University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC Postgame Quotes
October 12, 2002 | Football
Oct. 12, 2002
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Head Coach John Bunting
"It was a tale of two halves. We really missed out on a great opportunity here. You have to give State credit, they came back out and played a great second half and we did not."
"The first half was probably the best we've played all year. I really thought we would come out in the second half - we were really juiced up at halftime, and I thought we would play even better."
"The momentum swings that do happen in football, you have to be able to handle those. Sometimes the youth of our team we don't handle those things well and until we learn how to do those things we'll have these types of problems and not be able to over come it."
"It was a very disappointing loss. The entire team is extremely disappointed because they realize the opportunity that they had to beat a team here at home in front of our fans that was undefeated and shock the world. We didn't do it."
"We have half of a season left and it is our job as coaches to get this team ready to play and see if we can correct those errors. There were assignment errors, tackling errors again. I am really surprised, we really were tackling well in the first half and making a lot of plays. We stopped them on third down and we didn't do it in the second half."
On North Carolina State running the football
"We did a fine job in the first half. We were getting a lot of hats on the football. McLendon, who is a tough runner, was getting hit by two or three guys. In the second half, particularly with the perimeter run, we just did not get enough people there."
On Darian Durant
"We had situations in this game where we had Darian running around a little too much and that is not something that we want to see all the time. He made an awful lot of plays last week against Arizona State.
"We've got to be able to sit back in the pocket, we've got to be able to block people better and we have to know what to do. I think there were some breakdowns. There was too much pressure on him and we have to fix that. We have to get people to go in the game and know what to do so Darian does not have to scramble around. When he does scramble around we have to get the receivers to come back to the quarterback and I didn't see any of that either.
"It's not a one man show out there folks. We have great receivers, we have some running backs that can run the ball a little bit. I thought we played a great first half and for the most part, just the opposite in the second."
TB Jacque Lewis
Coming out after halftime:
"We felt like we were in pretty good shape. We were ready to come out and play even harder.
"We just wanted to win. We weren't worried about running the ball or how we got in the end zone. We were just trying to get in the end zone and score to come back.
"We still had our heads up even though [Durant] fumbled. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone made mistakes out there today. We can't point our fingers at Darian. He made big plays for us. That's just part of the game."
"We made a lot of mistakes and turnovers. We've just got to eliminate them. I feel like our biggest problem is ourselves. When we fix that, we'll be all right."
LB Doug Justice
"Our motto is put the ball down and we're going to go, no matter where the ball is. Their five are going to be on our five, no matter where. We're going to play. As a defensive, we just need to step it up and get better. We're young. We've got to get better really fast."
On the second half:
"It sucks the energy out of you a little bit more than you would think. You're just going and they're getting the momentum behind them and that helps them. It puts a little bit of a damper on what we're doing. We can't let that affect us. We just have to step up as a defensive.
"We were exciting coming out in the break. Then they got a little momentum and things just changed around. It's just how the football game goes. We just need to get better as a defensive. We need to work hard this week. Just play hard, that's all we need to do."
"I think we can definitely get better especially defending the run game. Everybody is going to run the ball, we just need to make it a focus to really work on stopping the run. If we stop the run, we'll definitely beat teams."
NC State head coach Chuck Amato
"From where we started out to where we ended up -- I couldn't ask for anything more."
On the first half:
"The first half we did not make plays. We couldn't put them down, there were times where we wouldn't intercept passes, we dropped a touchdown pass and underthrew another possible touchdown pass. We went in and looked at the halftime stats and said that this is last year's team all over again."
On the second half comeback:
"In the second half we had to make plays, and we kicked the ball off and they went right down the field to go up 17-7. Then we got cranked up defensively, we scored and then they blocked an extra point, returned it but we ran them down. That is a three-point swing, that was a big play."
On the momentum:
"We get a fumble and go in and score and then you could see the confidence was building. You could feel it on the sideline."
On his feelings this week:
"Nobody was uptight. I wasn't uptight on Monday, I wasn't uptight today and I will not be uptight tomorrow."
On the media:
"Every time you guys write anything good or bad about NC State we love it. We absolutely love it to death because that means we must be appealing to you."
NC State quarterback Philip Rivers:
On the comeback win:
"We have been in some tight games before and we just kept fighting. Once we got the running game going and had a couple of third down completions that kept drives alive."
On playing in a big rivalry game:
"If you go out there and get riled and try to make a big play you get interceptions and fumbles that way. We knew if we kept to our scheme we could do what we do best. We just kept fighting and it turned out like we hoped it would."
On what he learned about the Wolfpack:
"I know one thing is that we are a close bunch. We have a great love for one another and I knew that coming into the game. When you get in a big rival game this and we were down a little bit, when you saw Josh Brown score his first touchdown I am surprised that the whole team didn't come off the bench. If we just stay focused, stay smart and fight hard there is no telling where we can go."
