University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes
October 25, 2008 | Football
Oct. 25, 2008
Recap |
Final Stats |
Notes |
Photo Gallery 1 
|
Photo Gallery 2
Butch Davis quotes following North Carolina's 45-24 win over Boston College
"Certainly through last season¹s 12 games and this season¹s eight games, today was probably the most complete team game we have played. It was going to take a pretty balanced performance and every single phase was going to have to step up and make some plays. We have a tremendous amount of respect for Boston College. They are a massive, powerful team up front. It¹s very difficult to move those guys. We felt like offensively we were going to have to have some success throwing the football and defensively we had to play good pass defense.
(we had to do) all the things you have to do to win games - playing well on special teams, making some plays, putting some pressure on the punter, winning the turnover ratio, getting some interceptions. I don¹t know what you can say about Trimane Goddard¹s and Kendric Burney¹s interceptions today. Those were just huge, huge plays. They flipped the field positions and gave us some cheap and easy points and made them play the game one dimensionally. There is not one area where their performance wasn¹t important in the football game.
(on coming back from 10 points down)
This goes back to some of the things we do before the season starts. We¹ve
laid the foundation that games are not won or lost in the first three or
four minutes. You have to persevere. It was unfortunate. Cam (Sexton) got
sacked, we missed an audible on a protection and the ball comes out and they
run it in for a touchdown. But we never felt like we didn¹t have a grasp or
a feeling of what we wanted to do. We needed guys to stay positive and keep
chipping away and our guys believed in that philosophy.
(on the play of Hakeem Nicks)
I think fantastic would maybe describe it. He is one of the unique, special
guys I have seen that the bigger the moment, the bigger the stage the better
he plays. He is such a fierce warrior. He just catches the ball so well. He
has got great concentration. There are a lot of guys who can catch the ball
on the perimeter. But if you watch over his three-year career there are
balls that he has to catch where there are safeties and middle linebackers
over the middle and his run after the catch is extremely strong. He is just
a very good football player.
Brooks (Foster) stepped up today with seven catches. That was extremely important today. As Greg Little gets more familiar we¹ll slowly grow back into being pretty dangerous with three wide receivers on the field. His (Foster¹s) block down the field that sprung the touchdown (by Nicks) was huge.
(on Sexton)
I hate that he felt like he got off to a bad start because he can only do so
much. All you can do is take the snap and throw, you can¹t protect as well.
His pocket awareness is getting better every single week. Certainly the
scramble that completed to Brooks for the first down was a huge play. The
huge big play for the touchdown to Hakeem just showed great awareness
because he trusted the offensive line enough, he knew they were in a 3-man
rush, bought some time, stepped in there and threw the long touchdown pass.
I just think that shows growth on his part.
UNC Player Quotes
Kendric Burney
"We're having fun. That's the biggest thing. There's a lot of things that you can be, like stiff and worried about this and that, but we're just laughing and having fun. And that comes with having the veteran leaders like Trimaine Goddard, and All-American Deunta Williams back there. It's definitely a plus, just having fun in general with the guys."
Difference Between This Year and Last: "We're not as jumpy as we used to be. We're just having fun. You can see, if you ever pay attention, were smiling all the time. We're more mature and we're just having fun, and that's the biggest step from last year."
Cameron Sexton
On Hakeem Nicks: "That kid is unbelievable. I mean me and Hakeem have always had kind of a special bond, and I just know I have to get him the ball. I think he's got a pretty good idea of how good he's going to get. Like I've always said all year, and I'll say it through my entire career here - all I got to be is the middle man and just be efficient and not make mistakes, get those guys the ball. Those three touchdowns, maybe on one of them I worked the pocket pretty good, but other than that it was all Hakeem."
Trimaine Goddard
On Interceptions: "We always believe we can get a hand on the ball, no matter what point it is in the game. We practice trying to get our hands on the ball and we try to carry that over into the game."
Defensive Game After Last Week's Loss: "We wanted to come out and play a complete game because last time, we played good the whole game except that last drive. That's been bothering us throughout the week. So we just practiced real hard and came out and tried to play a complete game."
Hakeem Nicks
Six Wins=Bowl Eligible: "It's great to know, but I know we still want more. We just want to take it one week at a time. We've got a bye week, some guys need to health up, and get some film on our next opponent, then get back out there the following week and go at it."
Stepping Up Without Brandon Tate: "I wouldn't say I put more pressure on myself. I just knew I had to step up and contribute the best way possible. Any time they called on my name, I just felt like I had to make a play."
Brooks Foster's Block on 3rd TD: "It was real big. I told him, if it wasn't for that block I probably wouldn't have seen the cutback. But he did a good job down the field at clearing out and I came through. That's a traditional play, we called it, and I just had to make a big play."
Huddle on the Last Drive: "We were calm. I went to Coach Davis on the sideline and said `We are going to go for the touchdown, right?' And he looks back at me and said `Shoot, yeah.' And I felt like I just had to make a play. I knew they were going to call on me and just did what I do. I just felt like it was going to happen, there was nothing urgent about it."
Coach Jeff Jagodzinski
Opening Statement
"North Carolina did a good job against us today. They played a good football game. We've got some things that, obviously, that we need to work on. We can't turn the ball over: three interceptions today, and really two of them were for touchdowns. We just have to be smarter with the football. We'll come back, and I told my team, "How are we going to react after this?" It's not going to be easy; it never is. It's just one of many."
On UNC's touchdown at the end of the 1st half
"It's always easy to second-guess yourself. We squib-kicked it, needed to get it past the fullback. They end up getting good yardage on it. I thought we got the momentum back on our two-minute drill, took it back down, and they got it back at halftime. We probably should have kicked it deep, but I didn't."
On executing
"It just comes down to execution. That's what it comes down to. It comes down to blocking, tackling. We didn't do a very good job tackling this week, in particular on the passing game. We had some miscommunications in the back end. We didn't do as good a job as we have done. You learn a lot more about your team from losing than winning. We'll see how we bounce back from this one. We have Clemson next week at home, and here we go."
On Hakeem Nicks
"Very good player. He would be a good player on anyone's team. What did he have, 100-something yards? They used him well. They utilized their skill guys really well. Nicks is outstanding."
On the ACC
"You're eligible every week, if you don't come and play your very best, to get a butt-whipping, and we have to come back from that."
