University of North Carolina Athletics
Bunting Press Conference Quotes
September 2, 2003 | Football
Sept. 2, 2003
CHAPEL HILL -- University of North Carolina head football coach John Bunting held his second weekly press conference of the season on Tuesday at the Kenan Football Center. The Tar Heels will host Syracuse on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Kenan Stadium.
elow is a transcript of Bunting's meeting with the media.
Bunting's Opening Statement: "We are finished with Florida State and we're moving on to Syracuse. We have a formidable opponent that can play, that has a great football tradition up there. I remember growing up as a kid watching the Jim Browns, the Ernie Davises and just marveling at Syracuse football. Being my background up there in Maryland and them playing team's like Maryland and playing other teams up there on the east coast."
"Coach Pasqualoni has done a tremendous job there, he's got a great winning percentage. They had a down year last year, like we had a down year. I'm sure in their opener that they'd like to be successful just as we'd like to be successful ourselves. We want to get better. That's our key. I have said that from day one that my expectations are high, I don't assume anything. We want to get better each week. There's an old expression that the mark of a good team is the amount of difference between the first week and the second week. I'm hopeful that we get better this week."
"I'm going to play players that produce, players that compete, players that give us the best chance to win. From my perspective guys like Derrick Johnson last week went out and played great football as a defensive back and made some big plays on special teams. A guy like Mike Mason, a freshman player, went out and made some plays for us. He gained a little confidence from that and that's exciting for our football team. Ronnie McGill a guy that I thought would be a good player, played well when he got in the game and therefore he's going to play as much or more this week. We've got to do a great job this week on our offense and on our special teams and we need to improve on defense."
"Syracuse is a hard-nosed, tough football team on offense. They run the ball. And obviously that has been deficient on our defense and we need to get better and we need to get better right away to have a chance to win. They are not tricky with personnel, but they have a million formations, they have a talented quarterback, a talented running back and they have been able to run the ball in the past. I'm sure that will be a big part of their gameplan. Big play tailback, athletic quarterback. Defensively they are a pressure team, a pressure defense. They lost a lot of their secondary players so it remains to be seen how much pressure they use, but if I were playing against Darian Durant I'd want to press him.
"Our offense did a remarkable job the other night. We only had one sack in the game and that was against C.J. Darian was not sacked and was hit very few times. That was good, real good in that game. I hope that we can pick up on that and perhaps have a few less dropped balls, keep drives alive. "
Q: There are some changes on the defensive depth chart. On Saturday will we see even more changes or is this the core unit you are going to go with?
A: "Well, I'm not sure how many changes you'll see. I'm going to move Isaac Mooring back out to defensive end. I'm going to put Isaiah Thomas in at the second [team] nose tackle, so he'll play this week."
Q: Alden Blizzard and Brian Rackley?
A: "Blizzard and Rackley are guys that should be playing anyway. I mean they are guys that should be getting into the ballgame. Rackley was injured and did not practice very much last week, so he did not have the opportunity to play. Both he and Blizzard are guys that should develop into players that could play a role on this team, so we need to get them in the game."
Q: Has Isaiah Thomas made progress with his playing shape?
A: "Puff came in at 336 pounds and now he is down to about 311. That's significant. He's very anxious to play. He's very anxious to help this team. He's a great kid, he's going to have a great career here, so we want to get him some snaps this week and get him broken in. Jonas Seawright has done a terrific job in terms of making improvement in his play. He played pretty well at times last week, and I hope he continues to improve. Chase Page improved a great deal between last year and this year and his first week play against Florida State. As I have said we didn't get much production out of the defensive end position and we've got to get better there this week."
Q: What about Jermicus Banks? Are you thinking of moving him back out?
A: "I'm thinking about that. But right now I think he gives us some good quick inside movement in some of our pass rush games."
Q: The linebackers look the same, do you think it will stay the same this week?
A: "I think it is going to remain basically the same. We did substitute. All linebackers were substituted at some point last week. Six linebackers played in that game against Florida State."
Q: How much has Jarwarski improved?
A: "Pollock? He was a good player last year, he's a very good player now. He's gained confidence and he has much more awareness of our system, therefore I think he can make more plays. He has a knack, he catches the ball well. He's very competitive. He's a good football player and he's gotten better because he really works at it."
