University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Duke Postgame Quotes
November 19, 2005 | Football
Nov. 19, 2005
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John Bunting Quotes vs. Duke
"That's what I'd probably call your typical Duke-North Carolina game. I've had five of them now and a couple of them have come down to the wire. I'm not surprised by that. We had better stats, but that doesn't mean anything in this game. You've got to put people away, you can't let people hang around. But I'm going to give Duke a lot of credit. They played with a tremendous amount of emotion. They played with a tremendous amount of emotion to start that football game. A lot of it seemed to go against us, in terms of penalties and ejections. To our players' credit, they continued to battle, they never gave into it, they continued to battle. It was looking tough, it was looking bleak, but a lot kids stepped up and made some plays. They worked together very well on that last drive and came up with the plays to win the football game.
"The defense was playing quite well in the first half. I don't think I've ever been around a game where we had two interceptions on the one and we had to fight our way out of that. And then we had a goal-line stand that ends on the one and we had to fight our way out of that. Overall, I'm really proud of the way the kids responded. We were able to finish the game. That's probably the best thing about it. Our seniors get to leave their last home game with a win over arch-rival Duke."
(On Ronnie McGill's fourth down run and the spot of the ball):
"You never know exactly because of those stakes (chains) when they are lined
up across the way. And they were on the far sideline. It's a guessing
match. We made it by that much. Last week, we lost a tough game by that
much. That was Jesse Holley's lament last week, going into (the lockerroom
vs. Maryland), `It's a game of inches'. We got an inch today and we were
able to capitalize on it and punch it in."
(On Balmer's ejection and having so few defensive linemen available)
"The guys that started and finished, we owe them an awful lot of credit. We
were hurting on the front going into the game. We weren't sure if Shelton
ynum would play at all. He played some. We went in with a defensive end
situation that was really difficult. No Hilee Taylor (foot), no Brian
Rackley (concussion). Two of the four defensive ends that we've been
playing this year are gone. Melik Brown comes back and gives us some
significant snaps. With Kentwan gone, you're dealing with a situation where
we don't have anyone else to go to. We couldn't move Chase Page out there,
because of the situation with Shelton. I'm going to give those kids a heck
of a lot of credit. Chase goes down and comes back to play. Tommy Davis
goes down and comes back to play. Those kids really, really toughed it out.
If there are any guys who deserve some credit for courageous play, it's that
defensive front today."
(On Wallace Wright and his injury)
"I don't think I've ever seen a guy as upset as he was over there on that
far sideline. He knew that his career as a Tar Heel was over. He had tears
of disbelief and disappointment not being able to play anymore as a Tar
Heel. He's had a great season for us. He's done everything we've asked him
to do. He earned a scholarship here after walking on the football program.
Sorry to see it end that way."
(On running the ball)
"We never stopped trying to run the ball. We probably should have tried to
keep throwing it some more. They were bringing the house to try to stop the
run. They were taking a lot of chances and we need to make plays when they
take those types of risks. That's probably the most disappointing thing
about the game. We had a couple of dropped balls and we had a couple of
times where we didn't make the connection between the quarterback and
receiver. When we have pressure like that, we should be able to block it up
and make the connection."
("On the 1-game season remaining)
"We have one game left and we can play some more if we go up to Blacksburg
and win. I didn't want it to come down to this, but that's the way it is."
(On the personal fouls)
"I certainly talked about it at halftime. I was really disappointed in
losing our poise and not being disciplined. Those things will be addressed
again when we get back on Monday. There is no reason for that. You're
never going to be able to respond in a way after a play in an illegal way to
make it right. You can make it right on the next play on a legal play."
Duke Head Coach Ted Roof
Opening statement
"A obviously very very disappointing loss that rips your guts out. I was proud of our kids the way they fought and we had some chances there to win and North Carolina made a play when they needed to. The last drive so, disappointing."
On his decision to take Zack out and put Mike in the game
"No that's not why he was in there. Mike [Schneider] was our two minute guy. He's much more comfortable in our two minute offense and Zack [Asack] has come along, but Mike is more comfortable on the practice field and has produced better in two minute, so he was our two minute quarterback."
Adjustments made to shut down the run defense during the second and third quarter
At half-time we just suggested some formations and some things that they had hurt us with in the first half and I thought our staff made some good adjustments and we were able to come out in the second half and get some stops.
On what he told his players in the locker room
"I told them that I was proud of them and I'm sorry that we didn't send the seniors out with a win. And also that we have a lot of work to do during the off season, but we are not as far away as some people may think we are. And I hate it for our kids that won't be back because I thought we played our guts out. And it's tough to empty your tank and come up short on the score board. The way it happened was the last drive there. But I give North Carolina credit because they made plays when they needed to."
On the fourth down conversion
"I knew it was close. I thought it was going to be about two inches short. But I think they were about a centimeter... there. However that post thing sometimes however they put it down."
UNC Player Quotes
Tommy Davis
On how close the game was:
"Hey, it's a rivalry game. It was a close game. We didn't expect it to be that close, but we kind of took ourselves out of the game early in the first two drives with some stupid penalties. We had too many personal fouls. We pretty much gave them the first two drives between the personal fouls on Kentwan [Balmer] and Kyndraus [Guy]. That's 30 yards automatic. After that we got into a rhythm on defense. We just started doing our job. We shut them down after that."
On what they had to do in the last quarter:
"We just had to step up and play. Defense - we love to be on the field. This is my last game. I wanted to play as much as possible. I was just loving the fact that we had to go out there. We had to get the ball back for our offense so they could win the game. I was loving the fact that the game was on our shoulders."
On whether or not the team underestimated Duke:
"No, we didn't underestimate Duke. We knew it was going to be a tough game. We knew they were coming in here with every intention of trying to win. They came out here focused, ready to go, and they gave everything they had, which we knew they were going to. We knew we were going to have to fight to win this game."
Matt Baker
On the last drive:
"We didn't give up on the drive. I think everybody out there in the huddle knew we were going to score. They had confidence in themselves."
On if Duke's pressure surprised him:
"It did. Like every week, the team that we played had an extra week to prepare for us, whether it's a hurricane or some circumstance. They had two weeks to prepare and they're Duke. They're smart kids. They worked hard to beat what they thought we would try to protect against them. They brought different things. For instance, they had one particular blitz that they ran last year like 25 times on us. Then they run it about half the time this year. But they showed us about once or twice this game - they changed things up. We made some adjustments, but they had some things that caught us by surprise."
On if the Virginia Tech game creates some urgency:
"Of course. There's a ton of urgency. We're going to go up there like we have nothing to lose and we don't. We'll be the underdog. There's no sense in being nervous and playing scared. This is it. It can be the last game of the year, or we can win ourselves a spot to play another one. We're going to go up and there and throw caution to the wind as Coach Tranquill says. We're going to go out there and do our best."
On if he was nervous before Ronnie McGill's fourth down run:
"I was nervous, but at the same time, if we didn't get it there was enough time on the clock where I was pretty confident our defense would get a stop and get us the ball back. But of course you're a little bit nervous when you've got fourth and an inch and you get about an inch and a half."
Ronnie McGill
On what he was thinking when he went down on fourth down on the last drive:
"When I first went down, I didn't know where I was. I knew what we were supposed to get, and when I first seen him spotting it I thought they was spotting it short. But he came in and adjusted it to where the ball was and then I knew we had it."
On the final touchdown run:
"It was supposed to be an iso [play] to the left, and everyone slammed down so I just read it and ended up cutting it back. There was one guy out there and I stiff armed him and ran into the end zone."
On if someone stepped up and said something in the huddle at the start of the last drive:
"Baker. He just told us, `We got to drive the ball.' Everybody already knew it, so we didn't really need any pep talks. But he came in and told everybody, `Look, we haven't really been doing much, so it's time to score.'"
On why the offense broke down in the second half:
"I don't know. They had two weeks to prepare for us. They brought a lot of blitzes that we never saw. We'd been preparing for other things and they would do something that we prepared for - but right when the play started they'd switched it up. They just did that the whole second half. They blitzed a whole lot, and it just threw everything off that we were doing in the first half."
