BK Transcript: 11/2
Written by Jerry Strabley
No opening statement.
Where does Alize Mack stand?
BK – He’ll have the week off.
How is Tony Jones?
BK – He’s good. He looked really good. No effects from the ankle. Our concerns were more with the hip for him, but he looked good.
What is the word on Cam Smith?
BK – He practiced this week. He should be activated.
How is Jonathan Bonner?
BK – Bonner is good, he looked good.
Other than Mack, is everyone else in?
BK – Everybody’s in.
Any problems with Wimbush?
BK – Nothing. Zero. Didn’t even get treatment this week to the ankle.
How prepared is your team heading into the month of November?
BK – Well, I think the way we are set up makes us very well prepared for November. Not needing to rely on one person to carry your team, especially offensively, collectively as a group, running the football. So, I think it lends itself a lot more, you know. We don’t have to throw the football 50 times and have a great day by the quarterback. He needs to continue to grow, certainly, but it’s much more of a collective group that needs to continue doing what they are doing and be physical and bring that physicality every week. It’s really set up for November in that perspective.
How did Wimbush practice on Thursday?
BK – I just think he’s so much more aware of what he needs to do to build routine to get him to the level that you are going to see that show itself on Saturday. So, putting Thursday together today with last Thursday, with ball placement and good decisions. I can see that it’s starting to build the routine necessary for that to show itself on a more consistent basis on a Saturday.
What has impressed you most about Wake Forest?
BK – I think the tempo, quarterback; I think their ability to really spread you out and get some guys into space. They did a great job against Louisville, spreading them out and getting some one-on-one matchups, their RPOs are difficult to defend. I would say tempo, a veteran quarterback who has been in the system and has taken his lumps, if you will, and has really grown. Then they get their guys into space to make plays. I think defensively, they get you off schedule with tackles for loss. So, those would be my bullet points.
What does the loss of Jessie Bates do for Wake Forest?
BK – He’s a captain; he’s the quarterback back there. From a third-down perspective, they let him kind of roam on third down. He has his eyes on the quarterback. He is a top-end player. It’s a shame for them but, obviously, a break for us. He’s a heck of a player. You can see that he’s the guy back there that is leading that back-end group.
Although Alohi Gilman can’t play this year, does he help in practice?
BK – I can’t even begin to tell you what he does. We have 6:00 AM lift every Friday morning with our developmental guys. He has a meeting with them every Thursday to make sure everybody is there at 5:45. He is a great leader. He is an impactful player on our demo scout teams. He challenges all our guys on a day-to-day basis. His presence is known in our program. Everybody respects him and knows that he is going to impact this program next year. He’s already doing that in the roles that he can right now.
Being two-thirds of the way through the season, is there anybody on the scout demo team that has caught your eye?
BK – Fast-twitch guys like Owusu-Koramoah, you can see his ability to fire and he has some natural talents. I’d say Armstrong is a very impressive freshman for us. Wardlow, when he puts on some more size, has some suddenness. Lugg has been up with us quite a bit. We’re very impressed with him. Those would be a few of the guys that would stand out right now.
Could you talk about Julian Love moving to the boundary and Nick Watkins moving to the field?
BK – Nick is really good as a short-field player. We have some tendencies to run some half coverage. You saw him bait the quarterback. He’s long and a good tackler, not that Love isn’t, but we like to roll that corner into the boundary and you don’t do it to the field. It just matched some of the skills that he has where we can roll him up a little bit. We’re just trying to match some different things that we’re doing with their skillset. We’re further along in the schedule, so we can flip them back and forth depending on the situation.
What are your thoughts about Troy Pride running track and other players playing a second sport?
BK – I’m all in on playing a second sport as long as there is some give-and-take. From a scholarship standpoint, we’re paying the freight. I want to make sure it doesn’t put him behind. I don’t necessarily think it put him behind; he needed to physically grow. He’s up to 190 pounds and he’s physically stronger. I think it was more just the maturation. I love having those guys compete in another sport. We’ve been able to work really well with the other sports to make that work. I don’t think there is a substitute in another sport. We’re going to have that with Cole Kmet. Cole is going to play baseball.
Has the rotation of Kraemer and Hainsey been successful so far?
BK – We detailed it out to them early on, that it was going to go that way. So, they really didn’t know anything different. That’s how it was going to go for them to move forward in the program and they were going to have to share the position, unless someone got hurt or someone’s play really fell off. They went in there with the conversation of sharing, and they are going to work to improve each day. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, let’s see who beats out who.’ This was a conversation they both went into, knowing they were going to share the position.