University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Furman Postgame Quotes
September 17, 2006 | Football
Sept. 16, 2006
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John Bunting quotes following 45-42 win over Furman, Sept. 16, 2006
JB: That was the shortest meeting I've ever had in the locker room as a head coach or as an assistant coach. The only way to describe our locker room was that it was a win and two or three weeks from now probably most people will forget about it. First thing I did when the game was over was go over and congratulate Coach Lamb and his team. How well they played and what a great team they have and how they played their hearts out. We got a little lucky. Pleased with the fact that we had an unbelievable crowd tonight that kept us going in the game. Pleased with converting fourth and one - terrific. Pleased with the way the quarterback played.
We have to get a heck of a lot better. This team we played against did some things that we could not practice against, the flex bone look, the double wing look. Something they have not done in a long, long time. Something we had in the back of our mind that they could go to. They kept us off balanced with that, they did a terrific job with the option game. Their fullback (Felton) is an NFL player. He'll play that level...310 yards in the air - not making very many plays, not making very many plays. Jump balls, missed a couple of assignments early on third downs. Third and longs when you have them against an option team, you had better convert them and we had a couple of mental errors. We'll go back to work first thing tomorrow morning to get this defense reorganized again. We'll be real happy when we get Kareen Taylor back and we'll be really happy if our players compete better on those long throws.
I thought Frank Cignetti did a masterful job of mixing personnel in and out. Runners, both played well. The offensive line did a good job protecting our quarterback.
(Sexton) I think he played with an awful lot of poise. There was no doubt on the offensive side that we would continue to score points. Jesse (Holley) said to me a couple of times, `open it up, open it up.' Well, I'd like open it up, but I'd like to run some clock. Every time they had the football we don't stop them.
He certainly exhibited when he came off the field and when he was out there on the field that he was enjoying it, that he was very clear-headed, alert. He goofed on the head coach a bunch when we were in that fourth and one situation. Great effort by him in his first start.
Their quarterback did a terrific job and their receivers made a lot of plays. That No. 7 (Justin Stepp), he's an all-star.
(Holley catch) That was a play which we perhaps anticipated them being in another coverage and Jesse just went up and made a big play on his own. Cam put it in the spot where Jesse can make that play.
(Ronnie McGill) One, he's a tough kid. He's a great inside runner. He'll break tackles. He never stops working, He will outwork people. We all know what a great kid he is. We were able to get him the ball. We blocked better at the line of scrimmage.
And it was nice to see Barrington play well, too.
UNC Player Quotes
On UNC's use of the screen pass:
"I love screen passes and the guys did a good job with them. The screen pass is a quarterback's best friend. I don't do a whole lot of work, let them do it and it looks good on my stats."On the team's ability to get open downfield: "We threw the ball downfield well and the guys ran great routes. But the key emphasis today was that I got hit one time in a college football game. You talk about Brian Chacos, Calvin Darity, Scott Linehan up front, Charlston Gray and Garrett Reynolds on the right side and my backs in protection, if you get hit one time it's easy."
On having to lead a fourth quarter comeback: "I didn't think [I was going to have to]. But they are a good football team and they played well. We had to respond. When you play good football teams, Division 1, 1-AA--it doesn't matter, they play well, we had to respond."
On managing the game as a whole: "We've talked about all along we have to eliminate mistakes on offense. We play well when we eliminate mistakes. I threw one interception that I want back. It was a bad throw, but it was only one. We had no fumbles, no bad exchanges under center. When you do that you give yourself a chance to win."
On the 4th quarter touchdown to Jesse Holley: "I'm going to let you in on a little secret, you can't tell anybody. I called the wrong play on the touchdown to Jesse. I guess I misread the signal or something happened and I just called the wrong play, but I threw the touchdown and sometimes it happens like that. I have no idea what the play was supposed to be. I'm going to find out tomorrow. I don't think [Jesse] knew what he was doing either. If it works, it works."
On his comfort level: "Getting your first pass off, your first play and getting your first hit. After that I was fine. Today I felt real good, yesterday I felt real good. I got out there and the guys played well for me. That made it easy."
On his 4th quarter touchdown:
"That play is not even in our playbook. Me and Cam always joked about in the summertime, `it's not in the playbook, but it should be.' I know I wasn't supposed to have that route but sometimes you just have to go out there and play football. That's what this game is about."I wasn't going to stop until I got to the house. I was determined to get into the end zone. Once I made the catch it was like the blockers didn't exist. It was catch--endzone. My team needed that at that point and they had enough confidence in me to give it to me, so I had to deliver."
Larry Edwards
On the challenges the Furman offense presented:
"It is a real disciplined offense. Everyone has to be in their gaps at all times. A lot of times they like to cut block to get you off your feet and create more space. Having somebody constantly jumping out at your feet just wears on the defense. We just tried to gut it out. We found a way and came away with the win."
On the team's feeling after falling behind in the 4th quarter: "We just had to stay focused. We couldn't give up. We had to dig deep, but we knew we were very prepared for this team. We knew we had gone through a lot this summer and we were so well prepared and so well trained that we just had to look at ourselves and say, `who wants it more--us or them?' We decided we wanted it more."
On the team's inability to stop Furman on third downs: "It was definitely frustrating. Giving up big plays period is always very frustrating. We are just going to build off our performance this week. We did a lot of bad things but we did a lot of good things, as well. We are just going to come in on Monday ready to work and ready to see what kind of gameplan we are going to have for next week to go out there and get another win."
On getting pressure on the quarterback at the end: "I had been wanting to blitz all night. I hadn't blitzed all night and I just wanted to go rush the quarterback. I felt like this was going to be my only opportunity and I just had to make the best of it. I just so happened to get a sack off of it. It was a great feeling helping this defense try to get off the field."
Ronnie McGill
On Cam Sexton's leadership of the team:
"He did great stepping in during a must-win game, completing some big passes. He never got down. He always tried to stay up; he did a wonderful job."
His feelings on the closeness of the game: "It was way too close for comfort. Then when we went up at the end of the game and they drove down the field, people were trying to give me fives on the sideline and I told them to wait until after the game because I've seen some crazy things happen. I felt like they might get the onside kick and throw a touchdown. That's what type of game it was."
On his 4th touchdown of the game: "It's one yard. Coach Powell always says, `get the yard, do whatever it takes.' I got the ball and there was a guy standing there so the first thing that goes through my mind was, `Jump!' So I just jumped over him."
On this week's preparation: "We practiced a lot of different things. We just got prepared for everything that we thought they might bring. We went out there and sometimes we weren't consistent but we never went away from any of the plans that worked. We just stuck with them and kept working and kept riding. We knew eventually it would pick up."
On wearing down the Furman defense as the game moved along: "You could feel it somewhat, because the plays that were getting two and three yards at the beginning of the game were starting to get five and six at the end, even seven and eight. You could kind of feel that our running game was putting an effect on them."
Brian Chacos
On Cam Sexton's leadership:
"Poised, calm, even telling me, and I'm a sixth-year guy, that I need to calm down. I was getting emotional, yelling at the guys, telling them to get it going. He's going to be a hell of a quarterback when he's done with his Carolina career. He's going to get better every week and I'm just really proud of his effort tonight. He led us to a victory."
Furman Head Coach Bobby Lamb
On the momentum of Furman in the fourth quarter:
"What happened in the game is exactly what I worried would happen. Their offense is so big and they're so physical and I was worried about them lining up and mashing us and that is what they did. They lined up and mashed us. They put body on body and fullback's 250, tight end's 260. Bottom line is we just couldn't hold the fort long enough- couldn't come up with a play. We came up with the one reception to turn the momentum and then we didn't do very well during the rest of game. They kicked us down in the end out there late."On Matthew Cesari in the end of game: "Onside kick, he hits the top of the ball, the ball pops up into the air. He didn't pop it quite as high as he does when we play in practice, but we had a chance there."
On the comparison of last week's game and this week's game: "Number one, North Carolina lined up like we practiced all week. Number two, Renaldo Gray played great this week and he's back to 100 percent healthy. He was still a little gimpy last week. We ran a ton more option with him tonight and as you can see he's pretty solid at doing that.
On Renaldo Gray: "Well he's had some hard knocks two week in a row, but we just told him to keep hanging in there and the kid's bleeding, he had such a great August then he had the ankle injury, but I thought he just played phenomenal tonight that made a jump start in progressing."
On Western Carolina game next week: "Any time a team beats you like they did last year, that's always on the back of your mind. It's not the motivating. It is a big motivating factor is our first conference game. This starts our real season in the conference season so we got to be ready to tackle Western Carolina."
