University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Maryland Postgame Quotes
November 2, 2002 | Football
Nov. 2, 2002
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North Carolina Head Coach John Bunting
"Things looked good for about six minutes, didn't they? And then they went right down the tubes. This one hurts probably the most. There have been a lot of tough ones, but this one hurts the most because we just didn't play very well. To Maryland's credit, they played extremely well. They're a very good football team, and they're extremely well coached. They have a lot of weapons, and they do a lot of different things. I'm very disappointed, as all the Tar Heel fans are. It hurts I'm sure a lot of different people, and it hurts me a lot. I'm sure it hurts our football team. I think they feel real down about the way they played.
"I thought we had things going, I thought we had a great week of practice and it was great to get off to a good start like we did. I thought we were going to score the second time we had the ball, but didn't and the long pass seemed to jump right on us. We didn't play very well after that happened. I don't really know why, but we do have a team, as everyone knows. I'm going to keep playing those young players and try to get them better.
"We have another opportunity against Clemson and we will play a lot better. We have to in order to have a chance."
On Maryland:
"They're a very good football team. As I said, Ralph Friedgen does a very fine job. The offense and defense have been playing well all season. They had two tough defeats early on, and then they got it rolling."
On Maryland's 80-yard TD pass:
"We were playing a two-deep coverage, which is a fine coverage for that play. Regardless of whether Waddell gets him inside, as you want to, if they guy does insist on going outside, he has got to get him out of bounds. But the safety on the play, as to see what No. 1 does, and he has to play over the top to make that play.
On whether Tar Heels can show improvement:
"I felt like that last week. Based on the score and how discouraging it gets as the second half wears on, it's hard to imagine that we got a lot better. But we'll watch the video tape, and probably somebody did. I think these players are resilient and I think they'll come back ready to practice and get prepared for next week's game. They did last week, and I was really, really encouraged by the way they practiced last week."
On how tough loss is:
"This has been the hardest one for sure, and I was really excited about this game. I felt real good about playing this game. I know how good Maryland is. They have some runners, the quarterback is playing very well for them - he's very smart, and he does not make many mistakes - but I really felt very good about this game. I thought we were going to play, and obviously we were for a very short period of time."
On Mahlon Carey:
"Mahlon is going to be a fine player for us. I'm not sure which side of the ball he's going to play on, but he is a fine player. He's a tough, physical guy who loves to play. There are probably occasions where he may make a mistake in pass protection."
On Matt Baker:
"Gary (Tranquill) and I talked last week about playing Matt Baker some in the game against Wake Forest. I thought it was appropriate that in this game when it started to be a little out of hand that we give Matt a shot. He needs to play. He's a red-shirt freshman. He's earned that right to play, and I love giving kids opportunities to play and we gave him a shot."
