University of North Carolina Athletics
A Chat With Coach Mike O'Cain
November 2, 2000 | Football
Nov. 2, 2000
y: Joe Bray
TarHeelBlue.com
TarHeelBlue: Have you ever been any more frustrated than you were last Saturday?
Coach O'Cain: "It is frustrating, but you have to accentuate the positives. I don't think I've been around many teams that went in and dominated a team that much statistically, yet still lost. You have to build on those positive things, and work on the little things that are keeping us from getting into the end zone and winning."
TarHeelBlue: What hurt us the most against Virginia?
Coach O'Cain: "A couple of poor executions. Obviously, the interception that Ronald (Curry) threw into the end zone. If he'll just pull the ball away or run with it, we would have been fine. His first option was to throw to Crumpler, who was semi-covered, but not covered really well. We feel like he could have set his feet, thrown the ball and stuck it in there.
"Another time we didn't get the cut-off block on the back side that kept our back from picking up a crucial first down. Just little things like that. It's not the big things as much as the little things. It just seems to be magnified now that we aren't winning.
"We just can't seem to make the critical plays at the times we need to make them."
TarHeelBlue: Did you consider going into the no-huddle offense that last drive?
Coach O'Cain: "I did, but I felt the best chance to get the ball in the end zone was to not go to the no-huddle offense, but we did need to speed it up. Had we not taken a sack, plus gotten the ball out of bounds one time, we would have had time. There would have been a couple of minutes left.
"We still had to receive the on-side kick. We weren't going to score quickly enough to kick off and hold them. We were going to have to get the on-side kick. If we get that with two minutes left, then we would have gone to the two-minute offense.
"The drive before that, if Bosley catches that ball on the run, he splits the safeties and is gone. There's such a fine line right now between winning and losing.
"We're a team that both offensively and defensively just needs a spark at the right time. Somebody's got to step up and make it.
"As a coach I feel like it's up to me to make that perfect call and get them into position to make that play. We've just got to keep working."
TarHeelBlue: We've got twice as many yards passing as rushing this year. What percentage is ideal for you?
Coach O'Cain: "I don't worry that much about the percentage. I think if we can average 150 or 160 yards rushing, then we are able to run the ball efficiently, and that helps our passing game.
"On reason we haven't been as effective in running the ball is the way defenses have played us. They're ganging up, playing seven or eight men in the box, forcing us to throw the football.
"We have run the ball effectively enough to keep people honest. You don't want to ever get in the situation where you can't run the ball at all, and you aren't able to keep the defense honest."
TarHeelBlue: Some people say Curry is better suited for a position other than quarterback. How would you respond to that?
Coach O'Cain: "I don't think so. Ronald is a very gifted athlete, but for this football team, he's better off playing right where he is.
"The thing that's frustrating to me, to Ronald and to the whole team, is that he's been injured. I'm not making excuses, but he's been injured.
"Missing spring practice last spring hurt him critically. The spring is the time you can work on the fundamentals and all the little things that make you a quarterback. He didn't experience that.
"In August he had to learn the system, plus prepare for Tulsa. In the spring, you're not preparing for Tulsa. You're learning the system and working on fundamentals, and that's hurt him.
"He does some things that sometimes make you want to pull your hair out, but he can be an excellent quarterback. I have no doubt about that. It's a matter of experience, and doing it over and over and over again.
"To be honest with you, I wish he'd throw the ball away more. But the thing that Ronald has that some other quarterbacks don't, is he has the ability to make things happen. Sometimes, that hurts us. Because of his athleticism he feels like he can turn every negative play into something positive.
"At the position he's playing, sometimes you just have to give up. Sometimes the defense is better than you, sometimes the defense has a better call than we have offensively. When that happens, you've just got to give up and throw the ball out of bounds and go on to the next play. That's something that is learned over time.
"If Ronald wasn't such a gifted athlete, he wouldn't have the choice to pull the ball down and run. He'd have to throw it away. Drop-back quarterbacks who can't run the ball at all have no choice but to throw it away.
"We always remember the things he doesn't do. We always remember the time he doesn't throw the ball out of bounds, or he throws an interception, and unfortunately those things have happened late in the game.
"We forget about the times he'll scramble around, make some guys miss, then hit Sam Aiken for a 60-yard touchdown or run 10 yards for a first down.
"When you're not winning, everybody has to point a finger at something, whether it be the quarterback or the coaching staff, and we understand that.
"It's a matter now of getting some confidence. There's a fine line between being confident and having momentum, and right now we don't have that momentum. It's not something anybody's going to give us, we've got to create it.
"What you have to do is go out and keep practicing hard and playing hard, and I'm a believer that good things will happen eventually.
"We've got to go out and relax and let the game come to us. We've got some players who feel like the burden is all on them. I think Ronald feels that way sometimes, that he's got to make it happen.
"We have to remember that we've got a bunch of guys out there who can make it happen, and when your time comes, you've got to step up and perform."
