North Carolina Tar Heels College Football Pregame Quote, 09/16/2019

We’ll go back over the Wake [Forest] game briefly. Talking to the players yesterday, I said, ‚ÄòWhy do you think we lost?’ I asked the older guys and in every case, they said, ‚ÄòCoach, we didn’t have the same passion to start the game that we did against South Carolina and Miami.’ And I thought that was true. So, I was glad they realized that. That’s our job as coaches and their jobs as players to create an edge every week and make sure they’re passionate about it and ready to go. On the other hand, they played really hard. So, there is a separation of passion and energy as compared to trying hard. There was never a time when they didn’t try hard at the game and then obviously it was a different second half. They came out with more energy and came out with a focus and understood that we dug ourselves a deep hole against a good team and needed to work our way out of it. Wake was more ready to play to start the game than we were. That’s just part of the learning curve that we’ve got to get through right now. You play South Carolina, you play Miami, you play Wake. All three teams are very good. You’ve got to play hard every week for us to have a chance to win. And this week will be no different. I also told the guys that you watch the video of these guys, they’re not going to be the same team that you see. Wake Forest played much better against us than they did with Utah State and Rice, and that’s the way it’s going to be this weekend with Appalachian State. Just understand that. Third downs on offense have been atrocious because we’re not putting ourselves in a position to make them. It’s first and second down that causes third down to be so hard. So, we’ve got to do a better job on first and second downs to have manageable third-down situations so we can make them. Opposite of that, we’re doing really well on third downs on defense. We’re getting off the field, and our defense had nine stops without them scoring in a row. The defense also kept them from a third-and-1 and a fourth-and-1 that would’ve put us down 28-0 with the fourth-and-1. So, the defense gave us a chance to win the game. And then on the last drive for Wake Forest, there’s six minutes and something left and we’ve got three timeouts. If the defense steps up and stops them there, then we have a great chance to win the game. But they went the length of the field, they took away our three timeouts and then put us in a position where they kicked the field goal. So, give Wake Forest credit for they made the last play of the game instead of us. The one second left on the clock, the conference office addressed it. We should’ve had one more shot at the end zone and we didn’t, but it is what it is. So, congratulations to Wake Forest. The other thing that we have done pretty well is we’ve taken care of the ball. But we have not taken the ball away much. We haven’t recovered a fumble yet this year, which is unacceptable. We have three interceptions. We’re minus 2 and plus 3, so we’re plus 1 for the year on turnovers. But we’ve got to do a better job than that to keep winning. Start looking at App State and what their seniors have accomplished the last few years, it’s the best in our state. App State is good enough that they could be in the ACC. They’re that talented. You start looking at 2018, they were 11-2. In 2017 they were 9-4; that was their bad year. In 2016 they were 10-3. In 2015 they were 11-3. When Coach [Sparky] Woods, who is working for us now, was there, he did a great job and went to South Carolina. Jerry Moore won three national championships while he was there. Scott Satterfield did such a tremendous job; he had those last four seasons. And [Eliah] Drinkwitz is coming in now at 2-0 with a week off and fresh and excited about coming here. This will be the second time that we’ve ever played Appalachian State. What I told the guys is, ‚ÄòYou play South Carolina, Miami, Wake and now you’ve got App State, who will have a lot of energy on Saturday. And then you’ve got Clemson in your first five, and that’s probably as tough a schedule as anybody’s got across the country.’ That’s why we’ve got guys banged up and tired, but they’ve still got to play. You are who you are on Saturday. We’ve done a tremendous job in fourth quarters. We’ve got to do a better job of being more consistent, especially offensively, during the game.

On creating an edge every week and learning how to move on from games in which you don’t:

You’ve got to learn that, but you also need depth. At Texas, we had depth. And when you don’t have depth, you get injuries. When you have injuries, you’ve got younger guys playing who are not as mature, and they don’t understand that as much. But I think the biggest thing is as coaches and as players, we all have to grow together and understand that we’re not good enough to beat anybody unless we play with passion. That’s what we’ve got to do. We had a chance to come back. But at this stage in our program, we can’t roll it out there against anybody. And that’s hard. Frank Broyles told me a long time ago that you better be better than seven teams on your schedule to have a good year, and that was when we were playing 11. He said you’re probably only going to play with great emotion in four of those 11. Fans can’t possibly understand that. I don’t understand it, but I get it because these kids get tired and they’ve got a lot of things going on in their lives. But the best teams have to play every week. And that’s what we’ve got to learn to do.

On how the team responded to Friday’s first half:

I thought the passion and the effort they played with in the second half was unbelievable because most people can’t flip it. And they flipped it and pretty much dominated the second half. They did a great job. We just put ourselves in a hole we couldn’t come back from. Sunday’s meeting was really, really good. There was no finger-pointing and there was no, ‚ÄòYou should’ve done this. You should’ve done that. The offense couldn’t score early.’ It was all about, ‚ÄòCoach, we tried. We just didn’t have the same spirit that we had in the first two games.’

On if he thinks Friday’s loss could be a learning experience:

I do. I don’t want to take anything away from Wake Forest. They played with passion, they played hard and won the game. But on the other side, I think we’ll see this weekend how much we learned from last weekend. Appalachian State has got really good players and they’re going to come in with high energy. I think even Corey Sutton, their great receiver, is probably going to play this weekend and he hasn’t yet and he caught 10 touchdown passes last year and he’s 6-foot-3, 200. We let [Sage] Surratt kill us last week. I think they targeted him nine times in the first half, they hit seven for 157 yards and broke a school record, and we were trying to be all over him. I’m glad we paid him attention. But I think that’s the thing we’ll find out this weekend. We need our fans to come with the same energy, even though it will be hot on a Saturday afternoon, that they did for Miami. Our fans and our students need to be a huge difference in this ballgame for us and pick this team back up. And our team and coaches have to come out and do a better job than we did last week.

On why the offense was in multiple third-and-long situations:

We’re just not doing well on first downs. Even a couple of times, we were second-and-5 and then we’d get a sack. We’re having way too many sacks. We had six sacks Friday night, and I’ve told our coaches, ‚ÄòThat’s on coaching. If your guy is not good enough to block their guy, then you’ve got to get him some help or you’ve got do something different for your quarterback.’ We can’t just sit there and be sacked and say, ‚ÄòOh, that’s too bad.’ We’ve got to fix those things. But that’s what’s happening.

On why he took his first head-coaching job at Appalachian State:

I wanted to be a head coach so badly and Steve Sloan and Bill Battle were two of my idols and mentors at that time, and they were both very, very young head coaches. I loved the mountains of North Carolina. Growing up in middle Tennessee on lakes, I just fell in love with Appalachian State. I actually interviewed at East Tennessee State and then Jim Garner, who was the athletics director at that time, drove across the mountain to pick me up. I stood out on the street corner while Jim picked me up and he drove me to Boone. I couldn’t believe when I pulled into Boone, it was night and those mountains were so high and I’d never seen mountains that high and the lights and the houses were way up there. I kept asking, ‚ÄòJim, what is that?’ He’d say, ‚ÄòThat’s a house.’ They’re that far up in the mountains. When I was coaching there, Hugh Morton ‚Äì who was a mountain of a man who basically owned Grandfather Mountain and was a photographer and entrepreneur for the state and one of my best friends ‚Äì invited the media of the ACC up every year to play golf for a couple of days up in the mountains of North Carolina. I was standing on his porch and there’s a 40-acre trout lake there and I was making $38,500 as the head coach at Appalachian State and hadn’t won a game and I told Mr. Morton, ‚ÄòIf I make some money, I’m going to live on this lake.’ And we’ve lived on the lake now for 22 years, I think, and just love it up there. The last five years, we spent a little less than six months in the mountains of North Carolina. So, I love Appalachian State. I love Boone. It’s a place I go every chance I get. I fell in love with the place and the people in the mountains of North Carolina.

On if he ever imagined App State football growing to what it is today:

I didn’t because I was in my early 30s‚Ķ or maybe less than that. When we got there, we didn’t have dealer cars. We were driving state cars we had to check out. We had to teach class. They only allowed you to take 33 out-of-state players because it was too expensive with an out-of-state scholarship compared to an in-state scholarship. I think our equipment manager was a student; our trainer was a student or really, really young; I think I was the [sport information director] when we got there because I remember trying to put things together to have a media guide. But to see what that program has turned into is just really, really rewarding for me. I used to tell Jerry Moore, who is a dear friend of mine, when he won the three national championships, ‚ÄòYou know, I started that. I’m really the reason you won them. It was just [17] years later‚Ķ that mine and Sparky’s coaching finally kicked in.’ But I’m really, really proud of them. It’ll be a very difficult game for us this weekend.

On Sam Howell’s first-half performance:

I think we played very poorly offensively the first half. Period. And when you play that poorly as a group, it all goes back to the quarterback because everybody sees him. But we didn’t help him. And the reason we changed and took him out is it wasn’t working. Jace [Ruder] needed to get some time anyway. He came in and got us off the goal line and probably saved us from being backed up and being in trouble. And we also thought it would give our other freshman quarterback a chance to go over there and stand and watch and see what’s happening out there because the game was going faster than we were. Then he played much better the second half.

On Sam Howell’s response to being taken out of the game:

Sam [Howell] was great. He and Jace [Ruder] have been really, really good friends. In fact, I think I heard one of them say to the other one, ‚ÄòI wasn’t doing well so Jace should’ve gone in. He did great when he got in there.’ And we need to get Jace more snaps. We’ve tried. Our games have all come down to the last play of the game so it’s been hard to substitute in many areas.

On whether he plans to play Jace Ruder more often in the run game:

We might. We’d like to for sure. Coach [Phil] Longo and I have been talking about it. I’d like to play [Jace Ruder] every game and that’s important for us to make sure that we establish two quarterbacks. I think [with] everybody in the country now, you’re seeing guys go down every week. It can happen so you’ve just got to be prepared.

On whether Sam Howell’s fourth-quarter success can translate to earlier quarters in future games:

Yes. We’ve got to do a better job of helping [Sam Howell] not have the pressure he’s had on him because he’s taking too many hits No. 1. Secondly, I’ve been amazed at his maturity and his confidence because very few could have pulled out of what that first half was like and not be frustrated at his age and his lack of experience and played as well as he did the second half‚Ķ We’re 18th in the country in plays over 20 yards so we missed a couple of deep ones the other night, but he’s got a tremendous touch on the deep ball and that’s been helping us a lot.

On what he’s emphasized in preparations for App State:

I would think they were able to beat Charlotte and East Tennessee easily. They’ve got Corey Sutton coming back. They’ve got two weeks to prepare just like Miami did, and Wake [Forest] had an extra day after their Rice game to prepare. So I think we’ll see all kinds of things. They’re going to pull out all the tricks and obviously their conference helped them by giving them a week off before us. We’ll see the energy like we saw at Wake on Friday night and I think we’ll also see stuff that they haven’t shown before.

On managing recent injuries:

We’ve got to figure that out with injuries. We’ve just got to see who can practice and see who’s sore and can’t practice on Tuesday as compared to how well they’ll be by game time. And we’re just going to have to start playing other players. We’re just going to play young guys. We left Carl Tucker at home [against Wake Forest]. I thought Jason [Strowbridge] was going to play until pregame and he didn’t. I’ve challenged our trainers to make sure we test them here before we get on the bus and go because everybody thought he was going to play. I think he thought he was going to play and then he couldn’t when he got out there. There’s been way too much talk about injuries in this program the last two years. I’ve told the guys, ‚ÄòI don’t want to hear it. It’s an excuse. It’s a valid excuse, but we’re not going to use it as an excuse because it gives players and coaches an opportunity to blame losses on something else other than just we should have won the game. And that’s not where we’re going.’

On Joshua Ezeudu’s performance against Wake Forest:

[Joshua] Ezeudu did real well. That’s what we’re going to have to start playing. We’re going to have to start playing Asim Richards and Triston Miller and Ty Murray and all those guys. But he did pretty good especially for his first time out there.

On the impact of Jason Strowbridge’s absence on the defensive line:

[Jason Strowbridge] is probably our best player and he’s definitely our best pass rusher. And he’s a senior and a leader so you’d sure rather him be out there. We did not get much pressure on the passer. They did a good job with [Tomon] Fox of making sure that they had guys around him where he had trouble getting there. We didn’t get the pressure on the passer we needed last week.

On his thoughts about Eric Church’s loyalty lies for the App State game:

Eric [Church] sent me a really nice text on Friday night. It had to be during his concert or right before or right after‚Ķ but he’s a dear friend. He loves both places and he assured me that he will not be at the game this weekend. He said, ‚ÄòI will work hard to find some place to be that I’m going to be working.’ Because it would be unfair because he’s very passionate about both places.

On how the relationship with Eric Church developed:

We have a charity with Matthew McConaughey and Texas country singer Jack Ingram ‚Äî ‘Mack, Jack & McConaughey’ ‚Äî in Austin and we invite the best entertainers across the country. We invited Eric [Church] and he was gracious enough to come and help us raise money. I loved his music, but I didn’t know he was from Granite Falls; I didn’t know he went to Appalachian [State]; I didn’t know we have a house near him up in the mountains. So the last five years, he and I have played a lot of golf and had a lot of fun. It’s just been fun to get to know him. When he came to the concert, the first thing he said was, ‚ÄòWhy’d you leave?’ I said, ‚ÄòWhere?’ He said, ‚ÄòNorth Carolina. I’m a huge fan and you just left.’ And I said, ‚ÄòHm. Where are you from? What’s this about?’ And we’ve hit it off. He’s a tremendous sports fan. He loves our football and basketball teams and he’s passionate about Appalachian because that’s what he grew up with as well. So, those are definitely his two favorite teams.