University of North Carolina Athletics
Coach Fedora Press Conference Quotes
September 17, 2012 | Football
Coach Larry Fedora Press Conference - Sept. 17, 2012
Opening Statement
"The game was no different on film. It was a tale of two halves. It was atrocious in the first half and we played really well in the second half. If maybe we can put two of those together we can have some success."
On stressing the differences between halves
"I stressed both of them. We talked about the specifics of what happened in the first half and what problems there were, then we showed what we can do in the second half. Hopefully we can learn from those things."
On picking up momentum from the second half
"Each game is a separate entity but hopefully you do build off of them, you learn something from it and you grow from it. It's going to be a different entity. There will be different adversity that comes in the next game but it still boils down to how you handle it."
On Romar Morris
"I think Romar has done really well in each of the games. Every time I put him on the field he has done well. I think Romar will be more a part of the game plan going forward."
"Tommy moved into the starting linebacker spot and was one of the few bright spots we had. He played really well and was probably the best game he's ever played. He did really well for us."
On Giovani Bernard's questionable return
"I'm always hopeful. I think it could be any time."
On playing East Carolina
"This is Ruffin [McNeill]'s third year there and I think the kids finally understand exactly what he is doing for them. We [as coaches] have some mileage because we've played them for the last couple of years and you see a big improvement each year with Ruffin's teams. I think he's finally got the defense he wants, they understand what he is trying to do and they understand the scheme. He's got them playing hard. They're going to come into our stadium and play hard no matter what. They're still throwing the ball all over the park on the offense and showing that they can score some points."
"It's the next opportunity for us. On top of that, it is an in-state opponent that is going to come in our stadium wanting to knock us off. That's all you need. You know they're going to come in to play their best and to play hard. It's a big game."
On seeing the same or different mistakes
"I think defensively it was something like 18 missed assignments in the first half and two in the second half. When you look back to see what you called different in the first half versus the second half to see if that is where the problem is, that wasn't the case. It was basically the same calls being made in the second half that weren't working in the first half. You have to attribute some of that to the intensity level. If you don't play with the right amount of enthusiasm and excitement, somebody is going to make a mistake and something is going to happen. Then the next play somebody else is going to make a mistake and it just stumbles. That's what was happening. It wasn't one guy that was making all the mistakes...it just started happening all over the field so you start losing confidence. You start losing confidence in what you're doing and then you start losing confidence in the guy standing next to you, and it's just not a good situation."
"It was the same schemes in the second half and we only made two mistakes. They didn't just all of a sudden get smarter at halftime."
On Carolina's special teams in the second half
"First of all, [Louisville] never punted in the first half. It's hard to block a punt if they don't punt. We talk about each week how big special teams is, it is to create a game-changing play. We're looking for one game-changing play, and we actually made two. That was huge for us. That gave us an opportunity to win the football game with those two plays. It was something that we had seen in their punt formation that we thought we could get Romar [Morris] loose through there. The kid made an unbelievable effort to block that punt. He had a 310-pound offensive lineman blocking him at the second level and he was still able to concentrate and get his hand over to the punter. He did a tremendous job. Then Norkeithus [Otis] came down on the kickoff team and got a big hit on the guy, enough to separate him from the ball and that was huge. Those two plays allowed us to still try to win the game despite as bad as we had played."
On being able to come back
"We're in a two-minute mode all the time when you think about it. So when we get into that situation, it's not a big deal to us, our kids don't look at it any different because it is just what we do. So there is a comfort level, and that's a good thing. You can watch some teams that get into a two-minute situation and it's almost like they are panicked. With our guys you don't notice anything different. It's just the same as it always is. I don't think there is a panic level, everybody understands what we're trying to do and the communication is good. The whole second half we played that way."
On making changes
"We'll do some things differently in practice. I wish I could tell you we were going to coach harder. I think our coaches have been coaching hard each and every day, and if not we'd be cheating the team if all of a sudden now we decided we were going to coach harder. I think our guys have been coaching extremely hard. I've got to do a better job of making sure our guys are ready to play when we kick it off.
