University of North Carolina Athletics
2008 Signing Day Press Conference Quotes
February 6, 2008 | Football
Feb. 6, 2008
2008 Signing Day Press Conference
Opening statement:
"Thanks for everybody being here today. Today's always exciting for coaching staffs, ours is no exception. Certainly around the country, everybody sits on pins and needles for the last 24, 48 hours. We were laughing this morning, I told some of the coaches, I don't know which is more stressful, being a Division I football coach on the eve of Signing Day or being a commodities broker worrying about the pork bellies in the Asian market. I don't know which one you got a better chance of going crazy doing.
Anyhow, it was a good day for us. First of all, there's so many people that help you in recruiting that make recruiting possible. I think it's remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to talk about all the people that helped us this year in recruiting. Certainly our players did an outstanding job- by hosting kids, coming in, being a part of explaining a year later. Last year's recruits basically kind of had to sign and come on faith because the current players that were on the team really didn't know myself, they didn't know the coaching staff. This year, with the year with them, they did an awesome job of talking about the environment in the building, the chemistry within the coaching staff, the direction of the program, and the vision. So, our players did an excellent job.
The coaches just did an outstanding job. One of the things that people always ask sometimes in press conferences is `Which coach is was responsible for getting this player? Which coach got this player?'. The reality of it is that it's generally usually a cooperative staff effort. Probably every single kid that we signed today, at least three, if not maybe more coaches, played a significant role. Whether the offensive or defensive coordinator played a significant role in it, the coach in that geographic area played a role in that kid signing. Our staff within the building did a great job and some unbelievably unselfish alumni that allowed us the opportunity to fly around and hit a lot of kids for home visits. The availability of airplanes was just remarkable this year. It allowed us to get, particularly in the closing weeks of recruiting, to get to a lot of difficult kids to get to.
Enough said about that, let's talk a little bit about the 2008 class. First of all, having a year with our football team, we had a greater understanding of our needs. A year ago, it was kind of take an already dealt hand to you in some respects, and then how can you improve on that. Some of the kids that we signed- the Charlie Browns, the Marvin Austins, the Zack Pianaltos- were guys that we scurried around and unearthed and added to last year's class. This year's class, 17 players, takes us to the NCAA limit of 85 scholarship players. There was a period of time early in the recruiting that we weren't exactly sure how many scholarships that we would be able to give because we only had 10 seniors at the beginning of the football season. Fortunately, some kids did graduate, got their degrees. Unfortunately, for some others, we had some kids that went on medical scholarship that'll stay on scholarship, their going to get a degree from the University of North Carolina- which is an extraordinarily important part for us. It allowed us to move the number from 10 to 17. It allowed us to be a little bit more aggressive when the season was over once we knew how many scholarships that we were actually dealing with.
I think that as you look at the 2008 class, from having the opportunity to work with our current football team, what we wanted to try to do was to balance out and to complement the '07 team. This year's signees are decidedly more defensively slanted than the offensive side of the ball. One of the reasons is that last year there was a relatively significant amount of offensive players- several running backs, some quarterbacks. Taking four offensive lineman this year put the premium on going for defensive lineman and linebackers. Another thing after going through the season of the '07 season, was the number of times that we really felt like that we needed a significant increase in numbers of available players that could play a significant role in special teams. Subsequently, an emphasis on linebackers, on safeties, on corners, and defensive ends- guys that can run and that can really help you make an impact on your special teams.
One of the characteristics that epitomizes this class is the fact that it's got speed. This is a class that can run extremely well and it's also a class that has playmakers. When you take a look at the bios and you get a chance to watch these kids next fall during training camp, one of the things you're going to see is the ability to make plays on the football- whether it's offensively, catching the ball as receivers, running backs, the tight ends, the H-backs, those are guys that are going to be highly prolific, guys that can make plays. Then certainly the defensive players- the ability to put the pressure on the quarterback and to play defensively. From that standpoint, we're very very proud of that class.
As we looked at last year's class, we said OK, how can we complement last year's class and balance out the team. Here's one of the things when you take over a program, a year later you take a look at the numbers of football players at certain positions that you inherit. If there's a disproportionate number of players at one particular position, it kind of negates the idea that you can go out and load up on players at that particular position. So, subsequently last year, if you look at last year's class, the number of defensive backs that we signed- we signed I think six defensive backs last year. It minimized the pressure of how many defensive backs that we would take this year. Last year, the emphasis, we took two really talented defensive tackles in Tydreke Powell and Marvin Austin. So this year the emphasis was in the defensive line but was predominately driven by the need that we needed to go out and get defensive ends. We just lost Hilee Taylor, we lost Kyndraus Guy, we're losing Kentwan Balmer. There was a significant area of need in the defensive line. That's kind of the way in which the logic that our coaching staff used to kind of go about and build this class. Look at the two classes kind of put together and I think you'll see that these two classes really give us a really good solid foundation for building this program."
On how he felt last night with some recruits still undecided:
"I would say that pretty much confident on just about everybody with the exception of two. Two of them were ones that were very similar to the Marvin Austin, Greg Little where you went to bed and you were crossing your fingers, holding your breath, and trying to read the tea leaves, and talking to moms, dads, guidance counselors, coaches, and trying to get some kind of insight. One of the things that players, and I guess it's a sign of the times, I think they're all driven by the idea they're trying to give coaches ulcers, gray hair, that they love the drama. I think that they know, I think they clearly have an idea where they're going to go, and I just think that they love the idea of Signing Day- pull the hat out of the briefcase, have four or five hats. They're having a lot of fun with it because of the nature that there is so much interest in recruiting today. There's always a little bit of anxiety associated to `He says yes, or he's leaning this way'.
The two biggest guys that would be very similar to Marvin and Greg certainly had to be Robert Quinn and Christian Wilson. You felt like we had done everything that we could from a recruiting standpoint to put ourselves in a position to get those two players. It was a highly competitive situation. Christian had been earlier committed to Michigan. Once the Michigan situation changed from a coaching staff perspective, he had actually visited with us four times so we had a great relationship with he and his family. He'd been on campus, he loved everything here, and if you'd asked two months ago, I'd say `Gosh, it looks like we're going to finish second on Christian Wilson, he's going to go to Michigan'. Obviously with the change in coaches, he reopened it up and we were fortunate enough to get back into it and then obviously close the deal. We think he is a very talented player.
Robert Quinn- it came down to several other schools in the SEC and ACC. We had the same feeling about Robert. We felt we had a great relationship with him, we had done everything we could. We weren't exactly sure if it was 50-50, if it was tied or whatever. The remainder of the players that we signed, we had pretty good insight- even the ones that had not divulged and said `this is exactly what I'm going to do'. We had a pretty good idea that that's what they were going to do."
On staying in contact with recruits after they give a verbal commitment:
"There's a certain element of that. I think for us particularly I think it will get bigger in years to come. To be honest with you, we've already spent the better part of a month on '09. I would say that probably 60% of January was spent not only on the players that we already had, the ones we were trying to sign, but as the numbers dwindle, once you leave September and October and you're dealing with 70-80 kids, and you're dealing with 30-40 trying to get 17, there's a lot of man hours available for coaches to go out and go to high schools and looking for '09 kids and getting kids in. We have a Junior Day coming up February the 16th for a basketball game and we've already gotten I think 40 kids committed to come in for that particular day with their families.
We're playing catch-up. I have to be honest with you. As exciting as it was to join and come to North Carolina a year ago, you find out how far behind in recruiting that you actually are. In several areas, one is building relationships with high school coaches throughout not only North Carolina but the immediate geographic region. That's one area that's just an ongoing process. I think secondly, so many kids take trips, they start going to camps. They go to camps as ninth graders, 10th graders, 11th graders, and when there's a chain broken, with a new coaching staff coming in, kids that maybe had gone here as 14,15,16-year old kids now it's a new coaching staff. Where they've gone to other people's camps for any reason, it takes a year. A year ago, we were probably at least 18 months. At the end of last season's recruiting and such, we were maybe a year behind. We're probably maybe still five to six months behind, but we're rapidly closing the gap, and hopefully by the end of May, we will have caught back up with like everybody else in the country. You have to realize that our coaching staff, we've only been here for a year. In one year, we put together two recruiting classes, and trying to build those relationships, and trying to find out what's the best approach recruiting for North Carolina and where the available talent is. There's a million avenues we've got to uncover. We're gaining ground quickly."
On a different recruiting philosophy at North Carolina compared to Miami:
"We would definitely take commitments early. We'll take a couple this afternoon. To be honest with you, we are going to take some this afternoon for '09. I am personally having to rethink because being gone for six years, a lot have things did [change]. The dynamics of recruiting did change. A lot of the early camps and kids, virtually almost no one got in a car with their mom and dad and drove around during the spring time, on spring break, and over the summer time 6,8 10 years ago and just visited 20 schools. Some they eliminated instantly, they didn't like the facilities, they didn't like whatever it was, they didn't like the coaching staff, the chemistry, the feel. Some they put, you're on their list. That never really existed. I don't know a specific number, but I have to believe at Miami more than 50% of the kids were still wide-open at the conclusion of their senior year in high school. That's probably not a fair number today. There may be less than 50% of the kids that are out there that say `I am wide-open, I am taking my five trips, I have no idea where I'm going'. I know this, it's considerably easier to have them committed and coming than it is to try to get them to change a commitment and try to come as we did with Zack Pianalto and Greg Little and some of those guys who were committed last year. Even in the case with Christian Wilson, had they not had the blow up at Michigan, we probably never would have gotten him."
