University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Duke
November 7, 2015 | Football
Postgame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach Larry Fedora
Opening Statement
“I am really proud of our football team today. We came into the Tar Pit and played a really good Duke football team and our guys did well. We can be better, I can assure you. We didn't play a complete game in all three phases and our guys in that locker room they know that. They are excited we are 8-1 but they also know we can be better then we were so we are still striving to do that and hopefully we will show that next week.”
First Play of the Game – Flea-Flicker To Ryan Swizter
“We saw what we wanted in the secondary and we thought we had that play against them and when we looked down and saw that it was there we just went with it. The guys executed it flawlessly. Great throw, a lot of moving parts to that play and the guys executed and I am proud of them.”
On Elijah Hood
“Elijah runs the play hard, guys love blocking for him, and he's a great kid.”
“He was great today. It started with his leadership throughout the game. He just knew that if we took care of the football that we would win the football game and he was talking about that throughout the game. He did a great job of leading and his passing was pinpoint. He spun it really well.”
On teamwork
“It's all about taking care of each other. It doesn't matter how we do it, we are 8-1. Now the key is getting to be 9-1.”
On peaking throughout the week and the season
“You want to be playing your best ball in November. You hope your team is better the last game than you were the first game. Our team is continuing to grow. There are going to be some down ticks but you gotta make sure you bounce back and this team has done that. A word that we use is there is a lot of grit in this team. We like that, we think that is one of the key predictors of success. This team has grit.
On scoring 66 on a great defense
“I have pretty high expectations for our offense that is why I am never happy but I mean we left some out there today. We have the potential to be really good.”
UNC Player Quotes
On the flea-flicker
“Thursday we get the openers and when you walk into the room and see a flea-flicker it's big. It's like a deer in the headlights. I knew if we did great play action, I knew the boundary safety would fit very well and Elijah excels at the run and Switzer did a heck of a job slow playing the linebackers and safety's to get wide open.”
On teamwork
“All the praise goes to the guys, they do a great job of protecting me and letting me find ways to throw the football.”
On playoff rankings
“It wasn't about making a statement. It was more about getting a win in the Tar Pit, getting wins for our fans and our family around here and our staff. It's not about the College Playoffs or making people try and recognize us. We just have to come out execute and keep winning games and eventually they will have to recognize you. That's the thing, just keep winning football games.”
“If you are decisive you are active, if I am indecisive I am going to hesitate. I watched so much film and I knew the defensive coverage. I didn't hold back anything today. I knew it was my last time playing Duke so I needed to head out today, have fun with the guys and that's what we did.”
Mack Hollins, WR
On team's feelings before the game and subsequent performance
“I think we always have the capability to do it, sometimes the plays get called where we have the chance to actually make the play. Today was the day where everybody was clicking. Me, Bug [Howard], Quinshad [David] and [Ryan] Switzer all got in the end zone, and that's huge when four receivers can get in, you can see what happens with the points and the amount of yards we got.”
On Marquise Williams' performance today
“Nothing knocked him down. He really didn't slow down much the whole time. The only time he slowed down was when we got stopped on a run or something. Passing, you know he completed so many balls and deep balls and putting the ball right on target. You could tell Bug [Howard]'s touchdown right before the half, right on the money….It was easy.”
Des Lawrence, CB
On making a statement today
“I think in the first half we made a big statement. We kind of felt disrespected all week. We got tired of hearing about Duke, Duke, Duke. Nobody was really talking about what we've done this season, but that's just been the model all season, to get your job done. I think that just showed out there on the field today, and we really had each other's back today. So I think that was big.”
On Duke's passing game
“We knew that they like to run everything back to the quarterback's face, and we just really wanted to prevent that. I think in the second half we didn't do as good of a job, for what reason I don't know. But we got to get that cleaned up. There's just certain parts in the game where we're giving offense yards, and it's mainly on us. Hats off to them for making plays. We just have to put teams away because the score should have been a little bit uglier.”
Elijah Hood, TB
On performance today and looking ahead
“We're just going to keep playing the best we can. I'm not really caring what everyone on the outside is saying. We're winning football games, and our goal is the Coastal [Conference], State Champions, that's what we're going to do. We only have one vision in mind, and we're focusing on winning football games.”
Duke Head Coach David Cutcliffe
Opening Statement
“Well, congratulations to North Carolina, they played extremely well. I don't know that I've ever seen as many explosive plays executed as their offense did. I thought their quarterback played exceptionally well, they didn't turn the ball over, we turned the ball over 3 times. You give up explosives and a game can get away from you and that's exactly what happened. I told our team after the game, it's useless to put all of the theories into play of what could happen. People are going to ask you, 'Well were you all this…were you all that…were you still thinking about….' All of that is a useless conversation at this point. We have to look at tape, we have to look at tackling better, recovering better, throwing it better, catching it better, we have to look at alignments, we have to look at every detail of the football end of things because you can't just magically get better. You have to focus on the things that you can control. My job will be to look at a lot of things surrounding our team to make sure that as we move forward, our emotions, and our energy are in tact to prepare against Pittsburgh. So I do have to deal with that, but again, to sit and tread…we just got whipped, badly, in every aspect. So we will study it like we always do, we'll have our Sunday like we always do, and I expect our team to respond. It's as simple as that, we have a very proud program, and I expect us to respond in a big way.”
On team leadership
“This is when you're tested and I addressed that in there (locker room). The best part of us is that we have each other. There are a lot of things that you can through in life that are tougher than setbacks in football games. Sometimes they are thrown on us individually in life, they'll find that out. Thank goodness you're part of a great team and in this regard we have each other. We can certainly lift each other as we move forward.
On the pass rush
“I think that's part of it. They do a good job with their pass protection system. The other part of it is, when we get back there some we couldn't get him (Marquise Williams) on the ground. He is a big, physical, athletic guy and he out performed us. All day long, I thought he made great decisions within their offense and got the ball were it needed to be. There wasn't anything to, 'dial-up' is kind of what you're referring to and you just have to continue to try to play more soundly when you get in that mode.”
