University of North Carolina Athletics
Coach Bunting's Post-Game Quotes
September 2, 2001 | Football
Sept. 2, 2001
Q: Do you have an initial impression with how you'll start with the quarterback situation next week?
Coach Bunting: "I'd be inclined to stay with what I've been doing."
Q: Comment on the offensive line.
Coach Bunting: "The offense didn't block very well up front. We didn't pick up the inside blitz. That hurts the whole team's confidence.
"That's something we try to prepare for, but obviously our preparation wasn't very good."
Q: How big a factor was Maryland's punting?
Coach Bunting: "He (Barnard) did a great job. They kept us pinned down in the first half. They had great field position, and we were not able to overcome it.
"Even though we had better field position in the second half, I probably wore the defense out by going for it on a couple of those fourth downs."
Q: Did field position limit what you could do in the first half?
Coach Bunting: "It always does. Anytime you're inside your one-yard line, you're limited in what you can do.
"We've got a young offensive line that's trying to grow and get better. I don't doubt their effort, but we couldn't punch it out to get some breathing room.
"My hat's off to Maryland and their special teams. They did a great job keeping us backed up."
Q: Did you expect to win this game at halftime?
Coach Bunting: "I sure did. There was no doubt in my mind that we would win this ball game in the second half."
Q: How do you think Darian Durant played?
Coach Bunting: "I thought Darian played pretty well when he was in there. Can he play better? I think so.
"He had a couple of dropped balls, then they had a play where the ball got tipped around and intercepted. Darian went in and tried to make plays.
"He'll scramble to make a play. He's evasive, that's a great quality to have, particularly with a young offensive line."
Q: Was Curry a little knicked up at one point?
Coach Bunting: "It appeared to me that he got injured, but Ronald's tough, he's not going to take himself out of a game with an injury, unless it's threatening."
Q: You had a lot of second and shorts that turned into third and long.
Coach Bunting: "Penetrations. It was a matter of them coming up and making plays when we should be charging. We'll have to go back and see if there's a better way to do it on those plays."
Q: Was there someone who missed a block on the safety?
Coach Bunting: "We had penetration off our left side. It was probably a mis-alignment by one of our blockers.
"I can't tell you right now who missed an assignment. The play was on the far side of the field from me. What's important is that we did not execute on that play."
Q: Are Parker and Williams explosive enough, or is it the offensive line?
Coach Bunting: "Right now, we're not doing a good enough job executing up front. We're not creating enough space for our runners to make plays.
"Once again, that is not a total surprise. They're young kids. That's why we played Oklahoma. I was hoping we'd see big improvement this week.
"It's very disappointing to lose."
Q: Was their last touchdown drive particularly disconcerting?
Coach Bunting: "We missed several tackles. It's disconcerting to me that we weren't still flying around, making tackles.
"We missed tackles in the secondary, that's got to stop. It was apparently a problem last year, and it popped it's ugly head up again today."
Q: You said last week's game was a momentum builder. How do you feel about this game?
Coach Bunting: "We certainly can't feel very good about it. I don't think there'e a guy in there who feels very good about what took place.
"I know I feel horrible about it, but there's ten games to go. By midnight tonight, I want them to stop thinking about it. I want them to come in and watch the tape, make corrections, and go on from there.
"We've got a huge game next week out at Texas. There's ten football games left, ten more rounds to fight, ten more times to answer the bell. We did not answer the bell well today. I thought we'd be better, I really did."
