Fedora: We’ve already gone back and looked at the film from the other night and put the thing to bed, made the corrections that we needed to correct. We’ve now moved on and are concentrating on A&T. But I’m sure most of your guys’ questions are going to be from the other night, so lets go ahead and get these addressed.
Q: Do you have any more clarity of what went wrong in the red zone, especially with Marquise (Williams)?
Fedora: The first pick down there in the red zone, he knew where he was going with the ball and he threw a bad ball. The ball was way too low, he knew the backer was there, he just threw it too low, he didn’t put the ball on top of the helmet. The next one going in down there (19 yard line) was the situation where we had slants to the field and a route into the boundary. He had free access into the boundary and he checked it but then tried to come back to the slants in the field, and in a quick-gain throw you’re not going to be able to work both sides of the field. And then on the last play, he got flushed out of the pocket and had to make a quick decision and quick throw and he just didn’t get the throw where he needed it to be. All three of them are not good things. We talked about going into the game, especially an early game in the year, where turnovers are going to be the difference in the game – turnovers and penalties.
Q: Going back to last season, he’s had 3 games in a row where he hasn’t played all that well, do you see any common threads or trends?
Fedora: I haven’t gone back and looked at last year’s games on it. We’re aware of what we’ve done. I don’t know that there’s a common trend other than some inconsistency, and that would be the common trend and that’s the thing that we’ve got to get out of. We’ve got to be consistent. He did a lot of really good things in the game, a lot of really good things in the game, but you can’t turn the ball over at that position and think that you’re going to have a good night.
Q: Is there a level of concern or do you look at this that everybody has a bad game and you move on?
Fedora: You’re always concerned, I’m concerned about everything. But we’ve moved on. We’ve made the corrections and we expect them to get corrected and we expect them not to be made again. That’s what we expect.
Q: He missed some other throws, he was behind Bug (Howard) a few times, overthrew Ryan Switzer) a few times, what did you like that Marquise did?
Fedora: He made a lot of really good throws, he made good decisions. Most of those runs that we had are all run-option to pass and he made good decisions to run the football at the time and then there were times that he pulled it out and threw it were good decisions. It was not a total game where he couldn’t throw it or he couldn’t make good decisions. It just boiled down to – the one he threw behind Bug was a coverage situation, the backer dropped into the coverage so he threw it behind him instead of waiting for him to come open in the second window, he tried to get it to him too quick.
Q: Have teams tried to defend him differently since he had so much success early last year?
Fedora: I don’t think so. They were, the other night, pretty basic in what they were doing. They weren’t going to fool you into thinking they were doing something different. It was pretty basic.
Q: On the interceptions, what options were those, the first, second?
Fedora: On both of them in the end zone it was the third option.
Q: Given how Elijah was playing, would his number get called more frequently in that situation if you had to do it over?
Fedora: If I could do it over I’d do a lot of things differently, but I don’t get the option to do that. That’s the great thing that you guys get to do that we don’t. Sure, you can say we could have just – we had 60-something plays and we could have handed it to Elijah 60-something plays.
Q: I mean in that late situation near the goal line?
Fedora: Yeah. We could have called a different pass, we could have called a different run, we could have called a lot of different things. But the ones we called we had prepared for and we felt good about those calls or we wouldn’t have made those calls. We expected them to be successful. Unfortunately, they weren’t.
Q: Has the staff talked about why Elijah wasn’t on the field especially at 3rd-and-3?
Fedora: You look at how productive he was in the game and you want to make sure you get the ball in his hands so many times a game. And if he’s healthy and running well and productive we need to get the ball to him more, there’s no doubt. In that situation, on 3rd-and-1, I don’t know what he reeled off, about 30 something yards there, and that’s when he came out of the game. And we were in a hurry-up mode at that point and we didn’t get him back into the game.
Q: But if you look at the replay on TV he was four or five steps on the field before coach Porter brought him back.
Fedora: We were in a hurry-up mode, and we can’t substitute in a hurry-up mode.
Q: Was that a personnel package issue.
Fedora: No, no. He (Porter) had taken him out because he had however long (29 yards) 29 that was and he broke about four tackles at the end of it, so we got him out to get him a breath and we had planned on putting him back in but we went into jury-mode, so we don’t substitute in that mode.
Q: Is that the lesson learned to maybe slow things down to make sure you have the guy you want out there?
Fedora: Yeah, I guess (Fedora shrugged and replied almost sarcastically). Slow it down, you can stop it, you can do a lot of things. But that’s not what we did, we went into a hurry mode and we don’t substitute in that situation. If it would have been successful we wouldn’t even be talking about these things. That’s the thing, the plays that were called were called because that’s what we prepared in that situation and we felt like they would be successful. We didn’t execute the play that was called. So would you call something else, would you put somebody else in, sure, if I knew right now those plays wouldn’t be successful I wouldn’t run them, I promise you. And I would put anybody else in and any other play.
Q: When Gio was here, there were numerous times when he ran the ball 20 or more times, but it hasn’t happened much since.
Fedora: Because the last couple of years we didn’t have one single guy, but I anticipate that happening this season, I really do.
Q: Do the defensive coordinator and staff get a steak dinner over the weekend?
Fedora: I don’t know, I didn’t eat with them. They did some really good things. I’m not going to come in here and say that the defensive staff was all fired up over what happened in the game because they weren’t. The way they looked at it they gave up a catastrophic play that was the difference in the game. They go into a game saying they can’t give up any catastrophics and that big play was a big play in the game. Now, there were a lot of other good things in the game that happened, but it all boils down to one or two plays and you either make those plays or you don’t. But, there were a lot of bright spots defensively for them to build off of.
Q: Coach Chizik talked about being much more physical, when you watched the film was that apparent to you?
Fedora: Yeah, I think so, there was definitely improvement in that area. I’m not going to say we were the most physical team on every single play, but there were a lot of plays when we were physical and got after it and there were some when we didn’t feel like we were as physical as we needed to.
Q: They were getting some nice gains running to the right, has that been addressed.
Fedora: I'll be honest with you, we haven't where their gains were, where they weren't. At least I haven't talked about that with (defensive coordinator) Gene (Chizik). We have who we have, we don't have any other people to put in there, really. So, it's going to be what it is.
Q: How did you break down what went wrong with Marquise?
Fedora: Yesterday, we went through every single play. ‘What were you thinking here, why did you think this?’ To hear his thought process was important for me to know what he was thinking in each of those situations throughout the game. The good ones, the bad ones, all the things that came up in the game. We do that every week with our quarterback because I want to know exactly what his thought process is. His thought process should be exactly like mine or coach Heck’s or by the way he is taught throughout the week, and when he went outside that is when he got into problems. When he stayed within exactly what he was taught he was golden.
Q: You have A&T coming in here, they won big last week, they have to feel good about their performance.
Fedora: I imagine they do. They were dominant in just about everything they did. They’ve been picked to win their league again – they won it last year. I would imagine they’ll come in here with a lot of confidence and will come in here expecting to win a football game.
Q: Do you know A&T coach Rod Broadway, who is a UNC alum?
Fedora: I don’t know Rod, I know who he is. I obviously know he played here and has coached here in the past and have tremendous respect for him. He’s done a tremendous job at A&T in turning that program, so he’s very well respected in the coaching profession.
Q: How much of a role do you have in play calling, or is that pretty much left up to Seth?
Fedora: It just depends on what’s going on and the timing of it. If it’s moving there’s not a lot to be said. If I start talking that’s clutter on the headsets. So, if there’s a timeout or the ball’s stopped or something like that that’s a different situation. Most of the conversation happens in between the series: ‘This is what happened, this is what I saw, this is what I think we need to try to do this next series.’
Q: Do you have any more clarity of what went wrong in the red zone, especially with Marquise (Williams)?
Fedora: The first pick down there in the red zone, he knew where he was going with the ball and he threw a bad ball. The ball was way too low, he knew the backer was there, he just threw it too low, he didn’t put the ball on top of the helmet. The next one going in down there (19 yard line) was the situation where we had slants to the field and a route into the boundary. He had free access into the boundary and he checked it but then tried to come back to the slants in the field, and in a quick-gain throw you’re not going to be able to work both sides of the field. And then on the last play, he got flushed out of the pocket and had to make a quick decision and quick throw and he just didn’t get the throw where he needed it to be. All three of them are not good things. We talked about going into the game, especially an early game in the year, where turnovers are going to be the difference in the game – turnovers and penalties.
Q: Going back to last season, he’s had 3 games in a row where he hasn’t played all that well, do you see any common threads or trends?
Fedora: I haven’t gone back and looked at last year’s games on it. We’re aware of what we’ve done. I don’t know that there’s a common trend other than some inconsistency, and that would be the common trend and that’s the thing that we’ve got to get out of. We’ve got to be consistent. He did a lot of really good things in the game, a lot of really good things in the game, but you can’t turn the ball over at that position and think that you’re going to have a good night.
Q: Is there a level of concern or do you look at this that everybody has a bad game and you move on?
Fedora: You’re always concerned, I’m concerned about everything. But we’ve moved on. We’ve made the corrections and we expect them to get corrected and we expect them not to be made again. That’s what we expect.
Q: He missed some other throws, he was behind Bug (Howard) a few times, overthrew Ryan Switzer) a few times, what did you like that Marquise did?
Fedora: He made a lot of really good throws, he made good decisions. Most of those runs that we had are all run-option to pass and he made good decisions to run the football at the time and then there were times that he pulled it out and threw it were good decisions. It was not a total game where he couldn’t throw it or he couldn’t make good decisions. It just boiled down to – the one he threw behind Bug was a coverage situation, the backer dropped into the coverage so he threw it behind him instead of waiting for him to come open in the second window, he tried to get it to him too quick.
Q: Have teams tried to defend him differently since he had so much success early last year?
Fedora: I don’t think so. They were, the other night, pretty basic in what they were doing. They weren’t going to fool you into thinking they were doing something different. It was pretty basic.
Q: On the interceptions, what options were those, the first, second?
Fedora: On both of them in the end zone it was the third option.
Q: Given how Elijah was playing, would his number get called more frequently in that situation if you had to do it over?
Fedora: If I could do it over I’d do a lot of things differently, but I don’t get the option to do that. That’s the great thing that you guys get to do that we don’t. Sure, you can say we could have just – we had 60-something plays and we could have handed it to Elijah 60-something plays.
Q: I mean in that late situation near the goal line?
Fedora: Yeah. We could have called a different pass, we could have called a different run, we could have called a lot of different things. But the ones we called we had prepared for and we felt good about those calls or we wouldn’t have made those calls. We expected them to be successful. Unfortunately, they weren’t.
Q: Has the staff talked about why Elijah wasn’t on the field especially at 3rd-and-3?
Fedora: You look at how productive he was in the game and you want to make sure you get the ball in his hands so many times a game. And if he’s healthy and running well and productive we need to get the ball to him more, there’s no doubt. In that situation, on 3rd-and-1, I don’t know what he reeled off, about 30 something yards there, and that’s when he came out of the game. And we were in a hurry-up mode at that point and we didn’t get him back into the game.
Q: But if you look at the replay on TV he was four or five steps on the field before coach Porter brought him back.
Fedora: We were in a hurry-up mode, and we can’t substitute in a hurry-up mode.
Q: Was that a personnel package issue.
Fedora: No, no. He (Porter) had taken him out because he had however long (29 yards) 29 that was and he broke about four tackles at the end of it, so we got him out to get him a breath and we had planned on putting him back in but we went into jury-mode, so we don’t substitute in that mode.
Q: Is that the lesson learned to maybe slow things down to make sure you have the guy you want out there?
Fedora: Yeah, I guess (Fedora shrugged and replied almost sarcastically). Slow it down, you can stop it, you can do a lot of things. But that’s not what we did, we went into a hurry mode and we don’t substitute in that situation. If it would have been successful we wouldn’t even be talking about these things. That’s the thing, the plays that were called were called because that’s what we prepared in that situation and we felt like they would be successful. We didn’t execute the play that was called. So would you call something else, would you put somebody else in, sure, if I knew right now those plays wouldn’t be successful I wouldn’t run them, I promise you. And I would put anybody else in and any other play.
Q: When Gio was here, there were numerous times when he ran the ball 20 or more times, but it hasn’t happened much since.
Fedora: Because the last couple of years we didn’t have one single guy, but I anticipate that happening this season, I really do.
Q: Do the defensive coordinator and staff get a steak dinner over the weekend?
Fedora: I don’t know, I didn’t eat with them. They did some really good things. I’m not going to come in here and say that the defensive staff was all fired up over what happened in the game because they weren’t. The way they looked at it they gave up a catastrophic play that was the difference in the game. They go into a game saying they can’t give up any catastrophics and that big play was a big play in the game. Now, there were a lot of other good things in the game that happened, but it all boils down to one or two plays and you either make those plays or you don’t. But, there were a lot of bright spots defensively for them to build off of.
Q: Coach Chizik talked about being much more physical, when you watched the film was that apparent to you?
Fedora: Yeah, I think so, there was definitely improvement in that area. I’m not going to say we were the most physical team on every single play, but there were a lot of plays when we were physical and got after it and there were some when we didn’t feel like we were as physical as we needed to.
Q: They were getting some nice gains running to the right, has that been addressed.
Fedora: I'll be honest with you, we haven't where their gains were, where they weren't. At least I haven't talked about that with (defensive coordinator) Gene (Chizik). We have who we have, we don't have any other people to put in there, really. So, it's going to be what it is.
Q: How did you break down what went wrong with Marquise?
Fedora: Yesterday, we went through every single play. ‘What were you thinking here, why did you think this?’ To hear his thought process was important for me to know what he was thinking in each of those situations throughout the game. The good ones, the bad ones, all the things that came up in the game. We do that every week with our quarterback because I want to know exactly what his thought process is. His thought process should be exactly like mine or coach Heck’s or by the way he is taught throughout the week, and when he went outside that is when he got into problems. When he stayed within exactly what he was taught he was golden.
Q: You have A&T coming in here, they won big last week, they have to feel good about their performance.
Fedora: I imagine they do. They were dominant in just about everything they did. They’ve been picked to win their league again – they won it last year. I would imagine they’ll come in here with a lot of confidence and will come in here expecting to win a football game.
Q: Do you know A&T coach Rod Broadway, who is a UNC alum?
Fedora: I don’t know Rod, I know who he is. I obviously know he played here and has coached here in the past and have tremendous respect for him. He’s done a tremendous job at A&T in turning that program, so he’s very well respected in the coaching profession.
Q: How much of a role do you have in play calling, or is that pretty much left up to Seth?
Fedora: It just depends on what’s going on and the timing of it. If it’s moving there’s not a lot to be said. If I start talking that’s clutter on the headsets. So, if there’s a timeout or the ball’s stopped or something like that that’s a different situation. Most of the conversation happens in between the series: ‘This is what happened, this is what I saw, this is what I think we need to try to do this next series.’
