Head coach Ralph Friedgen visits with the local media each Sunday after a game on a teleconference.Here are the quotes from that 15-minute session:
On injuries from Saturday's game:
"Looks like everyone will be okay. The only one in question is Dave Stinebaugh. We are going to do a MRI on him (Monday). We think he has a tear in his knee. This would be a non-surgical injury, which would take four to six weeks to heal, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
"Eric Franklin seems to be fine with only a hamstring injury. Adrian Moten was X-rayed after the game and it showed up as only an ankle sprain. We will probably have to rest him this week along with Torrey (Smith) so that they can be ready for the stretch run of the season.
"If we don't have Stinebaugh, I am hoping we can get Devonte Campbell back. Although I did think that Will Yeatman played well (Saturday) and hopefully, he can step up and help us too."
On preparedness of traveling to Clemson versus West Virginia earlier in the season:
"I think it is something we still have to work at but I think we have played in an environment similar to that and we will have more poise than how we played the last time and hopefully learn from that experience."
On Tony Logan:
"He is definitely a tremendous asset and weapon for our team. I watched the tape today and what amazed me was the effort our kids gave after nearly blocking the punt, LaQuan (Williams) came very close to blocking it, that they got up and the effort they had to get the wall. Once Tony made the first player miss, our return wouldn't have been as good if they hadn't went back and made the blocks. I think there is a sense of urgency for our players. They know if they get down and do the job for this guy, he is likely to take it to the house. Our kids, on their own, are making a great effort to utilize this young man."
On what makes Logan a great punt returner:
"The first thing is that he can catch it. You can't be a good punt returner if you are worried about catching the punt, which isn't easy to do. I think he has grown even more and more confident on catching but then he has the ability to make the first player miss. If you noticed (Saturday), they were double-teaming some of our guys from getting down there. Once you can make the first guy miss it's a matter of picking up the wall or the blockers. The biggest thing I think he has to do, which I talked to him about last spring, every time cannot be a touchdown. If you average 10 yards a return then that is a first down every time they punt the ball to us and that's a tremendous asset to us. The biggest thing is to make the first guy miss and get what you can and then the big ones will come, which I believe is what has been happening."
On the changes that have to be made in the next week:
"I am in the midst of sitting down and looking at all our challenges that need to change. I definitely think we have to get better in a lot of areas. I think our running game has to get better, more so our techniques have to get better. Our pass protection needs to improve. We had some mental issues (Saturday) night where we were overreacting to a certain defense, which we didn't need to and that put us in some difficult positions. Third down is still an issue on offense. We had some opportunities to make plays but we didn't make them, whether it was the throw, catch or run. I saw that the plays had an opportunity to work but we didn't execute.
"The challenge I think I have as the head coach is that we have to get well but we also have to get better. The question is how do you do both? When you have to rest some players and get them healthy, it is hard to get them better. What I have to do is try to get the other players better and still make some progress during the off week and not take a step backward.
"Defensively I think we have to play our coverages better. I think we had a chance to be in good situations but we just didn't execute the coverage but I think our running game, for the most part, we did a better job. We had one big option play that we should have taken the quarterback but we didn't take him. So we didn't fulfill our responsibilities there. We have to stop giving up the chunk plays. In the first 29 plays, they had eight plays of 15 yards or more and then after that, other than the last fourth down, they didn't really do a lot. They got 10 or 12 yards here or there, but for the most part (the defense) played pretty good the second half."
On cutting down the chunk plays:
"The scheme is good, we just have to do a better job on executing and implementing it. That's where I think I can give us some more time to work on these things. (Duke) is a pretty good team offensively. They are pretty sharp and they execute pretty well. If you look at the positive side of things they gave up four sacks coming into our game and we probably should have had six. I believe they are 20th in the country in passing offense, so they are going to make some plays but what we have to do is keep them to a minimum. They were 13 out of 13 in the red zone (entering the game) and we were able to do pretty well in the red zone. There were some positive things that came out of the game but there are still a lot of areas for us to get better."
On improving the running game:
"I think we have to get more production. We have some plays that I thought we had well blocked but we made a wrong cut or I thought we should block a player that we didn't block. Some of those were some young players' mistakes and some because we didn't run as well as we could. We have to bring some of these young linemen along, (Pete) DeSouza, (R.J.) Dill and (Bennett) Fulper. We have to continue to get better along those lines."
On the success in punt returns:
"I anticipated that we could be better there, even last year. We didn't do a good job with our corners last year. It was hard for Tony (Logan) to make players miss. It kind of surprises me that Kerry Boykins and Quintin McCree are our corners and you would think there would be some carry over, but here are two wide-receivers doing a good job for us. When I talked to Tony in the spring, I told him it needed to be a big part of our game. "I am a little disappointed because I think we should be further along on our kickoff returns. We have a guy there who is a threat and he is not full speed right now, which I understand, but we're not doing a good job at executing it like we can. We have to get the right people there, which has been a little bit of a problem because we keep switching people due to injuries. We should be better than what we are. We were a lot better last year than we are right now."
"Looks like everyone will be okay. The only one in question is Dave Stinebaugh. We are going to do a MRI on him (Monday). We think he has a tear in his knee. This would be a non-surgical injury, which would take four to six weeks to heal, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
"Eric Franklin seems to be fine with only a hamstring injury. Adrian Moten was X-rayed after the game and it showed up as only an ankle sprain. We will probably have to rest him this week along with Torrey (Smith) so that they can be ready for the stretch run of the season.
"If we don't have Stinebaugh, I am hoping we can get Devonte Campbell back. Although I did think that Will Yeatman played well (Saturday) and hopefully, he can step up and help us too."
On preparedness of traveling to Clemson versus West Virginia earlier in the season:
"I think it is something we still have to work at but I think we have played in an environment similar to that and we will have more poise than how we played the last time and hopefully learn from that experience."
On Tony Logan:
"He is definitely a tremendous asset and weapon for our team. I watched the tape today and what amazed me was the effort our kids gave after nearly blocking the punt, LaQuan (Williams) came very close to blocking it, that they got up and the effort they had to get the wall. Once Tony made the first player miss, our return wouldn't have been as good if they hadn't went back and made the blocks. I think there is a sense of urgency for our players. They know if they get down and do the job for this guy, he is likely to take it to the house. Our kids, on their own, are making a great effort to utilize this young man."
On what makes Logan a great punt returner:
"The first thing is that he can catch it. You can't be a good punt returner if you are worried about catching the punt, which isn't easy to do. I think he has grown even more and more confident on catching but then he has the ability to make the first player miss. If you noticed (Saturday), they were double-teaming some of our guys from getting down there. Once you can make the first guy miss it's a matter of picking up the wall or the blockers. The biggest thing I think he has to do, which I talked to him about last spring, every time cannot be a touchdown. If you average 10 yards a return then that is a first down every time they punt the ball to us and that's a tremendous asset to us. The biggest thing is to make the first guy miss and get what you can and then the big ones will come, which I believe is what has been happening."
On the changes that have to be made in the next week:
"I am in the midst of sitting down and looking at all our challenges that need to change. I definitely think we have to get better in a lot of areas. I think our running game has to get better, more so our techniques have to get better. Our pass protection needs to improve. We had some mental issues (Saturday) night where we were overreacting to a certain defense, which we didn't need to and that put us in some difficult positions. Third down is still an issue on offense. We had some opportunities to make plays but we didn't make them, whether it was the throw, catch or run. I saw that the plays had an opportunity to work but we didn't execute.
"The challenge I think I have as the head coach is that we have to get well but we also have to get better. The question is how do you do both? When you have to rest some players and get them healthy, it is hard to get them better. What I have to do is try to get the other players better and still make some progress during the off week and not take a step backward.
"Defensively I think we have to play our coverages better. I think we had a chance to be in good situations but we just didn't execute the coverage but I think our running game, for the most part, we did a better job. We had one big option play that we should have taken the quarterback but we didn't take him. So we didn't fulfill our responsibilities there. We have to stop giving up the chunk plays. In the first 29 plays, they had eight plays of 15 yards or more and then after that, other than the last fourth down, they didn't really do a lot. They got 10 or 12 yards here or there, but for the most part (the defense) played pretty good the second half."
On cutting down the chunk plays:
"The scheme is good, we just have to do a better job on executing and implementing it. That's where I think I can give us some more time to work on these things. (Duke) is a pretty good team offensively. They are pretty sharp and they execute pretty well. If you look at the positive side of things they gave up four sacks coming into our game and we probably should have had six. I believe they are 20th in the country in passing offense, so they are going to make some plays but what we have to do is keep them to a minimum. They were 13 out of 13 in the red zone (entering the game) and we were able to do pretty well in the red zone. There were some positive things that came out of the game but there are still a lot of areas for us to get better."
On improving the running game:
"I think we have to get more production. We have some plays that I thought we had well blocked but we made a wrong cut or I thought we should block a player that we didn't block. Some of those were some young players' mistakes and some because we didn't run as well as we could. We have to bring some of these young linemen along, (Pete) DeSouza, (R.J.) Dill and (Bennett) Fulper. We have to continue to get better along those lines."
On the success in punt returns:
"I anticipated that we could be better there, even last year. We didn't do a good job with our corners last year. It was hard for Tony (Logan) to make players miss. It kind of surprises me that Kerry Boykins and Quintin McCree are our corners and you would think there would be some carry over, but here are two wide-receivers doing a good job for us. When I talked to Tony in the spring, I told him it needed to be a big part of our game. "I am a little disappointed because I think we should be further along on our kickoff returns. We have a guy there who is a threat and he is not full speed right now, which I understand, but we're not doing a good job at executing it like we can. We have to get the right people there, which has been a little bit of a problem because we keep switching people due to injuries. We should be better than what we are. We were a lot better last year than we are right now."
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