After UNC's 30-27 win at Virginia Tech.
Opening statement
First, I’ve got to give credit to Virginia Tech and the way their guys battled. They thru everything they had at us. They played with unbelievable effort. It’s kind of bitter sweet because I have so much respect for Frank Beamer and what he’s meant to college football and obviously what he’s meant to Virginia Tech Football. College football is a better place when he’s in it. I was honored to be on the field with him today. I really was! He’s a tremendous man and I’ll leave it at that!
On your team accomplishing one of your season’s goals by winning the ACC Coastal Division, what was the locker room scene like
It was wild in there. I can’t even remember what I said. I’m still kinda in a daze. I’m really excited for those kids. They’ve been through a lot, they’ve got a lot of grit and they have worked their butts off. They’ve bought in totally to what we’ve asked them to do in all three phases of the game and they really and truly believe, they’ve got each others back no matter what happens. That was so obvious today. When you turn the ball over two times and you’re up by 14 with 4 minutes to go, none of them blinked. As those guys were coming off the field, the guys said don’t worry about it, we got you back, we got your back. They truly do love each other and care deeply about each other and they play for each other.
On what is means to you
I’m happy for those players. That’s it. That’s why I’m in this. To see them reach their goals and dreams and we sat in those living rooms and tell them and their parents, that my dream is for them to reach their dreams and goals when they come to Carolina. For those seniors, their number one goal was to win the Coastal Division and they’ve done that. We expect that to turn into bigger things. But that was the goal and they reached their goal and I’m proud of them!
On what it says about Marquise as he struggled early, especially the two fumbles, to get it back together again and throw that pass basically the only place it could have caught
Marquise never really was shaken. I can’t say the same for me. After the second fumble, he came off and he was like "Ok, I’m good, I’m good". I didn’t have a whole lot to say to him, I really didn’t. There was nothing good I was gonna say. He went over there and got himself ready to go. He knew what was at stake and what he had to do. When he went back out, he said "Don’t worry, I’ll make a play".
On what the Virginia Tech defense did to slow you down after several weeks of Arena like Football Scores
Bud Foster is a damn good defensive coach now. He’s always created schemes and issues for you and he’s not afraid to play man coverage anytime and throw it at ya and he did that today. I would say they won more one on one battles that we won today and he put us in a lot of one on one battles. I not just talking about on the outside, I’m talking about on the interior also.
On Nazair’s play today, forced a fumble recovery. It was 10 to 10 at the time and you turned it into 24 to 10. How big was his play
We needed that. It was huge. For him to make the play; he made the tackle, he made the strip and he recovered the fumble. It was a tremendous play for us. We needed every single turnover we got.
On did you have to go to the silent count today
No we never did. We practiced it all week. We talked about it going into the game. As coaches we had thought about doing it and then I asked Quise what they wanted to do and he said nah, we’ll be verbal and I’ll take care of it. I don’t know how many we had, 34 penalties or something. Seven false starts. That was just a poor job on my side.
On your mind set going into overtime
When we talked all week about this game, we knew this was kinda the perfect storm. Everything was going against us. They had the tribute to Coach Beamer, they needed to get Bowl eligible and their seniors last day in this stadium and the black uniforms. Whatever you wanna call it, it was all going against us. We knew their crowd would be rocking today. We knew we were going to have to play error free, is what we talked about. Just be really good in the fundamentals and techniques and be brilliant in the basics and we didn’t. But we found a way to win!
On what you changed at halftime offensively, maybe run a little more in the 2nd half
We decided to just get the ball on the edge a little bit more. There in those last few drives, that what we were doing. Putting the ball out on the perimeter instead of running the inside zone as much. We went ahead and went outside and we made some big plays with it.
On Elijah on those two scores, he was untouched. What did you see there?
We got em with tempo there. We got em with tempo. It was nothing other than they weren’t lined up at that time and we hit em.
On what you said to Frank afterwards
I told him it was an honor to be on the field with him today. I told him I hope he is involved in college football, because it’s a better place with him.
On the thought process on the final timeout of regulation
Poor job on my part. Nothing other than that. Poor job, poor job.
On you opening up each meeting with Coastal Champs, State Champs, what do you say now?
We’re not gonna change. We’re not gonna change as bad as you want us too. As many obstacles as ya’ll throw out there, we’re still gonna stay with our goals and that’s where our focus is gonna be, which is to be Coastal Division Champs and State Champs and we still got work to do!
Opening statement
First, I’ve got to give credit to Virginia Tech and the way their guys battled. They thru everything they had at us. They played with unbelievable effort. It’s kind of bitter sweet because I have so much respect for Frank Beamer and what he’s meant to college football and obviously what he’s meant to Virginia Tech Football. College football is a better place when he’s in it. I was honored to be on the field with him today. I really was! He’s a tremendous man and I’ll leave it at that!
On your team accomplishing one of your season’s goals by winning the ACC Coastal Division, what was the locker room scene like
It was wild in there. I can’t even remember what I said. I’m still kinda in a daze. I’m really excited for those kids. They’ve been through a lot, they’ve got a lot of grit and they have worked their butts off. They’ve bought in totally to what we’ve asked them to do in all three phases of the game and they really and truly believe, they’ve got each others back no matter what happens. That was so obvious today. When you turn the ball over two times and you’re up by 14 with 4 minutes to go, none of them blinked. As those guys were coming off the field, the guys said don’t worry about it, we got you back, we got your back. They truly do love each other and care deeply about each other and they play for each other.
On what is means to you
I’m happy for those players. That’s it. That’s why I’m in this. To see them reach their goals and dreams and we sat in those living rooms and tell them and their parents, that my dream is for them to reach their dreams and goals when they come to Carolina. For those seniors, their number one goal was to win the Coastal Division and they’ve done that. We expect that to turn into bigger things. But that was the goal and they reached their goal and I’m proud of them!
On what it says about Marquise as he struggled early, especially the two fumbles, to get it back together again and throw that pass basically the only place it could have caught
Marquise never really was shaken. I can’t say the same for me. After the second fumble, he came off and he was like "Ok, I’m good, I’m good". I didn’t have a whole lot to say to him, I really didn’t. There was nothing good I was gonna say. He went over there and got himself ready to go. He knew what was at stake and what he had to do. When he went back out, he said "Don’t worry, I’ll make a play".
On what the Virginia Tech defense did to slow you down after several weeks of Arena like Football Scores
Bud Foster is a damn good defensive coach now. He’s always created schemes and issues for you and he’s not afraid to play man coverage anytime and throw it at ya and he did that today. I would say they won more one on one battles that we won today and he put us in a lot of one on one battles. I not just talking about on the outside, I’m talking about on the interior also.
On Nazair’s play today, forced a fumble recovery. It was 10 to 10 at the time and you turned it into 24 to 10. How big was his play
We needed that. It was huge. For him to make the play; he made the tackle, he made the strip and he recovered the fumble. It was a tremendous play for us. We needed every single turnover we got.
On did you have to go to the silent count today
No we never did. We practiced it all week. We talked about it going into the game. As coaches we had thought about doing it and then I asked Quise what they wanted to do and he said nah, we’ll be verbal and I’ll take care of it. I don’t know how many we had, 34 penalties or something. Seven false starts. That was just a poor job on my side.
On your mind set going into overtime
When we talked all week about this game, we knew this was kinda the perfect storm. Everything was going against us. They had the tribute to Coach Beamer, they needed to get Bowl eligible and their seniors last day in this stadium and the black uniforms. Whatever you wanna call it, it was all going against us. We knew their crowd would be rocking today. We knew we were going to have to play error free, is what we talked about. Just be really good in the fundamentals and techniques and be brilliant in the basics and we didn’t. But we found a way to win!
On what you changed at halftime offensively, maybe run a little more in the 2nd half
We decided to just get the ball on the edge a little bit more. There in those last few drives, that what we were doing. Putting the ball out on the perimeter instead of running the inside zone as much. We went ahead and went outside and we made some big plays with it.
On Elijah on those two scores, he was untouched. What did you see there?
We got em with tempo there. We got em with tempo. It was nothing other than they weren’t lined up at that time and we hit em.
On what you said to Frank afterwards
I told him it was an honor to be on the field with him today. I told him I hope he is involved in college football, because it’s a better place with him.
On the thought process on the final timeout of regulation
Poor job on my part. Nothing other than that. Poor job, poor job.
On you opening up each meeting with Coastal Champs, State Champs, what do you say now?
We’re not gonna change. We’re not gonna change as bad as you want us too. As many obstacles as ya’ll throw out there, we’re still gonna stay with our goals and that’s where our focus is gonna be, which is to be Coastal Division Champs and State Champs and we still got work to do!
