Postgame Quotes - UNC 38, Pitt 35 - University of North Carolina Athletics

North Carolina Coach Larry Fedora

Opening Statement:
"It was a heck of game today. Our guys fought for 60 minutes. They battled, they showed a lot of heart and grit today. Didn't let the adversity that came up in the game affect them at all, they just kept playing for each other and I am extremely proud of them."

On the difference in the second half:
"First of all, the staff did a heck of job. The offensive staff put together a great game plan throughout the game. We were able to run the ball and throw the ball both when we needed to. Defensively we made some really nice adjustments at halftime, and I thought our kids just kept battling. The kids handled the adjustments and they came out and played hard all the way to the end, they just made a decision that they were going to finish the game."

On what changed about Nathan Elliott's approach?
"I think Nathan is really hard on himself. He wants to please everybody, he wants to be as good as he can possibly be for his teammates and for the university and for the fans and for everybody. And so he puts a lot of pressure on himself and I think he probably relaxed a little bit, you know? And just said, you know what, I need to play ball."

On the recent schedule changes:
"We did something that we had never done before, have four or five days off like that in the middle of the season. That's not something that guys are used to, but we constantly talked about how we were going to turn that into a positive. Our guys did that today, they really did, and again, I am really proud of them."

On the play of Antonio Williams:
"He played well. You saw – the guy was violent with his runs. He finished runs off and he broke tackles. He came up big at the end there to pick up the first down. He was a horse out there, he really was."

On the play of Dazz Newsome:
"You go all the way back to last year and whenever the ball was in Dazz's hands, he has a knack for making people miss and picking up extra yards. He's really good with the ball in his hands and it was just a matter of time before we got the ball in his hands enough where he could make plays."

On the play of Michael Carter:
"I thought Michael was really good. Little things that you guys wouldn't have seen. When we threw a touchdown pass to [Dyami Brown], they blitzed and Mike was right there to pick up the blitz. Nobody really sees that. I saw it in the game and if he doesn't pick that blitz up, we don't score the touchdown. But he just stoned the guy. Michael is very unselfish. He cares about this football team. He had a smile on his face. Just getting back on the field was crucial."

On how important Cole Holcomb is for the defense:
"Cole is one of the leaders of our defense. He's obviously the guy who has the most experience out there for us, really. He is a leader and guys believe in him. They know Cole is going to give you everything he has every single time. He's very, very intelligent and he was able to handle the adjustments that J.P. (defensive coordinator John Papuchis) and those guys made at halftime and he made them work."

On what goes into coaching wide receivers on holding their blocks on short passes:
"These guys know, in this offense, it doesn't matter if you're throwing a five-yard pass, a pass behind the line of scrimmage, a 40-yard pass or if we're running the football, they are going to be physical. They know that they have to be able to block if they're going to be on the field. If they can't block, they're probably not going to be out there. We spend a lot of time blocking. Being a complete receiver is doing a lot when you don't have the ball in your hands. That's what it takes. That means that the team is more important than you are. I thought our guys did a nice job of that. I know we had a holding call on one that we wish we would have liked not to have, but our guys are battling out there."

Pitt Coach Pat Narduzzi

Opening Statement:
"A little bit of the same old, same old, just an average second half. I thought offensively we were fantastic in the first half, didn't do much in the second half. Again, just shooting ourselves in the foot with careless plays, period. I mean, I got fourth and one, we lose on defense, give up a big play. They run a t-chute on us, which we practice the heck out of, we know they like it in the red zone. We just don't make a play, we don't do our job. Should we hold them, we're in punt-safe, got our defense on the field, we got a holding call in punt-safe. Backs our offense up again coming out situation from minus 9-yard line, don't give them a chance. So in field position, we still struggle because of what we do, not what they do. Third and six, we jump off sides defensively, give them a third and one, which is a lot easier to make than a third and six. And fumbled a kick-off return, how many points did they get off of that? We get a big run in the third quarter, at the end of the third quarter, and we get called back because we can't get lined up. So that's the game., I feel bad for our kids, cause they're trying their tails off. Great kids, I love them, and we just gotta learn how to finish a game. We did a lot of great things out there today. There was a lot of great plays made, but it's a game of inches and we don't do the little things right, it'll come back and get you by another three points."

On attempting to stop North Carolina:
"Look at Dane Jackson, gives up a big pass. I mean, we know they're going to 17, he's right there, he's got his hand under the ball. It's great coverage, you can't have better coverage than what he did there. They got one of those on us, just details. It's just details and trying not to do too much and sometimes our guys try to do too much, and that's not good. You've got to play within the framework of the defense or the offense. Like I said, those guys are on scholarship, too. They got 85 scholarships, we got 85, and sometimes there's going to be a mismatch here and there and we don't make a play. We've got to put ourselves in position as coaches and players to make the play. And if you're out of position or miss a tackle, I thought our tackling on defense wasn't good today, for whatever reason. But even on that last t-bubble, (Rashad) Weaver's got the guy and he did a better job holding on to the punt return than he did that one. All you've got to do is take the guy down. I just don't think we tackled very well, even in the backfield there's times we get TFLs and we don't make them. So give them credit. They made some plays and we didn't. That's what it comes down to."

On Pitt's Passing Offense:
"Don't forget that we still have a young quarterback playing his first start on the road as a quarterback. Kenny (Pickett) did some great things out there today. Kenny did some things we don't want him to do. He took too many sacks and the ball gets batted down, he catches it instead of batting it down. And we just put ourselves in a bad position. You can go play after play after play. A couple times he hung on to the ball too long. Again, he's trying to make a play, so he's still a baby, and there's going to be some of those things that come up until he learns to manage the game properly. Every week he's going to get a little bit better. And North Carolina's a good football team. They moved the ball on everybody, stalled in the red zone … told you Thursday, stalled in the red zone four times and kicked field goals. Today, they made plays, they got better."

UNC Players

Junior QB Nathan Elliott
On improvement with accuracy throwing the ball
"I felt confident coming into today. I did a lot of things in the last two weeks to put myself in a better position. I felt like for the most part I did. I was a lot more accurate. There are still obviously some things to clean up, but I thought it was a good day."

On importance for the team to get a win emotionally
"Very important. Every week we are trying to go 1-0. We did that. We achieved our goal this week. Now it is time to refocus and go onto the next one."

On different schedule due to Hurricane Florence
"I do not think it hurt us at all. Our team is mature and we have used that to our advantage. It helped us have a reset and a new nine-game season mentality."

Junior RB Antonio Williams
On his "running angry" mentality
"I've always been angry on the football field, I always say the football field is the easiest way to release your anger – carrying the ball is the best way I do it."

On jumping to score his second touchdown
"As soon as I'd seen the guys get cut to the ground, I was not stepping over them. I could get tripped up – why not take it to the air?"

On the importance of this win
"Really big win. We need it. We are 1-0 in the ACC and that's all that matters. We are in ACC play now and need to keep chopping each team down."

On the excitement in the locker room from the win
"Absolutely amazing, that's how it's supposed to feel in a locker room after a game. Lot of jumping, yelling, dancing, typical locker room after big time win."

Sophomore WR Dazz Newsome
On his offensive performance
"I am just happy they put me in position to do great, put me in a position to make plays. Shout out to my other receivers for blocking for me, Roscoe (Johnson), Dyami (Brown), Antoine (Green) and T Jacks (Thomas Jackson) and all the linemen blocking down field with me."

Sophomore RB Michael Carter
On the team's performance
"Our effort level was high. If you watch our games from the last two weeks on our discipline, you could see people walk. We wanted to win, but didn't play like our backs were against the wall. The difference today was we just went the extra mile this week."

Senior LB Cole Holcomb
On defensive success
"I think everybody just brought that energy today. We brought that energy that we had at Cal. We just had that spark. When we have that energy and are excited to play we can do some good things and that's what we did."

On allowing big plays
"When they got big plays were when our eyes were bad and we weren't communicating. Coach told us if you guys just go with your coverage and do what we've coached you to do we're going to win this game and that's what we did."

On trying to get stops on third down
"Third and one or two is not a good spot to be in on defense. We've got to win on first and second down to get out of those. Your chances of winning on defense on third down and one or two are pretty low and that's what ended up happening. When we started winning on first and second down was when you started seeing some life out of us."

Sophomore DE Tomon Fox
On momentum after fumble recovery
"That just brought us back to life, 70 percent to like 150 percent after that.

On adjustments after halftime
"The thing is that we just had to do our job. We weren't doing that in the first half so we just had to emphasize that in the second."

On the win
"Oh it's, huge for us. It is just great momentum for the rest of the season to keep it going."

Senior PK Freeman Jones
On kicking success so far this season
"It's the way I prepare during the week. I worked very hard this summer to make sure I was in a position going into camp to succeed. Week to week, it's just more about working smarter not harder, making sure to just try and strike a clean ball, go slow and keep it simple and then whenever my number is called go out there and do my job."

On his first career fumble recovery
"It is pretty amazing. I try and put myself in a position to be able to stop the guy if he squirts out through the return team. But for that to happen and it to fall the way it did and right there into my hands, that was pretty special and I'm happy I was able to do that for the boys."

On getting ready to kick again after the fumble recovery
"I had to try and get people away from me. I knew we were right there in range and it could come up [to kick a field goal]. I just had to breathe, get my breath back because I was pretty out of breath – I'm not used to doing all that too often. So just breathe. I hit two balls after that. I wasn't tight at all, I was pretty loose after that. As far as me being able to personally say 'I got the ball back and then I kicked the field goal,' that was pretty cool."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Postgame Quotes - UNC 38, Pitt 35

Players Mentioned

Michael Carter

Nathan Elliott

Tomon Fox

Cole Holcomb

Thomas Jackson

Freeman Jones

Dazz Newsome

Antonio Williams

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