Quotes from Tuesday's Press Conference
10/26/2010 8:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 26, 2010
Head Coach Ralph Friedgen
Opening Statement:
"Players that are out for this game are Gary Douglas, Avery Graham, Desmond Kearse, and Dave Stinebaugh.
"Just to rehash what's transpired, I just spoke with Pete DeSouza's mother and he's been taken out of ICU and they are waiting to find a bed for him. His blood pressure is back to normal, he's stabilized and doing quite well.
"Wake Forest had a breakout game from their tailback Josh Harris against Virginia Tech. He rushed for 241 yards on 20 carries. I don't even know where this guy came from - he's not even listed in the press guide. He's a redshirt freshman, played a little against Navy and did a pretty good job. He's pretty darn good.
"They have a young team. On offense, they are very, very explosive. Tanner Price is their quarterback. He is a true freshman. They had some injuries at quarterback but they still have good wide receivers in (Devon) Brown, (Marshall) Williams, (Chris) Givens and a good tight end in (Cameron) Ford. Their line is experienced and they have the fourth-ranked rushing offense in the ACC.
"Defensively, they are young. They are struggling a bit on defense. They have two young defensive linemen and are starting two true freshmen at corner. But they play hard and I think their stats are skewed because of who they have played. Their five losses have come to Stanford, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Navy. Three of those teams are ranked and we know how good the other two are and how capable they are at rushing the football.
"Their kicking game is solid. And as usual they are very well coached by Coach Grobe. They are hungry and we are going to have to be ready to play a very, very good football game if we want to win."
On the offensive line:
"Obviously there are some adjustments we're dealing with. You move (Paul) Pinegar, who I think played pretty well for not having practiced one rep at right tackle. Bennett (Fulper) moved in and played center, which he was playing part-time (before). We have to get better there. I think that just the whole cohesiveness, part of the offensive line is the stability of playing together. I mentioned this many, many times before. It's very important. When you disturb that it's never going to flow like you want. But we're working at it. We've moved Cody Blue up. We've moved De'Onte Arnett to offense. We're hoping that he can pick things up but we don't know how fast that's going to happen. We think that it's a good move not only for our football team but also for De'Onte. As soon as we can stabilize that, and Bennett can do the job, which I'm hoping he can, we'll kind of know which way we're going."
On Pete DeSouza:
"He's a guy who is very, very dear to our players, on both sides of the ball. They're going to be that way forever. That's not going to change. I haven't talked to them about dedicating the season or anything like that. I think it was a testimony to our players that they were able to focus and win a game on the road playing different positions, dealing with adversity and still be concerned about Pete. I don't know how much more I can ask of them than that. I think we just have to focus on what we're doing and keep Pete in our hearts and prayers."
On the number of fourth-down stops Maryland's defense has this season:
"Well obviously in the Navy game that figured in big. Today we'll have a short-yardage period and they'll get three or four reps. But I think that's more of a testimony to our kids than our scheme. Our scheme is good but they have to execute it. One of the things I kind of made an emphasis of going into the Boston College game is (Montel) Harris always falls forward. When they went for the fourth-down play, (Joe) Vellano and (Adrian) Moten made the initial hit and it was a matter of wills. He was fighting to get forward and those two were fighting to push him back, and then (Cameron) Chism finally came in and finished it off... I think it's more of a testimony to our players and their will to be successful in that situation more than anything else."
On De'Onte Arnett's switch from defensive line to offensive line:
"To me, it's a really good fit. He's a very bright kid, very athletic. He's a very hard worker, very motivated. I really think the injury to Pete, he came in and said he wanted to make a move and start fresh. He was put back himself by an injury. He was hurt in camp and missed most of camp, and by the time he got back he didn't have a chance to win a spot. I said 'I was thinking about talking to you about this anyway, and I think it's a good idea. I think it's a win-win in both situations. I wish all of them went as well as that one did. I was very receptive to him coming in and telling me that. I watched him last night in practice and I think it's a good move. Now, he doesn't know what he's doing, but I saw him hit people and knock people off the line of scrimmage, and that's a good place to start."
On Wake Forest:
"(Against Virginia Tech) they did a great job of running the ball and throwing the ball both. They ran up and down the field against Virginia Tech. I started my meeting off yesterday saying `watch these three plays of No. 25 Josh Harris.' He rips off an 87-yarder pulling away from everybody from Tech. Then he had a 58-yarder and another 30-something yarder. So this guy is pretty good. It got (the coaching staff's) attention real fast. (Wake Forest) is always tough on offense."
Freshman Quarterback Danny O'Brien
On the importance of the game against Wake Forest:
"It's going to be an exciting atmosphere. It's a big game for us since we are one win away from becoming bowl eligible. It's going to be an exciting game to play in."
On Wake Forest's defense:
"They have some undersized guys on the defensive line but that means that they can move that much better. They are very active on the defensive line and can do a lot of stunts and zone pressures and because they are fast on the line they can mix it up. It's going to be a different look then what we saw out of Boston College but we will be ready for the challenge."
On the offensive line:
"I am confident behind them. If I had to use one word to describe them it would be versatile. Paul Pinegar has played every position on the line and is a warrior. I wouldn't trade any one of them for anyone else."
On the emotions from Pete DeSouza's injury:
"Pete is in the beginning of the recovery process and we want to keep winning for him while he isn't able to be with us. We are going to keep playing for him and it has been a real rallying force for all of us."
Sophomore Wide Receiver Kerry Boykins
On Wake Forest's defense and what they can do against them:
"Their safeties are pretty good but we are going to try and get our running game going. We are going to try and continue to work our quick passing game as well."
On the importance of the game against Wake Forest:
"It's a big game but we try to approach every game as if it's a big game. One of our mottos this year is 1-0 every week. Every week we are trying to be 1-0 no matter who we are playing against. Being that it is homecoming, it makes it bigger and our opportunity to become bowl eligible this year only adds on to that. Going to a bowl game was a goal of ours and we have the chance to achieve that."
On his touchdown against Boston College:
"It was another play that the quarterback got rid of the ball quickly. We knew that Boston College liked to pressure the quarterback a lot. I had a quick slant, Danny O'Brien got rid of the ball quickly and he did the hard part I just had to catch it and it was right there for me."
Sophomore Offensive Lineman R.J. Dill
On Pete DeSouza's injury:
"It was a touching experience, we knew that we had to get it done and not for ourselves but for Pete. We realized that we don't know how many more chances we are going to get to play this game so we have to make the most of it. We have to deal with the cards we have been dealt the best we can. No one is going to accept any excuse if we lose, we have to do the best we can and get the job done."
On Paul Pinegar's play at tackle:
"You can't put a value on someone like Paul Pinegar. No one wants to be put into the situation he has been put into and be forced to play because of the situation with Pete. I thought he played well after I watched the film from the game, without ever having taken a snap at tackle this year. His ability to do that is why he is so valuable to our team."
On the rebound form last season:
"I think part of it is that we were better than our record showed last year. We played better than our record showed at times and it just seemed that we couldn't put a complete game together. Hopefully we will be a bowl team this year, we are going to continue to work and get better. It shows how hard we have worked and come from last year. The bowl isn't the goal here, we still are in the battle and are controlling our own fate in the Atlantic Division of the ACC and that's where we want to be."
On Wake Forest's defensive front:
"I think that they are pretty good up front. They are experienced guys who have all been redshirted and have been in their system for awhile and because of that they know what their coaches want. They got the job done against us last year and we have to do better against them this year."
Junior Safety Kenny Tate
On Pete DeSouza:
"I have had some contact with him, my mom and I have talked to his mom a couple of times. I have known him since high school at DeMatha so we have a good relationship. He's doing well now that he is stable so we are just hoping for a speedy recovery now."
On the red zone defense:
"We take pride in our red zone defense. We don't like for them to get down there but we know that it is going to happen occasionally. We just have to stop them and only allow them to get three points because those other four points could be a difference in the game."
On Wake Forest Running Back Josh Harris:
"He is definitely a playmaker and we are going to have to strategize against him. Seeing the things that they do, he's quick so they run the split zone. We just have to stop the run and not allow the big play."
Sophomore Defensive Lineman Joe Vellano
On the importance of this game:
"It would be a huge win for us, being bowl eligible is something that we needed especially after our season last year. We would be 6-2 with a win and it would be another conference and division win. We match up pretty well against them, hopefully we can score some points and stop them on defense and from there each game becomes more and more important."
On Wake Forest's offense:
"I watched their game against Duke and they scored 54 points. They use a spread offense and they have a great weapon in their running back. They can put points up and the biggest thing is for us to get some turnovers and hopefully slow them down."
