University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC Postgame Quotes
October 26, 2002 | Football
Oct. 26, 2002
Head Coach John Bunting
On Wake Forest controlling the ball for most of the second half
That's in part due to the kind of offense that they run and when you have a defense that is not playing very well like ours is that makes for a real ugly display of football. It makes for time possession to be all out of whack.
Our opportunities were in the first half for us to do something offensively and maybe score some points to perhaps change the mode and the way the game was going. But when you have penalties and turn the ball over - obviously that kills drives. We missed a field goal.
(Wake Forest) was out on the field way too much. We just can't contain an offense like that. We need to score points in return. We have to have that game be a high scoring game and we have to score some points on our side and we didn't do it.
On Wake Forest's passing game
We had some plays in our secondary that were very discouraging and disappointing. We went with a couple other (cornerbacks) as we got into the third quarter. We are going to keep playing people to give them opportunities. Our (cornerbacks) are good players, they didn't play well at times today.
We knew going into this game that we would have to play tough man-to-man coverage - they hurt us in that.
On the Wake Forest running game in the second half
That's where they are really strong. Their system is very unique and you have to be very stout up front - have linebackers who can plug holes and take people on and react off blocks, make tackles and knock people back. The exact opposite took place against us.
We were on our heels, getting doubled into the linebackers and the linebackers making tackles were getting pushed back extra yards. We are just not strong enough physically to take a team on like that - that can really run the football. They do it against almost everybody they play.
We won't face another offense that can run the ball quite like this ... but we'll face a number of teams that can run the football and we have to see if we can get a little bit better. We have to get our secondary to cover when it is time to cover. That is probably the most disappointing thing on defense today was our secondary not being able to get up there and compete.
