University of North Carolina Athletics
Excerpts From Tuesday's Football Press Conference
December 21, 1999 | Football
Dec. 21, 1999
Head Coach Carl Torbush:
"We've come to an agreement that Mike O'Cain will be our new offensive
coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Needless to say, I'm really excited and
pleased that Mike has decided to join our coaching staff. We've been
friends over the years and I've grown to respect him as a football coach.
I have first-hand knowledge of his abilities to attack defenses.
"The things he's done at N.C. State give me a great insight as to what I feel he can do as the offensive coordinator at Carolina. I feel very fortunate that Mike has decided to join our staff. Not only is he a great football coach, he's a excellent human being. He's someone who has great morals and values and I feel like that's what we want at Carolina coaching our student-athletes. I look forward to the future because I think it's going to be very bright."
Mike O'Cain:
"Obviously I'm very excited and I want to thank Carl (Torbush), Dick
(Baddour) and the University of North Carolina for giving me the
opportunity to come be the offensive coordinator. It's a tremendous
university and one that I have tremendous respect for. Even the years I
was competing against Carolina, the respect was always there for the
university as a whole, the athletic program as a whole and particularly
Carl because I knew what he was all about and what kind of person he was,
not only as a football coach.
"I'm excited about being here and I look forward to the future. It's exciting not only for me but for my family as well. So there are a lot of positives about this.
"The challenges of being a coordinator are different than being a head coach. I'm exciited about coaching a position. When I was a head coach I didn't coach a position. I'm very excited about working with Ronald Curry and the offensive players that we have. The potential is unlimited and it's our job as a coaching staff to get the maximum out of them. We're going to be exciting offensively and spread things out and be diverse. We've got tremendous talent here to work with, and I'm excited about the opportunity to work with them.
"As coaches we understand that things change very quickly in our profession and you have to be able to adapt very quickly to a new environment. This adjustment will be fine. It feels good because of the quality of the university that I'm stepping into and the quality of the people I'm going to be working around and working with. It makes it exciting and I know I'll feel very comfortable with it."
