UNC Quotes
September 25, 2004 | Football
Sept. 25, 2004
Recap | Final Stats | Photo Gallery
North Carolina Head Coach John Bunting
Postgame Quotes vs. Louisville
Sept. 25, 2004
That was a very disappointing loss to a team that is a very fine football team, something that we all acknowledged going in, but a team we hoped to play a heck of a lot better than we did. The first half I thought we still had a shot to play with these guys despite the fact we had been in their territory three times and got no points. I still thought we would go back out and play a lot better in the second half and we actually played awful, particularly on offense. They had no energy. That¹s very, very disappointing. Defensively, as difficult as it was, initially in the first drive I thought the kids played hard, did some good things, to keep that game to 10. That¹s exactly what we talked about at halftime. It¹s time for the offense to step up and we didn¹t. We had opportunities to make plays and we just didn¹t come up with them. We had way too many dropped balls and you can¹t do that in a game like this.
I know the kids are disappointed and all our great fans are disappointed and yours truly don¹t feel very good about it at all. After this, we¹re now 2-2, round four is over. Once again, we have a very difficult schedule from here on out. We have to find a way to play a heck of a lot better than that and when we have opportunities we have to make those plays.
(on players saying that that some players had their head down in the second
half)
It¹s not something I¹ve addressed at this point. I know I¹ve heard a couple
of players talking about that and I¹ll talk to the team again on Monday and
I will address that. I¹m not sure how you were raised, I know how I was
raised and I¹ll never put my head down. Never have, never will. There¹s no
reason to do that. If you put your head down, you are not going to be very
good.
This is a wonderful game to play, college football, and are allowed to coach. It takes energy to play, you have to be upbeat, you have to look forward to the next play. And that¹s precisely what our coaching staff talked with our team about at halftime. Let¹s go back out there and get started in the second half and let¹s get going. Because this is a heck of a team we are playing but guess what -- we are right there. We¹re right there. Instead of going out and playing well, we just didn¹t play well at all.
(did the team give up in the second half)
No, absolutely not.
(do you think the team felt too good about itself after hearing so many good
things after Georgia Tech)
I don¹t how Louisville is going to hand anything to you except a big
spanking. Took us out behind the shed, took our pants down, belted us. What
I mean by that is, it¹s hard for me to believe that our football team after
beating W and M and getting smoked by Virginia and then going out and
beating Georgia Tech on a real exciting evening here would then all of a
sudden believe that they have got it made. I don¹t believe that at all.
(Matt Baker)
I certainly don¹t like playing him in that situation, but he certainly needs
to play and I thought he did very well, except for the interception and he
put the ball on the ground.
(Terry Hunter)
He got on the field and got his feet wet a little bit. I can¹t tell you
exactly how he played, but it was a good to get him in the game. He¹s a real
talented kid. We have got a lot of talented kids on this defense , they are
going to be really good players in time. They are very young, but they are
going to be really good players. I like them a lot.
Jason Brown on the feeling at halftime
"We told ourselves we're a second half team. Some guys said don't worry about it. We'll be on top. We have to go out there in the very first minute, but it needs to start in the first minute in the first quarter. We need to start executing immediately. We don't have time to wait until the second half. With the good opponents that we're going up against, there's no time for stuff like that. The game goes by fast and you have to use all your time."
Jason Brown on the absence of Ronnie McGill
"I love that guy. Every single day this past week I was with him. I was talking to him, consoling him. I was with him the whole way."
Jason Brown on Adarius Bowman's dropped pass on the five-yard line
"It's impossible to win when you have situations like that. It's impossible."
Jason Brown on consistency
"We will work on consistency every day this week. We need to get consistent week after week after week and it's very hard to do that. If you only play well one week you might have some critics come up and say, `Oh that was just luck. That wasn't a good football team. That was just luck.' To be able to prove ourselves we have to have consistency. We have to get out there and execute week after week."
Jacque Lewis on Louisville's run defense
"They were stacking eight people in the box. We were kind of outnumbered out there. Inside plays worked a little better than outside plays because they were overloading the box. They played hard. You can't take anything away from them. You've got to give them credit. Their defense ran around all day. They made plays and they stopped us. So, we can't really say it was, `we should have done this or we should have done that.' I was running plays and Chad was running plays. Every time we touched the ball we tried to make something happen."
Jacque Lewis recovering from the loss
"We've got to take the losses as they come. We just have to come out Monday and get ready for Florida State next weekend, that's a big game. We're going down to Tallahassee next weekend and we got to get ready. We got to be prepared. We're going to put this game behind us. It's hard out there and it's a very frustrating loss but there's nothing we can do about it now."
Darian Durant on the loss
"A loss is a loss. Whether you lose by one or 30, it's the same thing. I guess the best thing that came out of this was that it wasn't conference."
Darian Durant on the preparation for the game
"I think we had a great week of preparation. We just have to come out and execute on Saturday. We've got to play better that's all."
Adarius Bowman on the offense-defense relationship within the team
"We feed off each other a lot. Today, offense wasn't getting their part done. The defense was doing great. Ten points at halftime. You can't beat that. Offense just has to get things going."
Adarius Bowman on the start of the game
"Guys were sitting back waiting for that big play to get a spark and be ready to play. We've got to be ready from the start. It shouldn't take a big play. You should come out on that field and be ready to play."
Mahlon Carey on Louisville QB Stefan LeFors
"He was pretty good. We were getting after him a little bit. We were trying to hit him and make him finagle his way through some things. We tried to hit him hard and he did his job."
Mahlon Carey on some of defense confusion with too many men on field
"We practice lining up fast, getting the play in, and having the people we need in. At times it was a problem. It's a communication thing. Sometimes there's a lot going on. But, everybody has to be alert and focused. We're going to get better in all areas."
Mahlon Carey on this week's play compared to last week's
"We didn't take steps backwards. We just didn't play as well as we played last week. The people that played well need to continue to play well. We've just got to get consistent. We know when we do our job and when we play like we know we can play, we can play with anybody."
