Wake Forest Head Coach Jim Grobe On Game

Excerpts from Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe and his Tuesday press conference:

On the short week of practice
"We've called a lot of our friends to see how they handled the short week. You can't be as physical as you normally are. You just gotta really try and do as many things as you can mentally to get ready to play. It's tough on the players...without an off day, having to go right back in and work on Sunday. Typically, Sunday's our day off, but we had to go to work after a tough Duke game. It's tough on the players. It's tough on the coaches. The coaches were in at six o'clock in the morning on Sunday trying to get a game plan ready. So there's no real science to it, it's just a grind really to get ready for Thursday night."

On Florida State
"I think they're much better [than last year.] They're not turning the ball over on offense, and I think that's the key for them. They're taking care of the football. Their defense has recovered from a lot of injuries they had last year. They're playing like the old Florida State defenses. And their kicking game is really good. So they're a top-25 team. I've thought that they were one of the better teams in the country. They had a tough loss to Clemson to open the season, but going to Clemson is no picnic. They're a really good football team. They're better than last year."

On the FSU quarterback situation
"Athletically, we'll never face a better quarterback [than Xavier Lee]. He runs really well. He's got a real strong arm. He's a big kid. He's a powerful runner. He breaks tackles well. He's a guy that, sometimes the work thing you can do is to flush him out of the pocket and get him out in the open spaces where he's running with the football. So he presents a lot of problems for us. And that's the guy we're focusing on. We've seen film on Drew Weatherford. We had a chance to face both of them last year, but I think both of them are more mature and doing a better job than last year."

On defending the FSU offense
"I think you got to pick your spots. The problem you have with their wide receivers is that there's no difference between zone coverage and man coverage. No matter how you slice it, you're going to be one-on-one with your cornerbacks on those wide receivers. So you've got to bring some pressure. At times if you bring pressure and you flush Xavier Lee, then you're in more trouble than you were when he was in the pocket. But I think if you let him sit and have a lot of time, you have problems too. The key is to try to mix up your coverages, try to mix up your pressures, try to keep them off-balance and never forget that they have a running back back there who can really hurt you if you don't pay attention to the running game. A mobile quarterback gives everyone problems and we're no different."

On defensive strategy
"I think it'll be situations. If we get them in the situation where we think they have to throw the football, maybe we need to have more defensive backs on the field. They do a nice job with draws and screens, things that make you be careful about being too aggressive. Even in your nickel packages, when you might bring more pressure and play more man coverage, they've got some man-beaters in their offensive scheme. This is a team that's got a lot of things in their offensive plan. What we have to do is try to pick our spots when we're in base defenses and when we're in nickel coverages."