Postgame Quotes
Oct. 25, 2008
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Miami head coach Randy Shannon
Opening Statement
“This game against Wake Forest was a true test of adverse situations. I think the football team went through a tough situation playing against a tremendous football team like Wake Forest and coach Grobe coaching a team with the majority of juniors and seniors. It was tough today. I think our young guys did a lot of great things and our older guys also responded by making some great plays for us. Sam Shields on a third down situation came up with a tremendous play. And I thought in the second half defensively, we did a lot of great things. It was a tremendous effort on both sides of the football and on special teams.”
On Wake Forest’s opening drive
“Wake Forest is usually a team, from what we have seen on film, that lines up with no backs, three wide receivers tight, motioning the fullback out or in the backfield, and a lot of different formations. I think coach Grobe did a good job of going back to what he believes in, which is playing solid defense and smash mouth football. And that’s what he did today.”
On the three examples of dangerous play calls (Reverse on the kick off, onside kick, last drive deep balls)
“We have been working on that for a couple of weeks. We thought it was a good opportunity because they were squeezing from the back side heavily and they were making plays coming across our face. We thought that we would come out in the second half and open it up with a reverse. We had it, we shielded it and we got some yards on it. We have been working on the onside kick this week too, it was a play that we felt with their lineman we could take advantage of. We kicked it and it was there but we just didn’t recover the fumble. The offense got a beat on what they were doing in the secondary, we noticed a couple of things by formations that they were trying to do to take advantage of us. So we attacked those things and came up with some successful plays.”
On Marve looking good running the ball
“He did, he looked like Jacory out there. He did a good job of executing our offense. We have two tough quarterbacks. They look frail but they really aren’t. And they do a good job.”
On who played well on defense
“I really don’t know, you have to watch the film before we evaluate that. I thought in the second half they responded with shutting down the run game better than in the first half. They did a tremendous job on third downs getting off the field.”
On playing turnover free football
“That’s how you have to play against Wake Forest. They lead the league in turnovers and they have always been tremendous. We just had to make sure that we protected the ball, don’t have any turnovers and get good field position. When they got the ball, coach Grobe was playing field position the whole game.”
On Matt Bosher making kicks and then shanking a punt at the end
“Well it wasn’t all Bosher. We just have to go back to the drawing board and work on getting better protection.”
On the penalty on the late hit on Sam Shields
“I don’t get into that stuff. I leave that to the officials.”
Offense protecting the lead and the ball
“These guys are getting more mature offensively and they understand what we need to do with the ball. That was important for this offense, they were able to go in and manage the game. Our quarterbacks did a good job of managing the football game.”
On the forced fumble by Ojomo.
“That was a big play in the game. That helped us in field position, excitement for the fans, and for this football team. You need a little bit of inspiration to get you going and that was a big play.
Wake Forest QB Riley Skinner
On what they’re going to have to do to start winning …
“We need to make plays and score touchdowns. It’s the same situation that we’ve had a lot this year and last year. You just need to play your offense and keep the chains moving and hopefully you’ll get the ball in the end zone. They just cut us up pretty well and we weren’t able to move the ball.”
On idea of his team right now…
“We’re not really sure right now. I don’t really think we’ve really found our identity on offense. We’ve been changing it a lot and doing a bunch of different things and unfortunately, none of them stuck. We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board again and figure out ways to put more points on the board.”
Wake Forest OL Jeff Griffin
On Miami’s adjustments of Miami in 2nd quarter to rest of game…
“We saw film on Miami and they played the eye formation all season so we pretty much knew they were going to do that today. We just thought we were going to take it to them and play good defense.”
On what’s next for Wake Forest…
“We just need to worry about the next game. You can’t worry about what happened today-now we need to worry about what we’re going to do next week.”
Wake Forest Safety Chip Vaughn
On Miami’s quarterbacks…
“We knew coming in that they were going to change some things up. With Marve and with Harris, they were just really running the ball. Everything we scouted, they did it. There weren’t any surprises. It just came down to guys making plays.”
On needing one big turnover…
“We needed it somewhere. On a fumble, on an interception, tip passes. We kind of pride ourselves on forcing tip passes. We did have some opportunities but we didn’t capitalize on those plays.”
On things not working out well so far this year…
“It’s like bouncing a ball. We just keep thinking that one of these days that ball is going to bounce back into our favor but right now it just hasn’t. I think one of these days it will.”
Wake Forest Head Coach Jim Grobe:
On missing PK Sam Swank…
“Well it hurts, we got a young guy, he’ll grow up as the season goes and his career goes on. When you don’t have Sam out there it hurts. It limits your opportunity.”
On missed field goal near the end of the game…
“I thought he hit it pretty good, he went through it fine, it just didn’t go through the uprights.”
On running the ball much of the game…
“We just didn’t play well last week against Maryland, too much spread stuff. We wanted to come into today and run the football a little bit. We probably didn’t get as much as we hoped to get out of our throwing game. We just felt like we needed to run the football a little bit today.”
On decision to punt late in the fourth quarter…
“We were down six, I felt if we kicked the field goal, fourth and four, was a little bit of a gamble. Our defense was playing really good, I thought there was enough time to stop them and get the football back and then have a chance to score a touchdown, or tie the game and play a little more than four quarters.”
On Marve running as much as he did…
“They have been a gun team and have thrown the football quite a bit. I think we got pretty much what we were expecting.”
On not changing to spread after being down…
“For the longest time, I thought we had plenty of time, I really did. I felt we had time, especially on that last series. We went down the field, we were doing pretty good. We were really feeling like we were in four-down territory. On third and short, we lost yardage, and that put us at fourth and four. In hindsight you might go back and do a lot of things differently.”
Robert Marve
On the long run set-up play…
“That’s what I expect from our offense. When I throw the ball to Travis and three guys are on him I expect him to break every one, like he did. That’s just how it goes. We talk about scoring every play and if I have to make a pass to help a guy score or if they give me a wide open hole, I’m going to take either one.”
On running the ball and being chased…
“I feel like there are just a lot of fast guys around me. I just try to keep going forward and try to make a play. I was happy I was able to show my running ability a little bit this game.”
On Wake Forest’s secondary…
“They changed up on us a little bit. Number 2 and 59 are the best players I’ve seen on defense that they have, they are incredible. Fast guys who can hit and they can definitely move well. They tried a lot of different things on us and I think Coach Nix did a good job changing it up a little bit.”
On the cause of the last three straight wins…
“No excuses and we trust each other.”
On the win today…
“The great feeling about today was that we were in a big dog fight and we came out on time. That’s the greatest feeling I think we’ve had. If you see in our locker room, we have a lot of joy for each other. It’s not just another win for us, it’s a dog fight that we came out on top.”
Sam Shields
On coming back from an injury…
“It’s been good, I’ve been patiently waiting. When my turn was called I went out there and made a big play.”
On preparing for the next game…
“It’s a very big week, it’s another ACC game. We just need to go out there with another fight and play hard.”
Matt Bosher
On getting the job done…
“Each game, each kick is one in its own. I just have to go out there and do what I have to do. If the hold and snap are good, which I know they will be, I just need to go out there and do my job.”
Travis Benjamin
On stepping in and starting from scratch…
“I know when I came in, my goal wasn’t to get playing time. I didn’t think I would get this much playing time with all the receivers coming in. I’ve been playing my role and working hard, and now I’ve been getting the playing time.”
On favoring the long catch over punt returns, etc…
“I think it’s the long catch. When I beat somebody I have the momentum over the person. So next time when I line up, he’s going to bail out because he doesn’t want me to beat him again.”
