University of North Carolina Athletics
Player Press Conference Quotes
September 5, 2006 | Football
Sept. 5, 2006
Q: What kind of mentality did you come in with for the season?
Foster: "I just wanted to come in and prove myself. I've been a practice player for like two years now. I ain't got that many games so I've been working hard trying to stay focused, even when its tough out there, just trying to stay focused and just keep working hard, a lot of reps every day."
Q: What happened that you were clicking with Joe Dailey on Saturday?
Foster: "They were just giving us open looks. I was just running my route and they weren't playing me so Joe was throwing the ball to me."
Q: Did you have an idea you had as many catches as you did?
Foster: "Not really, I didn't know I had that many catches. I thought I had probably six or seven or so, but I didn't know I had that many catches."
Q: What was your reaction when you found out you had 11?
Foster: "Oh yeah, I was smiling, I felt good. I felt real good."
Q: They say you want to be a YAC receiver; a lot of those routes were short outs and that sort of thing. How much do you want to improve on that and make things happen after the catch?
Foster: I want to work on that a lot, but that's not really a big deal I would say. I want to be a YAC [yards after catch] receiver, of course."
Q: How much did giving up basketball help, in terms of getting into the flow of the offense?
Foster: "It helped me out a lot, made me focus more. I feel like I focus a whole lot more and like I was more dedicated and I worked a whole lot harder."
Q: How did you come to that decision and how difficult was it for you?
Foster: "Oh, Coach Bunting -- me and Coach Bunting talked about it and since I had red-shirted and didn't get to play that much that year. He said it probably best for me to just focus on football, especially since we lost our receivers, we had lost our main receivers, so he was like, `I want you to focus on football.' So, OK."
Q: Is that easier to do when you've already got a national championship ring?
Foster: "Yeah, it's a whole lot easier."
Q: Has it been tough for the guys to get over this loss in any way this week?
Foster: "Yeah, it's been tough, but we can't do nothing about it now. We've just got to look forward to Virginia Tech and just work on, look at the film, see what kind of mistakes we had and just work off of that."
Q: Does this team have big play potential, or is going to be a team that's going to be efficient all season?
Foster: "We have big play potential. I think we kind of showed what we can do, but we take what the defense gives us, so if the defense gives us a big play, we'll take it."
Q: How much of the offense did we see Saturday? How much do you need to learn, and how long do you think it will take for everyone to feel comfortable?
Foster: "I don't know, I don't think we ran too many plays. I know we still got a whole lot, Coach Cignetti's got a whole lot of stuff he's going to throw out there, but I don't know, I can't really tell you."
Q: What's the biggest change to you on focusing on just one sport?
Foster: "I was just working harder, I think that's the only change, just working harder and I was more focused. I knew my goal and I knew what I wanted to do. That was my motivation everyday."
Q: What was that goal?
Foster: "Just to be good, just to prove myself. Everybody talking about, how I can do this and how I do that. I just wanted to prove to everyone what I can do."
Q: You said a talk with Coach Bunting, when was that?
Foster: "Right after the season, right after the season last year we talked about it."
Q: Jesse Holley made a similar decision at some point, did you guys talk about that, was he helpful at all?
Foster: "Nah, we didn't really talk about it, cause we're in two different situations, he's senior this year so that's why he probably focused on it and I was just a freshman last year. It just happened like that."
Q: Was it hard for you giving it up?
Foster: "Yeah it was. I couldn't decide, I talked to my parents about it and I couldn't really decide, but I'm glad that I made that decision now."
Q: How did you work it out in your mind?
Foster: "Just how I really didn't get to play basketball anyways. They had a whole lot of people coming, a lot of recruits coming, so I knew my time was going to be very, very limited. They needed me a whole lot hear at football because all the receivers had gone, so that's why I made that decision."
Q: So is basketball always your favorite?
Foster: "Yeah, basketball's my first love. I grew up playing basketball, I mean my high school football team we wasn't good at football, so I was more of a basketball player, because we were good, so that's why."
Hilee Taylor - Defensive End
Q: Seems like the past few seasons, you guys have been able to bounce back from some disappointing losses. What is it about this team that has enabled you to do that, and can this team do the same thing?
Taylor: "Yes sir, a lot of it was mental. Coach told us we weren't out [played] physically, we didn't get a great effort, it was just the amount of mental steam. We've got a week to fix that, so we're going to spend more time in the film room as a group and try to capitalize on the mistakes that we made this past Saturday."
Q: Coach Bunting has said the defense needs to go on to the next play. What were the defensive problems?
Taylor: "It was self-explanatory. We'd just lean on the last play that we ran and we just didn't move on to try and out-do the last play that we did. So this Saturday we've just got to overcome some mistakes that happen ... and not let it snowball effect our whole game."
Q: Was this team better at moving on last year from a bad play?
Taylor: "It's hard to say because it was the first game of the season. Last year we had Tommy Richardson, he was a great leader, that's going to be hard to replace, but I think we got guys as a group that can replace Tommy Richardson, and Tommy Richardson was all that type of guy, he'd just tell you be relaxed and go play by play and don't let little things get to you."
Q: So do you feel like you are waiting for some leaders to emerge?
Taylor: "Oh, no, sir, I'm not saying that at all, we have great leaders, we're just at that point in time, that I think it was the first game and everybody was just going scarce instead of relaxing and moving on to the next play. We have great leaders."
Q: Coach is pretty vocal and kind of dumping on you guys, saying it's the defenses fault for losing the game. Do you agree with his assessment?
Taylor: "Absolutely, I mean I know ya'll seen the game, and ya'll seen it, the offense played well and the defense didn't. We had great expectations coming to this game, because training camp, we've been facing our offense, and you see how our offense did against Rutgers. We've been doing well against our offense all training camp, and they've been doing well against us, but we just felt that we should have played better than what we did and we know we can. Hopefully we prove that this Saturday."
Q: He said he told you that right after the game. Is that what he said right after the game, did he point the finger as the defense?
Taylor: "Yes sir."
Q: How do you feel as a defender about that?
Taylor: "That's the coach, I mean that's who I look up to. I respect him. He's the coach and he coaches us. You know one day you got to be a man and take the blame, and we took it."
Q: You guys struggled defending the run against Rutgers, Virginia Tech might even have a more powerful run game. What changes must you guys have make, especially upfront?
Taylor: "It's mental changes, that's all. Like I just said, it wasn't that we got out-physicaled. Great effort, that's there. If we get the mental aspect down, we can be a dangerous team I think."
Q: Your position coach just left Virginia Tech. Is there a special desire to beat Virginia Tech for him?
Taylor: "I mean absolutely. Any ACC team, that's all the desire that I need, but Coach Pearman, I don't know what went on in that situation. I know they recruited me out of high school and it was kinda between [Carolina] and V [Virginia] Tech. I got a whole lot to prove at this game as well."
Q: What have you learned under Coach Pearman?
Taylor: "He teaches us a lot, him and Coach Browning. As far as pass rushing techniques, playing with hands and being physical and relaxed. Coach Pearman is a guy, he doesn't let anything get him down or as well his players. So like this game this past week, he just wanted to move on and get to V [Virginia] Tech."
Q: So he's pretty much an upbeat guy?
Taylor: "Upbeat guy all the time, you never see him sad. I've never seen him mad, ever since he been here."
Q: Was it difficult to get over this loss?
Taylor: "Saturday night and Sunday, yeah it lingered on, cause I wanted to know what went on, but after I watched the film Sunday, then I just wanted to move on."
Q: You think everyone else has done that?
Taylor: "Yes, sir. Pretty much that practice last night was Virginia Tech, moved on, we're ready for Virginia Tech now. We're ready to prepare for Virginia Tech now."
