University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina Postgame Quotes vs. Duke, Nov. 7, 2009
November 7, 2009 | Football
Nov. 7, 2009
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North Carolina Head Coach Butch Davis:
"I told the players in the locker room when the game was over with that I felt like this was an enormous test of perseverance, character and courage. The ability to handle the type of things that this team has gone through over the last three weeks kind of speaks volumes. We didn't play as well in some things tonight. I thought we lost our composure at times, there were some silly penalties that really put us in some precarious situations. The one thing that this team did do tonight is that they fought. They competed, and they played as hard as they could.
"Some of the things that obviously give you a chance to win: the time of possession, 38 minutes. Just phenomenal. The real story tonight is probably the defense. Just relentless pressure on the quarterback, not giving him time to throw, making him stay in the pocket, making him throw out of the well, making him throw off his back foot. I thought our secondary was as aggressive as they have been the entire season, trying to get up and challenge receivers and disrupt the timing.
"(Duke) had shown that they were one of the 10 best (passing) offenses in the country. When (Lewis) has time to throw and move around, and their receivers have time to find dead spots and open spots and rub people off on man coverage, they can pick you apart. I thought our defensive staff put together an outstanding game plan, and our players really executed it.
"We made some big plays defensively. Charlie Brown's interception was a huge emotional, psychological swing. It looked like something was going wrong and all of a sudden he put the fire out. It's unusual when you can overcome a blocked kick. I thought it was a real tribute to our defense that we got a blocked kick and the defense goes out and instantly holds them to a field goal.
"Offensively, what can you say about someone like Ryan Houston and what he did tonight, 37 carries and 164 yards? He was an absolute workhorse. He pounded them and pounded them. And, again, we had to overcome some adversity. We lost Shaun (Draughn) in the first quarter, Lowell Dyer wasn't able to play as the center, we lose Cam Holland as the other center. We had to move Alan Pelc over to center, who has never taken more than just some token snaps in practice. There were some guys that had to step up against a very good defensive football team.
"We're excited that we won the football game."
On holding the Duke passing offense in check:
"(Lewis) had been so explosive and accurate. There's a combination of things. Against a team that relies so exclusively and heavily on the ability to throw the football, you always wanted it to stay a one-dimensional game. I thought our defense took the right approach, that we didn't allow any kind of running game to get generated to start the ballgame. You don't want to have to start cheating the box and devoting a whole lot of extra people to stopping the run. They (Duke) do what they do and they believe in what they do and they continue to do it. They didn't alter much, they didn't change much of the protections. I thought our pass rush guys did an excellent job getting to the quarterback.
On playing Duke:
"People asked, `what's it like not playing Duke at the end of the season?'" I don't think it makes one bit of difference. If you played them week one, week six, week 12, if you played them in the summertime, it's going to be a hard-fought contest."
On Ryan Houston wearing down:
"The only thing I know is that the football is not very heavy."
North Carolina Players:
Jheranie Boyd:
"It felt good to get back into the end zone, but I didn't think they were going call they play for me. Johnny White actually called the play saying that we should do a reverse since they would bite on Ryan (Houston)."
"It feels good to beat Duke. I'm really not use to the rivalry yet, but it feels good to come out here and get a win in the ACC."
"Ryan was amazing. He carried the team all through the game. He was the impact player. And our offensive line just pounded it today and had a great performance as well."
Deunta Williams:
"We came out in more of a dime package, because against Florida State we played more of a nickel and we didn't give ourselves a chance to match up with the wide receivers."
"Us winning is what it's all about, but now we have to get ready for Miami. From what I saw they did good today so it's going to be a big game next week" "We have picked up a lot of momentum. I'm so proud of our offense. They are starting to move the ball and make some big plays. Ryan Houston is a beast and on the defensive side Robert Quinn is an animal. When you have guys that are just freaks it makes it a lot easier."
Ryan Houston:
"In the fourth quarter I really felt like they were getting fatigued because I was getting a lot of arm tackles. I was running through all the tackles, and they weren't pressing me as much as they were in the first quarter. "
"I got the ball like eight times in a row. I was hoping to get the ball every play. Every time I get the ball I try to make something happen and I put it all into every run. I was getting a little winded when we got to the end zone but I am glad we got it in. "
"I didn't get a touchdown but that was a pretty cool block that I had. If you keep pounding them and once you reverse it you can catch them off guard."
Robert Quinn:
"We kept putting pressure on the QB to make him run or get a quick pass off to make it difficult for the wide receiver to catch. "
"I thought we would be able to get pressure on him only rushing four because someone was going to get the double team and it frees someone up. We work on the one-on-one all the time in practice. Whoever gets that one-on-one has to make the best of that opportunity and that's what we tried to do."
"Our coverage was really good because they gave us time to get pressure on the quarterback. So with there coverage and our pressure things really clicked tonight. "
"Watching Ryan (Houston) run the ball was exciting. It gave us an extra jolt. The offense was doing their thing and they were giving us time to catch our breath and keep their offense off the field. "
Quan Sturdivant:
"Guys were in the right spot at the right time tonight. They are a very good football team, and they are better than any Duke football team that I have played against. Thad (Lewis) is a great player, who has good receivers, but I think we just executed our game plan. We got good pressure on him and we didn't give him enough time in the zone."
Duke Head Coach David Cutcliffe:
"The first thing that comes to mind is that I'm really disappointed for our seniors not having the opportunity to have won this ballgame. They've worked really hard to reach a position where they had some confidence coming into this game.
"We didn't play very well; North Carolina played extremely well. We were fortunate to have a chance there in the fourth quarter to win the game because the bottom line is we got whipped. My hat is off to them for a well-played ballgame.
"Do I think we played as well as we could? No, I don't, and that's my job to see that we do that. It's certainly something that we had better learn from. We have a lot to play for. Adversity comes in a lot of different faces; losing to your big rival in a game where so much was on the line will be a great test, one that we should welcome because it's part of the growth of a program. It's not supposed to be easy. Maybe our guys had never been in this position. I don't know if they knew it was going to be as hard as it was but it's not supposed to be easy. You know what? Thank goodness it's not easy, because if it was easy there would be a whole lot of people doing it.
"I think it's time to embrace it and know how big each of our final three games is. Certainly the one next week at home is extremely important for us so we have to totally immerse ourselves in learning from this game and getting better. [We want to] go out now and play our best game of the year by far next Saturday. My focus is totally towards that; how are we going to put together a team that plays its best football game of the year next Saturday."
On the most disappointing part of the team's performance in the loss:
"Obviously, offensively we struggled so much that we couldn't protect the quarterback as well as we had hoped. They got in and played tight man coverage for a large percentage of the time and we didn't separate very well or very quickly so their rush got to Thad; Thad got hit way too much.
"So the credit goes to them, and when you're enabled to run the ball like we've been, somebody as good as they are exposed us. Defensively, we played really good at times, but we got pushed around a little bit there. They ran the ball with some success and I think they kind of found themselves up in Blacksburg in that regard running the football.
"We were fortunate it was as close as it was when it was, and made a decision to go for it on fourth down there on our 35. Snyderwine, I was informed, strained a quad in pregame warm-ups, so that's why Maggio was doing the kicking. I just didn't feel good about trying a kick in that circumstance. I did feel good that we would make it on fourth down but they got their hand on the ball and we didn't successfully complete the fourth down."
