University of North Carolina Athletics
Quotes From Coach Torbush's Tuesday Press Conference
October 19, 1999 | Football
Oct. 19, 1999
"Concerning last week's game, I'm very disappointed in the performance of our football team and obviously we didn't do a very good job of coaching as well. Any time you get beat in a game that you felt like you had a lot of opportunities to win, its really tough. But our not performing any better on both sides of the ball made it doubly tough.
"I think Houston has a good football team. Offensively, they've got two outstanding running backs and a very experienced offensive line. Defensively, they move around a great deal and they had good quickness and speed.
"Going into the game we said that we needed to run the ball well, but we didn't , and we were also not able to convert on third down situations. Defensively, we gave up too many big plays in the running game. The two situations that truly hurt us on defense were on the opening drive when they were able to convert some third down situations. We felt like we could bounce back from that but then we let him pop out with a 60-yard run and I think that really hurt us. But even with all that, at 14-12 at halftime, we felt like we had a chance to win. But we really got nothing going in the second half, and I felt like that was the most disappointing thing.
"Right now as a football team, I don't feel like we've made the improvement that we need to make. That's one thing that we've challenged our football team and our coaches with, is making a great deal of improvement.
"This is a very important football game for us because there's still some goals out there that we can meet.
"Maryland is a much improved football team. I feel like LaMont Jordan, for the overall package, may be as good as any running back we've played this year. He's got great speed, great power, and in a lot of ways he reminds you of Natrone Means. He's a big, physical guy who has quickness and speed. He's been impressive every week. Their offensive line is solid and they they've got speed at their skill positions. Their quarterback is an athlete. He's a young guy, still getting better, but I've seen a lot of improvement from early in the season.
"They've played some tough offensive teams the last two weeks, but they've played really good defense. I think they're very sound in what they're doing and they're very multiple and they're moving around well. They're a good football team. We'll have to play well to win the ballgame."
