Nov. 27, 2010
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Vanderbilt – Wake Forest Postgame Notes
November 27, 2010
Vanderbilt Head Coach Robbie CaldwellOpening statement:
“Well, it has been a rough day. The game didn’t turn out like we wanted but we played hard. We continued to shoot ourselves in the foot and didn’t score points. I see we had about double the amount of first downs. Same story, different chapter. I’m proud of them and they continued to play hard, particularly after a tough day for them.”
On Jared Funk:
“We struggled. We dropped some, missed some and didn’t hit some open receivers. I did more throwing because that’s one of the better things that he does.”
On his emotions:
“I’m sad. I hated to leave those players in the locker room. I told them that my uniform colors may change but my loyalty to them will always remain the same. I love every one of them. It’s a tough time, anytime you make a change. It’s tough, but it’s part of life.”
On when he broke the news to the players:
“I broke the news to them at about 10:45 and they just sat there. What can you say? They don’t know what’s going on, they don’t know who’s coming. It’s like I told them tonight, keep working because somebody will be hired and somebody will continue this program.”
On what’s next for him:
“I don’t know. I’m anxious to see. I thought I might try a nine to five job one time so I’ll see what that’s like. I’ve never done that in 35 years. I may even take up writing. I know one thing I am definitely going to do if I can’t find work and that’s being an official. Now that I’m no longer here, that crew tonight was unbelievable. I told them I was a perfect fit: my eye-sight is bad, I’m out of shape and fat, you get the best seat in the house and you get paid for it.”
On Jordan Matthews:
“I’m very pleased. I know he was very emotional tonight. I’m very close to him and I recruited him myself. He’s a special young man and he’s going to have a great career here. He’s a good student and a good person. These last two [recruiting] classes have been good and they are going to do well.”
Quarterback Jared Funk
His thoughts on his performance:
“It was my first start, the last game of my career, I just wanted to go out and play hard. When I was running, I didn’t want to slide. I was going to go in there and try to get a few extra yards, just throw the ball around a little bit. It was good. I thought I played pretty well for my first start.”
On the tone of the game:
“Regardless of what happened to Coach Caldwell, he reassured us. He tells us all the time that he loves us; nobody loves us more than he does. We went out there and played hard and he reassured us that he was going to treat this game just the same as every other game he’s coached us. That’s kind of how the players reacted. I think we went out and played hard.”
On his passing:
Myself personally, I thought I was a little inaccurate today. You could tell I was a little bit inexperienced out there, I rushed a few passes when I didn’t need to and I might have waited a little too long to throw a couple of others. Closer to the end of the game I got a little more comfortable but I wish I had been a little less tense at the beginning of the game.”
Jordan Matthews
On playing inspired tonight:
“They’re like family; Coach Caldwell got me here and Coach Fisher, my receiver’s here coach. I felt like I wanted to play a lot more inspired because I wanted to give them a good game.”
On hearing the news this morning:
“It was very tough for me. Especially looking at the fact that Coach Caldwell was the one that recruited me to Vanderbilt. He gave me a chance when a lot of other colleges wouldn’t take that chance on me, so I took it to heart. Coach Fisher talked to us and said it’s life and you have to move on and you have to get stronger from it.”
Kennard Reeves
On the tone of the team tonight:
“A lot of people, it doesn’t matter, they’re going to go out there and play hard no matter what the news was. I think a lot of people were inspired for our seniors and wanted to go out with success. Unfortunately that didn’t happen.”
On having to dig out of an early hole:
“Special teams was killing us, blocking a couple of punts and pinning our defense back up against a wall. I felt like offensively we were getting a lot of things going again and we didn’t execute in the red zone, which has been the story of the season.”
Wake Forest Head Coach Jim Grobe
On Wake Forest’s Defense:
“Forcing field goals in the first half was huge. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t play that well on third downs, but I couldn’t be happier with our defense.”
On Snapping Wake Forest’s Losing Streak:
“I was really impressed. We, like Vanderbilt, have played a brutal schedule. We’ve had nine straight losses to bowl teams. Tonight, our guys played good football and didn’t lose focus. I was also proud of a Vanderbilt team that played through adversity losing their coach.”
On Wake Forest’s Ground Game:
“We came in with a plan to run the ball. Josh Harris’ [74 yard run] was huge. Vanderbilt did a good job in the second half. We wanted to come out and run some clock and they wouldn’t let us; their defense forced us into several three and outs.”
On Wake Forest’s Special Teams:
“The two blocks were huge. That goes without saying, but we kicked terribly on kickoffs tonight. Luckily, we dodged that bullet. [Vanderbilt] did a heck of a job of returning kicks.”
Matt Woodlief
On finishing the year with a win:
“It’s a feeling I can’t even explain. There are so many emotions running through all the seniors’ heads right now. We’ve been saying all week that we need to go out with a win and show these coaches and these young guys that we still have something to fight for. I’m glad we got a win for them and for myself I know this is a game I will never forget.”
On the Vanderbilt passing game:
“That was a different look for us. We expected them to run a lot more than they did going against our odd front, because they hadn’t seen an odd front all year. We were expecting them to run the zone and the speed option a little bit more but that shocked us a little. After we got up on them a little they went to into clock mode and we’re trying to get the ball down the field anyway possible.”
On snapping a nine-game losing streak:br>”You forget how it [winning] feels and it’s a great feeling. These young guys, we wanted to leave them with a win and get them ready for spring ball. Hopefully, they’ll have a better season than we did this year.”
Josh Adams
On the running game:
“I think we did a great job. The offensive line stepped up huge. They were able to open up some holes for our backs and we capitalized when we needed to.”
On the running game struggling against Vanderbilt in the second half:
“[Vanderbilt’s] defense keyed in in the second half and they were able to stop some of our running game. They were a very physical team and gave us a great challenge.”
On snapping a nine-game losing streak:“I think that was very important for us seniors. We’ve won a lot of games but this season was not as good as we would have liked it to have been. It was a team effort and a lot of guys stepped up and made plays when we needed to in order to win.”
