University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Virginia Tech
October 4, 2014 | Football
UNC Head Coach Larry Fedora
Opening Statement:
"Give credit to Frank Beamer and his team. They came in today and executed well, played a good football game and came out of here with a victory. And we played about as poor as we could play in the first half, and we started playing a little better in the second half and at least had some fight in us, and guys got after them in the second half, and we didn't make near as many mistakes as we did in the first half. Unfortunately, it was way too little and way too late."
On opening struggles:
"I'd love to tell you that Virginia Tech is a great defense and did something spectacular, but it was whatever we could do wrong, whatever could go wrong for us offensively, went wrong the entire first half. And I'm not sure, from the very opening play, the first play, where we have got a guy running wide open and got what we want, and we put the ball on the ground the first few times for a turnover for the first three times, and they scored 21 points off those turnovers. So, we've got to do a much better job offensively, there's no doubt about it."
On going from practice to game:
"I don't know if I would say that all the guys weren't doing anything that we coached them during the week. What we've got to do is do what we coach every single snap. That's what you've got to do. You've got to do it harder than the guy that you're playing against. You can't make the game more difficult than it is. Just do your job and do it harder than the guy you're playing against. If you do that, you're going to win enough battles to give yourself a chance to win the football game."
On the running backs and the running game:
"Yeah, Marquise [Williams] was the guy that made some things happen. I mean we expected some things from them. We expected them to run some bear defense against us, and they did in some situations. We knew that would take some of the running game away. We had to do a little bit more with Marquise than we probably wanted to. And he ran the ball very well. I mean, he was the bright spot in a lot of situations. We've got to get our running backs much more involved."
On penalties:
"Penalties are frustrating. They really are. They're frustrating. I don't know how to explain it. We have to go back and look at each and every one of them and break them down and see what the problem was. I mean, we had 10 penalties in the whole game, and the majority of those were in the first half."
On Mitch Trubisky:
"There was nothing that we saw that said Mitch needed to go back or not go back. I mean, the plan was to play him a few series in the game. There was nothing that was going good in that first half. I mean nothing. So, as a coach, you start searching for all kinds of spark, who's going to give that spark to the team to maybe turn the tide and get something going. Who's going to step up and be their leader, and we just never got that going in the first half."
UNC Player Quotes
Marquise Williams, Junior, Quarterback
On the loss: "We just couldn't pick it up... We're going back and watch the film to get better... It's tough losing at home. We don't want to lose in the Tar Pit. We don't point fingers at anyone. I'm not going to point my fingers at the offensive line. I could have done a better job just escaping the pocket more. I don't want to blame anything; I could blame myself."
On the rest of the season: "There's still a lot of ballgames left, still half of the season. We got to keep picking each other up. We got to come together as one... We got to get back to practice on Sunday and get right back at it because we have a heck of a football team coming up this Saturday."
Landon Turner, Offensive Guard, Junior
On Williams's run game: "Marquise is a weapon in and of himself. We didn't really get a chance to run as many of our run plays as we had because we didn't start fast enough this week."
On the offensive struggles: "I think guys just got to buy in. There's just breakdowns every play. You can look at the film. There's a breakdown at someone's position somewhere, so we just all got to come together and put a whole game together by doing our own jobs."
On Virginia Tech's defense: "Virginia Tech has a great defense. I think we beat ourselves more this week, and when you're playing a team like Virginia Tech who's got a solid defense, you can't afford to beat yourself like that."
On the rest of the season: "We've just got to keep moving forward and keep getting better and improving every week. That's it. I think that's the key. There's not really much to be said at this point. We've got to keep buying in and working harder. It's out there somewhere. You watch film, and we're so close in so many areas. We've just got to get there."
Elijah Hood, Tailback, Freshman
On the offensive struggles: "We shot ourselves in the foot a lot. That just kind of limited what we could do offensively. We had a lot of drives that we couldn't really get a good flow going, so that kind of just threw us off. And when our offense can't get a rhythm, we struggle to move the ball, so that was pretty much it. It was mostly us."
On improving the offense: "It starts with everybody. We all have to be sound, get the count. Just have solid fundamentals and then do your job. Everybody's got to play their part. Whenever we get a false start or something like that, it hurts the drive."
On running backs only having nine carries: "It's pretty tough when you don't get a lot of carries to get a good rhythm. Also that was just part of, again, our fundamentals. We were giving ourselves a lot of long field to get first downs. When it happens, it just makes it hard for our running backs to run the ball. First and 15, that's just a little bit harder to run the football then."
Jeff Schoettmer, Linebacker, Junior
On the defensive penalties: "It's real frustrating because we can get off the field if those penalties didn't occur. I think there were two in the same drive, and both had them stopped on the first down. It is tough, but we've just got to keep playing. But those penalties are just unacceptable."
On preventing penalties: "That's just coming down to the person being mentally focused. You can drill all you want, punish them all you want after the game for getting a penalty. But in the heat of the battle he has to be able to stay onside and keep his cool and watch the ball. It's just the little things like that."
On Virginia Tech's 41 minutes of possession: "I didn't even know that. We just go out there and play. We had a pretty good rotation. (Nathan) Staub was getting some good reps in there. When we're on the field we got to make plays. And it comes down to, we did make some stops but not enough."
Virginia Tech Head Coach Frank Beamer
Opening Statement
"I told our team, 'We're sure not there yet, but I really feel like we're working to get there and we are going in the right direction.' Some parts of the game are better than the others, but there's enough good things within the game to give you hope that you could end up being a really good football team. That's kind of where we are right now. A lot of good and some bad, but some things can be corrected. I think a break right now is something we need; we've got a lot of tailbacks banged up. But it's good to come out of here with a win. It's a tough place and it's a good win for our football team."
On the team's defense:
"It's a tough place and they've got talented guys, but defensively for the most part we made a couple plays in there. A couple drives they went right down the field. But they're capable of doing that. They are very talented offensively, but I felt for the most part we held them in check during that day. For a team that's as explosive as they are, you feel good about that."
On time of possession difference:
"It's absolutely important. You keep their offense off the field. That's a big factor in this ball game here."
On the injuries to the running backs:
"I think we've got to think about Sam Rogers a little more back there. J.C. made a couple nice runs. Joel Caleb came in here - I thought he had the best week of practice last week than I've seen him have. He looked faster to me and the whole deal. We are just having trouble keeping those guys healthy, but that's just part of it and we've got to move forward."
On Kendall Fuller's pick-six:
"That gave us some room right there. You feel like if you can get up and play defense it can put you [in a position] where you can predict what they're going to do a little better. They came back. That field goal at the end made it a two-score game, or a three-score game, really. I thought that was big.
