After a close 24-14 loss to Miami last weekend, head football beat writer Matthew Iles caught up with offensive coordinator Peter Vaas to discuss the team's performance thus far and the upcoming tilt with Wake Forest Saturday.
Matthew Iles: What's the scouting report on Wake Forest's defense?
Peter Vaas: They're a good, solid defensive football team. When you watch them over the last few years and even as this season has unfolded, Wake has found a way to win. That becomes an important thing when you look at an opponent. You understand what their resolve is. Wake is the kind of team that we are going to have to beat. They are not going to beat themselves.
MI: What was something you learned from the loss to Miami?
PV: We can't beat ourselves. The thing that hurt us the most last week at Miami were the fumbles that we had, some bad execution at critical times. We've got to make sure that we don't turn the football over and we don't get ourselves into situations where we beat ourselves.
MI: What were the positives you saw in your team despite the loss?
PV: The one positive that you have to admire and respect is the competitive nature that [our team] possesses-the resolve that they have. When you're down 10-0 at halftime and you're playing a team in Miami, Fla. and you're playing in hot weather and you're not expected to win-with all those kinds of things-you can very easily fold and not surprise anybody. But the thing our football team does is continue to fight and battle and try to execute to the best of their ability each and every play. We have that kind of resolve and stick-to-itiveness.
MI: How do you account for the season-high nine sacks against Miami?
PV: There's a lot of things that go into it. Bottom line is execution. One thing that is deceptive about sacks is that immediately everybody says, 'Oh, the offensive line is bad.' But it could be a lot of things. The second sack of the game, Thad trips and falls. There are other times when the receiver runs the wrong route, the quarterback holds the ball too long, sometimes a back misses a block and sometimes a lineman misses a block. So there's a multitude of things that go into sacks. It's not a reflection of our offensive line. It's a reflection of our overall passing game.
MI: What has been the overall progress of the offense since the first game of the year?
PV: I think it's been steady. One of the things that we can take away from each and every game is that we seem to improve a little bit. We're not improving by leaps and bounds, which is what we'd all like to see, but we're improving a little bit each and every week. As long as we continue to do that, eventually good things will happen.
MI: Are you happy with the offense so far or were you expecting more from it at this point?
PV: The only thing that makes you happy is winning. So when push comes to shove, there are certain goals and objectives that we have every week in contributing to the win. But whether or not those things happen does not matter, provided you win. No matter how good you look or how bad you look, all we want to do is win. We don't care how.
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