North Carolina Tar Heels College Football Pregame Quote, 10/21/2019

Let’s start with this being Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So many families have been touched with that; my family has been touched with it. Thoughts and prayers to any of those who have lost someone to breast cancer or are fighting it now. Just to take a moment away from football to get to realistic life here.

Saturday night was one of the toughest losses that I’ve ever been around. I went back and just thought about it and there’s probably three and this one is as tough as any because we had opportunities to win it with one play probably four or five times. And when you do that, you have to finish them. And we were there. Whether it was the holding call on first-and-goal from the 8, whether it was the missed field goal; whether it was the delay of game where we make the field goal and they miss the field goal and there was a flag on the field and they picked it up so we were a little bit later getting out on the field and I thought we probably should have reset that, but that wins the game for us at that point; two two-point plays, one of them for sure could have won the game because we’d already stopped them. So, when you go back and study it, we played hard, were ready to play. I was really proud of the players for how hard they played on the road in a tough environment where we hadn’t played well in the past. And once again, they come down to the longest game in ACC history, with six overtimes. I did break my promise to Sally. I promised her that I wouldn’t hurt so bad after losses, and that’s not my makeup. I can’t do that. I don’t know. That sounded really good. I thought, ‚ÄòYeah, I’ll handle that and do it.’ But losing still stinks. It hasn’t changed since I’ve been out for five years. But again, really, really proud of the players. Every week they’re giving us all we’ve got. We’ve lost four starters in the secondary, so we’re so thin back there. Aaron Crawford plays 81 plays. We’ve got to get some people to help him because that’s too many. But these guys are fighting their guts out every week and I’m really, really proud of them. And also, we’re having a fantastic recruiting year. People can see we’re really close. They can see it’s happening and they’re wanting to be a part of it. So, we’ll get more depth in the future and hopefully better players each year that we recruit. I remember Woody Durham sitting on the other end of the field one night when we were struggling when we first got here and he said, ‚ÄòSo, what do you think? Are we going to be OK?’ And I remember saying, ‚ÄòIt’s not if anymore. It’s when.’ And that’s the same thing I would say now. We’re going to be good ‚Äì and we’re going to be really good. This train is taking off. I’m really excited about where we’re going.

Specific things about the game. ‚Ķ Jay [Bateman] has really been shorthanded defensively, losing four starters. So, his problem is do you bunch up and try to stop the run and play man-to-man outside with inexperienced corners and guys who are struggling some? Or do you play zone and let them run the ball? What we had is Virginia Tech’s quarterback who came in is a 250-pound runner and we didn’t stop him. He ran up and down the field. That kid is going to be a really good player for the future. They probably found them something there with the third quarterback. So, we didn’t do a good job of stopping the run, and that’s something we’ve got to do. We did force two turnovers, which is something we haven’t been doing in the running game. So, that was really good. And we didn’t respond well right before the half. To me, the way you play the last five minutes of the half and the first five minutes of the second half is so key in college football in my experience through 31 years of being a head coach. We didn’t play well as a team. That’s a 14-point turnaround. They score, we get the ball and we have it for only about 20 seconds because I think there was 3:23 left when we got the ball, they’ve scored and we’ve got to respond and go down and score at the other end, and we had an intentional grounding penalty, an incomplete pass and a short pass to [Beau] Corrales. So, we kill no time and give them the ball back, and they go back and score again. So, the 14-point swing right before the half just changed the momentum completely. We came back and took it back to start the second half, but it didn’t help us that they took the 14 points going into the half.

Offensively, we didn’t run the ball very well in the second half and we also didn’t protect well. We had some issues up inside with our guards and centers. So, that was disappointing. Still scored a lot of points, and that should be enough to win. I’m proud of those guys. Two-point plays, there’s always a lot of discussion. We’re 3-of-6 for the year. The national average is in the low 40s. We had a 41 percent chance of making it on Saturday because analytics give you what your chances are against the team you’re playing each week ‚Äì whether they’re right or not, that’s what they do. But we’ve still got to improve in those areas. I thought when we got Michael Carter one-on-one in space, that’s pretty good. I’ll take those odds, and the guy tackled him out there. But that’s something we can still improve on, especially with the new rule with overtime. I think the rule was good because we could’ve still been playing. But I’d like to put the ball at the 35 instead of the 25; fewer people would score and you’d get out of there faster. So, if you just moved it back 10 yards, the percentage of scoring isn’t near as good. You might kick a field goal, but scoring touchdowns is harder and I think we would get it over with quicker by doing that than what we’re doing at the present time, even though I think because of the LSU-Texas A&M seven-overtime game last year, that’s the reason they went to this rule; because it’s not healthy for kids to stay out there for that long ‚Äì defensive kids, for sure.

Kicking game, I’m really proud of Ben Kiernan. For a freshman, he and Drew Little, the snapper, both were committed by Coach [Larry] Fedora when we got here. I talked to Larry the other day and he asked how they were doing. It’s unusual to sign a punter and sign a deep snapper; I’d never done that except for Justin Tucker ‚Äì he’s the only guy we signed ever at that position. We always took walk-ons, and the ones who played the best ended up getting scholarships. In this case, Ben has sure been worth his scholarship. We should’ve gotten another ball inside the 2 that Javon Terry got his feet in the end zone and batted it out. That was a great kick, just a great punt for us. And Jonathan Kim did a great job kicking off. He kicked all his into the end zone and there were no returns. We’re going to let Jonathan do the kickoff duties. They’ll still compete, but right now he would be doing that. And Jonathan will also take over the field-goal duties. We’re 10-of-16 on field goals, three of those being blocked. But still, we’ve got to do a better job. When we get down to that last-second kick, we’ve got to make it.

Once again, we had about four one-play chances to win the game. That’s why we say ‚Äòbe the one.’ Somebody has to step up and make the play, coaches have to do a better job, we all have to do a better job. When we get that close to winning, we’ve got to win the game.

There were some question marks with time management right before the half. They had an inexperienced quarterback in the game with a bad leg. So, we did not want to give him more time. We wanted to press him. I thought by calling timeouts to try to save time for us, we were allowing them, with him with a sore leg, to do a better job of organizing how to score. So, that’s why we hold those timeouts in our pocket. Time management at the end of the game, I’m always going to hold the timeouts in my pocket, if I can. They were fourth-and-1 1/2 with a running quarterback who we hadn’t stopped. There was probably a minute and something left in the game. They were lining up to go for it. We didn’t know if they were going to try to pull us off or go for it. I didn’t want to stop the clock and give him a minute left, if he makes the first down, to go down and kick the field goal and win the game. But with our timeouts in our pocket ‚Äì we had three ‚Äì and 38 seconds from 75 yards away is plenty of time to get down and get a field goal because you’ve got your whole playbook. You can throw the ball across the middle and call timeout. In college football, 38 seconds is longer than you think because you make a first down and the clock stops, unlike the NFL. You get out of bounds. Phil (Longo) was conservative at that point. He checked with me; he had a pass called and it was a quarterback draw if the quarterback didn’t like the pass. So, that’s why Sam (Howell) ended up running the ball. But you want to save all your timeouts. You’ve got to have one left now because of the 10-second runoff. That changed coaching, for sure. You can’t be without a timeout in your pocket because the 10-second runoff can lose the game for you. But you never want to have 10 on the field, nearly a delay of game. I didn’t think the field goal was going to be a delay of game ‚Äì that was in overtime ‚Äì or I would’ve taken our timeout there. But you don’t want to waste your timeouts. For those who are wanting to coach time management, I think we won more games in the fourth quarter within three points than anybody in the country at Texas; I think we were about 17 out of 20. So, what we’re doing works; it just didn’t work well on Saturday. But it had nothing to do with time management. The time management that we had against South Carolina was very poor, and that was awful and embarrassing and we fixed that. So, that’s not going to happen again.

People have asked, ‚ÄòWhy go for the fake punt?’ We just took a shot deep on third-and-1 with our tight end. We had a chance there for a big play; I thought it was a great call by Phil Longo. So, we’re going to be aggressive. We said we’re so thin on defense right now, we have to outscore people. So, we’re going to go for fourth-and-1s. So, our thought was either go for it or line up for the punt and if it was there, take it. It was there; it was exactly what we wanted. We didn’t execute it. We should’ve done a better job coaching in practice to get the one yard, but we were going to go for it either way. That’s who we are right now.

Somebody said they saw me getting on one of the coaches on the sideline. I’m on the coaches all the time. I’m glad that the camera is not always on me. People have asked if I’ve ever fired on during the game. No, but I’ve felt like it. So, you fans who get mad at assistants, I’m mad at them, too. My mother used to tell me, ‚ÄòHoney, why’d you hire these guys,’ when we’d lose a game. So, yeah, I get on them a lot. I love them. I think they’re doing a tremendous job. They’re giving our guys a chance to win. But when I see something I think we can do better, I’m going to be direct and I’m going to be honest and transparent with them, just like I am with everybody else. I do get on them.

I love officials. The guys are, very honestly, they have full-time jobs and they’re so passionate about this that they work themselves to death and they do this on the weekends. And they love the game. I hate it for them when they make a bad call. I think there were only two, but I saw two coaches fined yesterday for making comments about officiating. I came back to help kids and try to help the game that I love because I want us to change some things and clean it up. I thought after seeing the two coaches suspended yesterday, there are three factors in a ballgame ‚Äì there’s our team, the opposing team and the officials. And two of the three are called out. Officials aren’t. And they don’t make as much as we do, but they probably make as much as the kids. What I would love is maybe you have a challenge flag as a coach and you hold it and use it, but if there’s a critical play, whether it’s reviewable or not, if you challenge it, it has to go upstairs and then they can look at it. And that doesn’t slow the game down, but it gives you an opportunity for the one play that you think the officials have missed that’s not reviewable, that changes the entire game, to have it at least looked at upstairs. Some people thought I said last time, ‚ÄòChallenge every play.’ People don’t listen. What I said was if it is a critical play ‚Äì I said ‚Äòa’ critical play ‚Äì in a game that changes the game and it’s not reviewable, take it upstairs and the guy upstairs should be able to say, ‚ÄòThat was a facemask. That was holding on them on this critical play. So, pick up your flag, throw your flag, whatever it needs to be at that point.’ And I also think they should allow us to bring plays that are questionable in here because we turn in a number of play every week to the officials. They should let us bring plays in here and let us show them to you. That’s what we’ve got to get accountability from everybody because kids are losing games where they fight their guts out and coaches are losing games. They’re making human errors. As coaches and players, we’re making human errors. We should do everything we can do to help the official not make a human error that changes the direction of a game because they want it to turn out right. These are good men. They don’t want to go home and know that they missed a call after they miss it. They’d rather it be fixed. I do think the fact that we’ve got instant replay is helping with the credibility. It’s helping the officials. We’ve saved a lot of games because of a poor call, but I think we can take another step. And I think that’s something we need to do.

Homecoming game this weekend, a rival game with Duke. The Victory Bell is on the line. I love David Cutcliffe; he’s one of the great guys in this business and has been in it for a long time. He was on the AFCA board with me. He’s a guy who cares about the game. He’s helping change a lot of rules. He’s done a tremendous job at Duke coaching. He is the perfect guy at Duke. He does a great job coaching and he gets good kids who play hard for him. They’re usually going to take care of the ball and they’re usually going to kick it well and punt it well and they’re usually going to make sure they have the fewest penalties in a game. That’s what you do. They’re coming off a tough game with Virginia because those things didn’t happen for them last week. And my experience is that we’re going to have to pick it up because we’re disappointed with a tough loss. They’re going to pick it up because they’re disappointed in their performance on Saturday at Virginia.

On if there are any plays that he’d take back from Saturday:

I would take back every one that didn’t work. The holding was a killer. That was a killer. We’re first-and-goal from the 8. Then you have to make a decision: Do you go ahead and try to run it in, because we’re running the ball at will at that time? Or do you center it and kick a field goal like an extra point? It’s one of the two. When we got the holding call, it puts us in a position where now we’re trying to get yards to get back to a better field goal. So, that was a killer. The last two-point play, Sam has got to get the ball in the end zone. You can’t take a sack because our only chance is to get it out. He tried to ‚Äì Sam is smart. The guy just got him before he got it off. So, we’ve got to get that ball in the end zone, for sure.

On the delay of game before the field goal in the fourth overtime:

There was a flag, so we’re all waiting to see what the flag is. They picked the flag up and they waved it off. So, we’re delayed coming in and then the clock ran out. I wish they had restarted it for us.

On if that’s something that should be fixed:

I think it’s just another thing that we should look at. We were waiting to see what the conclusion was, and then when we got it, we were late getting out.

On feedback from conference offices following play submissions for officiating reviews:

We don’t turn it in unless we feel like it’s a flagrant miss and a lot of times it’s a no call that we turn in. Then the supervisor of officials, usually on Monday or Tuesday, he sends us back, ‚ÄòI agree with your thought. I disagree and here’s why. I agree and here’s why.’ And that’s all you get.

On if they submitted plays from the Virginia Tech game:

We do it every week and we don’t send anything in unless we feel like it’s a flagrant game changer.

On whether Sam Howell called the two runs towards the end of regulation:

They were passes that were called and [Sam Howell] didn’t like what he saw. Obviously, you don’t want to turn the ball over. Coach’s kid, smart. ‚ÄòLet’s go into overtime if it doesn’t look good.’ He didn’t like what he saw, so he ran. We’re trying to get the first down. In that situation, with 38 seconds and three timeouts, what you normally try to do [is] get something to get a first down. Get to the [35- or 40-yard line]. Then you try to take a shot and then you try to take a shot to get a field goal. So, you’ve got three or four shots there that you can take and more than that if you throw incompletions. Sam just didn’t like what he saw so his other option was to try to get it himself.

On running game struggles in the second half and contributions from lack of depth:

We didn’t block them as well‚Ķ We had some guard-center issues and they’re playing every game, every week. So, we’ve got to look at Josh Ezeudu playing more probably, but he’s the only backup that’s played. We’re really playing with five guys and a little of Josh some. Billy Ross didn’t play on Saturday and that was an issue for us. They started covering guards and centers in there and giving us more problems and we didn’t handle it very well.

On reasons for changes in defensive line:

[Allen] Cater’s playing better. He had really picked it up and we want Tomari [Fox] to play a lot, but if you’ve got a 6-foot-5 senior who’s playing really well, he’s got five games left in his career and he’s earned the right. You want to play him. So, that helped. Ray [Vohasek] strained something in his shoulder and he wasn’t really 100 percent, so that’s why he didn’t play. Xach Gill came in for [Jason] Strowbridge when he got hurt. Xach did a good job, made a couple of plays. But we’re really thin in that inner part. We can play [Tyrone] Hopper, we can play Tomari Fox and we can play Tomon Fox and we can play Cater. Those guys can all play and we interchange them. The three older ones are playing a little bit more right now than the freshman, but inside we’ve got to get better there.

On team energy during Sunday meetings:

We had a loss earlier in the year. I walked in and they were all laughing, cutting up, and I said, ‚ÄòThis isn’t right. If your’e laughing and cutting up and okay with a loss, then you probably didn’t put enough into it because it’s got to hurt you.’ And on their way home Saturday night, they were devastated. I walked into this room and they were whipped. Just, ‚ÄòCome on. Come on, man. What do we have to do to win a game?’ And I felt the same way; I felt whipped. It’s one of those days that you don’t want to go to work, but then again, I came back to pick up kids and try to teach them to learn from difficult situations. And no better one than this to learn from. So, I’ve got to learn to pick myself up. I did that better on Sunday and told them, ‚ÄòI’m very proud you. You’re still in the mix in a lot of stuff. Every game has come down to the end. We could very easily be 7-0, 6-1 or 0-7.’ Every game has come down to the end, so they are giving us what they’ve got and like I said, Jay [Bateman] is the one that’s more shorthanded than anybody. And Jay’s not a griper ‚Äî he just says, ‚ÄòNext man up, let’s go’ ‚Äî but it does affect how he calls because he changes up so much and brings people from everywhere. And if your’e putting guys that are struggling some on an island outside, you better get to that quarterback before you do it. A gutsy call by Virginia Tech’s freshman quarterback [Quincy Patterson II]. Fourth-and-3 to win the game, they throw a fade and it is a perfect throw‚Ķ What I told the guys is, ‚ÄòWe’re close. We’re improving. It wasn’t one play. Each of us need to get better to make a few more plays and then we win the game.’ And was it the five minutes before the half? Who let down? What should have happened? Why the quarterback long run? Why the wheel for a touchdown? What mistakes did we make? Why didn’t we jump up and bat the ball down when we’re in the end zone with receivers two or three different times when we were there? We’ve just got to make plays. Why didn’t we catch the ball down the middle as a tight end? Why didn’t we convert on third-and-1? What happened on the fake punt? You go back to 10 or 15 plays. It’s usually seven plays in a game. This one had 10 or 15 that we win the game if we make any of those plays, so that’s what I told them, ‚ÄòDon’t feel sorry for yourselves. Let’s play better and get rejuvenated here for Duke.’ We haven’t had a good record against Duke the last seven years. I think we’re 2-5, so we need to pick it up and start worrying about next week.

On whether coaching the team back up is more difficult this week because of all those missed plays:

My job with everybody is to make sure everybody knows what we did well and what we did wrong. I told the players, ‚ÄòThere’s more players in the training room after you lose. There’s more players sensitive, pointing fingers, questioning after you lose. So, that’s out. I don’t want to hear any of it.’ I also told them, ‚ÄòIf you guys want to play pro ball ‚Äî and all of them do ‚Äî they play on Sunday and then go play Thursday. So, don’t talk to me about being stiff and sore. And they play 24 games. So, if you want to play, understand that go get your degree if you’re sore because NFL guys are real sore. They hit harder than you guys do.’ And then the second thing I do is I have to build them back up. Show them the positive things we did, show them what we’ve got to do better, and I do the same thing with the coaches. I am a lot more critical of the coaches with them face-to-face than you all are as fans. My job is to grill them and be hard on them and go back through the game plan with them. On every Sunday, we sit down and say, ‚ÄòNext year in the Virginia Tech game, what are we going to do differently?’ And that was it. And you get all over the offensive staff, they scored a bunch of points and they didn’t turn the ball over. I think again, that’s enough points, but you need to be one more than the other team. We get on about, ‚ÄòWell, we didn’t run it the second half, but we threw it well.’ One of the things Bud Foster does, he makes it hard to run the ball. He’s going to have eight around the ball all the time and you’ve got to hit some deep shots which we did. And at halftime, he probably said, ‚ÄòWe cannot let them keep running the ball. We’re going to have to make them throw it to beat us.’ Talking to Phil Longo, ‚ÄòIf they’re all on the line of scrimmage and you’ve got guys wide open and you’ve got a really good passer, you’ve got to protect it, but get it to them.’ That’s what this game comes down to. [Defensively], we missed some tackles. We had three sacks; we needed more. They did a smart thing bringing in the young freshman quarterback [Quincy Patterson II]. We’d never seen him, but gosh, the guy’s 6-foot-4, 250 [pounds] and hard to tackle especially in the fourth quarter. Give them credit for that.

On his clock-management philosophy:

You have to handle each and everyone different, but my basic philosophy is you never, ever use a timeout til you have to. You save them, you keep them in your pocket. It really makes me made when we’ve got 10 on the punt team and we have to use a timeout to get an 11th one out there. In some cases, if [Phil] Longo or [Jay] Bateman say, ‚ÄòCoach, I don’t like the way we’re lined up. Can you give me a timeout?’ I’m the only one that can call timeouts, but I’ll give it to them if it’s a critical situation. Just like if we’re going to have delay of game on a punt, we’re not going to waste a timeout for that. We can gain that five yards because Ben [Kiernan] is punting so well. If it’s a field goal, you don’t take timeout unless it gets you out of field goal range. That would be the thing that would be determined by each game. But basically, my thought is, ‚ÄòDon’t use them unless you have to and use your clock management because college football allows you to spike the ball. It allows you to stop on the first down, it allows you when the ball is out of bounds to stop the clock. All of those things to me give you a chance in college football to move the ball down the field.

On whether he worries about close-game losses overpowering initial confidence following close-game wins early in the season:

I feel good. I think they’re very confident and what we’ve done is shown them why we lost the game. In some of those last year, they were close, but they were late. It wasn’t really close. It wasn’t down to the last play. We had four or five one-plays to win the game, and Virginia Tech did too. They missed a field goal, so if we made ours with the delay of game ‚Äî we make that field goal, they miss theirs ‚Äî we win the game. And I also told them it’s really interesting to me in sports that we make the field goal, we make the two-point play, we’re all talking about how great we’re doing and life’s great. ‚ÄòOh my gosh, we have turned this thing and it’s wonderful and we’re in the greatest place ever. This is unbelievable!’ Now we stink because of those five plays we didn’t make. It’s really a strange feeling. I told them, ‚ÄòWe’d be dancing in the locker room if we make one of those five plays and instead, we’re all walking around moping.’ It’s just foolish sports. I also asked them, ‚ÄòI wonderful who started getting mad over winning and losing.’ It had to be way back, or maybe it’s when they started scoreboards. But it’s a shame when game that good played by those kids and those sets of coaches, somebody had to lose. It was a great game.

On recruits and their families’ reactions to the Virginia Tech game:

Recruiting is going so well. They know it’s coming. If you’ve got a young quarterback that’s doing well, they like that. They see the guys are having fun, they see they’re competing their rear ends off every week. They’re seeing the stands are full and we’re selling out, so everything’s good. We’ve got so many guys wanting to come right now, it’s really frightening. It’s good, it’s cool. From where we were when we started the spring and everybody talking about, ‚ÄòYou’ve got no crowds. We don’t know if you’re going to win any games. Don’t know about the guys trying and we don’t know about your staff.’ And now because both sides of the ball have seen that we know what we’re doing with coaching and with kids playing so hard and they see how close we are‚Ķ I had so many texts from recruits and recruits’ parents leaving Blacksburg just saying, ‚ÄòOh my gosh, what a game. Can’t wait for my son to get there.’ So, it’s all good right now.

On how long it takes for head coaches and offensive coordinators to get on the same page:

I think we’re good with all of our coaches. If Phil [Longo] and I are here 10 years, there’ll be things that we disagree on. That’s it, and I was an offensive coordinator so it’s harder to be an offensive coordinator for me than a defensive coordinator because I love play calling. That was one thing that I was passionate about and I loved doing. But Phil’s done an amazing job with all young offensive linemen, except for Charlie Heck. In fact, everybody on offense is back next year that’s starting right now except Charlie Heck‚Ķ We scored 41 [points]? That’s pretty good. But I’m direct with our coaches, I’m hard on them, then I move on. And they understand that. It’s all of them, it’s not just one. I was mad that we had the delay of game on the field goal. Maybe it wasn’t our fault, but it still was because I was mad we had a field goal blocked. I was upset with that. I was upset we didn’t kick the first ball in the end zone. You go back through, my life is I got all the problems. Phil’s got his, Jay [Bateman] has got his, Lonnie Galloway’s got his, Scott Boone’s got his. I got them all. I’m having to balance something during that ball game at all times. The other thing, I came back to win and help North Carolina get back to where we are. So, I knew how critical each play was during that ball game. I’m killing myself trying to help us get back to where we need to be and we’re going to get there, but without energy from me and without caring from me and without passion from me, then Phil can’t have it and Jay can’t have it and Scott can’t have it and our team can’t have it. If I’m standing over there doing nothing just watching the game, why am I here? Why pay me? And I don’t want to get in their way. The hardest thing‚Ķ for Phil, he scores 41 points, he throws up and down the field, we get 500 yards total offense, and our question is ‚ÄòWhy didn’t you run it better?’ Scoring’s the key and stats are not and I think that’s the biggest thing. We can be stat guys, but I’d rather run it for 400 yards every game but people kind of get in the way of that if they see you’re starting that if they’re any good.

On whether he’s uncomfortable about disagreements with his staff playing out on camera:

I never think about the crowd and I never think about a camera. I don’t. And I never look at it. I don’t go back and see what I look like on the sideline or what I said or when I said it. I’m not ever going to say anything ‚Äî in my mind ‚Äî that’s inappropriate. I say what I think and, like I said, coming back I’ve been much more transparent with you all than I probably was before. I thought I was, but people told me I wasn’t. That’s something I feel better about.