University of North Carolina Athletics
Coach Torbush Talks About Saturday's Big Win
June 21, 1999 | Football
November 28, 1998
You found a way to win the game. How do you feel now?
It was a great, great game. I didn't see the touchdown at the end of the game. I knew the throw was good, then I saw everybody hooping and hollering so I knew he caught it. It was really a very, very exciting game.
You know I knew at halftime it was not going to be easy. N.C. State has done a great job over a period of years at coming back. The always feel like they can win. We beat a very well-coached team, a very good football team.
You know I wouldn't say it before today, but to end up 6-2 (over the last eight games) we've started to become a very good football team ourselves.
To get tied and have to go to overtime was awful tough, but I thought our guys bounced back very well.
On Torry Holt and Jamie Barnette.
I'd like to say we didn't do a good job (on Holt), but he did a great job. He's a great football player and we're fortunate he's gone.
Jamie's a tough guy. I thought we kept him off-balance the first half, but he came back and kept competing. That's what makes him a very special player.
They're a good, good football team, and I'm very proud to overcome what we have this year.
What did you tell your players out on the field immediately after the game ended?
The first thing I wanted to do was tell them I love them and spread that love around, because we've been through so much...all the adversity both on the field and off. To continue to bounce back shows the mental toughness they have.
I told them to show no disrespect to N.C. State, because they have earned our respect. What I wanted to do was give our fans a chance to say thanks for the season and let us say thanks for the great fan showing we had today. It couldn't have been a better college atmosphere, plus phenomenal weather.
Now that it's over, I'm glad it turned out this way. I'd have rather it been 31-14 but it didn't work out that way.
This is going to have to go down as one of the great games in ACC history.
You were talking to the defense on the sidelines in the fourth quarter. What did you tell them?
I probably shouldn't share that...I was talking as the defensive coordinator, not as the head coach. I just think we had a chance to get out of some situations. I think they converted three fourth-down plays when we had a chance to get off the field, but they were able to convert.
On two of them I think we had great calls but didn't get the job responsibilities done and because of that they ended up scoring touchdowns. It got us in trouble.
There's no doubt the ability to create turnovers (five) won the game for us today. I thought our secondary did a great job overall making some great plays, and you've got to understand we did that against a quarterback who knows what he's doing.
Please comment on Jomo Legin's strip of the ball from Ray Robinson that set up your first touchdown.
I didn't see it, but I know he made a great play. Jomo's been here five years. You know he's been beat up.
He started, he got beat out, started, got beat out. He came back this year and started, then got beat out, but he never said a word. He continues to work hard and I can promise you this: Jomo Legins has a reference on his resume anytime he wants it.
Did your early season adversity help you late in the game?
Yes, and I thought you also saw it on the other side of the ball. You've got to realize coach O'Cain and his team have gone through a lot of what we have over the past three years. They've had to bounce back from the same type of situations.
We fought back, they fought back. It was all fight, there was no quit in either team. I fill very fortunate and thankful to win because I know it could have gone the other way and it would have been a tough, tough loss.
To end up meeting many of the goals we had at the beginning of the season and to have a possible opportunity to go to a bowl game is great. I really believe this team deserves a bowl game. It's how you finished up, now how you start and we finished up six and two. I think that says enough about it, so hopefully it will work out and we'll get to play somewhere.
What were your thoughts beginning the overtime?
We work on overtime throughout the year. We don't work on it every week, but about every three weeks, so that your players understand what's about to happen and they don't get shocked.
You know when that ball gets on the 25-yard line as a defensive coach it looks really scary. As an offensive coach it looks pretty good because you feel you're just about in field goal range.
What we wanted to do defensively was either create a turnover, get a stop or hold them to a field goal, which we did.
Offensively, we felt like we wanted to put ourselves in position to kick a field goal first. If we got the key first first-down, which we did, then let's take a shot at six.
You're the first UNC team to lose its first three games and then have a winning season. How did you do it?
Tremendous character, tremendous work habits which combining both of those makes a very mentally tough young man. Understand, we wouldn't give up, they wouldn't give up, we weren't going to put up with anything less than our best.
I really believe our first win of the season (against Clemson), after starting 0-3, got us saying if we continued to work and do things right, good things will happen to us.
