University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Liberty
August 31, 2014 | Football
Postgame Quotes • August
30, 2014
North Carolina 56, Liberty
29
Opening Statement:
"Good win for us, actually under the circumstances, in the first game, I thought it was great to play at 6 p.m. at night. I thought our fans did a great job, the student section was packed and they did a great job, so it was a lot of fun. We got a bunch of young people in the game throughout the game, even actually in the first quarter, and they got a lot of really good experience. We got some meaningful reps with a lot of kids. We made a lot of mistakes - a ton of mistakes, actually - throughout the game, but we also created a lot of turnovers and did a lot of really good things. We've got a lot to work on. For a first game, you get the win and that's what you want, you want to learn from all the mistakes you make, and you become a better football team."
On what was different between the first and second halves:
"It was just the energy level. You go in at halftime and our guys were disappointed in what had happened in the first half, they were extremely excited about going back out on the field. They were rallying, the energy level in the locker room was incredible at the half, and it wasn't anything the coaches did - it was all of them. We go back out and the defense starts creating turnovers left and right, and you do that, you've got a chance to win a bunch of games. What did we create, six? Six turnovers in a game - I don't know how many came in the third quarter, quite a few of them I remember. But it was just a change in attitude really."
On how Marquise Williams and Mitch Trubisky played:
"I thought they did a good job of managing the game, I really did. They moved the chains, we were 9 of 17 on third downs, which is pretty good for us. What I didn't like were the interceptions, all three were avoidable, especially one of them in the situation we were in. But, again, we got away with a win, both of them got a bunch of good reps and we came out in good shape there, so I think we'll get better there."
On what he takes away from this game outside of four touchdowns in third:
"We've got a long way to go, I mean we got a long way to go. There was nothing pretty about that game, I can assure you, when you go outside of that four minutes. For us, the way we look at it, it's a win and we're going to enjoy every win we get because winning is hard to do. It is hard, it's not as easy as everybody thinks - or not losing is hard to do. That's the toughest thing, so with the turnovers that we created ourselves offensively, we've got a lot of room to grow, I mean a lot of room to grow. Again, we had ten penalties, which I can't tell you how much emphasis we've put on getting that cleaned up, so we've still got a long way to go in that area also."
Jeff Schoettmer (Jr. LB)
On young players getting experience:
"It's just a testament to them, they've put in the work, and they've really learned the defense, and picked it up, especially Tyler (Powell), he's a true freshman playing. Hats off to Tyler for learning the defense that fast."
On having younger players step into larger roles:
"It was tough, we miss those guys, but the next guys have to step up. That's why we practice every day, each guy is getting reps and we just instill confidence in them. We went to (Alex) Dixon and Kedrick Davis, and you saw he had an interception tonight, you got to pick them up and tell them that they got a chance to make plays and they did tonight."
On how the energy changed in the third quarter:
"It started with when we scored our offensive touchdown. You could tell the whole energy of the sideline changed. It just snowballed from there. We got two more turnovers the next two drives, and then that was it."
Did you emphasize stopping the run up the middle?
"Yeah definitely, we had to get back to reading our keys. We missed a few assignments in the first half, but we got it squared away in the locker room at half time."
Shakeel Rashad (Jr. Bandit)
How did you all take Schoettmer's play and create a snowball effect?
"Yeah, that was awesome. We've been working every day before practice, the linebackers, we work on different kind of things. Maybe it's stripping one day, maybe it's tip drill, maybe it's just catching. And so, Jeff took it out to the game field, and caught it and started running. I just got really excited, I think I was getting up off the ground or something, and I ran into somebody, I wouldn't call it a block, I'd call it running into somebody."
Was it them giving it away, or was it you guys taking it away?
"I'd like to think we were taking it because we were definitely working on that all camp. And so, it wasn't like they were dropping the ball, when the ball came out, you saw people raking at it, you saw people going for the ball."
Tim Scott (Sr. CB)
They had some success in the first half, but not in the second. What was the difference?
"Honestly, effort. We were running for the ball, we were playing with energy. I felt like we played very flat in the first half."
"All the momentum, when things were going bad we kind of put our heads down a little bit. In the second half, at halftime, we talked about how we had to come together as a team."
Do you guys have to learn to grow up and handle those situations, maybe not get in them as much?
"Guys like Kedrick Davis that had to play today, he really stepped up when he needed to as a young guy who never played corner for us yet. So I mean at halftime, we talked about how the young guys needed to step up. When we're on the field there is no freshman, sophomore, juniors, there's corners, there's safeties, there's linebackers. So if you're in that position, you need to play."
Ryan Switzer (Soph. WR)
"You know, I'm just glad I got punted to. It was good to get out there live with the guys, and just get a feel for the game. Didn't get one, but we did some good things on punt return, and I think it's a good sign for the rest of the season that we got a couple good returns and we'll build off that momentum."
Liberty Head Coach Turner Gill
On the team's performance:
"I was pleased. We still left some plays out there that we should have made, but again I thought we made enough plays to be in the ball game. That's where you want to be at half time, to have an opportunity to be in the second half to win the game. We had that opportunity, and obviously in the third quarter we kind of fell apart but everybody felt very positive and felt very good trying to make a few adjustments and be ready to go in the second half. I thought our guys came out in the first series or two and did all right to take on the defensive side. I thought our special teams held up on for the most part."
On what to take from the game:
"You learn from it and you stay together as a team. You just keep going to work. You go to work the next day, look at the tape and you get better each individual guy on our football team. It's not one guy. It's not one side of the ball. All of us had opportunities to make some plays. We'll learn from it. We'll bounce back, and we'll be a better football team from this game."
On what to take away from this game:
"I'm not going to worry about the score board. I'm going to look at every play and see what we did right and then also things that we didn't do very well. We're going to critique that and get better. It starts with us as coaches and then we'll go on down to our players and get better.
On Liberty's offense:
"Well I think in the first half we got better in the second quarter. Obviously the third quarter and fourth quarter was a little disastrous. So again, we've just got to get better at that and protect the ball. We haven't had that historically when a team turned the ball over. Again, you've got to give credit to North Carolina. They have good football players, and some of the hits they made they caused it. Again, we've still got to take care of the ball. But I've got to give some credit to North Carolina great defense."
On the balance of offensive runs and passes:
"Very pleased. We still had a few failed executions but overall I thought the first half was played solid by us. We made the opportunity to come back. We had some bad plays then we came back and made some good plays. We gave ourselves the chance to win the football game in the first half."
