University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Head Coaches And UNC Players
October 8, 2016 | Football
UNC HEAD COACH LARRY FEDORA
Opening Statement
“Obviously a very disappointing loss for us here at home, and the first thing I have to do is give credit to Justin Fuente and his staff and Virginia Tech because they outplayed us today in just about every aspect. We didn't play up to our capabilities or anywhere close to it, and therefore we lost the football game today.”
On the carryover effect of having won two close games previous to this one
“I don't know if there was a hangover element. I don't think that we had the energy that we needed to have to be able to play at this level, and that is my responsibility.”
On the weather being a factor
“I'm not going to blame it on the weather. They [Virginia Tech] played in it, too. They seemed to handle the weather. We did a poor job all the way around.”
On the team finding its rhythm
“I'm not sure we got into any kind of rhythm the entire game, whether it was Mitch or the running game or anything. They [Virginia Tech] did exactly what we expected them to do. They played the coverages we thought they were going to play, they played the fronts that we thought they were going to play. You can't turn the ball over four times. You're not going to be able to get anything going.”
On not having Elijah Hood on the field
“We missed him. We missed Caleb Peterson. We missed those guys. But you know, you have to play. So the next guys are up, and they have to step up, and they have to play. I don't know how the guys that replaced them, how they played. I'd have to look at it on film. Anytime you lose a starter, you miss them. But it doesn't matter. That's the game of football. Guys are going to go down, and other guys have to step up and play. And that's why we spend as much time as we do with backups in the early season because we know that they are going to have to play for us later in the year.”
On the elements limiting what UNC could do
“It was definitely a factor in our passing game. We couldn't throw and catch, basically. It was a struggle to throw and catch just basic routes. Unfortunately, we should be able to do that.”
On whether UNC could have prepared for the rain
“No, I don't think so. Unless you just play in it every day. I mean, we are practicing every day. You're not going to simulate that, unless you get a fire hose out there and just keep it coming.”
On his message to the team after the game
“That we can't make the mistakes we made and win a football game like that, and they [Virginia Tech] outplayed us tonight. Give them the credit – they outplayed us. I told them that they were better prepared than we were and, again, that's my responsibility. That's my fault.”
VIRGINIA TECH HEAD COACH JUSTIN FUENTE
Opening Statement:
“First of all, awfully proud of our guys in all phases of the game. To come in here and pull of a victory, obviously it wasn't perfect but it was a great team effort to beat a very talented, very well-coached North Carolina team that we have a tremendous amount of respect for. One thing I have to say about the weather is we at least knew it was going to be something like this leading up to it. So I think at least emotionally, I don't know if there's anything schematically that we did to prepare, but I think at least emotionally we prepared to play in whatever Mother Nature threw at us.”
On the Virginia Tech defense
“A little bit of everything. We defended the pass in the secondary, we rushed the passer, eliminated the run game. Pretty darn fantastic performance.”
On the weather's effect on the game plan
“It just became increasingly difficult to execute throwing the football, particularly later in the half. You have 18 balls in the first half and 18 balls in the second half, and by halfway through the first quarter and halfway through the third quarter, it's pretty tough to hold on to them.”
On the character of his defense
“I just think they play pretty well on first down. They tend to get people in third and long yardages and be able to mix up rushing people and dropping people in a three-down stuff and sometimes a four-down stuff. Coach [Bud] Foster can be pretty difficult, and get him behind the chains, it's hard on everybody and we've got some good guys out there.”
On covering Ryan Switzer
“We mixed up some coverages on him, got some pass rush, and the conditions were difficult. It was hard to throw the ball to anybody today, but I don't want to take away from really either defense's performance today with using the crutch of the weather. It is a combination of things; I don't think there's one particular thing, although we did a good job in the back end and we were able to move the quarterback around a good bit.”
On running the ball
“I was a little upset because early in the game, we missed two opportunities to score touchdowns, but we felt like we had to keep trying to plug away, taking a shot, because we're going to have to make one of these in order to win the game. Bucky [Hodges] made a great catch on the goal line, but it also centered around finding a way to run the football because it's just not going to be a glamour game. You've got to find a way whether it's running on the perimeter, running the option, whatever it is, we have to find a way to run it.”
On week-to-week improvements
“I like the way we're going about things in term of our preparation. In terms of teams improving, it's different because you have different challenges each week. Next week we're going to go play a completely different offense and defensive scheme inside in a completely different environment, and we'll have to address that challenge. What I do like is I do think they're good listeners. To me it's about our process on a week-to-week basis in terms of getting prepared. We've got some older guys that do a great job of it and we've got some younger guys who still have to figure that out.”
UNC PLAYERS
On Virginia Tech's defense: “Credit to their defense. They were in the right spots when I couldn't put the ball in the right place. They were there to make the play and break it up. Overall, I don't blame it on the weather, I just think it was us.”
On the energy level: “This was a big Coastal game for us. You can't look into the stands and try to find energy. It's got to come from the leaders. It's got to come from me. It's got to come from our leaders. We need to do a better job of that.”
Preparing for next week: “Over the next week, we have to go back to work, watch some film and get ready. We have another really big game [next week] and we cannot dwell on this. We have to learn from it and bounce back for next week.”
On what he is proud of: “Proud of our guys because we battled to the end. There were still good vibes on the sidelines throughout the fourth quarter. We just couldn't get one in the end zone.”
RB T.J. Logan
On the third quarter: “I feel like throughout the game we made some mistakes. We got the ball moving, and we were doing good and, whether there was a penalty or a fumble, it just kind of slowed our momentum down.”
On the weather: “I thought it was going to be kind of difficult. All week we had been preaching that it was going to be raining, so it didn't have any effect on me. I feel like a couple of the guys [were impacted], like maybe the receivers. I know it was a hard ball to catch because I dropped one. I feel like the rain just kind of tricked our minds a little bit.”
DT Nazair Jones
On the game getting out of hand: “I felt like it wasn't until the last couple minutes of the fourth quarter, because this team can do anything. I would say until they started taking knees, I thought we had a chance.”
On the locker room: “Not a lot of people said a lot. We were all disappointed about the loss. We wanted to keep the home game winning streak going. But we have to make plays on offense, defense and special teams to give us a chance to win.”
