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Quotes: Wake Forest 45, Duke 34
11/28/2009 4:00:00 PM | Football
Duke Head Coach David Cutcliffe
On initial thoughts on game, coming out of half:
“We just didn't execute. It's hard to say with that many yards of offense that you didn't execute, but if you were there watching the ball game, like there at the end when we threw an interception for a touchdown, if we get it out of our hands earlier and get it to him, we can make the first down and you don't know what is going to happen. That is where I come in. I think part of it, to be honest with you…and I can talk about these kinds of things now…Thad [Lewis] hasn't practiced much at all in three weeks. I think what he did was amazing. It is amazing the yardage he has thrown for, think about it, with the time he has missed and how hurt he has been. I think that was part of the edge that wasn't quite there. Johnny Williams wasn't up to speed so we couldn't run our four-wide [receiver] set. It kind of limits what you can do. But, I am real proud of our guys. We didn't have an answer, defensively, to stop them. They had two big double moves for scores. We got it [the score] to 28-20 and then they hit us on one [big play]. I'm looking back at it, and Wake Forest has 20-something seniors. They did what they had to do to win the game. They answered every time. That is about what it came down to.”
On Wake Forest's offense's good day:
“They did [execute well]. They were 6-13 on third downs and 28-38 throwing the ball with no interceptions or fumbles. They had 26 first downs, which means they are keeping the ball. I didn't think they could run the ball on us, and they really shouldn't have. We had a stretch in there when our defense didn't really play well at all. We lost a little edge. At the start of the fourth quarter, I got in their face a little bit and challenged them. I thought they did a tremendous job of picking it up from that point forward. It was just a matter of stopping the big plays. I really thank the fans that came. It was a very vocal and large crowd today on a Thanksgiving weekend. Duke football is much better after two years than where we were. A lot of that has to do with our seniors. I can't thank those 14 young men enough for their contributions. That is what I said to them in the locker room. That includes all the things that the fans don't get to see. It is in our work ethic, the offseason, our throwing during the summer, the weight room; it's about Tuesday or Wednesday on the practice field. Our young players aren't as…they didn't have to go through what our seniors had to go through. I think it is going to be easier for them to believe and be more positive about winning. Our seniors had to fight it all the time. They thought they were supposed to lose these kinds of games. We have to break that cycle.”
On Thaddeus Lewis missing time and being hurt this season:
“He couldn't walk two weeks ago and played. He couldn't walk on Wednesday. His thigh was severely bruised and his ankle was severely turned. Hap Zarzour [Duke's athletic trainer] and him have been best buddies. His thigh was, I think, two and a half inches the size bigger than his other thigh. Hap just kept working with him. Thad [Lewis] is an incredibly hard worker. If he practiced during the week, there was no way he would have been healthy enough to play on Saturday. Everybody is aware that we lost Sean Renfree, so we didn't have another answer otherwise. I can't say enough about his courage.”
Duke Quarterback Thaddeus Lewis
On how the game progressed after playing even:
“Guys adjust. We tried to call better plays to counter their defense. They did a great job of adjusting.”
On trying to stay with Wake Forest in the second half:
“That is the motto around here. We don't quit...we fight to the bitter end. That is what this young team did today.”
On ending the season just short of .500 and his thoughts going forward:
“In my mind, I am starting to think about the future. For the younger guys, this is something to build off of. This is something that hasn't been done here in awhile. They just need to continue to get better as a program.”
On finishing career with over 10,000 passing yards:
“Records are meant to be broken, so hopefully a great quarterback can come along after me and break it.”
On how program has progressed in four years:
“I most definitely feel that I left it better than I found it. I came here as a young pup, and I have grown and matured into a man. What a great place, to come to Duke and become a better man on and off the football field. I will get my degree here in December, so I feel that I have accomplished a lot.”
On a new Duke offense next year without him under center:
“I will definitely be watching those guys. I will be anxious to see them. They can definitely be one of the top receiving corps in the country next year.”
Duke Wide Receiver Donovan Varner
On how game played out, adjustments that were made:
“They bracketed the middle a lot. We have a great corps of receivers that were able to get open, but sometimes we just couldn't execute. That hurt us a bit. We started passing the ball really well and we established the run this game. I think that created some lanes for the passes.”
On most of the receiving corps returning next year:
“First off, we are going to miss Thad [Lewis]. He is a great quarterback. On and off the field, we will miss him. But, our whole receiving corps is returning. With Sean Renfree and Sean Schroeder, I think we have a great chance to have another good year. We are going to work hard in the offseason to have a great chance next year.”
On getting 1,000 receiving yards:
“It definitely feels good to hit that mark. I knew what I needed [yardage] coming into the game. I was going to fight hard, not just to concentrate on how many yards I could get. But, it did feel good to reach that mark.”
Duke Cornerback Leon Wright
On the final game as a senior:
“I want to congratulate all the guys, all the seniors, for playing hard as a team. Our young guys are going to be good. We have a lot to look forward to in the future, for the younger and older guys. We [the seniors] are graduating and moving on in our lives. We are still part of Duke. We will bleed Duke blue and still be around.”
On Wake's big day offensively:
“They were executing well. It all boils down to who can execute. They are a good team. They made some plays and we didn't. We didn't make enough plays to win the game. “
On what it means to be part of Duke football for four years:
“I couldn't imagine being at any other school. As a senior in high school, when I learned that I was being recruited by Duke, I knew I wanted to come here. It is just a great feeling...what these guys [younger players] are going to do here is awesome. All of the seniors will see what happens. I know that Coach Cutcliffe and the staff will do a great job preparing the guys for next year to do even better.”
Wake Forest Head Coach Jim Grobe
On his team's defensive play:
“I thought the defensive guys did a great job. Early on, we just didn't play very well. We went out for a couple of series and played really poorly, gave up the real big play that you hate to give up. You hate to give up yardage in big chunks. We had issues down the stretch [of the season]. We had some guys who have been banged up, and we were shuffling guys around. The thing I was most proud of was how our defense settled down. We actually started to get off the field some. After those first couple of possessions, I didn't know if we were going to find a way to get off the field.”
On senior quarterback Riley Skinner:
“We're going to miss him a lot. He's a pretty special guy and a guy that's special in so many ways other than being a great player. He's going to leave our business school with a degree. Obviously he's a great player, but even better he's a great practice guy, great in the weight room, a great character guy. You go all the way down the list and check them all off, he's as good as it gets.”
On the difference between this team and the 2003 team that won 11 games:
“It's hard to compare teams, but I've said before, I think this team is as capable of being in a bowl game as any of the last three teams. I don't know if it's an 11 or 10-win team. We went through that one stretch where we played five bowl teams, a top-10 team and a top-20 team. We took two teams to overtime that are good football teams. We came up short against the top-10 team in overtime at their place. So this is not a bad football team. This is a team that has played a brutal schedule a really brutal schedule. If Baylor's quarterback doesn't get hurt, they're probably in a bowl game. So you look at the people we've played against and I'm going to tell you that this Duke football team is a really good football team. They were a little bit like us in that they played so many tough teams that by the end of the season they were about as beat up as we are, if not more. So I don't think we took the field in 12 games this year where we played a bad football team. That's the No. 1 reason we are 5-7, we played a lot of good football teams.”
On initial thoughts on game, coming out of half:
“We just didn't execute. It's hard to say with that many yards of offense that you didn't execute, but if you were there watching the ball game, like there at the end when we threw an interception for a touchdown, if we get it out of our hands earlier and get it to him, we can make the first down and you don't know what is going to happen. That is where I come in. I think part of it, to be honest with you…and I can talk about these kinds of things now…Thad [Lewis] hasn't practiced much at all in three weeks. I think what he did was amazing. It is amazing the yardage he has thrown for, think about it, with the time he has missed and how hurt he has been. I think that was part of the edge that wasn't quite there. Johnny Williams wasn't up to speed so we couldn't run our four-wide [receiver] set. It kind of limits what you can do. But, I am real proud of our guys. We didn't have an answer, defensively, to stop them. They had two big double moves for scores. We got it [the score] to 28-20 and then they hit us on one [big play]. I'm looking back at it, and Wake Forest has 20-something seniors. They did what they had to do to win the game. They answered every time. That is about what it came down to.”
On Wake Forest's offense's good day:
“They did [execute well]. They were 6-13 on third downs and 28-38 throwing the ball with no interceptions or fumbles. They had 26 first downs, which means they are keeping the ball. I didn't think they could run the ball on us, and they really shouldn't have. We had a stretch in there when our defense didn't really play well at all. We lost a little edge. At the start of the fourth quarter, I got in their face a little bit and challenged them. I thought they did a tremendous job of picking it up from that point forward. It was just a matter of stopping the big plays. I really thank the fans that came. It was a very vocal and large crowd today on a Thanksgiving weekend. Duke football is much better after two years than where we were. A lot of that has to do with our seniors. I can't thank those 14 young men enough for their contributions. That is what I said to them in the locker room. That includes all the things that the fans don't get to see. It is in our work ethic, the offseason, our throwing during the summer, the weight room; it's about Tuesday or Wednesday on the practice field. Our young players aren't as…they didn't have to go through what our seniors had to go through. I think it is going to be easier for them to believe and be more positive about winning. Our seniors had to fight it all the time. They thought they were supposed to lose these kinds of games. We have to break that cycle.”
On Thaddeus Lewis missing time and being hurt this season:
“He couldn't walk two weeks ago and played. He couldn't walk on Wednesday. His thigh was severely bruised and his ankle was severely turned. Hap Zarzour [Duke's athletic trainer] and him have been best buddies. His thigh was, I think, two and a half inches the size bigger than his other thigh. Hap just kept working with him. Thad [Lewis] is an incredibly hard worker. If he practiced during the week, there was no way he would have been healthy enough to play on Saturday. Everybody is aware that we lost Sean Renfree, so we didn't have another answer otherwise. I can't say enough about his courage.”
Duke Quarterback Thaddeus Lewis
On how the game progressed after playing even:
“Guys adjust. We tried to call better plays to counter their defense. They did a great job of adjusting.”
On trying to stay with Wake Forest in the second half:
“That is the motto around here. We don't quit...we fight to the bitter end. That is what this young team did today.”
On ending the season just short of .500 and his thoughts going forward:
“In my mind, I am starting to think about the future. For the younger guys, this is something to build off of. This is something that hasn't been done here in awhile. They just need to continue to get better as a program.”
On finishing career with over 10,000 passing yards:
“Records are meant to be broken, so hopefully a great quarterback can come along after me and break it.”
On how program has progressed in four years:
“I most definitely feel that I left it better than I found it. I came here as a young pup, and I have grown and matured into a man. What a great place, to come to Duke and become a better man on and off the football field. I will get my degree here in December, so I feel that I have accomplished a lot.”
On a new Duke offense next year without him under center:
“I will definitely be watching those guys. I will be anxious to see them. They can definitely be one of the top receiving corps in the country next year.”
Duke Wide Receiver Donovan Varner
On how game played out, adjustments that were made:
“They bracketed the middle a lot. We have a great corps of receivers that were able to get open, but sometimes we just couldn't execute. That hurt us a bit. We started passing the ball really well and we established the run this game. I think that created some lanes for the passes.”
On most of the receiving corps returning next year:
“First off, we are going to miss Thad [Lewis]. He is a great quarterback. On and off the field, we will miss him. But, our whole receiving corps is returning. With Sean Renfree and Sean Schroeder, I think we have a great chance to have another good year. We are going to work hard in the offseason to have a great chance next year.”
On getting 1,000 receiving yards:
“It definitely feels good to hit that mark. I knew what I needed [yardage] coming into the game. I was going to fight hard, not just to concentrate on how many yards I could get. But, it did feel good to reach that mark.”
Duke Cornerback Leon Wright
On the final game as a senior:
“I want to congratulate all the guys, all the seniors, for playing hard as a team. Our young guys are going to be good. We have a lot to look forward to in the future, for the younger and older guys. We [the seniors] are graduating and moving on in our lives. We are still part of Duke. We will bleed Duke blue and still be around.”
On Wake's big day offensively:
“They were executing well. It all boils down to who can execute. They are a good team. They made some plays and we didn't. We didn't make enough plays to win the game. “
On what it means to be part of Duke football for four years:
“I couldn't imagine being at any other school. As a senior in high school, when I learned that I was being recruited by Duke, I knew I wanted to come here. It is just a great feeling...what these guys [younger players] are going to do here is awesome. All of the seniors will see what happens. I know that Coach Cutcliffe and the staff will do a great job preparing the guys for next year to do even better.”
Wake Forest Head Coach Jim Grobe
On his team's defensive play:
“I thought the defensive guys did a great job. Early on, we just didn't play very well. We went out for a couple of series and played really poorly, gave up the real big play that you hate to give up. You hate to give up yardage in big chunks. We had issues down the stretch [of the season]. We had some guys who have been banged up, and we were shuffling guys around. The thing I was most proud of was how our defense settled down. We actually started to get off the field some. After those first couple of possessions, I didn't know if we were going to find a way to get off the field.”
On senior quarterback Riley Skinner:
“We're going to miss him a lot. He's a pretty special guy and a guy that's special in so many ways other than being a great player. He's going to leave our business school with a degree. Obviously he's a great player, but even better he's a great practice guy, great in the weight room, a great character guy. You go all the way down the list and check them all off, he's as good as it gets.”
On the difference between this team and the 2003 team that won 11 games:
“It's hard to compare teams, but I've said before, I think this team is as capable of being in a bowl game as any of the last three teams. I don't know if it's an 11 or 10-win team. We went through that one stretch where we played five bowl teams, a top-10 team and a top-20 team. We took two teams to overtime that are good football teams. We came up short against the top-10 team in overtime at their place. So this is not a bad football team. This is a team that has played a brutal schedule a really brutal schedule. If Baylor's quarterback doesn't get hurt, they're probably in a bowl game. So you look at the people we've played against and I'm going to tell you that this Duke football team is a really good football team. They were a little bit like us in that they played so many tough teams that by the end of the season they were about as beat up as we are, if not more. So I don't think we took the field in 12 games this year where we played a bad football team. That's the No. 1 reason we are 5-7, we played a lot of good football teams.”
Players Mentioned
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