University of North Carolina Athletics
Bunting Looks Ahead To Arizona State
October 1, 2002 | Football
Oct. 1, 2002
UNC head football coach John Bunting met with the media Tuesday afternoon for his weekly press conference. Here is some of what he had to say:
"They are a fine football team, and right now, I think all of us know that, for the most part, we are not. Some of the reasons are obvious and maybe some of the reasons are not as obvious to you. But we're going to work hard to get better this week. The one thing for sure, to a man on our staff, we believe that our kids are making great effort. If we continue to make great effort in practice, hopefully it will carry over onto game day. That's the emphasis, and that's the response that I've gotten from the players that I've talked to, particularly the seniors that I've talked to, which is a very limited group as you know. But they believe we need to practice better. We need to do it better. They've asked me to be the way I normally am, which is to force them to practice better. Therefore I hope that we improve this week.
"We made some improvement from the Texas game to the Georgia Tech game in terms of alignment and assignment on defense. Offensively I would've liked to have more opportunities, particularly in the third quarter. But we didn't.
"Third down is a point of emphasis, but mostly what's a point of emphasis is tackling on our football team. Because we'll certainly be required to make a lot of tackles. This offense that we're facing is the best we've seen, that's including Texas, believe it or not.
"And they are sound up front. They're offensive line, though very young, is good. Their running back (Cornell Canidate) is good. They have a receiver that's caught 31 balls (Shaun McDonald), and they'll play five or six other receivers. They're going to be in all types of personnel groups. They have a great screen game that they've got going for them. They throw the ball downfield a lot. The quarterback can throw the long ball, throws some other outs also. But they are very good making big plays with their receivers.
"Their defense plays harder than any defense we've played, and they've got talent. Their safeties are tough and hard-hitting, their linebackers are tough, and the front plays fast. They have a defensive end (Terrell Suggs) who's outstanding, maybe even better than Cory Redding according to Tranq (Gary Tranquill). Probably a quicker guy, he's not as big, but quicker. So they're good. They're real good. They're probably overall the best team we've played. That's what we think. Certainly, they play harder on defense than anybody we've played. We've got to play better.
On the quarterback situation at Arizona State:
This kid's (Andrew Walter) a better quarterback. The other kid's (Chad Christensen) a tremendous athlete -- tremendous athlete -- and may be a little bit better of a runner, although Walter is a good runner also. But Walter has got the real slingshot arm. He can really throw it, and he's tall - he's 6 foot 5.
What are some of the subtle reasons for not playing better?
The effort's there. I think that's a tribute to the players, and the coaches that coach those players. There are some players that are on the field for the first time each week -- that's a new experience. We're learning football on the fly. The disappointing part has been the secondary. Those players need to refocus on what their position is about, which is playing with their eyes, depending upon their eyes, and playing smart and when they get in position to make plays, you got to make those plays by executing sound fundamentals and technique. That is something that's got to change, and we will put a major emphasis on it this week."
On meeting individually with players?
"They understand, at least they tell me they do, that it takes great practice habits to play. If you don't practice well, you're not going to play well. It's hard to do that. Some great teams can do that on occasion. It's just like I tell the players all the time: Why do the great teams practice well? Because they want to. The great teams practice well because they want to; they simply want to. They know it helps them win. We developed that, we changed that culture a little bit around that last year, where we started practicing better. For the most part, we got it changed around during training camp. But I think sometimes when you go into the season, some players are no longer in competitive situations, they're red-shirting and kind of step it down some.
"We're going to once again create a little bit of competition. Jonas Seawright is going to play more. Carl Smalls is going to play less. Donti Coats is going to play less. I've got to get Cedrick Holt on the field. He's got to play more. He's going to be a good football player for us. Clay Roberson has got to get on the field."
Did last year's team practice better?
"It was a more experienced team. They understood the value better. When you're more experienced and you're older and, particularly, those players had something to prove.
They really felt they had something to prove. This football team, because of its youth, is learning from us. And evidently I'm not doing a good enough job right now to get them to learn faster. I want it done faster. We're one or two plays away from winning that football game (Georgia Tech), despite as poorly as we may have looked. We're one or two plays from winning against Miami. But you can get caught up in that for the rest of your life."
On Kendall High and Larry Jessup:
"Kendall plays a lot every week. We feel like he's getting better. He's giving great effort. I think he's going to be a real good football player. Is he strong enough right now? How could he be? He's right out of high school. But we are forced to play him there. And we'll be better next year because of the playing time he receives this year. I'm not playing for next year. I'm playing for this week. But there's not many choices there. Jonas Seawright is going to get on that field and he's going to play. We'll see how he,s going to play. He's going to be given an opportunity. I believe in that. I've been around that all my life. I was given opportunities. I've given players opportunities every level I've coached at, and I will continue to do that. Jonas is going to get his this week.
"Jessup played hard, and he will play again this week. Larry Jessup got out there and took advantage of his opportunity."
On the excitement of giving players and opportunity to play:
"I'm fired up for those guys. I'm fired up to go to practice today. I think a lot of players will be, too. You might find that hard to believe. We're 1-3. We were 1-3 last year at this time. Different team, different circumstance. But I'm fired up. I'm excited about this football team. Excited about this game coming up. Excited about this giant challenge playing this very, very fine football team that we're getting a chance to play out there."
On Arizona State head coach Dirk Koetter:
"Their coach is a proven winner. They ran into some better competition last year and that is why they lost their last five games. I think they have some better players this year and he has got them believing. They came from behind to win against San Diego State, they were in a close battle with Central Florida and they beat Stanford big last week."
