done pretty well all year is in the turnover ratio. I don't think it could ever be more important than it will be in the Orange Bowl. Q. Antonio Wilson and Alphonso Smith from the same small home town, Pahokee, Florida, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about their recruitment and being both those players come from the same place helped their development on your team? COACH JIM GROBE: Well, they've both turned into not only good football players but they're just really good kids. I think Antonio is a guy that's going to be a really good football player. He's getting bigger and stronger. He's a really good pass rusher, he's starting to do a better job playing against the run. He's a guy that's played more here at the end of the year. But I think the bright part for Antonio is I think he's got a great future for us. Alphonso Smith had a great freshman year, did not start out the season real good for us. I think he was just pressing too hard. He was trying to make every play on the field. I think after the first three or four games when he settled down and just started playing the scheme, he's become a big part of our success this year, very talented kid. I think any time you get a player -- they're really good friends, and I think we got an early commitment out of Antonio, and I think that that influenced Alphonso. Sometimes if you're not careful you try to package deal guys. We really don't want to do that. We took Antonio Wilson only based on his ability, that we thought we could be a really good player for us at Wake Forest. But the nice thing about that is I think that helped Alphonso decide to come to Wake Forest, and we couldn't be happier with those two guys. End of FastScripts |
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