University of North Carolina Athletics
Bunting Press Conference Quotes
September 18, 2001 | Football
Sept. 18, 2001
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:
"Since last weekend's games were postponed, we had the players off on Saturday. They came back Sunday and worked out and Monday they had their normal day off. Today we'll get back out and begin preparations for Florida State. They are an excellent football program. They've had success early in the season, as opposed to us. We're hopeful we can compete, play well and have an opportunity to win this ball game."
On the quarterback situation:
"We're not completely settled on it, but Darian (Durant) will get into the ball game earlier than he has. There's a plan for it, as opposed to previously when there was no plan for Darian to get into the game. Now there is a plan to get in the game. It's not specific right now, but he's going to get into the game early.
"What we want to try to do is find out if Darian can get in the game earlier and spark our offense. We feel as if when he has been in the game he has been able to make a play or two to help us offensively. We feel like he's earned that opportunity to get in the game earlier to see if he can spark the offense. At the same time, I want to give Ronald every opportunity to continue to play well, play better and see if he can help spark our offense.
On playing at home:
"I have nothing to do with what's happened at home (the past few years) except for 30 years ago. What I hope to do is impact this program so that our home field is an advantage, where our fans are excited about seeing our team play. I think our fans should be excited about having our team home after three straight away games and seeing the way we've played at times, see if they can help be the 12th man and get in there and help our team, help our program get back to where we want it to be. I'm hopeful that we see that this Saturday.
"I think our guys are extremely excited about playing football again, about playing at home for the first time in three weeks and playing against Florida State."
On the excitement of this weekend's game:
"I'm pretty excited about every game. It's another opportunity to compete. I think that's what this sport is all about. I'm excited about seeing if our team can grow and our team can play better as a team and our team can be more consistent. It's our first home game. I'm excited very, very much about playing at home."
On last Saturday:
"My thoughts were other places, just like everybody else's in the country. It's still difficult to focus somewhat with everything that's going on. But we're doing our very best. I think our players will do very well with it. Remember, this is a football game. It's a game. This is not war - it's a game. We're fortunate in this country to be able to play high school, collegiate and at the professional level every week during the fall with great pageantry, great displays of emotion. That's what this is all about, and we're excited about doing it. Obviously last Saturday there were none of those things."
On the team's morale:
"We've got nine football games left. I believe we can win every single one of them. I believe we can have more than an acceptable season if we start to play with more consistency within each play on offense, defense and special teams.
"I think playing against the best, and playing well against the best, has given them a feeling of confidence. We're also obviously frustrated some because of the poor play at times that we've demonstrated. I think the morale is good. I think they're excited about playing football. I think they're excited about playing at home, and I think they're excited about playing Florida State."
Note: Coach Bunting announced that true freshmen Jacque Lewis, Chris Hawkins, Jason Brown and Chase Page will not red-shirt the 2001 season and will play on Saturday versus Florida State.
