Clawson press conference notes

http://www.wakeforestsports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/100317aab.html

Really impressed and proud of how our coach addressed the Las Vegas shootings. We can disagree with him on playcalling and stuff, just like we did with Grobe, but we've been fortunate to have had 2 real class acts as our head coach. Heck, make that 3 with Jim Caldwell. His results were lacking, but hard to find a better man.

"We’re probably not going to lose the turnover margin to Florida State, Clemson, NC State, Notre Dame, Louisville and ever have a chance to win the football game. In those games, it’s a small margin for error and we were on the wrong side of that margin.”

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I get where he's coming from, but the bolded bothers me. We should have won the game against FSU, despite losing the TO margin. And our goal should be to build a program that can consistently compete and doesn't have to have a +2 or +3 advantage to win against those guys.

tigerswood said:

I get where he's coming from, but the bolded bothers me. We should have won the game against FSU, despite losing the TO margin. And our goal should be to build a program that can consistently compete and doesn't have to have a +2 or +3 advantage to win against those guys.

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Yeah, but I mean he's right. There's not going to be many opportunities to beat teams like that when you lose the turnover battle. We did have a great opportunity Saturday though. Of course, without those 2 turnovers, we probably win even with our other mistakes. I think the part about we "played to win" bothers me, because the play calling certainly wasn't "playing to win" on our 2nd to last possession.

That website is all but unusable on a phone.

deaconson said:

That website is all but unusable on a phone.

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LOWF

BIG TIME

tigerswood said:

I get where he's coming from, but the bolded bothers me. We should have won the game against FSU, despite losing the TO margin. And our goal should be to build a program that can consistently compete and doesn't have to have a +2 or +3 advantage to win against those guys.

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I took that as NOBODY beats the Clemsons and FSUs of the world when you lose the turnover battle. I'm sure there is an example of someone doing it, but I bet that most teams that lose the turnover battle with them, don't win.

I don't think it was a LOWF quote, just a statement of how big time college football works.

skinnydeac said:

I took that as NOBODY beats the Clemsons and FSUs of the world when you lose the turnover battle. I'm sure there is an example of someone doing it, but I bet that most teams that lose the turnover battle with them, don't win.

I don't think it was a LOWF quote, just a statement of how big time college football works.

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Fair. Agree to disagree. He also mentions the small margin of error when playing those teams like a way of the world. His (our) goal should be to make that margin of error bigger.

I like Clawson a lot, and get that we're always at a disadvantage against FSU, Clemson, etc., but didn't really like hearing, and was surprised to hear, Clawson say it in a press conference. I loved his first press conference where he completely downplayed Wake's disadvantages and talked up all of the things that makes it a different and special place, and how they should be used as advantages.

tigerswood said:

Fair. Agree to disagree. He also mentions the small margin of error when playing those teams like a way of the world. His (our) goal should be to make that margin of error bigger.

I like Clawson a lot, and get that we're always at a disadvantage against FSU, Clemson, etc., but didn't really like hearing, and was surprised to hear, Clawson say it in a press conference. I loved his first press conference where he completely downplayed Wake's disadvantages and talked up all of the things that makes it a different and special place, and how they should be used as advantages.

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I think he definitely likes the underdog role and I hope he always keeps that fire/chip on his shoulder.

Grobe had it the first 8 years and lost it.

tigerswood said:

Fair. Agree to disagree. He also mentions the small margin of error when playing those teams like a way of the world. His (our) goal should be to make that margin of error bigger.

I like Clawson a lot, and get that we're always at a disadvantage against FSU, Clemson, etc., but didn't really like hearing, and was surprised to hear, Clawson say it in a press conference. I loved his first press conference where he completely downplayed Wake's disadvantages and talked up all of the things that makes it a different and special place, and how they should be used as advantages.

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I think if you're going to coach at Wake, you're going to have to be somebody that acknowledges the disadvantages, because it does no good to act like they don't exist. However, I think Clawson while recognizing the disadvantages, also doesn't let those disadvantages limit his thinking as to what we can do. I think that was Grobe's downfall. Grobe was pretty good, especially the first half of his time here, fielding competitive teams despite being handcuffed in a lot of ways. Grobe's problem was, I think he got to where he thought that was the way it was always going to be and there wasn't anything that could be done to change it or lessen the disadvantage. I don't see that thinking with Clawson. I think he says, yeah we've got these things against us, but we've also got things going for us and over time we can overcome the disadvantages through hard work and progression. One of the reasons I think Caldwell had such a tough time here was he tried to bring the big football school mentality to Wake. He came to Wake after being an assistant at Penn State. I think Grobe was good, especially pre-2009 Jim Grobe, at taking the roster he had and making them competitive. I think Clawson sees the bigger picture and has approached this job as building a program, over time making the disadvantages lesser.

I remember in Clawson's first year when we couldn't run the football against air, Clawson was asked why we didn't try the wide line splits that Grobe had used when we were having trouble in the run game and it really helped for a few games. Clawson said he wasn't looking for quick fixes or temporary band aides, he said while things might be worse at the start, he wanted to do what he thought was needed to build a program. I think Clawson is probably as good a fit for us right now as we could ask for really. I felt that way about Grobe for a long time and then it got to the point he wasn't any more and it may get that way with Clawson, but right now I think we've got our man.

I posted this thread because I was really impressed with what he said about Las Vegas, even though it's morphed into something else which is fine. His statement just really struck me because you could tell he had really thought about it and it really effected him and he was speaking from the heart. I'm sure a lot of coaches across the country mentioned that their thoughts were with the people involved in Vegas and then jumped right into football and that's fine. I was just very impressed with how much thought and sincerity our coach put into his thoughts on it.

tigerswood said:

Fair. Agree to disagree. He also mentions the small margin of error when playing those teams like a way of the world. His (our) goal should be to make that margin of error bigger.

I like Clawson a lot, and get that we're always at a disadvantage against FSU, Clemson, etc., but didn't really like hearing, and was surprised to hear, Clawson say it in a press conference. I loved his first press conference where he completely downplayed Wake's disadvantages and talked up all of the things that makes it a different and special place, and how they should be used as advantages.

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Clawson's statements here are about the realities of the situation as it exists this season for Wake vs opponents. The margin for error is small at this time. His earlier statements were about his perception of the program and where it might get to in the future.

The good news is that the conversation has gotten to the point where Wake is within margin of error of beating FSU, and a little bit better performance (lots of places for improvement) could have resulted in a Wake victory.

Longer term, Wake needs to keep improving so that margin for error gets bigger. Wake isn't there yet. 3* vs 4 & 5*

The margin for error is small against any team with a ton of talent, FSU or otherwise. You dont think the margin for error for Clemson was small against Alabama last year, and vice versa? When two good teams play, it usually comes down to a handful of plays that decide the game.

If we had lost the turnover battle 2-1 to FSU two years ago, it wouldnt have mattered. This year it did, because we were much more their equal than 2 years ago.

Swinney 's comments today tell you how we win against superior talent. Discipline, total buy in and trust in our system, smart, toughness, won't quit. FSU and Clemson can recover from mistakes. We gotta be damn near perfect at this point to get the win. Dabo was interesting in his comments.