Nov. 3, 2009
Opening statement:
"We had the off-week and I think that helped us get healthy. We had two good practices (last week) and gave them the weekend off and came back and had practice last night and we'll get into N.C. State tonight."
On the NC State offense:
"NC State is playing very well right now offensively. They are ranked 20th in the country (in scoring offense) . They are averaging 31 points per game and 409 yards total offense (135 rushing/271 passing). They have a very big, strong offensive line. Tight end (George Bryan) is up for the Mackey award and is the leading receiver with 34 receptions.
"Of course, when you are talking about their offense you have to talk about Russell Wilson who is ranked 17th nationally in passing efficiency. He's thrown 21 touchdown passes with six interceptions. I believe he had the NCAA record for consecutive throws without an interception earlier this year.
"Jarvis Williams is their big play receiver. He has 26 catches. Owen Spencer had a career game last week with 185 yards and three touchdowns against Florida State."
On the NC State defense:
"We have our work cut out for us. On defense, they have a couple of guys we really have to deal with. Alan-Michael Cash is a very good d-lineman and he'll be matched up against our guards. Willie Young has seven sacks this year is an excellent pass rusher. They've had some injuries, kind of similar to us."
On NC State's special teams:
"T.J. Graham is an excellent return guy. He didn't play last week and I don't know his status this week. He's averaging 10.4 yards on punt returns and 25 yards on kickoff returns."
On the NC State game:
"They've lost four straight, we've lost three straight. They have a pretty potent offense. We've shown improvement on defense the last couple of weeks and that will be tested this week.
On the off-week:
"The biggest thing I wanted to do was try to get healthy. (Alex) Wujciak and Cory Jackson...we kind of let them rest all week. Any one that had a nick or a bruise, we tried to let them get rested up also. We worked with our younger players and tried to see what we could improve with them also."
On how his role as a motivator has changed, if at all:
"I do it constantly. I've been speaking to kids on a daily basis, individually as well as collectively. It's a very important thing for me to show by example by being up and being aggressive and not being down. I talked to our kids last night about learning some life lessons right now and where they are persevering. Especially when you are working hard and you don't see the immediate results from that. It's been my experience to keep working and eventually good things happen and that's what I plan on doing."
On the focus of coaching staff during the off-week:
"We are trying to get our running game going again. Our off-week, we did more stuff from a coaching aspect of what are we doing well, what we are not doing well and why are we not doing it well. We looked at explosive runs, the red zone and passing. Who's making plays and who isn't, why we aren't making sacks and the whole gamut. When you have so many guys that are nicked up, it's tough to get anything really done on the field because most of the guys you need to get it done with aren't practicing. So what we try to do is prepare for when they are practicing what we can do better as coaches."
On the strides the defense has made this season:
"Defensively we've made a lot of strides. I was looking at the ACC stats the other day and they break it down by overall games and then conference games. I think we are (eighth) in the conference in overall games in rushing defense, but when you get to conference games, we are first. There is a dramatic change there. And when you look at our last four games defensively, I think we've played pretty good with the exception of the Wake Forest first half. So I see some improvement there."
On having the bye week:
"I just feel like I haven't done anything in so long. It's sort of a little weird, but I'm sore today (after practicing last night). It did feel like the first day of two-a-days or something. I haven't run in a long time."
On playing eight ACC games in a row:
"Physically it wore me out. I feel like every week I have a new injury or something else is bothering me. Mentally, it did, [also]."
Senior Defensive Lineman Travis Ivey
On North Carolina State:
"We've been watching the film. Just watching over the last couple of weeks and watching them play, they've been playing tremendous on offense [who is] scoring a lot of points. We have to come up with the win."
On NC State quarterback Russell Wilson:
"He's a dual-threat. Not only can he run, but he can actually throw the ball a lot faster. We have a lot of quarterbacks who are pretty nifty on their feet, but they're not as accurate."
On whether the team is progressing despite the record:
"Absolutely, we are trying to stay in it. The key thing is we are looking at it one game at a time, one week at a time, one rep at a time. Slow it down a little bit. We just try to get better each week"
On the bye week:
"Bye week was taken as a literal bye week and we took a little time off. We had practice, but practice wasn't as heavy as it had been in the past. We're trying to get guys healthy and trying to get back as much as we can."
On returning from the bye week:
"I didn't see anybody really giving up. We still have got something to fight for and the guys are ready to go. Hopefully we'll get a good game going against NC State."
On the Terps defense:
"Our defense has been playing real good the past few weeks so I'm confident that they'll go out and do a good job Saturday. We just have to start putting up points on the offense for them."
On the team's attitude:
"Obviously guys were down last week after a tough loss, but I think for everyone, getting this week off really helped everyone's spirits. Everyone just came back yesterday, ready to go. Everyone was real upbeat. Coaches were ready to go. It kind of felt like the first day of practice all over again."
On playing NC State:
"This week, both teams are kind of in the same situation. NC State, they've had a tough October and lost a lot of close games. I think it's definitely going to be a good game. We are playing for a lot of the same stuff ... I think definitely getting a win this
