North Carolina Tar Heels College Football Pregame Quote, 09/09/2019

Really excited to be 2-0. I thought Saturday night was a lot of fun. It was the best atmosphere I’ve seen here ever. It was a better atmosphere than the 10 years we were here before. I think even the Florida State game [in 1997] because it was a better game and [there was] more excitement. The crowd made a difference in this one. The crowd was loud throughout. They were very engaged. It was a fun night in Kenan Stadium. We need a lot of fans to go to Wake Forest this Friday. I know it’s tough on a Friday night because we hate competing with high school football. But when that happens with TV, that’s what you do. But we also feel like any fans who can get there will really, really help us. As excited as we are about the win, we’re disappointed for Patrice Rene. He’s worked so hard. He played so well for us at corner and he’s out for the year. He does have another year because he did not redshirt. So, he’ll have a decision to make whether he wants to rehab and come back for his fifth year or whether he’ll graduate in December and go ahead and try to get drafted or apply to the NFL or he could go out in the business world. But we do want him back if he wants to come back. Hopefully Nick [Polino] will be back before the end of the year. But when you lose two seniors, you hate it for them more than anything else. But you also hate it for us. What we’ll have to do now is work really hard to continue to create depth. The games have been so close that it’s been hard to play as many people as we’d like to play and we told the newcomers this morning, ‚ÄòYou guys need to pick it up. You’re no longer rookies. You’re going to have to play.’ For instance, Storm Duck and those young defensive backs are going to have to step up and play this weekend with the absence of Patrice Rene and Wake Forest has two of the better receivers that we’ll see at 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-5. That really puts us in a tough spot.

Last Saturday night, we didn’t stop the run great all the time, but we played really well on red-zone defense and forced some kicks. We didn’t turn the ball over. We protected it. We ended up getting the fourth-down stop, which we count as a turnover, and two blocked kicks, which were really key ‚Äì a blocked field goal and a blocked extra point by Xach Gill and Jason Strowbridge. So, we felt like those were keys in the ballgame. We knew we had to play a clean game with very few penalties and we only had one penalty, and that one penalty was a delay of game coming off the bench, which is unacceptable for us as coaches. The guys did what they were supposed to do throughout the game. And I do think we ran the ball well at times. There were runs that made a difference in this ballgame, so it really did help us. But we’ve got to improve our red-zone offense, too. We had a second-and-2 that we ended up not making a first down. We had a third-and-3 where we would’ve gone four downs if we had made two yards. Instead, we ended up fourth-and-5 and that’s when we tried the 49-yard field goal instead of going for the first down. It’s interesting with all these new analytics that you have on the sideline telling you what to do. Sometimes I agree with them and sometimes I don’t because they’re not there at the game. They couldn’t see how good that Miami front was. So, when they say go for a fourth-and-5, I said, ‚ÄòBrother, you ain’t here. You’re not seeing what I’m seeing. We’re having trouble with those guys up front.’ The kicking game was better. Michael Rubino kicking the ball out a few times really helped us and we had one great cover. Our punts were inconsistent, but our punt coverage was good. They’ve got one of the best returners in the country, so at least he didn’t get in the end zone on us. We feel like that’s an area we can continue to improve, but we felt like we made great progress in that area. The three players of the game, the Offensive Player of the Game was Sam Howell … Tomon Fox had three sacks and Michael Rubino kicking it out of the end zone every time was a great help for us in that ballgame, especially when we score and you have very little time left and you’ve got to make a decision. Most people will squib it to keep them from returning it, but then it gives you a shorter field and a better chance for a field goal. Michael kicked it out and that helped us.

Today’s practice was like a Tuesday practice, so tomorrow will be a Wednesday practice because it’s a Friday game and a very short week as we start going through. We’ve talked to the guys about how they need to enjoy and appreciate their first two wins. We don’t want them to forget them and act like they never happened. They’re real and they’re good and they’re things they should feel good about and should give us confidence going forward. But you also need to move forward. You can’t keep talking about those games. You’ve got to start talking about the Friday night game with Wake Forest. I think they’re doing that. I really worried about it after the first game, but then after this week, it seems like their total focus is on trying to get to 3-0 and they understand the importance of that. We still have a lot of things to fix. Our coaches are doing a very good job, but we can coach better than we’ve been coaching and we can help the guys get in better positions than they’ve been in.

I loved, obviously, the fourth-and-17 call. That’s twice in my career we’ve overcome a fourth-and-17 and then a fourth-and-18. Vince Young did it against Kansas in 2004, when we went to the Rose Bowl. With Vince’s, it was a deep square-in on fourth-and-18 and the game is over if we don’t make it and he takes it down and starts running it and I start screaming, ‚ÄòNo, you can’t do that!’ Then he made two miss, he made the third one miss and he stepped out of bounds 19 yards from the first-down marker and he looked at me and said, ‚ÄòHey, pops, you want me to go ahead and score or do you want to go to overtime?’ I said, ‚ÄòHey, smart aleck, why don’t you go ahead and score and let’s get home?’ And he threw a corner for a touchdown to Tony Jeffery the next play. But he showed a lot of composure, and I thought Sam showed that same composure on the fourth-and-17 on Saturday. A lot of young quarterbacks, especially who have just been sacked, would’ve had antsy feet and thrown to an underneath guy to get it out of his hands quickly and they tackle us under the chains and the game is over. But with him, he waited, he had the right route, it was a great call. And also, I loved his composure on the touchdown pass to Dazz [Newsome] late. Beau [Corrales] drops the ball for a touchdown right before that, but he looks at two or three different people before he goes to Dazz and he throws the corner route and Dazz does a tremendous job of getting his feet down. But that was a great sequence of plays. I also was excited with the option on the goal line to Michael Carter. They had an overhang guy, which made it tough for us outside, but Michael just outran him. So, the two-point play ended up being a good play, as well.

As we said, we’ve got a lot to fix. One of the things we’re really working on is depth. Injuries have really hurt this program the last couple of years. We have got to have somebody ready to play once somebody gets hurt. We challenged the team on that this morning. Our words for the week are we want to have fun and appreciate where we are at 2-0. We also want to go into the game on Friday fresh. It’s a different week; it’s just a short week, like an NFL week, and we have to manage it that way as coaches. But we’ve got to have great focus. We’ve got a real tough opponent. We respect Wake Forest. They have very few turnovers, they have very few penalties and they have a really good kicking game. They’re 2-0. You go back and look at last year, they finished their season beating NC State in a comeback and then they just absolutely beat Duke badly to finish the season. Both of those teams beat our team last year. And then to start the season, they had a real close game with Utah State, another comeback because their quarterback has been a comeback king, kind of like we’ve been the last two weeks. And then they just dominated Rice, and they’ve had an extra day to prepare and be fresh coming back. It should be a great game. We really challenge our fans, even on a Friday night like I said, to get to Winston-Salem. I remember that when we were here, we had sellouts here, but we always had great fan support, especially when there were some tickets at Wake or Duke. Those fans who traveled with us really helped us in those situations winning those games.

On how the team approached Monday, typically an off day:

You approach it a lot differently. We didn’t go outside yesterday and practice. There’s no telling when they got to bed Saturday night because they were having fun and excited. But they were focused yesterday. When we win, we celebrate, we show them a highlight film and we have players of the week. If you lose, we don’t have anything. We have a hard discussion and go back to work. They had fun yesterday and yesterday was a day of celebration, to celebrate the Miami game and get it out of your system. And we had the victory meal last night and got in bed early. We got them up early this morning and started our team meeting at 6:30, and then we just had our two-hour practice and they were sharp and did a good job. We’ll cut a little today and we’ll cut a little bit tomorrow and then quite a bit on Thursday. They’re younger than we are, so they can bounce back faster. But I was really impressed with the way they came out and practiced this morning.

On how the short week changes the coaching staff’s preparation:

The thing I feel is that when people start looking at early morning practice, everybody is going to go to it if they can with the academic schedule. It’s so weird that our coaches are through by 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Normally their wives are panicked when they come home and say, ‚ÄòDid you get fired? What are you doing home?’ Because coaches have never been home. And the players have their nights free. They obviously have to go to bed early, which is also a good thing. But it’s very, very different as you start looking at what we’ve all done for our entire careers. With this bunch, I think the biggest part is that they’ve bought into the early morning practice. Last night, the only difference for our coaches is they stayed way late because if you’ve got Monday off and Monday free, that’s when the coaches usually finish their game plans. We didn’t have a Monday. So the biggest difference was they were here way late last night and started at 6:30 this morning. We’ll grade this film today from practice, this video, and then we’ll have our staff meeting this afternoon at 3 and then I’m sure we’ll stay a bit longer today and tonight just because of the timing of the game.

On if he’s concerned about any emotional hangover from the last two games:

We don’t know this team. This team with us has never been 2-0. They’ve never had two emotional games. So, what we’ve told them is, ‚ÄòYou are who you are. And if you’re going to be a good team, you’ve got to create an edge and play with emotion every week. You can’t expect a full house all the time. You’re supposed to create the emotion for your team.’ And players have to do that more than coaches. Coaches can do it, but we’re not on the field. So, you learn this week a lot about whether your team is a player-led team or not. And player-led teams are a lot better than coach-led teams just because the players are around them all the time. And the other thing is I think it’s great that we’re playing an undefeated team that our guys have respect for. So, even though it’s not a conference game, it is a game that historically North Carolina has played, and one of the things I don’t like about the expanded conference is Wake Forest used to be a real fun game for us every year. You go back and look at their coaches, I coached against Bill Dooley, I coached against Al Groh when I was at Appalachian [State], I coached against Jim Caldwell when he was there and then I coached against Jim Grobe, but it was when he was at Ohio [University]; I didn’t get him at Wake Forest. But all those guys are great coaches and did a great job. Jim Grobe did things there that were just unbelievable for a long time. Jim has become a great friend of mine and I can see why now. And Dave [Clawson] is continuing to do that. All these guys have been really good fits at Wake Forest and they’ve all done a great job.

On what he thinks Wake Forest will give UNC trouble with:

The thing that they do such a good job of, in my estimation, is playing clean. So, they don’t turn the ball over and they do not have penalties. The other thing they do is I think they ran [105] plays, maybe, against Utah State. So, they go really fast with an offense that runs the ball and throws deep to big, tall guys. That’s not bad. We’ve got to defend a 6-foot-3 [Sage] Surratt and we’ve got defend a 6-foot-5 guy; Scotty [Washington] is really good. They’re both basketball players, they’re both athletic, they can jump, and our tallest corner was Patrice and he’s gone. So, I think stopping the run and trying to defend those big, tall guys. And the quarterback is a good runner and thrower, as well. They do a great job of keeping the ball away from you and they can throw it. That would be my biggest concern just looking at them for a day or two.

On the origin of the state championship concept that he created in his first stint at UNC:

When we were here 30 years ago, at first we were trying to beat anybody. We had no wins. We had 20 losses and two wins [in our first two seasons]. So, we were trying to figure out, ‚ÄòWhat can we do to stir somebody up, stir the players up?’ My philosophy my whole coaching career is if you can’t win at home, you can’t win on the road. If you can’t recruit at home, you can’t recruit out of state. So, everything starts with your home state. People used to laugh at the state championship, but all of our boosters liked it when we won it. Now they’re asking me to get it back. We’ve got good coaches and good players at the three schools we’ll play a lot ‚Äì two of them definitely in Duke and NC State. Those games are very important to our fan base. The Wake Forest game historically has been important to our fan base, and then you add Appalachian State, which is a great team, not a good team. You go back and look at their history next week, gosh, they’re a play from upsetting Penn State in overtime and Tennessee and you just go back and look at all the games they’ve played down to the wire with people. I think those four games are games that are really important to us. The other thing that’s interesting is if we win those four games, that’s six; you’ve already got your bowl game. So, it’s really important to me personally for our fans because when they get up on Monday morning and go to work, they do not want their counterpart at Wake Forest laughing at them about their football team, and I learned that long ago. Don’t mess up close to home because it smells. So, you’ve got to make sure you do your best in your state.

On if that becomes a big talking point this week:

It does. It’s been a talking point since we got here. You can’t make it a point of emphasis that week. When we got here, our first goal was to win the opener, and we did that. Our second goal is to beat all the teams in the state. We haven’t played one yet and we’ve got two in a row. Our third goal is to win the Coastal [Division]. Our fourth goal is to win the ACC and then hopefully you’ll be in position to win the national championship if that comes up. But those are our goals, and those will not change.

On Patrice Rene’s injury:

I think it was [K.J.] Osborn ‚Äî they had a slant on the goal line ‚Äî and actually [Myles] Wolfolk is coming in, and Patrice [Rene] is on the outside and he’s diving. And Wolfolk comes in and hits his knee from the outside. I was hoping it wasn’t bad, but he didn’t play anymore after that. But it was a slant for a touchdown. And Nick [Polino] was just rolled up inside. When you saw him lay there, that’s when he hurt his [leg].

On how they plan to handle pressure on the line without Nick Polino:

Brian Anderson has played quite a bit. I think he played 25, 28 plays against South Carolina and then he came in and played a lot the other night‚Ķ And that’s what I’ve told these kids ‚Äî that’s why everybody is one play away from playing in football. But Brian Anderson will be the starter and then Ty Murray, the big freshman, will be the backup, and we need both of them to split time. Ty got injured some in preseason along with Triston Miller and those two guys need to be playing, so this forces our hand [in] making sure Ty is ready.

On whether feels good about playing Ty Murray against Wake Forest if need be:

You don’t know because he’s never played. That’s why my hair is gray and I look really old and tired. It’s interesting ‚Äî I told the players this before the game ‚Äî Coach [Darrell] Royal, the legendary coach at Texas, told me this one time. The reason there’s pressure on coaches is we have responsibility without control. So, we have the responsibility as a head coach of how our coaches and staff coach without control. We have the pressure of how our players play without any control over it. You can coach them, but when they walk out on that field, it’s like you’re letting your child go to college. ‚ÄòOkay, do good! Have fun! My check’s in your mouth!’ So that’s pretty much what you’re doing and when you say, ‚ÄòDo you trust a freshman?’ I don’t trust anybody until they go out there and proved that they can do it, and then after a time you trust them. I know that a certain number of those guys are going to show up and play good every week. I know that. There’s also a group that you’re just not sure yet because they haven’t earned the right to get those snaps. Brian [Anderson]’s earned that. Ty [Murray] hasn’t played enough yet so hopefully now he will. And then as a coach, we have to decide ‚Äî if Ty gets in ‚Äî how many plays does Ty get. And you have to have him ready because if Brian goes out the first play of the game or tomorrow at practice, then you’ve got to have Ty ready to play and then who’s your backup center? And I will say that Jace [Ruder] hasn’t played yet. He had his best practice this morning. So he’s been on the sideline cheering people on and being a tremendous leader, and I’m really excited for the attitude that he’s got. And I told him … he can run the ball without question, but he threw the ball better this morning than I’ve ever seen him throw which was really good. And Antonio Williams hasn’t played as much as Michael Carter and Javonte [Williams], and he has been a superstar leader for us. I’m just really, really proud of those two guys and the way they’ve handled it.

On younger offensive linemen getting experience at center:

Well, Avery Jones has been at center the whole time, but he’s been slowed with his knee, his operation in the offseason so we’re hoping he’ll get better now. And we’ve tried to work every one of them at center some just to see who can snap. In fact, we moved Asim [Richards] over there once. It was for one snap. He snapped like I did so he’s a basketball player. No. No, he’s a tackle or a guard. But we feel like all those young guys are good, but Nick [Polino] was such a valuable player for us because he could play both guards and center. You could just move him around, let him do anything. He knew everything and he’s a great leader so we’ve just got to get somebody else ready to go.

On whether he feels the pressure now after two wins:

I’m feeling tremendous pride. I don’t feel any pressure at all. You know, everybody came up to me. They were so happy that we beat South Carolina and they were all saying, ‚ÄòWhat a great game! That’s great! Oh boy, if we could only beat Miami. Oh, if we could just beat Miami. Oh, it’s going to be so great if we beat Miami.’ Well, if we go outside to lunch today, it’s going to be, ‚ÄòHey man, Wake. We’ve got to beat Wake.’ So that’s my life. That’s my life. It doesn’t change and that’s a good thing, but that’s the pride that the Tar Heel fans are having right now in their program. They just want it so badly. I think we saw that Saturday night, is that they’re just crying for a great team. And they want these kids to do well and I think they know we’ve still got a lot to do. But they know the kids are trying really hard and these coaches are working so hard, and we want the kids to win as badly as the fans do. So we’re all pulling for them, and I told the kids Friday, ‚ÄòYou are who you are, and this is a big stage. If you want to be on the big stage, win. You can’t go out and stink against Miami and walk around like you’re good. So if you want to be good, welcome to the big stage. You’ve got a packed house and a national TV audience.’ Now we’ve told them, ‚ÄòHow many of you want to go to a bowl? You want to go to a bowl?’ Everybody stuck their hand up, and I said, ‚ÄòIf you don’t, leave. Get out of here because I want to go to a bowl … So this is a huge game to get number three if you want to head toward being bowl eligible.’ So they just have to learn who they are, and we said in life when you get a great award, you got to get up the next day and go back to work. So … be proud of this. And I used to say, ‚ÄòForget it. Don’t speak, don’t say it.’ But be proud of it. Let it help you build confidence, but let it help you get to the next game with emotion and be proud. Don’t let it set you back because you’re in a position where you’re walking around being cocky and thinking about that last one. We didn’t win the last two games because we stood around. We had to come back in both of them. So, that’s what these guys are starting to understand. They’re learning how to win and that’s fun to watch.

On the importance learning how to win:

I, as a head coach, couldn’t have scripted it any better because the biggest problem that we had on Saturday is where we were in some fourth-quarter games and didn’t finish. So now they’ve finished twice, and we said out there, it’s amazing the learning curve and the teachable moments that you have. So Miami drives down and scores. They’ve got to go for two and tie it up, and I told the defense at that point ‚Äî I think there’s four minutes left in the game … or something ‚Äî I said, ‚ÄòIf you stop them on this two-point play, we win the game. If you don’t, we’re probably going to overtime. But if you make this stop, we’re going to win the game.’ I didn’t realize they were going to kick a last-second field goal, but I did feel like we would kill the clock, we’d drive it down, we’d score and that’s the way we’ve won so many games. And when they stopped them on the two-point play, I just thought it gave us confidence on the sideline. ‚ÄòOkay offense. Now you’ve got your chance to win the game ‚Äî go win it.’ And then they were able to do that.

On limiting penalties and turnovers in Miami game:

I think just time and time again in practice, we take a picture of everybody that has the ball in their hand and … we take it on video some and we critique every time a ball is in the hand of an offensive player and take the picture and show him, ‚ÄòNo. That’s a fumble just about to happen.’ And Sam did a better job of taking care of the ball this week because your quarterback is the worst ball handler because he doesn’t get hit in practice. And he’s the guy that’s usually got it out here and he’s looking down field and that’s why they get so many stripped, but Sam did a better job and our guys have really taken care of the ball. As far as the penalties, we just had so many last year and we’ve had the ACC officials out there every day and we call every penalty. And just like this morning in practice, we had one penalty again. So we’re critiquing the penalty, we’re calling the guys out at practice, we’re bringing it up in team meetings where they see. One of the things that’s really important is for the other team members to see who’s playing well and who’s giving great effort, and for them to see who’s not because the guys that aren’t playing well are usually the ones griping in the locker room. Well, we need to show everybody this guy’s playing well and this guy’s not, so you need to pick it up. And it’s hard. It’s hard, it’s tough, but the same thing with penalties and turnovers. We cannot have penalties. I’ve repeated to the coaches so many times, you’re either allowing it to happen or you’re coaching it not to happen. And the things that happen in practice are the things that happen in a game. So if we have a corner with three holding penalties or two pass interference penalties and a holding penalty, I told Dre [Bly], ‚ÄòI’m going to see that Friday night. Because if I see it here, what’s going to be the difference? And if you allow it to happen, I’m going to see it Friday night.’ It’s amazing how many of those things have come up that practice relates to the game, and the key to modern-day practicing is practice as close to game speed as you can without getting anybody hurt. And you’ve got to have so many full-speed game reps and stay healthy, and if you get guys hurt in a game, that’s going to happen. You’ve really got to try to do a great job of not getting guys hurt in practice.

On if he’s pleased with linebacker rotation after Dominique Ross’ return:

Yes, and we can do a better job with that, I think. Dominique [Ross] missed a lot because of his suspension, and now he’s back and we’re doing a lot with him. We’re trying to get him in a pass-rush role because we’ve got to get more pressure on the passer. We had three sacks Saturday night, but we also let him stand back there too long and let him escape and get out too much. And Dominique is a guy that can do both, so we’ve got to be careful with him ‚Äî that we don’t put so much on him that he doesn’t get enough reps at anything. So we’re really looking at getting him more playing time as a pass-rusher and as a linebacker. Really pleased with Chazz Surratt. I mean, my gosh. It’s been inconceivable to see what he’s done from quarterback to linebacker in two weeks. He makes the fourth-and-1 stop. He’s outside, he’s so quick that he jumps back in and grabs their quarterback and keeps him short. He is playing so well. We just really excited about him, and I’m sure he’ll be excited to have a brother out there. It’s really interesting that if the brother comes across the middle, they may have a conversation with the Surratts. And he loves his brother, but his brother’s a big ole pretty sucker ‚Äî he can run and catch.

On game plan for short runs after struggles against Miami:

It’s not game plan as much as it is blocking people. Miami’s got a great front. Florida didn’t run much against them either, so we found some creases and we found some ways to run the ball. But we knew at halftime, we weren’t going to be able to just line up and run the ball. South Carolina, the fourth quarter, we were able to do that. Miami, we weren’t. So, what they were doing enabled us to get some creases in the running game, get the ball outside some to our backs … ‚Äî those two backs [Javonte Williams and Michael Carter] in space are really, really hard to tackle ‚Äî and then we were able to get the ball down field more … I used to worry about, exactly, you’ve got to have this many yards, you’ve got to do this and you’ve got to do that. Right now, we want to take care of the ball. We want to be able to run the ball when we need to run it. We don’t have to run it every play, and we were able to get off the goal line with Javonte Williams. Dazz [Newsome] made a poor decision, he caught the ball too deep. We get the ball about the 7-yard line. Short field for them if they get a three-and-out there and we punt it short ‚Äî and we were punting short during the day ‚Äî that’s points. And Javonte ran for about 12 yards, gets a first down. Then Michael Carter hits a couple of runs, so that was a great drive in bringing it out. We were more disappointed that we didn’t run it well in short yardage and goal line. We made some plays, but … Javonte had one off-tackle play for a touchdown, but that’s what Coach [Robert Gillespie] is working on right now. We’re working on our short yardage and goal line. We had a second-and-2 about midfield, and we end up having to punt. We can’t do that. We had a third-down-and-3 or -4 down here where we kicked the field goal, and that’s four downs on. If we make two there, we go fourth-and-2. Fourth-and-4 or -5 is a little bit tougher to make against a great defense. So Coach [Phil] Longo and the coaches have really gotten after that offensive line because we were so physical the first week and we needed to be more physical in this one because we’ve got to be able to run the ball before we can throw it. And that’s who we are. The reason I hired Phil is that they’ve been so great in the passing game with Air Raid all the time ‚Äî and we’ve still got those concepts and we’re doing a great job in those areas ‚Äî but at the same time, Phil’s concept, like [Oklahoma head coach] Lincoln Riley, has been to be physical and run the ball. And we’re better off when we can do both.