University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes: North Carolina vs. Duke, Nov. 24, 2007
November 24, 2007 | Football
Nov. 24, 2007
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North Carolina head coach Butch Davis postgame quotes vs. Duke
"I told the players in the locker room when the game was over with, certainly you're very, very proud any time that you win. I think you have to give some respect and credit to Duke. They played one heck of a football game. The one thing I told our players, sometimes you never know during the course of the season why do all the games have to be so close. All the tough perseverance going through the Virginia game, going through the NC State game, Georgia Tech game and all the games coming down to the wire, sometimes the answer doesn't always get revealed to you immediately. Sometimes it gets revealed like today. Their perseverance and their attitude this season has been absolutely remarkable and it's been admirable. As tough as some of these Sundays and Mondays were to come back after some of these tough disappointing losses, a great deal of credit has to go to this senior class. There's not very many of them, but those guys this year, the glue they held this team together and inspired them every week to hang in there and remain a family, to keep competing, you can't say enough about those seniors. Every one of them somehow, someway really impacted not only the season and the team, but really impacted a lot of these younger players. Those guys did a great job of picking (the young players) spirits up.
The second half, the most dramatic improvement was the ability to run the football. We challenged our team at halftime, and I talked to the offensive line and the running backs and the tight ends and the fullbacks. I said, 'guys, if we are going to win this game, we have got to generate a running game. We're going to draw a line in the sand and we're going to see how tough and how physical we are. Because if we can't we aren't going to win this game. If we've got to go out there and throw 50 to 60 times to win the game, it's probably not going to happen.' I love the challenge and the way our offensive line responded. You can't say enough about Greg Little and his performance. He made a great run on the sidelines and in his youthful exuberance getting the unsportsmanlike penalty. Two plays or so latter, he came up to me and said, 'coach, you give me the opportunity, I will help us win this game.' Don't you love it when guys can deliver on their promises. It was a great performance by him. He ran hard, he ran physical, he ran tough. It was a good way to end the season for a lot of reasons."
On heading into the offseason with a win:
"There's no question that ending on a positive note, beating a rival,
winning an ACC game. All of those things are certainly positive. The mood
will be 1000 percent better on Monday and in the locker room. It was
pandemonium in the locker room. It's the springboard that helps you get
into recruiting and into offseason. There will be a time here in the next
few weeks where we will get together as a coaching staff and reflect on how
far this team has come. I'm excited about the opportunity to teach them
more football.
"Mark Paschal, what an unbelievably awesome game he had today. He did a great job on some of those short to intermediate passes. I'm excited to what they can learn in the next seven months that have nothing to do physically.²
On keeping Little at running back:
"Let's put it this way, he'll probably stay there unless there becomes a
better option. He¹s such a great kid. He is so unselfish. That's
something you love about him."
On not going for it in regulation on 4th-and-1:
"I think it's a combination of a lot of things. One is how much success
you've had on 3rd and 1 and 2¹s. I think after 12 ball games, it's been a
little bit of a dicey situation with us. Fundamentally, I think you can't
coach with a crystal ball, but the one thing I thought about was if you
don't make it you're going to give Duke the ball somewhere around 2 minutes
left to go near midfield with three timeouts and maybe one pass out of four
downs losses you the game."
North Carolina Player Quotes
RB Greg Little
On the touchdown in overtime:
"I told Coach Pittman I wanted the power; I really wanted the ball in my
hands, but I really wanted that specific play. I just ran hard. I had one
man to beat and I just ran hard."
On growing up in Durham:
"It's definitely big. I know if we would have lost to Duke I would have had
a lot of people on me about that, but not to degrade them because they are a
really good team and a growing program. I just know I'm only five minutes
away from them and it wouldn¹t have been too sweet."
On capping off this year with a win:
"I'm sure everyone remembers the decision that I had to make coming here.
We went through training camp and it was hard learning the plays and to go
on and to continue into the season I had to learn running back in three days
going into the Georgia Tech game, it was definitely tremendous. I fought
back and I had a penalty early into the game and it was definitely a huge
mistake. I told Coach Davis, 'If I have anything to do with it, we will
win.' I promised him that and we did [win]."
DT Kentwan Balmer
On the Carolina program:
"The work ethic, the effort, the attitude; it's there. That's the swagger
I've been talking about all year. That's what I can sum up right there:
attitude, effort, and character. I just see big things happening for this
program. I'm proud to be a part of it."
On Greg Little
³He's a freshman, he¹s playing. He's been doing a great job for us and
there's no denying that, but I always push him. He's been stepping up. Even
on the way, before we left the hotel today, I was like, 'What are you gonna
do for me today?' And he was like, 'I'm gonna show you big boy, I'm gonna
show you.' And he did. He ran up to me with tears in his eyes and gave me a
hug and I told him, 'I appreciate everything.' Because without him tonight
and his efforts we wouldn't have done it without him."
QB T.J. Yates
On the running game tonight:
"Our passing game wasn't working very well at all. Coach challenged the
offensive line at halftime to see what they had and they definitely
responded. Greg did a great job breaking tackles and getting those extra
yards, but the offensive line did a great job opening those huge holes for
him. We kept running that ball because it was working for us. It was
definitely there tonight."
WR Hakeem Nicks
On fighting through the game:
"We just didn't want to get down on ourselves. We just wanted to go out
there and keep fighting to the end. We know if we keep fighting to the end,
the hard work is going to pay off."
On Greg Little:
"He played his heart out; he left it all out there on the line. My hat goes
off to him. He was just out there being a playmaker. Big time players make
big time plays in crunch time and that's what he is a big playmaker."
Duke Head Coach Ted Roof
On the kick at the end of regulation:
"I thought it was wide left. I didn't know right away. I thought it had a chance and it was a couple feet wide. For a game like that, there's a lot of plays, and it came down to one play."
On switching kickers in overtime:
"Nick [Maggio] had missed two, and I wanted to give Joe [Surgan] an opportunity. I thought Nick's confidence may have been a little shaken- for a true freshman, who just had a chance to win a game and missed the kick. I just felt Surgan was a better option at that point."
On his team's effort:
"I'm very proud of their effort. My kids play hard, they always have.
It's not the effort."
On what he told the seniors:
"I was able to tell them that I have a lot of respect for them. I appreciate them. At the same time, I'm sorry we didn't get the wins that they have worked so hard to get. They helped build our foundation, and they're going to take a lot of lessons away from this program."
On his future:
"I'm going to go home and eat dinner and then see what happens. I have no idea. That's for somebody else to decide. I've done my best. Would I like the opportunity to coach the football team next year? Absolutely- got a lot of starters back and see a lot of things happenings, but that's for somebody else to decide. At the end of the day, you have to look yourself in the mirror and know that you've done your best. You give it your best effort, and it doesn't always work out."
On the support from his players:
"I'm proud of my kids. It makes you feel good that your players believe in you and respect you."
On speculation about his job during the week:
"My attitude is that I worry about things I can control. What I can control is getting my football team ready to play and making good decisions during the course of the football game. If I worried about all of those other things, I would drive myself bananas. You can't do that.
You can't divide your focus."
