9/20/2020 football Edit

Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson: 'They controlled the line of scrimmage'

Justin H. Williams • TheWolfpackCentral

Staff Writer

Wake Forest Demon Deacons football head coach Dave Clawson answered questions from media members in a virtual press conference following a 45-42 loss to NC State Saturday.

The Wolfpack (1-0, 1-0 ACC) gained 270 rushing yards on the Demon Deacons (0-2, 0-2 ACC) defense.

Here were Coach Clawson's thoughts about NC State following the loss:

Wake Forest football Dave Clawson — Coach Dave Clawson is 3-4 against NC State in his seven years at Wake Forest. (Jeremy Brevard/USAToday)

Opening statement:

"First off, all the credits to NC State. They came out and ready to go and they jumped to a 14-point lead. We always know these games against Big Four competition is going to be challenging.

"I love how we competed. I love how we fought. I don't like the way how we played run defense, you know obviously if you give up 270 yards on the ground. You know, we really struggled with third downs in the first half we got that cleaned up in the second half.

"They out-played us and deserve to win the game. Again, I think we're getting better. I think we have the makings of a good football team. This team is a work in progress and we'll get there, but we didn't play well enough tonight to beat a very enthused and energetic NC State team."

On adjusting to NC State's run-heavy offense Saturday:

"I mean a lot of those runs were against run-stopping calls. We kind of did some things early that we were soft and when we saw they were coming out and running it, we were putting our corners on islands. We weren't doing a lot of double-covering, we were putting the linebacker in the box, the safety in the box.

"They just ran that stretch play and they got seams. We missed some tackles, we did not create a new line of scrimmage at all. That's been their bread and butter play for years here and they got into sort of some formations and we never dented it. At times we got reached upfront, and then we didn't clean it up at the second level.

"… It was just their ability to run the football was the difference in this game. When we had to, we didn't get off the field enough. They controlled the line of scrimmage. We both ran the ball well, but they ran it really well, they ran it for 270. There's a lot of things you can do on offense when you can run the ball for 270 yards."

Where did things go wrong on your final offensive possession?

"We just had a lot of pressure and guys weren't getting open. They were doing a three-man rush and getting pressure. Sam was stepping up and I think we took one or two sacks in the two-minute drill."

How hard it was to scout for NC State with two new coordinators:

"More so the offense. Defensively, they ran a lot of the 30-stack stuff a year ago. We had a pretty good idea what they were going to do offensively, it was a hard prep.

"NC State, Texas, things you've done in the past, there were some carryovers. We studied a lot of North Carolina State film and we watched every Texas film from last year. And, You know, it was a very difficult prop."

On parents of athletes being permitted into Carter-Finley Stadium:

"First of all thanks to NC State for giving us 100 tickets. That was a very classy gesture on their part. It's not something they had to do, they just could have kept all 350 for their team.

"For them to give us 100, I want to thank Dave Doeren and [director of athletics] Boo Corrigan and their administration. That was a first-class thing to do. I think our players appreciate that their parents were able to watch him."