University of North Carolina Athletics
Bunting Press Conference Quotes
November 27, 2001 | Football
Nov. 27, 2001
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UNC football coach John Bunting met with the media Tuesday afternoon for his weekly press conference. Here is some of what he had to say:
"I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I certainly had a great one. The team obviously was away for a few days and I think it was good for them to refreshed and we're hopeful that they come back ready to play a most important game, a game in which we can have a winning season from and possibly play another time. I'm treating it like a playoff game - that's the way I'm calling it and the way I've been calling it - and I think most of our players understand its importance and its significance in our first year here with the program. We practiced Sunday for about an hour here at Kenan and we'll go back to work this afternoon."
On SMU head coach Mike Cavan leaving the school after Saturday's game:
"I talked with my staff about that, because I wanted to know their impressions of that situation...It goes both ways from what I know. The team can get excited about the departure, or it can get excited and play very hard for their coach, which is the way it appears here with Mike Cavan. Their players have won four of their last six, the last two in a row. They're playing very hard for him. He's been there four or five years, they are the guys he recruited. They were playing hard earlier in the year. That's one thing we picked up on in preparation for them, which was that special teams-wise right away they caught your eye because they play so hard, on defense they were playing hard and offensively they were doing some things that we thought were very productive, although they have changed personal. The quarterback is different. They're now playing three running backs. They're playing in a couple of different personnel groups that they may not have had before. So this situation here appears that they're trying very hard to play out the season in a positive way for their coach."
On the UNC's receivers:
"The groups that were necessary for us to play well offensively were our quarterbacks and our receivers. We had a young offensive line. We had young running backs. We had overachieving tight ends that were young and totally inexperienced. So I was counting on the wide receivers to come through, and at first they didn't and I challenged them, repeatedly. The players heard it every day. It started in training camp and went all the way up to Texas. Since that time with Sam Aiken putting his foot out and turning on Kory Bailey and turning on Chesley Borders, it's amazing what those guys have done. They've had a tremendous year. There is not a better set of receivers in the Atlantic Coast conference in my opinion, those four or five guys who play each week. Sam has 42 catches, Kory's at 40, Bosley has 38 - if Bosley can get two it will be the first time ever in Carolina history we've had three receivers with over 40 catches. I think that's a credit to those receivers, including Chesley Borders who's at 26 and Brandon Russell's at 17 catches. It's a credit to the quarterbacks. It's a credit to (Gary) Tranquill and the rest of our staff."
On the character and perseverance of Ronald Curry heading into his final home game:
"I think he's absolutely amazing. It's a real tribute to his backbone, his heart. That guy has withstood criticism of himself by himself, from the staff, from the fans, from others and has hung in there and gotten better and better. I love the fact that he had such a terrific game against Duke last week. Hopefully he has a great game this week.
"I still think he's a heck of an athlete. Between the training of the quarterback - there's a whole bunch of factors that goes in there - takes years. A lot of guys in the NFL never make it who were great college quarterbacks, but they can't fit into the pro system. He has attributes that many pros have. But spring ball and injuries and turnover of coordinators - I think he feels really comfortable right now. He's throwing the ball as well in practice now as he ever has. We saw Ronald struggle in practice early on. Things didn't go well early, and things did go well for Darian and that's why we saw it fit to give Darian an opportunity to play on a schedule. I wasn't about to dump Ronald because I thought he was going to help us down the road. If you dump on a guy, particularly a senior, you may never get him back."
On Bunting's letter to fans urging strong support Saturday:
"I know that it's important for our football program to continue to please the fans and play for the fans and play with the fans and have the fans support us. They've been great. They've been great all season. We've averaged 54,000. I don't know what it was, but that's pretty good. I am excited about that. I wanted to make sure that they knew that we had another ball game to play. With basketball season coming on, and rightfully so, they're going to get a lot of attention, and we wanted to make sure with this last game that everybody knew we wanted to go out in a winning fashion. We need them there. I consider them part of the program."
On bowl game possibilities:
"One thing I've maintained throughout this whole first season here is that I'm not up to snuff on some of these things. I'll get more involved and more knowledgeable of these things as years go by, but as you get down to the very end here - I'm not like some coaches, I'll read what our players say and I'll read what other people say and I'll take it all into consideration and try to figure out what's going on - but I still can't quite figure it all out. What's most important to me still is to win this football game. I want to have a winning season here our first year. That would be very, very significant. Not many people figured that to happen, particularly with the schedule we had. Being 5-3 in the ACC I think is a real thrill. I'm extremely proud of that. But there's a game to be played and we have an opportunity to close out a winner. When we went into the Duke game it was all about having a winning season in the ACC, all about trying to get into second or third place in the ACC. That is significant for our seniors and our program. Now we've got another game, not an ACC game, a playoff game. It would make us bowl eligible and hopefully we will get into a bowl with a win.
"I'm not a politician. That's not my goal. That's not why I'm here. I'll let other people do the campaigning for us if they see fit. I want to win football games. I want to have one of the best football programs in the country. I want to do it the right way. I want to do it at the greatest university in the country, right here."
On SMU:
"We've looked at all the games. Offensively, the quarterback is very active, runs around a lot, makes plays for them. The tight end catches a lot of balls. They have a very, very fine receiver. They're playing all three backs. They make plays. Last week being down 20-7 against Rice and then coming back and winning the ball game 37-20 is significant. You can't downplay that at all, that's a tremendous comeback. Those kids are playing hard. On defense they are active. They play hard. In special teams, there are some situations there where we have to be extremely aware."
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