University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Texas Postgame Quotes
September 14, 2002 | Football
Sept. 14, 2002
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North Carolina Head Coach John Bunting
"We had several missed tackles and we're a young defense, we are going to take chances and try to make plays against the #2 team in the country. Sometimes we did things well and some other times we were obviously not at the right place. The missed tackles are what really hurt us especially in the second half."
"We hung in there with those guys. That could have been a tie ballgame at halftime. I know through the third quarter we were moving the ball. We just could not stop them after scoring."
On coming back from 24-0 deficit:
"I think that is the makeup of our team. Once again, we are trying to change the culture of our team with our football program I just think we need to continue to get better. We have a couple of days coming up this week were we'll try to get better and work on our schemes more."
"They are young players and I know there are going to be times where we are going to be able to stop them and shut them down and there are times where they are just going to make big plays on us. Sometimes that's the result of taking some chances we need to take. Sometimes it is the case of poor execution."
On handling Chris Simms and the Texas passing game, particularly in the five receiver set:
"We felt like if we could get to Simms early we could run them out of that set. That's what we wanted to do. Unfortunately they made some plays. They have some playmakers but we feel like we can match up with them in their secondary
On the Texas rushing game:
"The number that obviously jumps out at you is the 271 yards rushing. It's hard for me to believe that one guy could rush for 200 yards on our defense. That's hard for me to swallow. We've got to get our team to tackle better. "
On UNC's offensive production:
"I was pleased with our offense in that we were able to move the ball but when you play a great team like that you've got to be able to cap it off with a score."
Darian Durant
"If we get three points there, then we are just down six in the fourth
quarter with a good chance at winning the ballgame."
"We know that we can play with just about anybody in the country. Texas was a great team and we were right there. If we cut down on the turnovers, and everybody just does their assignment, we can beat these top teams."
"We were never really out of this game. They had a 10-point lead with 10 minutes to go in the game, you can't ask for a better situation than that."
Will Chapman
"We were climbing back into the game and then they hit us with a third and
15 conversion. These are things we cannot allow as a defense. We have to
win third down and first down."
"They are well coached and big. They were not that much better than us. We played with them."
"Our team formula is to play hard in all four quarters and harder in the fourth quarter. We didn't play very well in that fourth quarter tonight."
Jacque Lewis
"We fought hard all night and went at them with everything we had. We knew
that we could move the ball and we weren't discouraged when we got down
24-0."
"We are taught to never hold your head down no matter what happens. So we aren't going to hang our heads. We are going to get better and improve game to game. Now we can just get ready for the next game."
Jason Brown
"We feel a lot more comfortable now, then in the first game. The game reps
we get gives us more confidence as an individual and a team. We still
haven't reached our full potential and that is what we are striving for."
"They were great defenders. They had quickness and toughness."
"It is every lineman's dream to score a touchdown."
Michael Waddell
"Things happen and you have to let things go and try and make big plays."
"He (Roy Williams) is the type of receiver you have to bring your 'A' game out. We were competing for the ball all game and he made the bigger plays tonight."
Texas Head Coach Mack Brown
"First I want to congratulate John Bunting and the University of North Carolina football team. I have never seen a football team play that hard down 31-14. The crowd was in it. It was unbelievable. I am really proud that North Carolina football is in John's hands and moving forward.
"We had better players, our guys hung in there, we had more depth. But our guys fought. I am proud to be a part of the two biggest crowds in school history. I was just on the wrong side of one of them.
"Give them a lot of credit for the way that their kids fought. They are going to do really well for the rest of the year. I am proud of our guys. Our coaches had a great plan. Offensively we did so poorly in the third and fourth quarters in the North Texas game.
"We had nearly 300 yards rushing tonight. We need to come back and run the ball better. When you can run the ball better, you can prtect better. There were a lot of momentum swings. Our offense had to pick it up tonight because our defense is a little banged up.
"Darian Durant is a good football player. If he gets hot, he can make some plays. We had the little one-minute drill before halftime and didn't do very well and punted the ball back to them and that changed the momentum of the game. With him making the four pass plays down to score. Our kicking game was good, we forced some turnovers and had a couple of interceptions. We didnt get the pressure we wanted and we alloowed the quarter back draw to hurt us some. We have some work to do on defense."
Cedric Benson:
"This past week, we talked a lot about being patient, staying on path and hitting the holes. It was no question that the offensive line took care of the game. They worked their tails off all week in practice. Without a shadow of a doubt, I would give them the credit."
"Coach told me we were going to come out with the run, see how they handled that and we put it to them. The front seven took care of the game."
Chris Simms:
"We knew the strength of their defense was in their secondary and we just wanted to go out there and set the tempo of the game. And show that we knew we had a rough game. We just wanted to go out there and show them we were going keep plugging away at it, and Cedric did a great job of just getting positive yards all night."
How much easier did Cedric make your job?
"So much easier, you can tell when we would do play action passes and how open the field was and it the running game was crucial for a good team and we need to do both consistently at all times.
"I don't think we got bored tonight. I don't think we took advantage of our opportunities. We had a chance to have a few more interceptions. We probably could have caught the ball a few times and kept the chains going. We had a chance to put them away in the first half and we just didn't do it, and we let them back in it and they kept fighting real hard. You have got to give them credit.
"Cedric did a great job all night of stepping up and hitting linebackers in the mouth. The line was determined all week to really come out and determine the tempo of the game and show that that first game was a mistake. "
