UVA-Wake Forest notes and quotes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

TEAM NOTES

• Wake Forest extended its win streak to five games against Virginia, the longest in the series against UVA.
• The loss snapped the Cavaliers’ six-game home win streak that dated back to last season.
• UVA dropped to 8-2 in night games at home under Bronco Mendenhall and 1-2 at night this season. 
• The home loss for Virginia was only its third in its last 22 games at Scott Stadium. 
• Virginia has accumulated 500 yards of total offense in four-straight games after 506 against Wake Forest (407 passing, 99 rushing).

PLAYER NOTES

• Brennan Armstrong threw for 300 yards for the fourth-straight game. Only Matt Schaub (8), Aaron Brooks (6), Bryce Perkins (5) and Armstrong (5) and have five or more 300-yard passing games in their careers. Armstrong is the only one of the group to throw for 300 in four consecutive games. 
• The 407 yards passing by Armstrong was the fifth-highest total in program history.
• Of the six 400-yard passing games in UVA history, Armstrong has three of them. He threw for 405 against Illinois and 564 against North Carolina this season. 
• Armstrong added two touchdown passes, to up his season total to 13. He joins Tajh Boyd (Clemson) Jerod Evans (Virginia Tech), Lamar Jackson (Louisville) and Philip Rivers (NC State) as the only ACC quarterbacks since 2000 to throw for 13 touchdowns in the first four games of the season.
• Armstrong added a season-high 33 yards rushing and accounted for 440 yards of total offense. 
• Billy Kemp IV made seven catches and now has caught a pass in 19-straight games, a streak that dates back to Nov. 9, 2019.
• Kemp now has 127 receptions for his career, surpassing former teammate Terrell Jana for 12thplace on UVA’s career receptions list.
• Jelani Woods, Ra’Shaun Henry, Billy Kemp, Keytaon Thompson, Mike Hollins & Dontayvion Wicks have each caught a pass in all four games this season.
• Wicks caught a career-high eight passes for 114 yards and a touchdown. He has now caught three touchdowns in the last two games. 
• Wicks is the first Cavalier wide receiver with back-to-back 100-yard receiving games since Hasise Dubois in 2019 (Virginia Tech & Clemson).
• Jelani Woods caught a 17-yard touchdown pass on the opening drive of the second half, his third receiving touchdown of the season and seventh of his career.
• Mike Hollins led the team with 127 all-purpose yards – 36 rushing yards, 20 receiving yards and 71 kick return yards on four tries. 
• Specialist Brendan Farrell kicked the extra point on UVA’s third quarter touchdown, his first career point.

Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson Quotes

Opening Statement:

“(It was) just a really good team win. I credit our players and our coaches, especially for coming back on a short week. We had a good week of preparation I thought our focus was good. I certainly want to give Virginia credit. I think they have a great program and Bronco is one of the coaches that I have the utmost respect for and to their credit, they never quit. They’re a dangerous football team. It was great to see our crowd, our parents and fans who made the trip. And anytime you can get a win on the road in the ACC it’s a good win. I thought we executed really well in the second half. They came back and scored and had a chance to get back into it and we responded. I thought we got good pressure on the quarterback when we needed it. We were a little bit bend but don’t break. We gave up some plays and some yards but for the most part we kept them out of the end zone and our offense was incredibly efficient. Obviously, we’d like to make some first downs at the end, but again, just a really good win.”

On stopping Virginia on fourth and goal in the first quarter:

“Well, you know then we came back and scored again so that was. You know, again, we gave up yards, we gave up first downs, they’re a really talented football team but that was a huge stop. You know, again, early in the game, how much does it mean I don’t know, but you certainly like to play with a lead. Then the rest of the game, it became a two-score lead because we went down kicked the field goal, and the rest of the game we were up at least two scores. And I think whenever you’re behind by two scores you’ve got to change your thought process, offensively a little bit. So again, there was no question, it was one of the key plays of the game”

On the absence of Miles Fox and Nasir Greer :

“I’m confident that we’ll have Miles [Fox] back next week. We’ll see with Nasir [Greer]; those guys both have muscle pulls. You know, again, and I’ve said this before, if today’s game was for the ACC championship, I think both those guys would’ve played. But if we played them there was a chance that you’re going to miss them for the next two or three weeks, and with where we are, we have other big players rather than risk injury with them. We’ve got Tyler Williams back today which was a great addition. And so, we’ve got other guys we can put in there and let Miles get healthy and hopefully he’ll be good to go next week.”

On how the win affects the team’s confidence moving forward :

“You know every week is a new season; it has a new challenge. I think right now we are a confident football team. We get to enjoy this one for an extra day, but, hey, Louisville is coming to town, and that’s always a tough game for us. Good teams, they flip the page. So, we will float back to Winston-Salem tonight, because that’s what you do after a road win, you don’t drive back or fly back, you float back. We will float back and we will enjoy it. We’ll have big smiles on our face, tomorrow we’ll relax and watch TV, and then Sunday we’re ready for the next challenge.”

Wake Forest Player Quotes

LB, Luke Masterson:

On what led them to believe they’d be able to get pressure on the quarterback

“We’ve been working these pressures all camp and all season. The coaches have done a great job every week in dialing stuff up. It was just kind of a matter of time before we brought it home and I’m really glad it worked out today.”

On the impact of the fourth down stop early in the game

“I mean it’s electric. I love this team, it’s really fun. These guys are awesome to play with, and we just we have fun out there. When we got that stop out there, that was obviously a highlight of the game and it’s a great feeling.

On making sure to keep Virginia’s offense one-dimensional

“Yeah, they do a ton of stuff on offense and we knew that going in. The coaches did a great job preparing us throughout the week, giving us different looks in practice that we’d see. So when we got here, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary that we hadn’t seen yet. That really helps the defense for being comfortable and getting settled. So, you know, we knew we had to stop the trick stuff, we saw a couple of double passes and stuff like that. We felt pretty comfortable that we had a we had a good game plan to stop the run so it really did come down to stop the air attack and we held up.

QB Sam Hartmann

On the effect of crowd noise

“We had a couple of times where the cadence was a little off, you know, we were yelling all night while music was playing and we were trying to get calls out. We kind of knew coming into it, we had the capability to, you know, handle the noise but I mean there were times, especially in the red zone for sure that we had a false start or two but yeah it got a little loud in here.”

On a sense of pride following a 4-0 start

“Yeah I mean you win an ACC football game on the road it’s a big win. I’ve been here for a while, you know, I’ve been through the losses and the wins all throughout my career. Road wins are huge. ACC wins are huge you know we got to take our 24 [hours] and celebrate. We were happy in the locker room but I think there’s a veteran side of this team that knows that this was not it. You know we have Louisville next week and it’s gonna be a big one and next week after that something even bigger. So, we just take our 24 [hours], take the bus ride, take a little bit after that, enjoy the day off and get right back to it.” 

RB Quinton Cooley

On what led to back-to-back scoring plays in the third quarter

“Coming into half, we knew where the weaknesses were in the defense. We really just set normal plays that we already had a game plan to run, and it just opened up in the third quarter. There was one that opened up for me in the middle. But it was just you know being able to find those open spots in the defense.”

DE Jacorey Johns:

On the defense’s role in team momentum
“Most definitely. We’re looking to make big plays. Every single game, every week, you know, just come out physical, fast, always on our game.”

On the game plan to eliminate the run

“That was a big part of our defense. We know they like to do a lot of different things on offense. We decided to take a lot of that away.”