University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Miami Postgame Quotes
October 15, 2011 | Football
Oct. 15, 2011
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North Carolina Football • Game 7
Miami 30, UNC 24
Oct. 15, 2011 • Kenan Stadium • Chapel Hill, N.C.
North Carolina Head Coach Everett Withers
“I thought our kids tried to compete and fight the entire game. It's hard to beat a good football team when you spot them 17 points. The big plays and the turnovers are the difference in the game. You can't give up the big passes in the game and then turn the ball over on special teams and fumbles to beat a good football team. I take my hat off to Coach Golden and his staff. That's a good football team. You can say what your want to about the record and I told our team in the locker room, you start talking about a team's record, that's wrong. A good football team is a good football team. They deserved to win the game today.
On being ready to play:
“I take the blame for that if they weren't ready. I don't feel like we practiced any different this week. Maybe it's the nature of the Miami game. I feel like our kids prepared well. I feel like we did everything we've done in previous weeks. If that's the case (that the players weren't ready), then I'll take the blame for that.”
On previous week's mistakes catching up to this team:
“It doesn't matter what game it is, whether it's a past game that you made a mistake, you're trying to correct them each week. I think the mistakes that we made today were critical. I think we played better in the second half and we were able to capitalize and get off the field more so we did overcome that a little in the second half. The old saying is it doesn't hurt you until it hurts you and that's what happened today.”
On inability to get pressure on the QB:
“I don't know if it was inability to get pressure. We didn't blitz a lot early in the day. Our first emphasis was to stop the run. We held them to 44 yards net on the day. If you've got to blitz to do that, you're probably going to get creased at some point. Our deal was the four man rush and stop the run. They (Miami) did an excellent job of throwing the football in the first half. I give them credit for throwing the football. Our emphasis was on stopping the run and they made some plays in the passing game.”
On the last play of the game:
“It's a play we practice every week. We've got about three or four last plays that we use. We look at the defense and we see what they do on the last play of games. We study that just like we study first and second down on run defense. If they put three guys in the end zone and cloud up the corners, there's no use in taking a shot at the end zone because those guys on the outside are not going to get off the line of scrimmage. You have to work the middle of the field and then get the ball on the outside with pitches. We work that every week in practice.”
On Renner's progress:
“You don't have to make every play. Throw it away, don't take a sack. Young quarterback trying to make every play. Wants to win. Here's a guy who's competing and fighting and out there on one leg half the time wanting to win. I'm not going to ever take that away from him.…that competitiveness. We've got to do a better job as coaches. I've got to do a better job of saying this is when you need to throw the ball away. He's a coach's son and he'll listen. Eventually that's going to help us win the game.”
On not scoring a TD on first red zone opportunity:
“It's not what we want to do. We do want to score touchdowns in the red zone, but we're going to take three if we have to.”
UNC Player Quotes
Charles Brown, Cornerback: “You get down 14-0 in the first quarter and that takes some people's confidence away. Maybe they think we're not supposed to be here or aren't going to win the game. It took some toughness to get back in the game and finish the way we did. Every week we have to make sure we do our job.”
Jabari Price, Cornerback: “It was very disappointing. We've never been down like that all year. “
(On what Coach Withers said at halftime): “He told us to keep our heads up. Miami is a good team.”
(Looking ahead) “We have to play a good Clemson team on the road next week.”
Tydreke Powell, Defensive Tackle: “They threw the ball really well. They executed the pass. It's always frustrating not to be able to pressure the quarterback. We've just got to come out and practice."
Giovani Bernard, Tailback: “When you get into the red zone you've got to score. You can't settle for three points. I think we need to keep getting in the red zone and scoring. It's a matter of putting any game we lost behind us and correcting our mistakes and getting ready for the upcoming opponent.”
Matt Merletti, Safety: (On UNC's slow start) “I don't know why; sometimes you're good in the first half, sometimes you're not.”
