Opening Statement:
“It was a good game if you didn’t care who won. IT was an even game throughout most of the night, a real battle. Two teams that fought their guts out, and it highlighted high school football and high school coaches in the state of North Carolina. We had the game in a great position with a nine-point lead with a couple of minutes left and they had one timeout, and like Pittsburgh we didn’t finish it, we didn’t finish it well. We got to mature as a team, and you gotta finish things. You have too many people on the field after the field goal because they got so excited. That gave them really good field position, gave them an opportunity to get the ball toward midfield and we have a busted coverage after a sack, where they score really easily. Then I think it's about 22 percent, the chances of getting an onside kick, and they got it. Then they made a tremendous play to score. I'm proud of the effort our guys gave. I'm proud that we ran the ball against a defense that had been stopping the run. British Brooks played really well, Sam Howells a fighter, he competes at all times, but we dropped two or three touchdown passes. And absolutely let one go at the end. Credit NC State, they didn’t give up, they didn’t quit. And we’ve got to learn how to finish games this was so much like Pittsburgh, and it goes back to the head coach because they’ve got to believe in themselves enough and be disciplined enough that they finish games like this. So it's on me the kids played absolutely hard and they did it at Pittsburgh, and somebodies going to get a good bowl team.
Coach, how do you process this?
“I don’t know. I just told the team we gotta finish. That’s all it is, we’ve gotta make the plays that they made down the stretch, and we gotta be more mature and we can't have penalties. We did everything you could possibly do wrong with two minutes left to not finish the game.
Were you surprised where STATE kicked the onside kick (down the middle)
“No, we work on that every day. It was the perfect scenario for them to win the game. The kick was perfect, our guy was getting ready to field it, their kicker did an unbelievable job of being right there at the ten-yard mark and falling on it. Obviously, nothing was a surprise we just didn’t execute.
On if he was surprised by the direction of the onside kick…
“No, we work on that everyday. It was the perfect scenario for them to win the game. The kick was perfect, our guy was getting ready to field it, their kicker did an unbelievable job of being right there at the 10 yard mark, and falling on it. Obviously nothing was surprised, we just didn’t execute.”
On if he was fortunate only being down 14-10 at halftime…
“Yeah I was proud of the guys. They took the momentum back after we lost it early. We got behind at Virginia Tech on the road, we got behind at Georgia Tech on the road, we got behind at Pittsburgh on the road. We gotta do a better job in first quarters when we’re playing a good team on the road.”
On if they were shell shocked coming into the onside kick after the busted coverage TD…
“I don’t know, how do you know? You gotta play the next play, you gotta be the one, you gotta make the play to win the game. If we get the onside kick the game’s over, because there’s a minute and 35 seconds left, they only have one timeout, so we gotta get the onside kick. We get the onside kick against Wake, and win by three, and we don’t get the onside kick tonight. You gotta get onside kicks, that’s just [art of being a good team.”
On the decision to kick the 50-yard FG…
“Grayson’s been an excellent kicker throughout the year. He can kick it from the 35, we were about the 32, and we were right in the middle of the field, so we felt good that going up by nine with two minutes left with them having one timeout left, was the right thing to do. We had stopped them the second half, they had not had very much success.”
Is this leaving him at a loss for words?
“Yes, I’ve never seen anything like that. I’ve got to do a better job. I’m really disappointed in me that our team doesn’t win that game. Same at Pittsburgh. We had an opportunity to beat a really good team on the road at Pittsburgh, one of the best in our league, and we didn’t finish it. We had a better opportunity tonight, and we still didn’t finish it. We still got work to do, and that comes back to me.”
On the problems with special teams tonight with blocked punts…
“It was a person that just missed an assignment, like it was at Florida State last year, and we ended up taking the person out after the second one that Garrett Walston was so aware of, and made the play. You’ve gotta take great special teams on the road. We had a punt issue at Notre Dame where they returned it to the 41, we had two short punts where they returned at Pittsburgh early in the game, and then the blocked punt tonight. I’m really, really disappointed. It hadn't been an issue, we’d been doing really, really well. We’re not punting very well, there were very short punts, so that put us in a bind throughout the night.”
“It was a good game if you didn’t care who won. IT was an even game throughout most of the night, a real battle. Two teams that fought their guts out, and it highlighted high school football and high school coaches in the state of North Carolina. We had the game in a great position with a nine-point lead with a couple of minutes left and they had one timeout, and like Pittsburgh we didn’t finish it, we didn’t finish it well. We got to mature as a team, and you gotta finish things. You have too many people on the field after the field goal because they got so excited. That gave them really good field position, gave them an opportunity to get the ball toward midfield and we have a busted coverage after a sack, where they score really easily. Then I think it's about 22 percent, the chances of getting an onside kick, and they got it. Then they made a tremendous play to score. I'm proud of the effort our guys gave. I'm proud that we ran the ball against a defense that had been stopping the run. British Brooks played really well, Sam Howells a fighter, he competes at all times, but we dropped two or three touchdown passes. And absolutely let one go at the end. Credit NC State, they didn’t give up, they didn’t quit. And we’ve got to learn how to finish games this was so much like Pittsburgh, and it goes back to the head coach because they’ve got to believe in themselves enough and be disciplined enough that they finish games like this. So it's on me the kids played absolutely hard and they did it at Pittsburgh, and somebodies going to get a good bowl team.
Coach, how do you process this?
“I don’t know. I just told the team we gotta finish. That’s all it is, we’ve gotta make the plays that they made down the stretch, and we gotta be more mature and we can't have penalties. We did everything you could possibly do wrong with two minutes left to not finish the game.
Were you surprised where STATE kicked the onside kick (down the middle)
“No, we work on that every day. It was the perfect scenario for them to win the game. The kick was perfect, our guy was getting ready to field it, their kicker did an unbelievable job of being right there at the ten-yard mark and falling on it. Obviously, nothing was a surprise we just didn’t execute.
On if he was surprised by the direction of the onside kick…
“No, we work on that everyday. It was the perfect scenario for them to win the game. The kick was perfect, our guy was getting ready to field it, their kicker did an unbelievable job of being right there at the 10 yard mark, and falling on it. Obviously nothing was surprised, we just didn’t execute.”
On if he was fortunate only being down 14-10 at halftime…
“Yeah I was proud of the guys. They took the momentum back after we lost it early. We got behind at Virginia Tech on the road, we got behind at Georgia Tech on the road, we got behind at Pittsburgh on the road. We gotta do a better job in first quarters when we’re playing a good team on the road.”
On if they were shell shocked coming into the onside kick after the busted coverage TD…
“I don’t know, how do you know? You gotta play the next play, you gotta be the one, you gotta make the play to win the game. If we get the onside kick the game’s over, because there’s a minute and 35 seconds left, they only have one timeout, so we gotta get the onside kick. We get the onside kick against Wake, and win by three, and we don’t get the onside kick tonight. You gotta get onside kicks, that’s just [art of being a good team.”
On the decision to kick the 50-yard FG…
“Grayson’s been an excellent kicker throughout the year. He can kick it from the 35, we were about the 32, and we were right in the middle of the field, so we felt good that going up by nine with two minutes left with them having one timeout left, was the right thing to do. We had stopped them the second half, they had not had very much success.”
Is this leaving him at a loss for words?
“Yes, I’ve never seen anything like that. I’ve got to do a better job. I’m really disappointed in me that our team doesn’t win that game. Same at Pittsburgh. We had an opportunity to beat a really good team on the road at Pittsburgh, one of the best in our league, and we didn’t finish it. We had a better opportunity tonight, and we still didn’t finish it. We still got work to do, and that comes back to me.”
On the problems with special teams tonight with blocked punts…
“It was a person that just missed an assignment, like it was at Florida State last year, and we ended up taking the person out after the second one that Garrett Walston was so aware of, and made the play. You’ve gotta take great special teams on the road. We had a punt issue at Notre Dame where they returned it to the 41, we had two short punts where they returned at Pittsburgh early in the game, and then the blocked punt tonight. I’m really, really disappointed. It hadn't been an issue, we’d been doing really, really well. We’re not punting very well, there were very short punts, so that put us in a bind throughout the night.”
