University of North Carolina Athletics
Bunting On The State Of The Tar Heels
October 29, 2002 | Football
Oct. 29, 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:
"To play well in the great sport of football, you have to be good at the sport, you need to have experience in the sport and you have to play well together. I think I mentioned that in our game at Wake Forest we were playing some young players that probably don't belong out there at this time. I think they will be better players later on. I think a couple of them might be All-ACC performers at one time. There were times when we were playing six players on defense that never have been out there on the defensive field before this year. Most of the time we were playing with seven that have never been out on the defensive field before this year. And there were times, late in the game, when we were playing with nine. Dexter Reid and DeFonte Coleman were the only players on that field that were on the defensive field before. So there's a lack of experience and there's a lack of playing together, so you can't execute as a team.
"Those players are going to play their hearts out again, against Maryland. I'm excited about that, my staff is excited about going out on the practice field today and working with these players, we're excited about this football program and we're excited about the recruiting that's going on in this football program. I haven't been wrong about too many things since I've taken this football program over. I know one thing, that I was not wrong about, is the ACC will become very competitive. Unfortunately right now we're not as competitive as we'd like to be. You look around, the ACC is becoming much more competitive, as was my prediction when I took the program over. Certainly is something that I emphasized when I was down in Pinehurst (ACC Media Kickoff), everybody talked about who number two would be behind Florida State, well there is certainly some questions about who is two, three and who is four. Certainly we would like to be one of those teams, and we're not. I think we'll have a better chance next year to be one of those teams.
"I look back at my involvement in football from high school to Carolina. Bill Dooley did a great job rebuilding this program and I understand how he did it. I use an awful lot of his philosophy to build this program now. It won't be for everybody, but I can assure you that every player I bring in here that is my recruit is going to have great character and is going to be retained in the program for the most part. We're going to make sure he does the right things on the field and off the field so he can stay in this program.
"Right now what hurts this team probably the most is the score of the last game, the second halves of the Virginia and NC State games, because we played so well at times in those two games. It hurts those players and it hurts this staff. But hopefully we will learn from that and we'll get better as we go along with the players that we have to play in these last four games. There's no doubt in my mind we could have scored some points against Wake Forest. It hurt the overall team by not being able to do that. Our defense needs to feed off the offense, because they're so young. Everything is so new to them every time. But we're going on, and we're going on in a very, very positive way, regardless of what anybody else says. And we're going to do that. We are going to stay very positive inside this football program. I don't know how much our players read headlines, or read things in the papers, or listen to things on the radio, or listen to people on campus, it's hard on them. But no matter what I see, hear or read it will not influence me one bit."
On watching his team enter the locker room after Saturday's 31-0 loss:
"I watched every one of my players walk off the field. I wanted to look in their eyes. It's important to me to know how my players are feeling when they walk off that field. That's not the first time I've done that. You don't see sometimes when I'm in that tunnel. I saw guys who were hurt and disappointed. I saw guys that cared."
On C.J. Stephens:
"I think C.J. (Stephens) will be more comfortable. I think he played he played pretty doggone well.
"He showed that he could be poised under the pressure. That's good in a quarterback. He stepped back right off the bat and threw some strikes. Threw all the throws, the dump, although we didn't gain any yardage on it, the seems and the deep outs. I thought he was pretty much on target. There were a couple throws he probably wishes he could have back, but that's normal."
On when Bunting sees the program turning around:
"I've heard that question several times. I don't have a crystal ball. A lot of you have asked me that question and I do not know that answer. I'd like to think that next year we'll be more competitive. I said also this year, if you remember, the key to us playing defense was staying healthy. We had to stay healthy. And as you all know from the very get go, all through training camp, we were not. And instead of getting better, it's kind of gotten worse. But what that will do for us next year will be beneficial to those players that are playing so much right now. Those guys that are playing, the Kendall Highs, the Chase Pages, you know I thought those guys would be playing 20-25 plays a game; instead they're playing 50-60. Donti Coats, who I counted on to be a big factor on our team this year, has been injured. Eric Davis went down in the first game. There wasn't much of a depth pool. I'm not going to sit here and cry about it, that's a matter of fact. When will that turn around? I think we'll be better next year. I want to get better this week and I think that we will. I really do. I think Maryland is a very good team, I'm not sure if they're better than Wake Forest, I don't know who's better. That Wake Forest offense is a dynamite offense. Why doesn't more teams run it, I don't know."
Bunting on being winless in Kenan Stadium this season:
"It hurts me terribly. There are games that we all know we could've possibly won. If we'd been a litter smarter with the ball early on, made a play or two against Georgia Tech, and if we'd held onto the ball against Miami, but you can't do anything about that. It hurts a bunch that we haven't won at home. Our fans deserve better, they've been out there, I hope they're out there again this week; we'll wait and see. I think that they will be very supportive of this football team."
On playing QB Matt Baker:
"(Gary) Tranquill and I talked about that last week. There might have been an opportunity last week to put him in. It went through my mind, it went through his mind (Tranquill) -- we both thought about it. We've adressed it, but I'm not sure we're ready to program it in like we did last year. I want to give C.J. time. He's earned that right."
Bunting on the week ahead:
"There is no loss of energy or focus or concentration on this staff. We are gung ho about putting this week's plan. We had a good plan last week. We're not going to revolutionize our defense or our offense, that is not possible. I'm not going to be able to put in Wake Forest's offense this week.
"But we expect our players to continue to grow. And that is my main emphasis with them, you can get better or you can get worse. I expect better."
